In Santa Fe, New Mexico, two former Albuquerque police officers entered guilty pleas on Friday to federal charges of racketeering, extortion, and accepting bribes. This occurred within a far-reaching corruption investigation that uncovered a scheme allegedly enabling individuals arrested for driving while intoxicated to escape conviction. According to court records, the former officers were part of the Albuquerque Police Department’s driving while intoxicated unit and confessed to colluding with attorney Ricardo Mendez in a long-running scheme. Federal investigators revealed that Mendez’s law firm enticed officers with gifts and substantial sums of money in exchange for dismissing his clients’ cases.
Officers Joshua Montaño and Honorio Alba have signed agreements to plead guilty and cooperate with investigators, receiving leniency on their charges in return, which otherwise could have led to lengthy prison sentences. Attorneys representing Montaño and Alba have not yet responded to phone or email inquiries. Mendez, who previously pled guilty to various federal charges, including racketeering and bribery, had clients pay him or his associate a cash attorney retainer fee, as detailed in court documents. Subsequently, Mendez would compensate officers with cash amounts exceeding $5,000 or provide them with gifts or legal services to avoid appearing in court as a vital witness to the driving incident, leading to the dismissal of the case.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina commended the efforts of the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office in Albuquerque for their work on the investigation. In response, Montaño and Alba chose to resign instead of facing questioning by internal affairs investigators with the Albuquerque Police Department. Medina expressed, “I wish I could say this is the end point, but we continue to discover details of this conspiracy and those who participated in it,” in an email statement. The fallout has seen over a dozen officers either resign, be placed on administrative leave, terminated, or temporarily reassigned.
