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.