Albuquerque's Ever-Expanding Police Corruption Scandal Goes Back Decades and Involves 'Many Officers'

In the latest guilty plea, a local defense attorney says he had been bribing cops to make DWI cases disappear "since at least the late 1990s."

Thomas Clear, the defense attorney at the center of Albuquerque's police corruption scandal, pleaded guilty this week to federal bribery, extortion, and racketeering charges. Clear's plea agreement indicates that his long-running arrangement with local police officers, who took bribes in exchange for making DWI cases disappear, goes back further and involves more people than was previously reported.

Ricardo Mendez, an investigator and paralegal who began working for Clear in 2007, pleaded guilty to similar charges last month. At that point, federal prosecutors said the bribery scheme, which they call the "DWI Enterprise," had begun by 2008. But Clear says he had been running the racket "since at least the late 1990s," meaning it operated for at least two dozen years before an FBI investigation shut it down in January 2024.

Since Clear also says the scheme eventually encompassed "almost the entire" Albuquerque Police Department (APD) unit charged with apprehending drunk drivers, we are talking about a lot of corrupt cops. As of 2022, seven officers were assigned to the APD's DWI unit. Judging from the histories of the Albuquerque officers who have been implicated so far, including two who pleaded guilty last week, another who pleaded guilty the same day as Clear, and 10 more who were placed on administrative leave and/or resigned, they typically served in the DWI unit for three to six years. Given the turnover, dozens of cops may have received payoffs from Clear.

The "DWI Enterprise" involved "many officers and an entire unit within APD," Alexander M.M. Uballez, the U.S. attorney for New Mexico, told KOAT, the ABC affiliate in Albuquerque. "If you go back and look at the people who were involved both throughout that time period and that unit itself, I think that would give you a good sense of the number of people that could be involved…in the scope of this criminal conduct."

Uballez suggested that some of those people may avoid prosecution because most of the charges his office has used must be brought within five years of the underlying conduct. But "more people will be charged in this case," he said. "We are going as far back as we can to hold as many people accountable [as possible, including] not just the people who did it now, but the people who started it, the people who perpetuated it, the people who were involved in the beginning and the end."

The people who "perpetuated it," Clear says, included officers "who had worked in the DWI unit and were part of the scheme," who "would help recruit and train the next generation" of corrupt cops, earning bonuses from Clear in return. This "generational participation," Clear says, "allowed the DWI Enterprise to take root amongst almost the entire APD DWI unit over a lengthy period of time." The more senior officers "frequently personally introduced" the recruits to Clear and Mendez. Those officers "often assured" the recruits that they ran little risk by participating and helped deliver on that promise as they moved up the ranks.

Clear says he and Mendez expected the senior officers to "use their positions and influence within APD to try to ensure that the DWI officers were not investigated or disciplined in connection with their illegal activity." The officers whom the APD has publicly linked to the "DWI Enterprise" include the former commander of the department's internal affairs division, his deputy, a lieutenant who likewise was supposed to be rooting out abuse and corruption, and two other lieutenants.

The more extensive the corruption became, the easier it was to keep it going. When talking to new recruits, Clear says, "Mendez would often discuss many of the other [officers] who had been and were part of the DWI Enterprise," who included employees of the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office and the New Mexico State Police as well as the APD. Mendez "did so to allow the recruit to feel more comfortable joining the DWI Enterprise because of the number of senior, and often high-ranking, officers" who had profited by participating.

The work for which Clear compensated the officers, often with cash but also with "discounted legal services, gift cards, hotel rooms, and other gifts," was not hard. It mainly consisted of not doing certain things, such as not filing charges against DWI suspects and not showing up at pretrial interviews, motion hearings, trials, or Motor Vehicle Division hearings. Based on those prearranged absences, the aptly named Clear would move for dismissal, allowing his clients to avoid prosecution and loss of their driver's licenses.

The participating officers—meaning nearly everyone in the DWI unit—typically would refer arrestees to Mendez, who would promise that Clear could make their cases go away in exchange for a cash fee. Clear describes a few examples.

In September 2021, Honorio Alba Jr., one of the three officers who have pleaded guilty so far, charged "M.D." with DWI. "M.D. hired me to represent them in their DWI case," Clear says. "After M.D. hired me, Alba agreed to accept and accepted [cash] that Mendez and I had received from M.D." In exchange, Alba agreed to "ensure that M.D. would not face administrative or criminal consequences related to their DWI arrest."

In July 2023, Officer Joshua Montaño, who pleaded guilty the same day as Alba, arrested "A.N." for DWI. A.N. likewise hired Clear and paid him in cash, some of which Montaño got in exchange for enabling Clear's client to avoid administrative or criminal consequences for driving under the influence.

Another arrestee was not so lucky. In April 2022, Montaño arrested "J.B." for DWI. Montaño "referred J.B. to me for representation," Clear says. "At my direction, Mendez reached out to J.B. and scheduled an appointment for April 27, 2022, at the law firm." After J.B. "was quoted [a fee of] $10,000 in exchange for making his DWI arrest go away," he declined the offer and "hired alternative counsel." He "eventually pleaded guilty to DWI and related charges."

Carlos Sandoval-Smith, who says Montaño arrested him on a bogus DWI charge in June 2023, also suffered by declining to hire Clear. According to a lawsuit that Sandoval-Smith filed last October, Montaño ostensibly pulled him over for speeding, then "unlawfully expanded the scope of the stop by initiating a DUI investigation without reasonable suspicion that Plaintiff was driving under the influence." Sandoval-Smith "performed very well" on field sobriety tests, and a breath test put his blood alcohol concentration well below the legal limit. Montaño nevertheless charged him with DWI and referred him to Mendez.

Like J.B., Sandoval-Smith decided not to hire Clear, who wanted $7,500 up front or $8,500 in installments to work his magic, and was instead represented by a public defender. His DWI charge was not dismissed until January 2024, around the time that the FBI made its investigation public by searching Clear's office and several officers' homes. In the meantime, the Albuquerque Journal reported, Sandoval-Smith "lost his job," "much of his family [stopped] speaking with him," and he was not allowed to drive because he could not afford the ignition interlock device that was required as a result of the DWI charge.

In light of the corruption scandal, Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman dropped about 200 cases generated by the DWI unit, saying the officers' testimony could not be trusted. While many of those drivers probably were guilty of DWI, Sandoval-Smith's case illustrates a point that Uballez made in his interview with KOAT: In addition to letting off flagrant violators who posed a threat to public safety, corrupt Albuquerque cops seem to have victimized innocent drivers. "There might have been people who are not guilty," Uballez said. "It was never litigated in front of a court of law, never given to a jury to decide. Things like this, that skip the criminal justice system, draw it all into question. That is the tragedy of a scheme like this and the importance of bringing it to an end….Justice cannot be bought."

In addition to Clear, Mendez, Montaño, Alba, and several other APD officers, the defendants in Sandoval-Smith's lawsuit include Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina, who has repeatedly promised to "make sure that we get to the bottom of this." Sandoval-Smith alleges that Medina "knew of the agreement between Defendant Officers and Defendants Clear and Mendez."

Whether or not that's true, it's fair to say that Medina should have known what was going on. He first joined the APD in 1995, a few years before Clear says the "DWI Enterprise" began, and he has served in senior positions for more than a decade. Medina has run or helped run the APD since 2017. As chief, he assigned former DWI officers to internal affairs, where they were well-positioned to help keep the racket running.

Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen does not seem like an exemplar of police management either. In a recent interview with KRQE, the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque, Allen complained that the FBI had not kept him apprised of its investigation. After Mendez pleaded guilty, Allen placed Deputy Jeff Hammerel on administrative leave because he also was under investigation. Allen said he knew that only because Hammerel told senior staff at the sheriff's office that the FBI had paid him a visit. "I'll cooperate with you," he said, describing his attitude toward the FBI, "but I don't have any more trust in you."

Allen seems more upset about the FBI's investigation than he is about the corruption it uncovered. "I don't agree with how the investigation is going," he told KRQE. "There's too many leaks, too many conversations, too many interviews, and too much stuff coming out."

The sheriff, who said he is not conducting an internal investigation and does not plan to do so, sounds pretty blasé about that stuff. "I know that there's nothing to worry about right now," he said. "It's an investigation. I was not naive to the fact that this could possibly pop up. If it's happening at Albuquerque Police Department, and we all work so closely together, this could affect my agency."

Allen noted that he was "actually friends" with Clear and Mendez "for years" and that Mendez "donated to my campaign." He said he is worried about "the perception that they had access to me," saying "it really does bug me because that perception is out there."

Does corruption in Allen's office also "bug" him? When KRQE asked "if he believed that Hammerel was the only [deputy] who was involved in the DWI scheme," Allen replied, "I don't believe anything at this point."