‘I have nothing to hide': APD Chief says he never worked in DWI unit, talks building trust
'I'm extremely transparent, I'm extremely honest, and I have nothing to hide. And I will hit these allegations head-on with the truth,' Medina said.
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The chief said he had heard the talk that he worked in or oversaw the DWI unit before he became Albuquerque's police chief, even though he never did. 'I was not over the traffic section. I was the commander of the special operations division, which included the swat team, K9, EOD, which is bombs, horses, and the prisoner transport unit. So any personnel record of mine would reflect that,' Medina explained.
Prior to that, the chief told KRQE Investigates that as a sergeant and lieutenant in the late 2000s, his focus was the 'party patrol'—an effort to crack down on underage drinking.
'We shared a grant with the Department of Transportation where I did underage drinking and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers recognized me for my work with underage drinking, not DWI. So people go through paperwork and they make incorrect assumptions, and the rumors spread and they spread. So I just want the public to know that is my background,' said Medina.
The awards from MADD on the chief's resume caught people's attention because, as KRQE Investigates previously reported, the organization honored other APD officers implicated in the DWI dismissal scheme.
One of the officers who was honored was Honorio Alba Jr. He confessed to his role in the scheme and told federal investigators that he funneled suspected drunk drivers to now-former Albuquerque Defense Attorney Thomas Clear III and his Paralegal Ricardo 'Rick' Mendez. The two then paid Alba Jr. in cash or other bribes to not show up to court hearings or to not file charges.
KRQE Investigative Reporter Ann Pierret asked Medina if he knew Mendez or Clear III.
Medina: 'Have no clue who Rick Mendez was. Never dealt with him.'
Pierret: 'Did you know Thomas Clear at all?'
Medina: 'No. I remember him from court.'
Court records show that Attorney Clear III handled six cases in which Medina was involved from 1999 to 2004. Of those six cases, two were dismissed.
KRQE Investigates looked through the court dockets and saw that they did not contain explanations for the two dismissed cases, likely because they're two decades old.
'There's nothing there. Keep looking. And I just have nothing to hide, and I will asking them to find everything, my team, to find everything they can on my cases. And I will publicly release that. I have nothing to hide,' Medina said.
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According to APD, Medina is one of more than 635 law enforcement members who investigated or were witness officers in dismissed cases involving Tom Clear III. The department added that the cases could have been dismissed for a number of reasons and that they are working to get KRQE Investigates the case files involving Medina.
The chief added that since he didn't serve in the DWI unit, he was never the arresting officer in those cases.
Pierret: 'So you're just the first on scene?
Medina: 'Yes.'
Pierrett: 'Or the, okay, the holding officer?
Medina: 'And I did. I used to at one point in my career. We used to, I used to get asked upon to do Spanish-speaking DWI quite frequently early in my career.'
In one of the chief's first interviews, when the details of the public corruption scandal were revealed, he told KRQE Investigates he didn't believe that he lost the trust of the community. Recently he acknowledged there are 'sections that don't trust APD.'
The chief said the department's been working on a way to regain that trust by creating 'a dashboard that is going to track every single DWI officer, their arrest, their conviction rate, their failure to appear rate, and the reasons why they failed to appear into categories,' Medina explained.
Medina said dismantling the DWI scheme prompted this new tool, saying the department has been working on it for some time and met with community advocates to get their feedback.
'We've been extremely proactive, and I haven't come out and just said, 'Oh, we're doing this, this and this.' It comes out in bits and pieces because it is a lot of work. But I'm confident we're close, and I think this dashboard, public-facing is going to help the public understand that we are watching better than ever,' said Medina.
The dashboard is now live; you can find it on the Albuquerque Police Department's website here.
So far, APD has named 13 officers in connection to the DWI dismissal scandal.Three officers who all recently served in the DWI unit took plea deals in February.Medina said this is just the 'tip of the iceberg' and that he expects more officers will be implicated.
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