Attorney Tom Clear

Tracking ongoing explosive developments in the massive DWI bribery scandal involving APD, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department and the NM State Police is the busiest of news beats.

After the reveal that BernCo Sheriff John Allen received a $200 campaign contribution from paralegal and now convicted felon Rick Mendez, we have a look into the campaign contributions of attorney Tom Clear, the kingpin of the scandal that centered on his bribing of law enforcement officers to get his DWI clients off the hook. 

Both Clear and Mendez have pleaded guilty to federal charges and await sentencing.

We track Clear's campaign donations back to 1998, three years after the beginning of the decades-long bribery scheme. The campaign finance site OpenSecrets shows he made considerable contributions to a number of campaigns including two District Attorneys--Bernalillo County DA Raul Torrez and Sandoval County DA Lemuel Martinez. Earlier it was reported that current Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman received a $1,000 donation to his '24 campaign. After the disclosure, Bregman's office said the campaign returned Clear's check. 

Torrez was elected DA in 2016 and re-elected in 2020. In 2022, he ran for attorney general and assumed that office January 1, 2023. According to OpenSecrets, Torres' campaign for attorney general received a total of $3,000 in four separate donations from Clear in 2021 and 2022.

Martinez, who served as Sandoval County area DA for 20 years from 2001-2021 also received four campaign donations from Clear. They totaled $2,000 and were made in 2005-2006.

Thus far the DWI scandal has been centered in Bernalillo County with no cases emerging involving Sandoval County law enforcement. 

OTHER DONATIONS

Former Attorney General Hector Balderas, now president of Northern New Mexico College, is also listed by OpenSecrets as receiving campaign money from Clear. The two donations totaling $1,500 came in 2011 and were made to Balderas' campaign for the Democratic nomination for US Senate against Martin Heinrich. They were made when Balderas was State Auditor, the office he held before becoming AG.

Torrez, Martinez, Bregman and Balderas are Democrats but Clear also made donations to Republicans. 

He gave $2,000 to the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush; $100 to the 1998 campaign of gubernatorial candidate Gary Johnson and $100 to the 2010 gubernatorial campaign of Susana Martinez.

When it was discovered Allen's campaign had received that $200 from paralegal Mendez his campaign spokeswoman said it would "be ridiculous" to think the contribution meant he had any knowledge of the DWI bribery scandal. She said Allen has since donated the $200 to MADD, a group that fights drunk driving, 

Politicians receive campaign contributions from a wide array of individuals and getting one from someone who later gets in trouble with the law is not extraordinary. In this case it does not mean those receiving Clear's contributions had anything to do with the scandal.  But with the state facing one of the worst corruption cases in its history, transparency is the order of the day in all public activities of the now notorious attorney Tom Clear.

ALLEN'S BAD WEEK 

Sheriff Allen and Mendez

Sheriff John Allen has twisted and turned and raged and ranted since his department's role in the DWI bribery scandal has broadened. 

At a boisterous news conference last week (video here), Allen even went after the media, saying he felt "defamed" by the news coverage and in particular a photo that surfaced showing Allen in a shoulder to shoulder embrace with DWI bribery felon Rick Mendez. 

The pic was taken at a lunch also attended by his Undersheriff who has since been forced to resign and is facing legal peril because of the scandal. Also, a Sheriff's deputy has joined the growing list of law enforcement officers copping pleas to federal bribery charges.

Allen denies any knowledge of the scandal at the time of that lunch. In an earlier media interview he described Mendez as "a friend." He now says Mendez is a "piece of crap." 

The photo and Allen's various media appearances demonstrate the devastating optics that this scandal can and will have.

Allen has walked back his criticism of the feds for keeping him out of the loop on their DWI investigation. We questioned why he would expect sensitive information to be shared with him when suspects work in is department.

At the news conference Allen, citing Undersheriff Jareno's ouster and targeting by the feds, said he now "of course" understands why he was kept in the dark.

Allen's bad week--he says it was "a very emotional one"--included an attack on him from Republican Paul Pacheco who ran for and lost the sheriff's office to Allen in 2022. Pacheco is a retired APD cop. While his hit on Allen was politically timely his own service at the corruption-riddled APD would be a story line if he decides to run for Sheriff in 2026.

Sheriff Allen is a newcomer to La Politica, holding an office that is not often under intense scrutiny. But like the Santa Fe sheriff's office that has had to deal with the Alec Baldwin case and now the high-profile death of famed action Gene Hackman, he is being tested on all fronts. His outburst over the reporting of his activities is over the top but nothing that a few deep breaths shouldn't be able to keep in check. 

The Sheriff's task is now to be a reformer as well as a protector of his department. One without the other is not going to cut it. 

Here's more on Allen's really bad week. 

This is the Home of New Mexico Politics.