Month: December 2015
Report on MDC guards’ macing and beating of inmate concludes use-of-force policy needed
An investigation into the macing and beating of a female inmate at Bernalillo County’s Metropolitan Detention Center in October found guards were not following an April directive from former MDC Chief Phillip Greer telling corrections officers not to use their mace except in dire situations.
Instead, the seven guards who were placed on temporary leavefor the incident, which was caught on video and obtained by KOB, said there were all following training and policy. Continue reading
Ex-Sec. of State Duran accepts sentence in fraud case
Former Secretary of State Dianna Duran has accepted the sentence imposed by a district judge for misusing campaign funds to pay off casino debts.
Judge T. Glenn Ellington sentenced Duran to 30 days in jail, five years of supervised probation and to pay $14,000 in restitution to campaign donors and contributors.
Duran took a plea deal in October and pleaded guilty to six of the 65 counts against her, including embezzlement, money laundering and identity theft. She resigned from her post the same day.
Duran had until noon on Wednesday to withdraw her plea or accept the sentence.
“With the same resolve with which Ms. Duran swiftly accepted responsibility, she will accept the sentence of the court,” defense attorney Erlinda Johnson wrote in an email to KOB.
New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas, whose office investigated the case against Duran, issued the following statement Wednesday after Duran agreed to accept her plea deal and go to jail:
“My office investigated, charged and negotiated a resolution that contemplated the Court using its discretion to impose up to 8 ½ years of incarceration. Our recommendation was only a baseline and gave the court full discretion to sentence up to 8 ½ years. We must respect the Court’s ability to exercise judicial discretion.”
Duran released the first of her court-ordered letters to New Mexicans Wednesday afternoon in the Las Cruces Bulletin:
December 16, 2016
Dear New Mexicans,
I cannot begin to express how deeply sorry I am for my transgressions and the damage I caused to the public’s trust in public officials. I only hope the people of the state of New Mexico will move forward and someday forgive my actions which were not borne out of greed but rather a result of very tragic personal circumstances which led to some very poor decisions on my part. I have not made excuses for my actions. I have simply tried to explain the circumstances which led to my transgressions. I only hope the people of this great state find it within themselves to forgive me.
Sincerely, Dianna J. Duran
Cellphone video unlikely to settle question of whether skate park shooting victim was armed
The city of Albuquerque and Albuquerque Police Department on Friday released two cellphone videos, primary police report and list of all officers who responded to the scene at Los Altos Skate Park March 22, when 17-year-old Jaquise Lewis was shot and killed.
The videos are not likely to definitively settle the question of whether Lewis was armed and therefore shot in self-defense as claimed by APD. That’s because the resolution is poor, the video is unsteady and the events unfolded from a distance after dark. Continue reading
Albuquerque police union president arrested on child abuse charges
The president of the Albuquerque Police Officers Association was released from jail on bond overnight after her arrest on child abuse charges Thursday.
Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Aaron Williamson confirmed deputies started an investigation into APOA President Stephanie Lopez, 40, Wednesday and arrested her Thursday.
She faces child abuse without great bodily harm and bribery/intimidation/retaliation of a witness charges.
The criminal complaint for Lopez’s arrest says the alleged abuse happened Tuesday, when Lopez allegedly hit her 14-year-old daughter “repeatedly in the head and facial area.” APD was notified Wednesday.
The girl told school staff Tuesday her mother had hit her in the head and was taken to the school resource officer, who notified CYFD and APD. APD then referred the case to BCSO because of the conflict of interest.
A CYFD investigator briefly interviewed the girl, but the interview was stopped and the girl was taken to a safe house for a forensic interview.
The girl told investigators her mother, Lopez, got upset when the girl failed to tell her a utility shut off notice had been posted to their front door. Lopez allegedly hit her daughter “several times in the face causing significant bruising and pulled her hair before throwing her to the floor,” according to the criminal complaint.
When Lopez dropped her daughter off at school, the criminal complaint says she asked why her daughter “decided not to wear makeup today.” Lopez then allegedly told her daughter, “…think about what you say today at school; you won’t be with me; you won’t have your freedom. What happened to you was your fault.”
The criminal complaint says the daughter was scared to go home for fear of retaliation. It also says the daughter requested that nobody from Lopez’s side of the family be told about the situation “because they will lie for, and cover-up anything that Stephanie does.”
The girl said her younger brother and older sister witnessed the alleged abuse. The criminal complaint says the younger brother confirmed the girl’s account of the incident to the CYFD investigator.
Lopez told investigators should needed to speak to an attorney before speaking with detectives.
Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Tanner Tixier said that as of 8:45 p.m. Thursday, “no one” from APD had read the criminal complaint filed against her or had been briefed on the specifics of the case.
“Any further statements would not be appropriate until we have had the opportunity to thoroughly review the charges,” Tixier said.
Lopez is being held on a $5,000 cash-only bond at the Metropolitan Detention Center. She was booked just after 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
KOB has reached out to the APOA and city for comment, but has not received a reply yet.
This story was originally published at KOB.com
Judge orders release of Los Altos Skate Park shooting videos
A Bernalillo County District Court judge on Thursday ordered the city of Albuquerque to release the videos the Albuquerque Police Department says shows Jaquise Lewis being shot and killed during an altercation at the Los Altos Skate Park.
The city of Albuquerque will also have to pay Lewis’s mother up to $100 for each day since April 10 until the day the videos are released as statutory damages. Continue reading
Brandenburg: Judges’ ‘broad’ interpretation of court rule led to dismissals
Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg is seeking a letter from the state Supreme Court that explicitly states the case management order’s (CMO) 10-day discovery rule applies only to evidence needed to obtain an indictment – not all evidence that will be needed at trial, as she says the 2nd Judicial District Court has “broadly” interpreted.
Read Brandenburg’s statement in full here.
Brandenburg met with state Supreme Court justices, Chief District Court Judge Nan Nash, District Court Judges Charles Brown and Brett Loveless, the Bernalillo County Sheriff and Albuquerque Police Department chief Tuesday to discuss possible changes to the CMO. Continue reading
Homeland Security: Decision on Real ID for airport travel coming by end of year
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) responded Thursday to multiple requests by KOB for further clarification on theimpending Real ID Act deadline in New Mexico.
DHS did not say much that was still unknown, but did tell KOB the department “is in the process of scheduling plans for REAL ID enforcement at airports” and will make that decision by the end of 2015. Then, DHS says it will give “at least 120 days” notice before changes are made affecting travel.
This means, as was reported Wednesday, that New Mexicans should have no trouble flying with state-issued licenses until at least April 2016.
Read the full DHS response here.
“The REAL ID Act places the responsibility for action on the state to provide state-issued identification that meets the Act’s security standards,” the DHS spokesperson said.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, also issued a statement regarding the back-and-forth within the state government over New Mexico’s Real ID compliance and a bipartisan bill that passed the state Senatethat would have brought the state into compliance.
“I have called on the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to improve and expand their public outreach. However, the ultimate solution for this problem must come at the state level,” Sen. Heinrich said. “The state Senate passed a bipartisan bill last year that is both Real ID compliant and ensures all New Mexico drivers can continue to drive legally and safely. This pragmatic, bipartisan solution is the clear path forward.”
New Mexico Senate Democrats also Thursday issued further clarification of Real ID standards at different federal and military buildings in the state and the specific forms people visiting those buildings will have to have. Click here for that information.
Senate Democrats also established a phone line, (505) 986-4727, for anyone with further questions.
Gov. Susana Martinez has said she will not call a special session to resolve the matter. Her spokesman, Michael Lonergan, continued to spar with Democrats over the issue Wednesday, when he told KOB, in part, the governor is following “official guidance from the federal government on this issue,” and said she “has been working to resolve this problem year after year.”
Lonergan also said in that statement, “[i]f the Democrats want to gamble on this issue, so be it. And while they are at it, they will continue ignoring a strong majority of New Mexicans who want to end the dangerous practice of granting driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants.”
Lonergan pointed to a 10-month-old Albuquerque Journal poll in which 56 percent of Democrats, 69 percent of Independents and 62 percent of Hispanics said they were opposed to giving driver’s licenses to undocumented citizens – a total of 70 percent.
402 people were polled on the issue, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
This story was originally published at KOB.com
Real ID threat from Homeland Security might not be entirely true
The Department of Homeland Security made huge waves in October when it wrote a letter to New Mexico saying it had rejected the state’s waiver for REAL ID compliance and that New Mexicans would need passports or other REAL ID-approved identification to access federal buildings. But it turns out that might not be the case.
State Democrats and Republicans have sparred heavily over the issue in the five or so weeks since, blaming one another for failing to pass bills during the last legislative session that would have solved our state’s compliance issues. SB 653 – cosponsored by a Democrat and Republican – did pass the Senate with large bipartisan support, but died in the House. A House-sponsored bill died in the Senate.
Democrats have accused Gov. Susana Martinez of holding the measures hostage in order to keep undocumented citizens from getting driver’s licenses in New Mexico, and she and fellow Republicans have accused Democrats of purposely stalling their efforts to come into compliance in order to allow the continued issuing of licenses to undocumented citizens.
But a group of legislative researchers showed KOB Wednesday what they say is proof that many New Mexicans may not be affected whatsoever by the January deadline Homeland Security says will prevent people from entering federal facilities or flying.
Sen. Daniel Ivey-Soto, D-Albuquerque, offered spreadsheets that show how government owned federal buildings, such as federal courthouses, will continue to accept New Mexico driver’s licenses.
And it’s actually spelled out in the REAL ID Act itself, which says there is “no requirement to produce a REAL ID Act compliant ID to enter a Federal facility for accessing health or life preserving services….law enforcement, participating in constitutionally protected activities…voting or registering to vote, or applying for or receiving Federal benefits…”
Read the federal laws that spell out more of those conditions here.
In addition, Los Alamos National Laboratories says its usual procedures will remain in place, which state that most workers are required to have a Department of Energy-issued badge, and those who don’t have to be escorted by someone who does.
At Sandia National Labs, people with current badges can use their current ID, while other must use alternative IDs.
Cannon, Holloman and Kirtland Air Force bases all say they are awaiting further guidance from the Department of Defense.
Sen. Ivey-Soto and his fellow Democrats say the governor’s administration should have been pointing that out.
“It just seems like the governor is taking advantage of this opportunity to make it political and, unfortunately, to create a lot of fear,” he said.
Senate Majority Leader Michael Sanchez, D-Belen, told the Santa Fe New Mexican Wednesday the governor and her administration are “misleading” New Mexicans by saying they have to get passports by Jan. 10.
“That’s an absolute lie,” he told the New Mexican, saying Martinez was “fear mongering.”
Gov. Martinez has said she will not call a special session to resolve the matter. Her spokesman, Michael Lonergan, told KOB in part Wednesday the governor is following “official guidance from the federal government on this issue,” and said she “has been working to resolve this problem year after year.”
Regardless, in the short term, Sen. Ivey-Soto says New Mexicans shouldn’t panic.
“What’s really important for people to understand, though, is that you do not need to rush out and get a passport,” he said.
KOB has made numerous attempts over the past month to speak with Homeland Security to clear up any confusion, but have not heard back.
We’re still unsure exactly how airports might be affected, but as it is, a New Mexico driver’s license should still be a valid form of identification with the TSA until sometime in April 2016.
This story was originally published at KOB.com
Eden says he would have hired APD training director despite NMLEA investigation
The Albuquerque City Council posed several questions to Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden regarding his hiring of Jessica Tyler as the director of the department’s training academy at Wednesday’s council meeting, and Eden said he would have hired her even if she had been under investigation by the state’s law enforcement academy at the time.
Jessica Tyler was hired as the new head of training at the APD academy three days after she resigned from the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office amid an ongoing internal affairs investigation into her actions regarding a deputy reserve training program.
Multiple internal affairs reports obtained by KOB last week show that she violated several BCSO standard operating procedures when she failed to tell her superiors of the lack of funding for the program and when she failed to tell them she knew about the IA investigations into her actions.
Eden told the city council Wednesday that he knew Tyler was under investigation by BCSO internal affairs when he hired her. He also said that he contacted the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy in June – a month before she resigned from BCSO and took the APD job – which told him there was “no active, pending or prior LEA 90s” for Tyler at that time.
But BCSO filed the LEA 90 – a disciplinary action proposal – after she had already left, so it would not have been filed in June anyway, as the internal affairs investigation was still ongoing. The NMLEA will now have to review the complaint and decide if Tyler should keep her law enforcement certification.
But Eden also told the council at Wednesday’s meeting that even if NMLEA had told him there was an active investigation into Tyler, it wouldn’t have prevented him from hiring her.
“Not at all. In my many meetings with Jessica Tyler, she made me fully aware that there was an active, ongoing internal affairs investigation by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department,” Eden said. “When she told me what the investigation was about, how the investigation – she feels – was originated, I made a decision that that would not influence her ability to serve in this executive role at the academy.”
He conceded that had there been an active investigation by the NMLEA in June, the agency would not have been able to tell him about it – a point brought up by Councilor Dan Lewis.
And though most of the internal affairs investigation into Tyler appears to have been released to KOB last week, though vast portions were redacted, Eden told the council Wednesday they would soon find out more about the investigation that would ease their minds.
“I think…once you hear the facts of the internal affairs investigation that was initiated, it will become clear,” Eden told the council. “I understand that Ms. Tyler, through the attorneys that are representing her, they will be making statements this week.”
It is unclear exactly when Tyler’s attorneys plan to speak, but KOB will bring you their statements.
When KOB’s original story ran, we asked APD to answer multiple questions regarding her hiring, including whether she underwent a formal background check and if she is allowed to direct the training academy while under investigation by the NMLEA, but the police department failed to answer any specific questions.
Instead, it sent a statement from city CAO Rob Perry:
“Major Jessica Tyler is an intelligent, experienced, proven, and capable law enforcement leader and the City of Albuquerque and Police Department are fortunate to to [sic] have her. I have all the confidence that her skills will help with the challenges of training, DOJ agreement, and the recruiting and retention of high quality police officers for APD.”
This story was originally published at KOB.com
APD training director violated BCSO operating procedures, could lose certification
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — The director of Albuquerque Police Department’s training academy was found by the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and an independent review team to have violated multiple portions of the sheriff’s office’s standard operating procedures during her time as BCSO chief deputy, and her law enforcement certification is now at risk.
The violations are outlined in multiple investigations obtained by KOB through public records requests – some of which are heavily redacted, but still offer insight into the alleged violations. KOB first learned of the internal affairs investigation into Tyler on Nov. 20.
Jessica Tyler was named the new director of APD’s training academy July 27, just three days after she resigned from her position as Chief Deputy at BCSO.
But she resigned amid an ongoing internal affairs investigation into her and a BCSO captain’s conduct regarding a reserve deputy training program that current Sheriff Manny Gonzales and former Sheriff Dan Houston never approved the money for.
The BCSO captain, Matt Thomas, also resigned July 1 before the internal affairs investigation was completed.
INTERNAL INVESTIGATION INTO RESERVE ACADEMY ACTIONS
The initial internal affairs investigation started May 1 under the direction of Sheriff Gonzales, and was referred to outside investigator Robert Caswell Investigations.
The cause of the investigation started in Dec. 2014, when Cpt. Thomas wrote a transition report for Sheriff Gonzales and Undersheriff Rudy Mora regarding an upcoming reserve academy scheduled for Feb. 2015.
Cpt. Thomas wrote six BCSO reserve cadets were to take the class, along with two Valencia Co. cadets and 10 Sandoval Co. reserve cadets.
But once February came around, only two BCSO cadets enrolled in the class. One dropped out shortly thereafter. BCSO was the only agency tabbed to pay for the reserve academy, however.
According to an internal affairs document made by Sheriff Gonzales, then-Chief Deputy Tyler told the sheriff, undersheriff and other BCSO superiors during a 10 a.m. March 24 command staff meeting that the sheriff’s office would have to spend about $25,000 in overtime costs to deputies training the reserve class. At the time, more than $7,000 had already been spent.
Cpt. Thomas told the same room of people work was being done to get the state legislature to pass a bill that would have reimbursed the sheriff’s office for the costs.
That bill – HB 589 – would have allotted nine separate academies in New Mexico $50,000 each for training. It passed a House floor vote after making it through committee, but died in a Senate committee on March 24 – the same day as the command staff meeting.
But the message that the funding had been killed never made it to Tyler’s superiors because she never told them.
Amid the internal affairs investigation and on Tyler’s last day with BCSO, investigators obtained text messages that had been deleted from her department-issued cellphone.
Among those text messages was one from Thomas to Tyler saying “academy reimbursement was killed in the legislature, FYI.” The text was sent to Tyler by Thomas at 8:02 p.m. March 24. Tyler responded, saying, “Ok, thanks,” three minutes later.
The investigation by Robert Caswell Investigators says that though the meeting happened at 10 a.m. that day and the text messages weren’t sent until nearly 10 hours later, Sheriff Gonzales had said at the meeting that he was “extremely disappointed in the fact that there was only 1 reserve cadet representing BCSO” and that he didn’t want to provide a “free” academy class filled with mostly Sandoval County cadets.
The report also says that Tyler told Undersheriff Mora that “current administration was aware of the numbers and had them before the academy started” – something Mora and Gonzales both denied.
Thomas told investigators the low-number academy class had been approved “by the last administration,” which former Sheriff Houston later denied to investigators.
As Chief Deputy, Tyler was the immediate supervisor of Thomas and had to report to Sheriff Gonzales and Undersheriff Mora. Investigators determined that she violated standard operating procedures by failing to tell them about the lack of funding.
But Sheriff Gonzales maintained in his internal affairs worksheet he was not informed of the failure of the reimbursement bill and that BCSO would have to foot the costs until Chief Deputy Sid Covington told him April 21 – nearly a month later.
ANOTHER INVESTIGATION REVEALS MORE
On July 17, BCSO contacted Universal Investigation Services to look further into the matter to find out if Tyler was ever made “aware of, or participated in, the dissemination of confidential Internal Affairs information.”
The company interviewed BCSO Internal Affairs Commander Lt. Brian Lindley, who said he found emails and a journal written by Tyler on her department-issued computer that showed she knew of the internal affairs investigation into her actions.
The report says a May 1 entry by Tyler says she “was advised in confidence that the BCSO was going to open an internal affairs investigation on her, and Captain Thomas in reference to the Reserve Academy.” But the entry went on to say that she was told hours later that internal affairs were “no longer going to list her as a target in the case.”
Failing to report knowledge of an internal affairs investigation into one’s self is a violation of BCSO’s standard operating procedures.
TYLER CONFRONTS INVESTIGATOR
Another report from Robert Caswell Investigations says that on Aug. 11 – after Tyler had taken the APD job – she approached an investigator with Robert Caswell and asked him if he knew she had left BCSO and was with APD.
According to the report, Tyler then asked him if he had received “the emails from Sandoval County in reference to the Internal Affairs case.”
He told her he believed the lead investigator had requested the emails, to which she responded, “I know the Sheriff requested the emails, why would he do that?” according to the report. She then asked if there had been another internal affairs case opened against her, to which the investigator told her he felt uncomfortable and changed questions.
SHERIFF’S REPORT FINDS MULTIPLE VIOLATIONS BY TYLER AND THOMAS
Sheriff Gonzales’ reports on the internal affairs investigations into Tyler and Thomas found that Thomas violated at least five portions of the sheriff’s office’s standard operating procedure and that Tyler violated at least seven portions of it.
Because of the violations, BCSO has filed an LEA 90 with the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Review Board to try and revoke Tyler’s law enforcement license.
KOB asked the Albuquerque Police Department Friday whether or not the department knew of the investigation into Tyler before she was hired, whether she underwent a background check and if she is allowed to direct the training academy while under investigation by NMLEA.
But APD failed to answer any of those specific questions. The only response given was a statement by Albuquerque Chief Administrative Officer Rob Perry, via an email from APD spokeswoman Celina Espinoza:
“Major Jessica Tyler is an intelligent, experienced, proven, and capable law enforcement leader and the City of Albuquerque and Police Department are fortunate to to [sic] have her. I have all the confidence that her skills will help with the challenges of training, DOJ agreement, and the recruiting and retention of high quality police officers for APD.”
When asked generally about the academy and APD’s confidence in its trainers Thursday, APD Chief Gorden Eden said, “Our academy is going to be one of the most critical parts when it comes to the implementation of any policy because you have to train to that policy. So having a strong staff out at the academy, having some of the best instructors that we can find when it comes to training…that becomes really important.”
NMLEA said it could not comment on the matter at this time.