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State Supreme Court also wants answers from DWI attorney
A 2015 photo of defense attorney Thomas Clear III. Rick Mendez, Clear’s private investigator, pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and told federal agents he and Clear paid off law enforcement to get DWI cases dismissed for more than a decade.
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The state Supreme Court on Monday gave DWI attorney Thomas Clear III a week to explain why he shouldn’t be disciplined for his alleged conduct in a 15-year kickback scheme that has led to the dismissal of at least several hundred drunken driving cases in Albuquerque.
The Supreme Court, in its authority over lawyers practicing in state courts in New Mexico, cited a similar Jan. 29 order of New Mexico’s chief U.S. District Judge Kenneth Gonzales. Gonzales also wants Clear to show why he should not be disciplined or his law practice restricted.
Clear has practiced in both federal and state courts over the last two decades. Clear has not been criminally charged and hasn’t addressed the allegations publicly since the FBI executed search warrants a year ago at his law office, that of his investigator’s, and the residences of several Albuquerque police officers.
Most recently, federal prosecutors filed court records detailing the ongoing FBI investigation into a 15-year racketeering scheme in which law enforcement officers are alleged to have received gifts, cash and free legal services in exchange for referring clients to Clear and helping the attorney get the charges dismissed in court.
The only person who has pleaded guilty to bribery, extortion and other federal charges related to the scheme is Ricardo “Rick” Mendez, who was Clear’s private investigator on criminal cases. Mendez has not yet been sentenced.
The state Supreme Court on Monday told Clear he has until Feb. 10 to show, in writing, why he “should not be subject to discipline, up to and including suspension,” for the alleged conduct.
After the FBI investigation came to light, Clear resigned as the longtime chair of the state’s Public Defender Commission, which oversees the Law Office of the Public Defender in New Mexico.
Meanwhile, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s office had to dismiss more than 200 pending DWI cases that had been filed by a group of APD officers whose credibility could have been questioned in court because of their alleged ties to the criminal scheme.
