Second sheriff's deputy charged in scheme to protect informant

A second Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office detective accused of trying to keep the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from arresting a drug dealer informant is facing federal charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and lying to the FBI.

A federal grand jury indictment made public late Wednesday charges deputy Paul Jessen Jr. in the scheme to tip off the informant that he was on the DEA’s radar from November 2021 to January 2022.

A plea agreement made public Tuesday states that former sheriff’s detective Kyle Linker was assisted by another sheriff’s deputy in the effort to thwart the DEA investigation of the informant.

Jessen has received a summons to appear in federal court on Oct. 7 on the four-count indictment. He couldn’t be reached for comment late Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Linker, who resigned from the agency in 2022, pleaded guilty to one count of felony obstruction of justice/aiding and abetting on Tuesday and is awaiting sentencing.

The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas to avoid a potential conflict with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, which prosecutes cases involving the DEA and other law enforcement agencies.

Jessen is charged with attempting to “corruptly obstruct, influence and impede an official proceeding, namely a federal grand jury investigation” in November and December 2021, and making a materially false statement by telling the FBI on Jan. 20, 2022, that he “had no personal knowledge” that Linker had obstructed the DEA investigation of the informant.

Details of the 2½-year criminal investigation are contained in federal records filed this week.

Those records show the informant blew the whistle on the alleged BCSO officers’ scheme and ended up helping in the federal investigation that targeted them. He is facing federal drug charges and is in federal custody.

The two detectives were part of a “community action team” focused primarily on drug distribution cases.

Linker, who joined the BCSO in 2015, and Jessen were singled out by then-BCSO Sheriff Manny Gonzales in July 2021 as “non-uniformed deputies” of the quarter.

About that same time, Linker began to cultivate a methamphetamine dealer as a confidential informant.

According to federal records, Linker and Jessen encountered the dealer in July 2021 while executing a residential drug search warrant in Los Ranchos.

The individual wasn’t arrested at the time and agreed to work with law enforcement “in consideration of potential drug charges.” Linker was to act as the informant’s primary law enforcement contact and direct his cooperation.

But the DEA had the same man on its radar. The plea agreement states that the informant had continued trafficking drugs, including methamphetamine, in the weeks and months after his encounter with the sheriff’s detectives.

Linker learned of the DEA’s plan to do a drug sting near the informant’s home, and fearing that might lead to his informant’s arrest, Linker tipped off the informant. The DEA began to get suspicious and decided to target the informant without notifying Linker.

Linker’s plea agreement states that a DEA task force officer contacted him on Dec. 16, 2021, to say the agents were planning to use another informant to buy a pound of methamphetamine from Linker’s informant. The DEA agent told Linker not to contact the informant himself, but immediately afterward Linker messaged his informant to call him ASAP, not knowing that the informant was in the presence of law enforcement at the time.

He then messaged a “Deputy 2” to express frustration with the DEA. Deputy 2 then allegedly advised Linker to tell the informant not to “sell to anyone” and “go to a hotel or stay with someone for a bit.”

Then Linker told Deputy 2 to call the confidential informant — “that way when they ultimately say I tipped (CI) off I can show them my call logs and be like I haven’t talked to him since that morning.”

“Deputy 2 then texted, ‘I’ll (expletive) do it. I still have his number.’”

Linker replied, “Perfect. Plausible deniability for me because you know that’s 100% what they are going to say.” Later that same afternoon, Linker left the informant a voicemail stating, “my buddy (Deputy 2) and I are gonna call you from his phone.” He ultimately told the informant to “contact Deputy 2 in the future.”

The BCSO suspended Linker from active duty after that interaction, but Linker continued to ask Deputy 2 to keep in contact with the informant and find out if he was cooperating with the DEA. At a Jan. 6, 2022, meeting with Deputy 2 and the informant, the deputy attempted to search the informant to make sure he wasn’t wearing a recording device. It turns out, he was.

During that meeting, Deputy 2, according to Linker’s plea agreement, told the informant, “So I’m gonna tell you this because I trust you and if I find out that you’re like working up for the DEA and you’re gonna try and rat me out, like I’m not gonna answer your phone calls or anything like that.”