Lack Of Accountability Seen Playing Role In Latest APD Scandal; DWI Bribe Case Rocks City But Will It End Like So Many Others? Plus: Shameless In Santa Fe; Pirtle Makes A Circus Of The Senate

Why would a group of APD DWI officers set up a criminal scheme in which they accepted bribes from defense attorneys in exchange for agreeing to not show for DWI trials thus insuring the cases were dismissed? 

 Of course, greed is the chief reason but there is also a history of no accountability for past sins by APD that encouraged the wayward cops into thinking they had little to fear. Take a look:

--In 2005 a scandal erupted when it was discovered that $200,000 in cash--plus drugs and property--were stolen from the APD evidence room. Then Chief Gil Gallegos was forced to resign but the perpetrators of the crimes were never held responsible. Here's our blog report on the evidence room from May 2, 2005.

--Flash forward to 2015 when then-State Auditor Tim Keller unveiled an audit compiling the wrongdoing of APD Chief Ray Schultz in 2011 when he was caught on tape bragging about "greasing the skids" with the ABQ City Council to secure a $2 million contract for Taser to supply APD with lapel cameras. The audit was referred to Attorney General Balderas but no action was taken against Schultz who went on to be a police chief in Texas. Here is our blog report from May 1, 2015 on the Taser scandal. 

--Then there are the seven audits done by several State Auditors detailing the outrageous overtime practices at APD. The last one was released in 2021 by then-Auditor Brian Colón:

The state auditor says the Albuquerque Police Department ignored years worth of recommendations to help prevent abuse of overtime The mayor’s office and APD claim they’re now fixing the problems they say continued under the last police chief, who was brought in by the mayor when he took office.

--In March of 2022 it was revealed that the overtime abuse continued unabated with one officer pulling down $242,000 a year. Nothing came of it. And that is under the watch of Mayor Keller who as State Auditor condemned the APD overtime abuse.

Perhaps the worst case of abuse came in 2018. From our blog:

Remember APD's Simon Drobik, the "robocop" who for years was among the highest paid city employees and who made $193,000 in 2018 by reporting he was in two places at one time? An internal APD investigation said he was engaged in rampant fraud but the city and AG Balderas ultimately looked the other way. Drobik resigned and nothing came of it. 

There is much more including the familiar use of force issue that has APD operating under a DOJ consent decree. 

It'a a dismal list for APD and even more dismal when it comes to the performance of ABQ mayors, district attorneys, attorneys general and ABQ city councils. 

Commenting on the DWI scandal, attorney John Day declared:

This just makes the legal profession, the court system and law enforcement look like a bunch of corrupt amateurs and that's not what we need. . . It's going to take a long time, I think, to build back trust in the system. 

The sad part is that Day could have made those comments so many other times before this scandal broke.  

WATCHDOG REACTION

Chief Medina, Mayor Keller 

Former APD officer Dan Klein, now a private eye, has been watchdogging APD since his retirement and contributing his observations here and in other reporting arenas for over a decade. Here are his insights on the APD DWI bribery case:

APD Gilbert Gallegos sent out a statement saying APD had been assisting the FBI for months on the investigation into APD officers. Does anyone believe that? I am confident that the FBI told APD, the Bernalillo County DA and the NM Attorney General nothing until they did the search warrants. After the many years of different district attorneys and former Attorney General Balderas ignoring other suspected cases of corruption at APD, why would the feds want to bring them in on this one? 

Interestingly both ABQ Mayor Tim Keller and APD Chief Harold Medina have been silent. Keller and Medina are making this look even worse by not speaking to the media. Then again, what could they say? This is their department that is under federal investigation.

With over 150 DWI cases now dismissed by BernCo District Attorney Sam Bregman, the public needs to know what this investigation is about. Albuquerque has a horrible DWI rate and this is impacting the entire community. The US Attorney should not wait too long to say something. 

Will this investigation go back years and will the DA be forced to vacate guilty pleas on past DWI cases? If so, will APD officers who retired years ago be implicated? 

How about the implications for defense attorneys in Albuquerque? 

Will this force the Legislature to actually produce anti-corruption legislation that forfeits public pensions if found guilty? 

SHAMELESS IN SANTA FE 

Sen. Pirtle 

Another example of what no accountability can do is the case of GOP state Senator Cliff Pirtle. Disgraced last year when he was caught cheating on his wife, the Roswell area lawmaker announced he would not seek re-election this year. 

But there he was at the opening day of the '24 session trying to wiggle out of that pledge, even as he made himself look much worse and in the process made the entire Senate look shameless.

Pirtle, father of three young children who is the middle of a divorce with his wife, displayed a fit of chutzpah without precedent as he took to the Senate floor and introduced the woman he was having an affair with--and the baby he recently fathered with her!

That would be McKenzie Luna, a Senate staffer who stood by his side with the state looking on even though she is now found to be a liar for claiming to the press last year she was not having sex with Pirtle and was a victim of the "rumor mill." Talk about a lost soul. 

Where is the shame? Pirtle had it right when he announced he was leaving but now he's parading around the Senate floor with bright red shoes and matching bow tie looking and acting like a circus act. 

The lack of accountability from Senate leadership is stunning. Isn't a Senator having sex with a staffer--never mind getting her pregnant--an intolerable act that deserves condemnation? After all Pirtle is technically Luna's employer having the power over her job and paycheck. 

In shameless Santa Fe heads turn away and Pirtle prattles on about how he may revive his political career. 

That is in sharp contrast to the oodles of accountability doled out when Dem Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto was accused of sexual harassment by a progressive lobbyist upset at him for killing a voting rights bill. He has been pilloried over the accusations and may be defeated because of them at the June primary. 

So be it. 

But to not apply the same standard to Pirtle's arguably more egregious behavior? That's nearly as shameless as Pirtle's performance. 

Fortunately, Pirtle will not be re-elected if he goes ahead with a campaign. State Rep. Candy Ezell has announced she will seek the GOP nomination for his seat in June. That can't get here fast enough. 

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