{"id":44353,"date":"2024-03-04T13:37:01","date_gmt":"2024-03-04T20:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/?p=44353"},"modified":"2024-03-07T11:41:45","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T18:41:45","slug":"attorney-tips-fbi-on-apd-dwi-corruption-case-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newmexicopbs.org\/productions\/newmexicoinfocus\/attorney-tips-fbi-on-apd-dwi-corruption-case-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney Tips FBI on APD \ufeffDWI Corruption Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
Subscribe to NMiF Enews<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He won\u2019t say exactly when, but at some point a \u201cyoung person\u201d came to attorney Daymon Ely with a story about possible corruption involving the Albuquerque Police Department\u2019s DWI officers and a local attorney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That same day, Ely says, he went to the FBI.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would not have contacted APD, because at that point they’re the ones that the allegations are being made about,\u201d he adds. \u201cSo I would have contacted federal authorities \u2014 which I did.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alleged scheme appears to involve a handful of police officers and at least one well-known local criminal defense attorney and his paralegal working together to make DWI cases go away.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ely\u2019s office would have been a natural choice for someone with this kind of story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a legal malpractice attorney, the Democratic former state representative sues others in his profession for a living, but in this case he\u2019s guarding most of the details of what he was told. That\u2019s because, after consulting with the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office for the District of New Mexico, he\u2019s concerned that saying too much could compromise the ongoing federal criminal investigation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Ely is definitive that his peripheral involvement began a while ago. And at this point, he\u2019s been contacted by more than one potential victim.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey did not read about it in the paper and come into my office,\u201d Ely said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he doesn\u2019t know if he was first to go to the FBI with these allegations.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation has reverberated around the criminal justice system. DWI cases have continued to move through the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court but attorneys who practice there report that everyone on every side is on edge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a state with high rates of fatal DWIs \u2014 New Mexico ranks in the top 10 states for drunk driving<\/a> \u2014 Ely, and other insiders of the legal field, stress the importance of credibility throughout the whole criminal justice system.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I was a legislator we wanted to be able to look at the public and say, \u2018we are working towards deterring crime by having a system with integrity where when people get caught, they know justice is coming and it\u2019s coming quickly,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think, to be frank with you, we’re still working on that. But sometimes out of these bad situations come surprisingly good things.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The integrity of the system <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Jan. 18, FBI agents raided the homes of some DWI officers and the office of attorney Thomas Clear III, who is known for representing defendants accused of driving while intoxicated. That same day, the Second Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office dismissed 144 cases involving officers Honorio Alba, Joshua Monta\u00f1o, Harvey Johnson and Nelson Ortiz because District Attorney Sam Bregman \u2014 citing his responsibility under <\/a>Giglio v. United States<\/a> \u2014 said he will not put witnesses on the stand with integrity issues. Bregman has since tossed another 56 cases, bringing the total to 200. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

APD launched its own internal affairs investigations, putting the four officers \u2014 and Lt. Justin Hunt, who was in the DWI unit from 2011 to 2014 \u2014 on administrative leave. Hunt and Alba have since resigned and the internal investigation has expanded to include two members of the Internal Affairs Division \u2014 Cmdr. Mark Landavazo, who is now on leave, and a lieutenant who was transferred to another division. APD has not identified the Internal Affairs lieutenant because he has not been put on administrative leave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office declined to comment for this story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No charges have been filed but reports have surfaced about interactions people have had with some of the officers and Clear\u2019s paralegal, Ricardo \u201cRick\u201d Mendez.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one case, a former court employee reported<\/a> that after Alba detained him on suspicion of drunken driving he told him to contact an attorney named \u201cRick\u201d who \u201cif hired, would ensure that no court case would be filed in court by APD.\u201d In another case<\/a>, a man who is now being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico reported that Officer Monta\u00f1o took his bracelet and had him go get it back from Clear\u2019s office. That\u2019s where, he said, Mendez told him, \u201cIf you need to get off of this, you\u2019re at the right place\u201d \u2014 if he paid $8,500. The man said he didn\u2019t hire Clear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Ely, after he contacted the FBI, he said he served as a guide to make sure those who came to him felt comfortable talking to federal agents. He is not representing them and has not been paid for his part nor is he pursuing any kind of lawsuit regarding the allegations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are brave people that saw something wrong and didn’t know what to do about it and wanted to do what was right,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s impressive to me. When you’re talking about law enforcement and powerful people and they’re willing to stand up to it: That’s, in my judgment, something to be applauded.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ely said the contours of the alleged scheme probably led potential victims to his door. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cObviously there was a lawyer involved in this\u2026,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn’t shocked when I got the call because I go after lawyers that have committed negligent or wrongful conduct. And in this case, that was part of the allegations that were being made.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said he was \u201cpissed off\u201d by the allegations, which cast a shadow over a complex criminal justice system where everyone has a role to play.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s outrageous. You have a criminal justice system that depends on everybody in that system acting in a way that can be relied on\u2026,\u201d Ely said. \u201cWhen there are a couple of people within that system that aren’t doing their job, it impacts the integrity of the entire system.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two names in DWI defense <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years when someone got charged with driving while intoxicated, if they could afford to hire a private attorney there were two names that would quickly surface: Thomas Clear III and Ousama Rasheed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Rasheed is getting calls from people who Clear \u2014 a man he once considered a friend as well as a competitor \u2014 represented asking if he can take their cases instead. He\u2019s turning them down.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will not directly profit off of Tom Clear\u2019s problems, I will not take any of his cases, I will not take any of his clients\u2026,\u201d he said. \u201cI don’t want to be associated with anything that deals with corruption and as upset as I am with Tom, I will not financially benefit from his problems.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rasheed first went up against Clear as a law school student in a clinical program. After he graduated in 1990, their careers intersected many times as they both built names for themselves as criminal defense attorneys representing people charged with DWI.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a small world in which a limited number of police officers, a handful of prosecutors and a few defense attorneys encounter each other again and again in the courts system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost lawyers do DWI early in their career and then they consider them too small of cases to handle and they move on to felonies or federal work and all that kind of stuff,\u201d Rasheed said. \u201cI liked it. I was good at it. I was making a good living at it \u2026 So it was a good area of law for me. I liked not having these two- and three- and four-week trials and making a decent living knowing that I was never going to get rich.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said over the years he\u2019s won cases because an officer didn\u2019t show up but \u201cthere ain\u2019t a stack of cash waiting for anybody at my office, that’s for sure.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome of us are sitting there and meeting with people and putting in the time and putting in the work and the research and the writing and the fighting and the trial and all of that \u2014 and some of us are just having 80 and 90% success with no-shows,\u201d Rasheed said. \u201cCome on, man, it\u2019s frustrating.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tense mood in the courthouse <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been more than a month since news of the federal investigation became public.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Rasheed said the mood in the courthouse has been tense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody hates it, the judges freaking hate it \u2014 they’re all leery about every single thing \u2014 the cops are all in a tizzy, like, every department is hyper-evaluating whether their officers appear in court or for interviews or for whatever,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now, everybody else in the system is walking on eggshells because of probably whatever the seven or eight people involved.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For him it comes down to a small number of people crossing the line that is drawn between the two sides of the justice system.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDWI is not a good thing in society \u2014 it’s dangerous, it can hurt people \u2014 and my job has been to defend people that are charged with that charge,\u201d Rasheed said. \u201cThat being said, you\u2019ve got to know that when people are on one side of the line that they stay on that side of the line. Once you raise your right hand and swear what you swear to and stick a badge on your chest you’ve picked a side \u2014 and you have to stay on that side.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This story was produced and published in collaboration with <\/em>City Desk ABQ<\/a>, a NMPBS partner\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Elise Kaplan, assistant editor, City Desk ABQ<\/p>\n\n\n\n