Oct. 17 – The Albuquerque Police Department placed a deputy commander on leave – months after he took the position – in connection with an alleged corruption case involving DWI officers.
APD spokesperson Gilbert Gallegos said Deputy Cmdr. Gustavo Gomez, of APD’s Internal Affairs Division, was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday while APD, and separately, the FBI investigates “allegations of (misconduct) by DWI officers.”
Gallegos said Gomez was named deputy commander of the Internal Affairs Division in January and has been with APD since 2008. He said Gomez, like the majority of APD personnel covered by the investigation, was a DWI officer from 2010 to 2013.
APD is conducting an internal investigation while the FBI conducts a criminal investigation into the allegations, which indicate a years-long scheme in which DWI officers took kickbacks from a local attorney and paralegal in exchange for not filing the summons with the court or for not appearing in court. court in drunk driving cases.
A total of ten officers – including supervisors and a former APD spokesperson – have been placed on paid administrative leave as part of APD’s investigation. Since then, seven have resigned, two have retired and one has been fired by the department.
The investigation became public in January after FBI agents searched the homes of several agents and the law office of prominent attorney Thomas Clear and his paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez.
Those search warrants remain sealed and no one has been charged in the investigation.
In parallel with the criminal investigation, APD has established an Internal Affairs Task Force to conduct all administrative investigations into alleged misconduct by current or former members of the DWI Unit. The findings of the investigation will be presented to the Superintendent of Police Reform to determine whether APD policies were followed.
As a result of the investigation and because the officers’ credibility could be called into question, 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman’s office dismissed nearly 200 DWI cases that had been filed and were still pending at the time of the FBI searches.
