No-confidence vote for APD chief Medina withdrawn

The City Council voted to withdraw a no-confidence vote against Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina on Wednesday.

Although Councilor Louie Sanchez, who brought the vote, said “something needs to change” at APD, he moved a two-week deferral of the bill to allow for additional time to answer the council’s questions.

But as questions about human resources and legal implications brewed, the motion for deferral failed on a 5-4 vote. Sanchez then moved to withdraw the declaration instead.

“What I heard is that this needs a little bit more work,” Sanchez said. “I’m going to withdraw it at this time and work on it a little bit more.”

Medina drew scrutiny from the City Council after news broke of a federal investigation into several APD officers working in the DWI unit earlier this year. More than 190 DWI cases have been dismissed since, and five officers resigned after being placed on administrative leave pending an APD Internal Affairs Division inquiry.

Further questions surfaced after the chief was involved in a February car crash. Medina was driving to a news conference when a nearby scuffle resulted in gunfire. When Medina fled, he drove into an intersection on Central and crashed into another car, injuring its driver.

Earlier in the council meeting, members of the Crash Review Board said the board voted unanimously to deem Medina’s crash non-preventable.

A memorandum provided to the Journal also shows that after the crash, Medina’s drug and alcohol tests came back negative.

The Fatal Crash unit — different from the Crash Review Board — conducted its own investigation. The report concluded that while Medina “did enter an intersection failing to obey the traffic control devise (sic) without activating his emergency lights and sirens … resulting in a vehicle crash causing injury,” officers would not pursue criminal charges.

The conclusion cited a case that established “injury caused by mere negligence, not amounting to a reckless, willful and wanton disregard of consequences, cannot be made the basis of a criminal action.”

Superintendent of Police Reform Eric Garcia gave an update on the Internal Affairs investigation. He said he could not provide specific details about the investigation because it’s confidential but confirmed, “we are including two additional complaints that were filed with the CPOA (Civilian Police Oversight Agency).”

Garcia said the investigation process was approved by the U.S. Department of Justice. Currently, he said, investigators are reviewing evidence, including recordings captured by body-recording devices and surveillance video and identifying witnesses.

Next, investigators will compile questions for witnesses, he said.

At the meeting, Chief Administrative Officer Samantha Sengel said she would ask former Judge Victor Valdez, the Internal Monitor, to review the full investigation and full case file when ready. A news release sent out later said Garcia would formally request the DOJ independent monitor, James Ginger, evaluate the casework done by Internal Affairs.