Carlos Sandoval-Smith (Journal)

The brazen in your face corruption revealed in audio recordings made last June by a DWI suspect interacting with an APD officer and a paralegal has sent the city back on its heels yet again and wondering if the decades-long rot at the department will finally be extracted.

The DWI scandal, on simmer for a while, exploded with renewed force when Carlos Sandoval-Smith, arrested for DWI, released audio recordings that detailed one method APD DWI officers allegedly employed to extort money from desperate defendants.

Leon Howard, Deputy Director of ACLU NM, summed up the city's reaction:

It’s shocking and quite frankly disgusting.

The taped revelations came in the midst of the bizarre news of an auto accident involving APD Chief Harold Medina who spun like a high-speed top to explain how and why he ran a red light, slammed into a mustang seriously injuring the driver all the while surveying a homeless camp in the SE Heights from an APD vehicle in which his wife was riding shotgun.

The outlandishness of the accident was appropriate to the moment, reflecting the chaos and a confounded public that has watched for over a month as command and control of the city's police force seemed to slip away like a handful of sand.

AN OUTRAGEOUS BETRAYAL

The Sandoval-Smith recordings reveal an outrageous betrayal of the public trust and stain every law-abiding law officer in the city. His contact with APS went like this:

Officer Joshua Montano stops Sandoval-Smith on suspicion of drunk driving, conducts tests, takes his Apple Watch and bracelet and has him booked. Days later the arresting officer calls Smith to tell him his jewelry was misplaced but he can get the items back from an attorney friend of Montaño's. Smith goes to the law offices of Tom Clear where he encounters paralegal Rick Mendez who tells him (on tape) that the guaranteed way to avoid a DWI conviction is to hire Clear for $8,500. He can even make payments if he likes. 

The deal as we now know is that Montaño will not show up in court and the case will be dismissed. Sandoval-Smith did not take the offer, hired a public defender and the case was dismissed but not before he notified the Feds of the scheme.

This scenario or similar ones have apparently played out for years, right under the noses of APD and city leadership. Now the question is will the wheels of justice crush the corruption of today and inhibit it from occurring tomorrow. 

WHAT'S NEXT?

We called on one of of our Legal Beagles of long experience for details and analysis on how the FBI's ongoing investigation into the DWI scheme may unfold from here:

Joe, It appears the status of the corruption case is that the Feds are still gathering evidence. My experience is that the Feds are much more cautious than NM in preferring charges. They have a very high conviction rate and don’t want to see it go under the national average of 90-95%. Also, they are looking to expand the circle of defendants. 

One of the reasons for this is the more defendants, the more likely it is defendants will roll to save their own necks. I know they would be extremely interested in finding not only more law enforcement (and expanded to more agencies) but in an ideal world more lawyers who engaged in this corruption.

We can expect an indictment in the very near future, but of whom is not certain. Indicting attorney Tom Clear, alone, would not accomplish the goal of cleaning house at APD, but indicting him along with a couple of other unindicted co-conspirators and, more importantly, others as yet unknown would cause a great shudder and could have the effect of creating a rush to make deals with the US Attorney.

This is a non-stop topic of discussion in the local legal community. There is, of course, a certain amount of schadenfreude in the hearts of defense lawyers who do not stoop to the illegal methods used to gain DWI acquittals. 

Good stuff and the kind you get only here. Thanks Beagle.

THE GREAT HOPE

The hope in the Duke City is that this will be the scandal to end all APD scandals. Readers can be forgiven if they approach that hope with a healthy dose of skepticism as seen in this email to your blog:  

Corruption starts as a tiny weed. If ignored it takes over your garden. Welcome to APD. Since the evidence room scandal under Mayor Martin Chavez, police chiefs, mayors, district attorneys and the attorney general have just ignored corruption. 

The Taser pay to play scandal under APD Chief Ray Schultz? The DA and AG did nothing. Mayor Berry allowed Schultz to retire and the corruption was ignored. 

--Seven government audits confirming the potential for corruption with APD's payroll were met with silence from chiefs, mayors, the DA and AG. 

--An APD public information officer (Simon Drobik) was investigated and found to be taking a taxpayer check during the same work hours he was working overtime for another entity. This caused the state auditor to refer it to the attorney general. What happened? Nothing. 

All of the chiefs, mayors, district attorneys and attorney generals are all complicit because they allowed the weed of corruption to grow.  If these new allegations involving DWI arrests are true all of them again helped to cause it by not weeding the garden.

And don't forget the asleep at the wheel city councilors over the years. Still, hope springs when it comes to cleaning up the corruption--if not eternally--at least once in a while.

ANTISEMITIC DOG WHISTLE? 

Zuckerberg

Several readers detected a note of antisemitism in a quote we had on the Thursday blog from a columnist writing in the Rio Grande Sun. The comments strike a chord. Here's Michel Hays, a commentator who sent this to us and his email list: 

In his February 22, 2024, issue of New Mexico Politics with Joe Monahan, Mr. Monahan included an extensive passage about Progressive influence on legislation in this year’s legislative session. It reads: 

Conservative columnist Tom Wright, writing in the Rio Grande Sun, ponders the power of progressive Democrats: 

New Mexico has a Democrat majority, but most Democrats here are not progressives. One must ask, why was there so much progressive legislation being considered in this session? Progressive politicians get elected here because big money, from outside the state, funds their campaigns. Super-PACs funded by the likes of George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg and other elites with power agendas, make sure their handpicked and groomed candidates get elected and support their outside agenda. . . A truly local politician, funded only by locals stands little chance of being elected in a super-PAC funded race. 

Hays responds: 

What I noticed is “the likes of.” The phrase calls attention to “George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg” as Jews. They make up an elite differentiated from “other elites” (emphasis added) and are associated with “power agendas” [understood to be hidden]. Thus, Mr. Wright insinuates the old antisemitic canard about Jews with their wealth controlling governments. Mr. Monahan gives credibility to this canard by including it in his blog on New Mexico politics. It is unfortunate if the likes of these columnists believe it and repeat it to others. I prefer to think of it as evidence of antisemitism latent in New Mexicans, most of whom are unaware of it in themselves and unaware of it even when it emerges and reveals itself, as in these instances. 

Reader John Campbell writes: 

Would you ask Tom Wright if he can think of any "elites with power agendas" who use massive wealth to pull strings from the shadows but aren't of Jewish descent? I found it a little weird to see that kind of view featured uncritically on your blog, but maybe that was my mistake. 

Insightful comments and the points are well-taken in this corner. 

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