New Mexico
Plea deal in federal APD DWI investigation
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – One of the men at the center of the DWI scandal involving alleged kickbacks to officers – who didn’t show up for court – pleaded guilty Friday to a slew of federal charges in the case.
Ricardo “Rick” Mendez worked as a paralegal for defense attorney Thomas Clear III, an attorney whose office was raided by the feds and is at the center of this investigation.
On Friday, newly-filed federal documents blew the alleged DWI scheme wide open and confirm what KOB 4 gathered about the operation.
Those documents indicate officers would arrest someone accused of DWI and work with Mendez to get them represented by Clear III.
Mendez would reportedly charge those suspects thousands of dollars as a fee to get those cases dismissed. Then, those officers are accused of getting a piece of the pie. In some cases money, legal services, gift cards, hotel rooms. Those officers would in turn recruit more officers.
Mendez admitted to the feds to working with officers at the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, as well as New Mexico State Police.
“We have not been apprised by the federal entities and if we were, I would fully cooperate with them. We have not been notified for anything so thus far no,” said BCSO Sheriff John Allen in 2024.
We asked New Mexico State Police about these new developments. A spokesman sent us this statement:
“At this time, we do not have information to believe any of our officers were involved in this criminal conduct.”
Allen just sent us a new statement saying he has been in direct contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. attorney’s office regarding the involvement of a BCSO deputy in the ongoing federal investigation into DWI case manipulations.
He says, “Corruption has no place in law enforcement, and BCSO will fully cooperate with its federal partners.”
BCSO says deputy Jeff Hammerel has been placed on leave. APD also identified two more officers now placed on leave as Lt. Matthew Chavez and Lt. Kyle Curtis.
A year ago, District Attorney Sam Bregman tossed out more than 200 pending DWI cases because of credibility questions raised by the scandal.
On Friday, a spokeswoman for the office says attorneys are busy reviewing even more cases that could potentially be dismissed, letting accused drunk drivers go free.
KOB 4 Monica Logroño will be reviewing the documents and will have more tonight at 10 p.m. on the Nightbeat.
A man is facing murder charges after allegedly admitting to deputies that he fatally shot two people inside a New Mexico home after receiving “an encrypted message in a cockroach” that he “needed to kill,” authorities say.
Alexis Hernandez, 25, was arrested and charged with two open counts of murder in connection with a Friday incident inside a southwest Albuquerque home, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.
Hernandez was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center on Saturday morning, and it is not immediately clear if he has retained a lawyer.
Authorities have not identified the men killed in the incident or the two young children who were also found inside the house at the time.
According to the arrest warrant affidavit filed at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court, deputies responded to reports of gunfire in southwest Albuquerque just before 10:30 p.m. When deputies arrived, they were met at the front door by Hernandez, who “had a firearm on his waistband and a Marine Corps Sabre on his hip,” the arrest warrant said.
Hernandez, who was immediately detained, told deputies he was in the Marines and “had to do what he had to do,” the warrant states. He then allegedly stated there were two dead bodies inside the residence.
Once inside the house, the warrant states, deputies found one dead man “with possible gunshot wounds” in the front of the house and a second man with apparent stab wounds in an attached apartment.
The two children who were found inside were safely removed from the residence, the arrest warrant states.
In an interview with deputies after he was taken into custody, Hernandez said that he knew the two slain men, one of whom was the owner of the property, according to the warrant. He then allegedly said he had believed the property owner was a friend who had been stalking him during the days leading up to the incident.
The warrant states Hernandez alleged the friend had placed cameras in the lights. Hernandez also told deputies that he was allegedly “hearing creepy voices coming from the vents” and “had been getting signs” that he had to end the property owner before he ended him.
Hernandez later allegedly told deputies that he also had received “an encrypted message in a cockroach” that he “needed to kill” the property owner, the warrant says. He added that the property owner allegedly did not like cockroaches.
The warrant states that Hernandez had previously purchased a Glock handgun, which he said he had for “protection.” Hernandez told deputies that on Friday the two men allegedly took him to the back room of the home and that he “was afraid for his life at this point.”
He said he shot the property owner in the head and the other in the kitchen, the warrant says. At one point, Hernandez allegedly told deputies, he had gone to his Honda Pilot to reload his gun before going back to each victim and shooting him again.
The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the details of the second man’s cause of death.
The warrant states Hernandez admitted that he did not know what to do after the attack, so he “stayed on scene and walked around.” He allegedly added that he knew about the two children at the house and that they saw him shoot the two men.
He added that “he was not going to take the kids or do anything to them,” the warrant says.
New Mexico
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NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Here is a look at scores and highlights from week 12 of Friday Night Football.
6A
- #10 Cibola – 10
- #7 Volcano Vista – 14
- #9 Piedra Vista – 24
- #8 Los Lunas – 28
Game of the Week
- #12 Eldorado – 7
- #5 La Cueva – 41
Las Cruces Joins the Show
5A
- #9 Mayfield – 22
- #8 Highland – 36
- #10 Valley – 23
- #7 Belen – 50
- #11 Capital – 0
- #6 Gadsden – 50
4A
- #11 Portales – 13
- #6 Moriarty – 49
- #12 Valencia – 0
- #5 Albuquerque Academy – 42
- #9 Manzano – 28
- #8 Bernalillo – 31
Bloomfield Joins the Show
St. Michael’s Joins the Show
- #9 Jal – 13
- #8 Navajo Prep – 22
Tawney Acosta Chaparro Law Defender of the Week
2 Colorado Tribes fire back at state, governor after court ruling walls off online sports betting
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