Sheriff Says 'Public Trust' in New Mexico Law Enforcement 'Is Completely Lost' Because of Police Corruption
"This is a gut punch," says Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen. "This is a kick to my balls and two black eyes, to be honest with you."
"This is a gut punch," says Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen. "This is a kick to my balls and two black eyes, to be honest with you."
New Mexico State Police Sgt. Toby LaFave, "the face of DWI enforcement," has been implicated in a corruption scandal that goes back decades and involves "many officers."
A driver who was acquitted of drunk driving joins a class action lawsuit provoked by a bribery scheme that went undetected for decades.
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."
For a decade and a half, officers made DWI cases go away in exchange for bribes, relying on protection from senior officers implicated in the same racket.
Federal prosecutors say the city's police department was the main focus of a 15-year bribery scheme that also involved the sheriff's office and the state police.
Western New Mexico University's Board of Regents approved the severance package for Joseph Shepard after a state audit highlighted $364,000 in "wasteful" and "improper" spending.
Residents of California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin will get hit with the higher taxes.
Harold Medina made that argument during an internal investigation of a car crash he caused last February.
New Mexico law requires quite a high standard for proving criminal negligence.
In 2022, police received a tip that officers were getting paid to make DWI cases disappear—the same allegation that prompted FBI raids in January.
Harold Medina, who severely injured a driver while fleeing a gunman, ordered a thorough investigation of his own conduct.
"There is a much bigger story here," the officer's lawyer says. "It goes outward and upward."
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina, who promised to "get to the bottom of this," is himself the subject of an internal investigation after broadsiding a car last month.
The scandal has resulted in the dismissal of some 200 DWI cases, an internal probe, and an FBI investigation.
Abortion issues come before two other state Supreme Courts—in Arizona and Wyoming—this week as well.
The governor's attempt to rule by decree provoked widespread condemnation instead of the applause she was expecting.
No response to authoritarian government actions is quicker or more reliable than non-compliance.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham thinks violent crime gives her a license to rule by decree.
Local police officials are leery of enforcing Michelle Lujan Grisham's ban on public carry, which gun rights groups have challenged in federal court.
Plus: Los Angeles sues journalist who published police photos, IRS releases $80 billion budget plan, and more...
After a tragic on-set accident, a district attorney used a law passed after the incident to threaten Baldwin with years in jail.
The actor is a polarizing figure. That shouldn't matter when evaluating the criminal case against him.
The Libertarian Party's state affiliates in New Mexico and Virginia have broken away amid ideological and procedural turmoil—and the Virginia branch may have dissolved entirely.
This was an attempted arrest of a man wanted for questioning and parole violations, not a hostage situation.
In Albuquerque, Augusta, and Denver, plans to borrow and spend on stadiums got soundly defeated on Election Day.
A paternalistic new law is having unintended consequences.
Reforms like the ones recently passed in Maryland and New Mexico offer a better long-term fix than the conviction of one police officer.
It is the third state to rein in the legal doctrine that protects state actors from accountability for misconduct.
Three recently approved plans show what politicians have learned (or failed to learn) since Colorado became the first state to allow recreational use.
Joe Biden, meanwhile, supports continued national prohibition, maintaining an untenable conflict between state and federal laws.
New Mexico could be the 16th state to legalize pot, while Texas considers tinkering with its onerous penalties and Pennsylvania continues to arrest cannabis consumers.
They need not wait for the Supreme Court or Congress to restrict or abolish qualified immunity.
A bill approved by the state House would let people sue government officials for violating rights protected by the state constitution.
A year into the pandemic, politicians still have not digested the dangers of careless public health measures.
By arbitrarily foreclosing relatively safe social and recreational options, politicians encourage defiance, resentment, and riskier substitutes.
The Santa Fe Historic Districts Review Board refused to grant an exception to its height limits to accommodate a seven-sided keep.
Plus: Albuquerque police will no longer respond to some 911 calls, the Federal Reserve creates a perverse incentive for corporations to borrow more heavily, and more...
The overturned rules banned microscopes and shovels as drug paraphernalia and prohibited pictures of cannabis or the equipment used to grow it.
Outraged by that video of freelance border guards detaining migrant families? Wait til you find out what the official border cops have been up to...
Advocates say the paraphernalia measures in the bill will inspire more drug users to seek help.
New Mexico is on track to become the 11th legalization state.
Following the lead of their rebellious constituents, local officials say they won't enforce despised rules.
For once, a government agency's gaffe didn't do any real harm.
The former New Mexico governor brings Reason on the campaign trail and shares insights along the way.
The New Mexico Libertarian Party's candidate for U.S. Senate trails incumbent Democrat Martin Heinrich (40%) and GOP novice Mick Rich (28%).
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