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.