Albuquerque Copwatch

Listen to Families who have lost children due to APD Violence!

2011-08-09T12:45:00.002-06:00

Go to this Website below to watch the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hisREw7Q6bY

Probe of fatal APD shooting continues

2009-02-11T00:15:00.001-07:00

Gunfire followed car, foot pursuit

* Executive Producer: Melissa Dosher
* Web Producer: Bill Diven

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - One man is dead, another gone from the scene and an Albuquerque police officer is on leave.

The officer fatally shot Andrew Lopez, 19 early Sunday morning after he led Albuquerque police officers on a high-speed car chase lasting 11 minutes.

Police said Lopez had a gun.

After stopping near 51st Street and Rincon Road NW, Lopez and his unidentified passenger jumped out and ran away. Officers caught up to Lopez in a dark area.

Lopez then turned on one of the officers in an aggressive manner with something in his hand, according to Albuquerque Police Department spokesman John Walsh

The officer fired shots in response.

Police are still looking for Lopez's passenger and the gun they believe was in the car.

The officer who fired the shots has been identified as Justin Montgomery, 28, who has been with APD for 2 1/2 years.

Another Youth Murdered by APD

2009-02-10T00:32:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Police ID Man Killed by Officer

By Jeff Proctor, Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

Police have identified the man fatally shot by an officer after an 11-minute pursuit through southwest Albuquerque early Sunday as Andrew Lopez, a 19-year-old suspected gang member with a felony warrant out for his arrest.
Albuquerque Police Department Officer Justin Montgomery, a 28-year-old just more than two years out of the academy, shot Lopez shortly after 3 a.m. after he and other officers backed Lopez into a corner, police spokesman John Walsh said.
Lopez "turned in an aggressive manner with an object in his hand" and was shot an undetermined number of times, Walsh said.
An "extensive search" of the area near the intersection of 51st and Rincon NW turned up only a silver-colored cell phone, he said. No weapon has been found.
A second man, who had been a passenger in Lopez's vehicle when police began to follow it, managed to get away and was still at large late Monday, Walsh said. He was around the same age as Lopez and was wearing dark clothing.
Police began following the vehicle, a beige 1980s-model two-door sedan, because it was driving with no lights on, he said. There had been calls of shots fired in the area that matched up with the vehicle Lopez was driving.
Officers pursued the vehicle for nearly 11 minutes, Walsh said, and, at one point, Lopez stuck his hand out the window with "an object officers believed to be a weapon."
The vehicle began to slow down as it approached 51st, and before it had come to a stop, the passenger bailed out and fled on foot, he said. The vehicle then came to a halt, Lopez got out and ran in the other direction.
He ran down a "darkened area," Walsh said and was eventually boxed into a corner by Montgomery and other officers. That's when Lopez turned around and was shot.
Police have been searching the several-mile area the vehicle and foot pursuits covered for weapons and witnesses, he said. So far, no weapon has been found, but several possible witnesses and acquaintances of Lopez have been interviewed.
Lopez had a felony warrant out for his arrest on drug and aggravated battery charges, according to court records.
Montgomery is on standard paid 72-hour leave while APD, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department, State Police, the District Attorney's Office and the Office of the Medical Investigator complete their investigation, Walsh said.

Popular Fury at Yet Another Police Murder

2009-01-10T17:23:00.001-07:00

Oakland's Not for Burning?

By GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER

from CounterPunch

Oakland.

In 1968, Amory Bradford penned a volume entitled Oakland’s Not For Burning, documenting the tinderbox that the city had become, and the lamenting the inevitability with which it would explode. But the assertion contained in the book’s title was hardly credible, coming as it was from a Yale-educated former Wall Street lawyer and New York Times general manager whose only business in Oakland came via the U.S. Commerce Department. Some forty years later, in the early hours of this year of ostensible hope, the reality of the persistence of racism in Oakland became devastatingly clear, sparking a powerful response the likes of which this city hasn’t seen in years. But luckily, the condescending voices of moderation, like that of Bradford a generation prior, seem have little traction with those who have seen enough police murder.

A New Year’s Execution

After responding to reports of “a fight” on a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train, BART police detained the train at the Fruitvale station, forcibly removing several young men from the train as dozens of bystanders watched. Several of the men, all young and mostly black, were lined up, seated, along the platform. Some were cuffed, Oscar Grant was not. As he was attempting to defuse the situation, BART police decided to detain him, placing him face-down on the platform, with one officer kneeling near his neck, and another straddling his legs. For some still unexplained reason, one officer, now identified as Johannes Mehserle stood up, pulled his gun, and fired a shot directly into Oscar Grant’s back.

The bullet went through Grant’s back, ricocheting off the platform and puncturing his lung. There are gasps from the bystanders and shock on the face of the other officers, who clearly didn’t expect the shot to be fired. Grant, who was begging not to be Tasered at the time of the shot, clearly didn’t expect it either. But this surprise notwithstanding, the decision was then made to cuff the young man as he lay dying. As an added precaution, BART police then sought immediately to confiscate all videophones held by the train passengers, in an effort to cover up the murder. Luckily for everyone but the BART P.D. and Mehserle, several videos managed to make it into the public domain, where they went viral and were viewed on Youtube hundreds of thousands of times in the following days. In a rare show of journalistic integrity, local Fox affiliate KTVU aired one of the videos in its entirety.

The standard protocol---deny, distort, cover-up---had clearly been disrupted, and BART spokesman Linton Johnson even went so far as to criticize the leaking of the video, arguing that rather than clarifying events, public access to the video would “taint” the investigation. BART was on a back foot, and popular anger was on the offensive.

A Corporate Police Force

BART Police are a notoriously problematic organization, existing in a gray area between public and private, funded by taxpayers but operating under a corporate structure which lacks all accountability and oversight. According to the San Francisco Bay Guardian:

The structure of the BART police force is a recipe for disaster. BART’s general manager (who is not an elected official and has no expertise in law enforcement) hires the BART police chief… There is no police commission, no police review board, not even a committee of the elected BART board designated to handle complaints against and issues with the BART police… There is, in other words, no civilian oversight.

And this “disaster” has been more than merely hypothetical: in 1992, a BART cop shot unarmed Jerrold Hall in the back of the head with a shotgun as he walked away, after firing a warning shot. In 2001, BART police shot a mentally ill man who was unarmed and naked. And according to Tim Redmond, writing in the same paper, “BART made a monumental effort to cover [the Hall slaying] up,” and in the end, “Nothing happened… BART called the shooting justified.” As of yesterday, BART hadn’t yet interviewed the officer, Johannes Mehserle, who insisted on invoking Fifth Amendment rights not to speak. And just when they claim to have compelled him to do so, he abruptly resigned, thereby ending any internal affairs investigation that may have taken place. There still remains, according to BART, a criminal investigation, but if the past is any indicator, this won’t get far.

But let’s not fool ourselves. Even publicly-run organizations like the Oakland Police Department, which has all the ties in the world to elected power, operates with an informal shoot-to-kill policy for black teenagers. This was as clear in the 2007 murder of Gary King as it is with Oscar Grant today. And since the district attorney responsible for bringing charges against the police works closely with these same police on a daily basis and in a shared enterprise of delivering convictions, we should not be surprised that not a single police murder in recent years has even seen disciplinary action. “No one we talked with,” writes the Chronicle, “from the district attorney's office to lawyers who work either side of police shootings - could remember a case in the last 20 years in which an on-duty officer had been charged in a fatal shooting in Alameda County.”

Does It Matter What Really Happened?

We have all seen the video, and rumors are swirling about how to interpret its contents. The officer clearly fires a fatal shot into Oscar Grant’s back while the latter is face-down on the floor. A flurry of “experts” have intervened to give their analysis. While such expert testimony usually functions to justify the police, even among these experts some are shocked and disgusted by what they see. One expert, after concluding that the gun had accidentally gone off, watched video from another angle, after which he changed his conclusion: “Looking at it, I hate to say this, it looks like an execution to me.”

Others are insisting that Mehserle meant to pull out his (less fatal) Taser, but this theory has since been discredited. Firstly, a Sig-Sauer handgun weighs three times what a Taser weighs, and the shape is completely distinct, and another expert noticed in the tape that the officer had previously withdrawn his Taser, located for safety reasons on the other side of his belt. In other words, he knew he was going for the gun. Hence the claim of accidental discharge, but this too raises a serious question of plausibility: when Mehserle drew his gun, Grant couldn’t see it, and so there could be no claim that it was meant to threaten the victim into passivity. In the end, if Mehserle is ever forced to give a statement, he will likely turn to the tried-and-true excuse that he “suspected” Grant had a gun in his pants.

But none of this matters, all the debate of the officer’s “intention” only serves to reinforce the fact that, while white cops are allowed to have intention, this is a quantity denied to their victims. This fact of racist double-standards is not lost on those who, realizing that there will be no “justice” in this case, have taken to the streets to demonstrate their rage at the unprovoked execution.

“I’m Feeling Pretty Violent Right About Now”

While friends and family were gathered for Grant’s funeral, a number of organizations called a demonstration where he was killed, at Fruitvale BART station. Circulating by internet and Facebook, the call reached many thousands, and in the end some 500-600 protestors and mourners came together to make speeches and lament this murder. At a makeshift memorial behind the BART station, candles are burning, and hand-written messages appear: “Oscar, we watched you grow up from a lil’ boy down the street into a man,” and “O., RIP, peaceful journey, God only pick da best.”

As an indication of the contrasting sentiments that divided the crowd, where someone had scribbled “Fuck the police,” another had covered the expletive with another message: “Forgive.” But forgiveness wasn’t on the minds of many. Several of the more radical protestors climbed onto the BART turnstiles, displaying a red, black, and green flag. One shouted:

I’ve got the mentality of my parents who were Black Panthers, I’m tired of talking, I’m thinking like L.A. in 1992. Y’all can have your megaphone speeches, I been through that, I’m black, I don’t need more speeches. Let’s take a stand today, because tomorrow ain’t promised!

While some on the mic attempted to soothe the crowd, insisting that burning up the city was “too easy” and “useless,” the message didn’t seem to resonate much with the crowd. And why should it? We were standing in the middle of “Fruitvale Village,” a corporate paradise in the middle of a historically Latino district, which clearly doesn’t belong to the local residents. It was clear where the momentum was going, as the biggest cheers went up for the more radical voices who seized the mic: “I’m feelin pretty violent right now,” one insisted, “I’m on some Malcolm X shit: by any means necessary. If I don’t see some action, I’ma cause a ruckus myself.”

Oakland Burning

While some remained to hear additional speakers, including hyphy hip-hopper Mistah FAB and the recently-founded Coalition Against Police Executions (CAPE), several hundred set out on a militant and rapidly-moving march north on International Boulevard. The police response was initially hands-off, despite the tenor of the chants: “No Justice, No Peace: Fuck the Police,” and “La Migra, La Policia: La Misma Porqueria.” If those in the passing cars and stuck in traffic were of any indication, the local population knew exactly what was going on, why we were protesting, and were largely sympathetic.

As the march wound around Lake Merritt, it turned sharply to the left, a shortcut to BART headquarters. This seems to have thrown off the police, who were clearly unprepared for what came next. A single police car, parked sideways at 8th and Madison to prevent access to the BART headquarters, became the target of the crowd’s increasing fury. Sensing the tone of the crowd, a cop reached in and grabbed her helmet before scurrying away. Within moments, the police car was destroyed and nearly flipped over, and a nearby dumpster was burning.

A few seconds later, the air was thick with teargas. Evidently, seeing their own property destroyed was too much for the police to stomach. (Note: there is no truth to the CNN report that tear gas was deployed to protect a surrounded officer). I get a noseful of teargas, and a protestor near me is shot in the stomach with a rubber bullet, and needs to be helped off, as the crowd quickly sprints north toward downtown. Passing through Chinatown, dumpsters full of fresh produce are emptied into the street to slow the march of a line of riot police. When the crowd reaches Broadway, there is momentary confusion, with some continuing straight to Old Oakland, some pushing left toward Jack London Square, and others urging a move rightward toward the city center.

The police took advantage of this momentary indecision, with a full line charge that send many of the furious demonstrators sprinting and left many arrested. When the crowd regrouped, it was promptly encircled at 14th and Broadway, and a standoff ensued. Either by design or by a predictable quirk of the police organization, nearly every riot cop in the street was white, some sneering defiantly. And if the crowd of demonstrators was largely multiethnic, it was clear by this point that the functional vanguard was composed largely of the young, black teenagers most acutely aware of their relationship to the police. There were chants of “We are all Oscar Grant!” and several protestors lay in the middle of the street with their hands behind their backs, mimicking the position in which Grant was executed.

Some small fires were set, and the police moved in again, pushing the crowd down 14th toward Lake Merritt. The spearhead of the demonstrators rushed forward to shouts of “We the police today!” smashing and torching vehicles, and while this was done out of anger it was far from irrational, as the press will certainly present it. Rather, it was the result of a very clear line of reasoning that goes something like this: we have to do something, and in the face of police impunity, this is all we can do. Nothing would be more irrational than a blind faith that the police will do the right thing, given all the historical evidence to the contrary. While the press is doing its best to find bystanders to decry the “vandalism” involved, it couldn’t ignore the testimony Oakland Post reporter Ken Epstein, who was writing an article on the killing when he looked out his office window to see his Honda CRV in flames: “I’m sorry my car was burned,” Epstein admitted, “but the issue is very upsetting.”

The crisp wintry air swirled and the lights twinkled along the surface of Lake Merritt as demonstrators demolished a local McDonalds, at which point a line had clearly been crossed: a police armored personnel carrier came tearing down the street at 45 miles per hour, firing rubber bullets and sending the crowd scattering. The scene was surreal, with padded riot cops leaping off the vehicle in an effort to win an impossible footrace with younger and fitter demonstrators.

Dellums Steps In, Steps Out

From the early moments of the demonstration, the position of the mayor, Ron Dellums, was at issue. Here was a mayor with a great deal of popular respect, with longstanding civil rights credentials, but who had done little to slow the pace of police killing, among the other ongoing ills plaguing postindustrial Oakland. With tear gas swirling and the APCs circling, the mayor decided to make his appearance at around 9pm, walking the few blocks from City Hall down to 14th and Jackson to address the angry crowd himself. Several times he attempted to scurry away under hard questions that he could not answer, with the standard responses: we should all take it down a notch; there will be an investigation.

I don’t remember what it was exactly that I yelled at the mayor, but it certainly got to him. As he was leaving the crowd, he turned and walked directly up to me, putting his face a mere inches from my own.

Dellums: What I want people to do now is calm down. I’ve told the police to stand down, and I hope you all can do the same. Both sides need to be peaceful right now so we can find out exactly what happened.

Me: But we know what happened! We’ve all seen the video: A cop pulled his gun and shot an unarmed black man in the back. And you know there are reasons that certain people have guns pulled on them and others don’t.

Dellums: There are two processes currently underway…

Me: The process is if I shoot someone, I’m arrested. But if a cop shoots someone, he gets put on paid administrative leave until everyone forgets about it.

Dellums: I’m asking both sides to be peaceful…

Me: Both sides? I haven’t killed anybody, this crowd hasn’t killed anybody. The police have killed somebody, and you’re in charge of the police! Who runs this city? When will the prisoners be released?

Dellums: Soon…

Dellums then returned to City Hall, surveying the damage. But as he entered, the angry crowd booed thunderously. And despite his claim that the police had been ordered to stand down, clashes broke out immediately on the same block, more fires broke out, and more teargas was deployed. The mayor’s intervention could do little to calm Oakland’s frazzled nerves. His claim that the people have lost faith in the police rings empty for people who never had such faith in the first place, people who have seen vicious police murder after police murder without so much as an indictment.

The demonstrators continued to express their pent-up rage, engaging in running battles until nearly 11pm, when a mass arrest seems to have quelled the resistance for the moment. All in all, official numbers show 105 arrests (including 21 juveniles), more than 80 of which occurred after Dellums claims to have told OPD to stand down. Who knows if his promise of a speedy release means anything at all. Support and solidarity demonstrations are scheduled this week for the prisoners’ arraignments, and with another mass mobilization scheduled for next Wednesday, this is far from over.

Intention as Privilege

As I have said, and at the risk of controversy I will repeat: it doesn’t matter if Mehserle meant to pull the trigger. He had already assumed the role of sole arbiter over the life or death of Oscar Grant. He had already decided that Grant, by virtue of his skin color and appearance, was worth less than other citizens. And rather than acquitting the officer, all of the psychological analyses and possible explanations of the shooting that have been trotted-out in the press, and all the discussion of the irrelevant elements of Grant’s criminal history, have only proven this fundamental point.

If a young black or Latino male pulls a gun and someone winds up dead, intention is never the issue, and first-degree murder charges are on the agenda, as well as likely murder charges for anyone of the wrong color standing nearby. If we reverse the current situation, and the gun is in Oscar Grant’s hand, then racist voices would be squealing for the death penalty regardless of intention. And yet when it’s a cop pulling the trigger, all the media and public opinion resources are deployed to justify, understand, and empathize with this unconscionable act. One side is automatically condemned; the other automatically excused.

For now, the fires are out. But despite the soothing words of Barack Obama and Ron Dellums, there is no lack of fuel and no lack of spark in Oakland.

George Ciccariello-Maher is a Ph.D. candidate in political theory at UC Berkeley. He lives in Oakland, and can be reached at gjcm(at)berkeley.edu.

Mutual Aid Conference to Include Albuquerque Copwatch

2008-10-04T02:40:00.003-06:00

Laugh, Learn, Educate,

O R G A N I Z E!

Schedule for the conference on building community, rejecting war, and having fun

He's 80, She's 69 — and They're Under Arrest

2008-10-01T00:02:00.000-06:00

By T.J. Wilham, Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal

Marvin Gladstone is an 80-year-old retired attorney with gray hair and a heart condition. His 69-year-old wife, Patti, is a semiretired accountant and an amputee who uses a prosthetic leg to walk.

Earlier this summer, Marvin Gladstone was considered a "threat" by Albuquerque police. He was handcuffed, arrested, charged and put in the back of a squad car. In a separate altercation with police later that afternoon, his wife was handcuffed, arrested and carted off to jail.
During his arrest, Marvin Gladstone suffered a heart attack and had to be rushed to the hospital, his attorneys say.
Patti Gladstone was arrested at the hospital after police apparently thought she was trying to break her husband out of custody when she rolled him away from officers in a wheelchair — although she said she was just looking for a place to sit.
When police tried to book Patti Gladstone into jail, her blood pressure was so high that the medical staff at the Metropolitan Detention Center wouldn't take her.
The couple's alleged crimes? Assaulting an officer, refusing to obey an officer, disorderly conduct and cruelty to an animal.
While they await court dates on the various criminal charges, they are considering filing a lawsuit against the Albuquerque Police Department.
APD officials say the officer, Lena Deyapp, acted appropriately and did everything she could to avoid cuffing the Gladstones but was left with no option because they continually assaulted her.
"Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone felt they were above the law and could do whatever they pleased," police spokesman John Walsh said. "The last thing our officer wanted was to take them into custody, but they chose to escalate the situation, act the way they did and, quite frankly, they should have known better."
Dog in an SUV
The encounter occurred June 18 at a Foothills supermarket. According to attorney Mary Han, Patti Gladstone went inside to shop while Marvin Gladstone stayed in the couple's sport utility vehicle with the family dog, a large mixed breed.
After several minutes, the dog's water was running low, and Marvin Gladstone went into the store to get more, Han said. He left the windows cracked and shut off the engine.
How long the Gladstones left the dog unattended and how hot it was in the car are in dispute.
Han claims that it was still cool inside the vehicle; a city vet says that, based on outside temperatures and what is usually safe, he believes that the animal was in danger of dying. It was about 2 p.m and police dispatchers noted the temperature as 94 degrees.
After Marvin Gladstone left the vehicle, someone called 911 and reported that the dog was panting, in distress and that the windows were "slightly" cracked, police say.
Han said Gladstone was only gone about 10 minutes, but, according to dispatch reports, it took 19 minutes for an APD officer to get to the vehicle.
APD officials said the officer couldn't find the vehicle's owners, tried to have them paged inside the store and made contact with them 32 minutes after the 911 call — about 13 minutes after she arrived at the scene.
Han says the Gladstones' veterinarian will testify that they are "very responsible" pet owners.
"The dog was within minutes of being dead," said Craig J. Mabray, chief of veterinary services for the Albuquerque Animal Welfare Department, who didn't examine the pet, which was ultimately allowed to return with the Gladstones. He based his comments on a formula for how long animals can safely be in an enclosed area at a certain temperature. "This dog was in trouble."
The city has been cracking down on people who leave pets unattended in vehicles, and police have made such calls from citizens a top priority. Under city law, it's illegal to leave an animal or child in an enclosed vehicle for a period of time that could result in danger.
Patti Gladstone told police that they had been gone 10 minutes.
When the officer went back to her squad car to wait for animal control officers, Marvin Gladstone approached her and said, "How long is this going to take? We have stuff to do," according to APD reports.
Deyapp told him that animal control was on its way and to get back in his SUV. For "officer safety reasons," Deyapp walked him back to his vehicle, where his wife also told the officer that the couple had things to do, including a doctor's appointment. The dog remained in the car with the Gladstones with the air conditioning on.
Marvin Gladstone approached the officer again a short time later. This time, the conversation escalated.
Police order
Marvin Gladstone asked the officer, "Is there anything I can do to expedite the situation?" according to police reports.
Deyapp replied, "No sir, and I am giving you an order to stay inside your vehicle."
Police say Marvin Gladstone became irate, began to yell and told Deyapp that she was a disgrace to the police department. He was a few inches from her and pointed at her face.
Deyapp wrote in her report that she took a step back because she was in "immediate fear of battery."
Deyapp said Marvin Gladstone said, at one point, that he wanted to go to jail.
Police reports don't make it clear how long it took for an animal control officer to arrive. When the officer arrived, it was determined that the dog was OK. But the officer cited Patti Gladstone, who was driving the vehicle, for cruelty to an animal.
APD officials said city ordinance requires that dogs left unattended in a car must have an opening large enough for the dog to get its head out.
After the citation, police say Marvin Gladstone got out of his vehicle again, approached Deyapp in an "aggressive manner" and asked for her name and badge number.
Deyapp says she provided the information, then placed him under arrest for refusing to obey because he didn't stay inside his vehicle.
"Our officer was placed in a position where she had to take action because of his irresponsible acts," Walsh said.
While sitting cuffed in the back of a police car, Marvin Gladstone, who has had triple bypass surgery, started to have chest pains. An ambulance took him to the hospital, where he was treated for a heart attack, Han said. A doctor's note showed that he had suffered a mild heart attack.
Han said officers refused to let Gladstone take nitroglycerin tablets, which she said might have prevented the attack.
Patti Gladstone took the dog home and met her husband at the hospital. Three officers also showed up.
'Out of control'
While there, police say they told Patti Gladstone that her husband couldn't leave their custody.
A surveillance video of the emergency room waiting area shows her pushing her husband's wheelchair away from the group of officers. It appears she was looking for a seat.
The officers didn't appear to be concerned at first. Suddenly, all three approached her, forced her away from the wheelchair and rushed her outside.
Han says Patti Gladstone was thrown against a wall, cuffed and arrested for acting disorderly. She was taken to the county jail, where staff refused to book her.
According to Deyapp's report, Patti Gladstone was told that she couldn't move away from the officers, refused to return when ordered and insisted she needed to sit down.
When the officers grabbed the wheelchair, she shouted at them, "No, you will not." Police say she wouldn't let go of the wheelchair.
Marvin Gladstone wasn't booked but was given a summons to appear in court. He was treated and released several hours later. He has been charged with refusing to obey a lawful order and assault upon a peace officer.
Police also settled on giving Patti Gladstone a summons after jail staff refused to book her. She has been charged with refusing to obey an officer, cruelty to an animal and disorderly conduct.
"APD is out of control," Han said. "Imagine that this was your mom or your father. It's pretty outrageous, isn't it?
"One person is an artist, a grandmother of seven, and the other is a retired lawyer. These are people who believe in the system."

When Officers Go Too Far

2008-09-26T00:08:00.002-06:00

By Joline Gutierrez Krueger, Journal Staff Writer

It was the second time in the dead of that cold autumn night that Angela Saiz woke her husband, Mark, because somebody was pounding on their door.
The first time, it was urgent knocking, but no one was there.
This time, it sounded like someone kicking in the front door, determined to break in.
Twice in the last three months, thieves had broken into the insurance office of Mark Saiz's father, which is adjacent to their home on Sarah NW. Maybe, they thought, the thieves had returned.
Maybe it was juvenile thugs roaming the North Valley.
Maybe it was worse.
Mark Saiz, clad in T-shirt and boxers, grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun from the closet. Through a window, he saw movement in the darkness outside, the black blur of intruders scurrying behind the garage.
He opened the door, fired a warning blast of birdshot into the sky and shouted for the intruders to go away.
"I was so scared, very scared," Angela Saiz says.
But what the Saizes say happened next that October 2006 night was scarier still.
For the next three hours, Mark Saiz says the intruders humiliated, intimidated and emasculated him. He contends he was handcuffed and forced to the ground, punched twice in the face while restrained. He was called a "vigilante son of a bitch" and other angry vulgarities. He was pulled barefoot across his graveled yard. His shoulder was dislocated.
Worst of all, Saiz, 49, says he was helpless to protect his family and property.
All the while, he had no idea what the intruders wanted.
Then Saiz, a gentle and proud man who had never incurred more than a traffic offense, was tossed into the Metropolitan Detention Center on four felony counts of aggravated assault against a peace officer.
Yup. The four intruders that surreal night were Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies.
This week in a federal courtroom in Albuquerque, Saiz and the deputies squared off in the latest legal battle over whether homeowners have the right to protect their domiciles even if it means pulling the trigger — and even if the invaders are law enforcement agents.
Saiz's federal lawsuit accuses three deputies (one deputy, Chris Romero, was dismissed from the case at the end of trial) of violating his civil rights by their use of unreasonable and excessive force.
The deputies, including the alleged potty-mouthed pugilist, are also accused of battery.
Saiz testified that the deputies had not identified themselves as law enforcement agents. There had been no squad cars visible, no lights or sirens.
Once he knew, however, Saiz says he complied with all their commands.
It didn't matter. He had already incurred the wrath normally reserved for cop killers, baby rapers and defense attorneys.
"It's not enough I have to be worried about the criminals out there, I have to be worried about being shot by you!" one deputy shouts in a recording from a deputy's belt tape.
Deputies David Priemazon and Jason Foster and then-trainee Matthew Ray blamed their agitated moods on their own fears that night.
"I was very angered, very upset and very scared," Priemazon, the deputy accused of punching Saiz, testified. "I was almost shot."
Priemazon, who cops to the vulgar diatribe, says he had seen the glint of Saiz's glasses in the dark house and the shotgun barrel aimed straight at Romero's head.
The deputies ran for cover, but Priemazon was trapped by the "fatal funnel" of a walled courtyard with no defensive cover. He swears the gunfire came so close to his right shoulder that he had initially believed he was hit.
But no small projectiles found in the birdshot slug — the same stuff Dick Cheney fired in the face of his hunting buddy — were recovered from the walls where Priemazon had cowered, as one might have expected had Saiz aimed at him and not the air.
Maybe that's why a grand jury refused to indict Saiz on the felony assault charges but merely for negligent use of a deadly weapon, a petty misdemeanor.
That charge evaporated, too, when the District Attorney's Office asked to dismiss the case "for the reason that after reviewing the evidence the state believes that it is not in the state's best interest to pursue the indicted charge."
Priemazon, now a violent crimes detective, denied the punches. Ray, so terrified that he considered quitting the force, denied dislocating Saiz's arm. Lt. Jason Katz, the deputies' supervisor that night, denied telling the Saiz family that what had happened had been one big misunderstanding.
You remember Katz, who two months before the Saiz incident was one of three deputies accused of plucking Al Unser Sr. from his vehicle and tossing him face-first into a patch of goatheads during another one of those big misunderstandings.
What happened at the Saiz home had not been a misunderstanding but a mistake from the start, launched as a welfare check on a possible domestic violence victim who had made a 911 call on a cell phone that abruptly ended.
The phone number had been traced to Sarah NW, but, oops, she didn't live there anymore.
On Thursday, after just 1 1/2 hours of deliberation, jurors sided with the deputies, apparently convinced that whatever brutality had been rained on the Saizes that night was part of the job.
No death, no foul, no money.
The job of a law enforcement officer is dangerous and tough, and we've attended too many funerals for too many men and woman killed in the line of duty to think otherwise.
But when justified caution gives way to the unbridled bravado of the badge, especially in the sanctity of our own homes, it harms not just the public but the image of those who truly protect and serve without provoking and savaging.
You can reach Joline at 823-3603 or jkrueger@abqjournal.com.

Man Shot by Officers Critical

2008-07-31T10:10:00.000-06:00

By Hailey Heinz, Journal Staff Writer

A man who initially called authorities to his home complaining of chest pain was in critical condition Wednesday after he refused treatment, said he had a gun, and was shot by officers.
Fire officials were called to the man's home on the 9700 block of Mesa Arriba NE and told the man they wanted to take him to the hospital for treatment, Albuquerque police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said. The man, who police said is in his 30s, then became agitated and told them he had a weapon.
Firefighters withdrew and called police, who arrived at the home and got the man's family out of the house. The man also left the house, and police saw that he had a handgun, Hamby said. She said the man ignored police commands and appeared to be walking toward a neighbor's house when the officers shot him. It was unclear Wednesday whether all three officers fired or who hit him, but all were considered "involved," Hamby said.
The three have been placed on paid administrative leave while the department investigates the incident.
The man was taken to University of New Mexico Hospital with gunshot wounds, where he was in critical condition Wednesday night. Hamby declined to say whether police had previously been called to the house or whether the man had a criminal record. She also declined to say whether the man drew his gun or whether officers were armed with less-lethal weapons such as rubber bullets or stun guns.
Bryan Andrada, a neighbor, was riding his bicycle past the man's home when the shooting happened about 6 p.m. Andrada said he had seen police cars in the neighborhood and went to get a closer look when an officer with a drawn gun warned him not to get any closer. He said he couldn't hear the words between the officers and the victim but saw police shoot and watched the man fall. He said five shots were fired.
"To see somebody just go limp like that, it's pretty disturbing," he said. Andrada said he didn't see the man draw his gun or point it at officers.
Neighbors clustered near the shooting scene said the neighborhood is usually quiet, and even close neighbors said they didn't know the victim, who was a renter.
"It's such a quiet neighborhood," said Karen Armstrong, who has lived there for 14 years. "We put in speed bumps because speeders were our biggest concern."

Court: Police Not Entitled To Immunity

2008-07-30T11:57:00.001-06:00

Associated Press

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver has upheld a lower court's ruling that Albuquerque police officers are not entitled to qualified immunity on claims they retaliated against protesters at an anti-war rally.
More than a dozen people who participated in the University of New Mexico campus rally in March 2003 sued the city of Albuquerque, Mayor Martin Chávez and several Albuquerque police officers, claiming their First Amendment rights to freedom of expression and assembly were violated.
The protest drew between 500 and 1,000 people, who spilled onto city sidewalks and the crosswalks of adjacent streets.
The Albuquerque Police Department claimed protesters were blocking traffic and began tossing canisters of tear gas and using pepper spray after protesters failed repeated warnings to clear the streets.
Several protesters were arrested.
A U.S. District Court dismissed most of the plaintiffs' claims against the officers, but analyzed their First Amendment claims of retaliation and determined the officers were not entitled to qualified immunity on the claim.
The court determined there was "no question" that protesting a war is a constitutionally protected activity and the use of tear gas, pepper spray and physical force to disperse plaintiffs and protesters "could have chilled a person of ordinary firmness from continuing to participate in the demonstration."
The officers conceded that the use of tear gas and pepper spray affected certain plaintiffs but said their actions, even "assuming an improper motive," could not have affected plaintiffs who did not witness the officers' actions.
The officers argued on appeal that, because the plaintiffs knew of the officers' aggressive actions at places along the route, "these plaintiffs were thus chilled." The officers contended they were entitled to qualified immunity with respect to those who did not witness or were not affected by their actions.
The appellate court, based in Denver, rejected the officers' arguments because they were not brought before the lower court. City Attorney Bob White said Monday he had not seen the ruling. "We'll have to review the decision and decide how we proceed in the case from here," he said.

Anabolic Steroid Use and Abuse by Police Officers: Policy & Prevention

2008-07-26T13:00:00.001-06:00

By Commander Kim R. Humphrey, Professional Standards Bureau, Phoenix, Arizona, Police Department; Kathleen P. Decker, M.D., U.S. Air Force; Linn Goldberg, M.D., Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon; Harrison G. Pope Jr., M.D., Harvard Medical School; Joseph Gutman, M.D., Practicing Endocrinologist,Tempe, Arizona; and Gary Green, M.D., University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)

from Police Chief Magazine:
http://policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&article_id=1512&issue_id=62008

Although physical fitness is an essential part of policing, as described in the previous article, some officers go too far to ensure their strength—endangering not only themselves but also the public they are sworn to defend.
officer crashes a police car and seriously injures an innocent bystander. The investigation reveals that the officer was acting erratically, had bloodshot eyes, and slurred his speech. The officer’s supervisor is called, and the decision is made to test for alcohol consumption. The test results determine that the officer was in fact intoxicated. Disciplinary action is taken, resulting in the officer’s termination for drinking alcohol while driving on duty. Though exposed to liability, the department recognizes the dangers of alcohol abuse and appropriately responds when a dangerous situation presents itself. Another officer, involved in several shootings and use-of-force incidents, garners significant attention within his agency and the media. Investigations reveal that the unrelated incidents were questionable but lawful and, according to the officer, justified based on perceived threats. The agency’s use-of-force review reluctantly finds the officer within policy but awaits the next incident. How many police leaders would recognize that this of ficer could have a problem similar to the one in the first example? If the officer’s appearance indicated he was exceptionally muscular, would they consider the possible abuse of anabolic steroids? What would prompt them to believe that excessive use of force could be associated with “’roid rage,” a hyperaggressive, violent state of mind supposedly brought on by steroid use? When and how would they confirm that their suspicions are true? What if a defense or civil attorney proposed that an officer was a steroid abuser based on the officer’s appearance and witnessed behaviors? Compared with alcohol and other illicit drugs, anabolic steroids (also known as anabolic-androgenic steroids, or AASs) are not easily detected. Supervisors typically are trained to look for inappropriate behaviors that might justify a “just cause” drug screen; however, with AASs the behaviors and other indicators might not be as easily recognized. Recently, accounts of major league baseball’s steroid era have come to light, Olympic athletes have admitted use, and many other major sporting icons have been stripped of their titles after being caught using performance-enhancing drugs such as AASs and human growth hormone (HGH). Unfortunately, growing evidence suggests a similar abuse of AASs and other performance-enhancing drugs by law enforcement professionals. Across the United States, several investigations associated with Internet pharmacies and “antiaging” clinics in association with unscrupulous physicians have revealed officers caught up in this web of illicit drug use. Although the traditional reason for the use of AASs is to improve athletic performance, AASs also appeal to officers wanting a tactical edge or an intimidating appearance. Unlike with other forms of drug abuse, steroid users do not take their drug recreationally; on the contrary, some state they need these drugs in order to do their job effectively or improve their “job performance.” From street officers who consider themselves vulnerable to bigger, more aggressive criminals to special-assignment officers who are regularly tested for their physical abilities, officers are turning to performance-enhancing drugs such as AASs and HGH as a shortcut to improved performance. This article will not delve into the abuse of HGH, which is not a controlled substance but is obtained by prescription only and has very limited use—none for normal adults. In addition to the normal health concerns, there is one further issue when discussing abuse of steroids by those in the law enforcement profession. Officers carry weapons, are authorized to use lethal force, and are often involved in physically controlling or restraining people. If the stories of ’roid rage are true, how often are the officers who use anabolic steroids involved in unnecessary use-offorce incidents that could become a major liability for their agencies? Considering the legal issues, health effects, and commensurate costs associated with inappropriate use, agencies should proactiv ly address this issue. Rather than look back on what could be an embarrassing “steroid era” of law enforcement—one in which the profession might be riddled with lawsuits, corruption, and claims of heavy-handedness—it is critical to address the current and future impact of this issue head-on. Over the past few decades, several stories have surfaced regarding law enforcement personnel involved with anabolic steroids. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently led Operation Raw Deal, considered the largest international steroid investigation to date. The operation discovered several links to current or former law enforcement officers. This was predicted almost 20 years ago by an article in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin that stated, “Anabolic steroid abuse by police officers is a serious problem that merits greater awareness by departments across the country.”1 In addition, a story on the television program 60 Minutes in 1989 titled “Beefing up the Force” featured three police officers who admitted steroid use and claimed that their resulting aggression got them in serious trouble. In the past year, a book titled Falling Off the Thin Blue Line was written and published by former Texas police officer David Johnson, who describes his addiction to steroids and speaks about the prevalence of steroid abuse in the law enforcement community.2 Recently, investigations into illegal steroid purchases revealed the names of several officers on pharmacy distribution lists, garnering national media attention. Unfortunately, agencies looking for methods to confront steroid abuse find few examples of effective policies and practices. This article summarizes the Phoenix, Arizona, Police Department’s experience in this area over the past several years and suggests policy and testing considerations for anabolic steroids in the law enforcement community. Problems with Testing In 2005, the Phoenix Police Department (PPD) investigated several incidents either directly or indirectly involving officers accused of abusing anabolic steroids. As a result, the city formed a committee to determine policy changes and address the issue with public safety agencies (that is, police and fire departments) as well as all other city employees. Due to the demands of the law enforcement profession and the legal precedent supporting random drug testing, policies are naturally more stringent for police than for other city departments. The police department, with support from its labor organization, added anabolic steroids to the random testing process for all officers and the preemployment screen. Research is clear that significant health risks result from nontherapeutic uses of anabolic steroids. 3 For this reason, the PPD’s focus on prevention revolved around a prevention video with questions and answers from a local endocrinologist who specializes in steroid abuse treatment. Regarding testing, the task seemed simple enough: contact a local laboratory and test officers for performance-enhancing substances. However, implementation proved less than simple. First, adding AASs to the PPD’s random test tripled its drug testing costs. Additionally, local laboratories were able to provide only an initial urine screen that tested for a handful of the growing number of AASs. Furthermore, compounding the difficulty of the task, testing for anabolic steroids goes beyond looking for the specific synthetic AAS; it also needs to detect compounds naturally created by the human body, such as testosterone. This entails an analysis of an individual’s ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone (abbreviated T/E); when this value is found to be out of normal range, it may indicate the use of illegal substances. Additionally, as noted previously, HGH does not fall under the Anabolic Steroid Control Act, and currently there is no reliable test to detect it in the human body. Testing for performance-enhancing substances presents a myriad of challenges:
How can an agency test for “all” illegal AASs, and what does it do if a T/E ratio is not normal?

How can an agency prove that someone is illegally or inappropriately using anabolic steroids?
What if an officer who tests positive provides a prescription, and the prescribing physician indicates that the officer has a condition that necessitates the use of these drugs? Additionally, what constitutes abuse of prescribed drugs?
Do ’roid rage and other psychiatric disturbances claimed to result from steroid abuse actually exist, and do they present a liability to an abuser’s organization? Jumping into a testing policy before answering these questions will lead agencies to the realization that testing for these substances is not as straightforward as, say, discovering heroin in a drug screen. Officers might present a prescription or might have ordered something over the Internet in what they believe is a legal transaction. The DEA works regularly to shut down numerous unscrupulous doctors who seek to make money by connecting with pharmacies and engaging in illegal distribution, using the few very specific legitimate uses for AASs as cover for their operation. In these cases, ignorance is a common excuse from officers, who typically state that a doctor prescribed the drug, so it must be “okay.”

Illicit “Benefits” of AASs AASs can be taken orally, by injection, as a skin patch or cream, or sometimes by placing them between the cheek and gum. When combined with a high-protein diet and vigorous weightlifting, AASs “work.” That means that they stimulate the formation of muscle tissue and are known to cause enlargement of muscle fibers. It is widely understood that testosterone (the major natural male AAS hormone in normal, healthy men) stimulates an increase in fat-free muscle mass while at the same time decreasing fat. Doses of AASs that exceed the normal production rate of testosterone can amplify this effect, resulting in supernormal gains in lean muscle mass and strength.
Patterns of Illegitimate Use
Many users reported taking a weekly dose in excess of (the equivalent of) 1,000 mg of testosterone. For comparison, adult human testicles normally produce 5–10 mg of testosterone per day—generally less than 100 mg/week.
Most AAS users reported self-administering by injecting the drug directly into their muscles.
Some studies reveal that approximately 25 percent of those who inject AASs share needles or vials, increasing the risk of HIV infection, viral hepatitis, or other infections.
Over 95 percent of AAS users reported self-administering multiple substances, with 25 percent taking growth hormone and/or insulin in addition to AASs.
Users have been found to move on to illegal drugs other than athletic performance enhancers.
Nearly 100 percent of AAS users reported noticeable side effects—but most users claim that these effects are mild and do not deter them from continuing to use AASs.
Users often become fixated on their muscularity and are reluctant to stop using AASs for fear that they will get smaller again.
General Medical Effects of Use
Decreased sperm production
Abscess at the site of injection
Increased or even severe acne
Increased blood pressure
Increased “bad” (LDL) and lower “good” (HDL) cholesterol, with attendant increased risk of heart attack
Thickening of the wall of the heart (especiall y in the left ventricle)
Increased or decreased sex drive (libido)
Increased appetite
Liver disease, especially with AASs taken orally (infrequent)
Death from several causes, including suicide, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries leading to heart attacks or strokes), and cardiac complications
HIV and similar risk issues associated with the sharing of needles or the use of nonsterile needles
Psychological Effects Users of AASs can experience psychiatric symptoms during use, abuse, or withdrawal. Symptoms differ depending on the drug’s absence or presence in the body. Symptoms tend to correlate with the size of the weekly dose and can worsen with long-term use. Importantly, the psychiatric symptoms are idiosyncratic; some men taking=2 0a given dose of AASs may show no psychiatric effects at all, whereas a few men taking an identical dose might show extreme effects.6 The reasons for this variability are not known, but it is clear that reactions to AASs cannot be predicted on the basis of an individual’s baseline personality. In other words, even if a man has a mildmannered, gentle personality when not taking AASs, there is still a risk that he might develop a sudden personality change and become uncharacteristically aggressive and violent while taking AASs.7
Symptoms Associated with Use or Abuse:
Mania or hypomania (high energy levels associated with increased self-confidence, increased activity, impaired judgment, and reckless behavior)
Psychosis—loss of touch with reality (for example, paranoia or delusions of grandeur; infrequent)
Personality changes
Laws and Regulations Associated with AASs The use of AASs for per formance enhancement is banned by all major sports bodies, including the International Olympic Committee, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the Union of European Football Associations, and Fédération Internationale de Football Association. In the late 1980s, the U.S. Congress considered listing AASs in the Controlled Substances Act. Based on evidence of widespread abuse, AASs are now classified by the FDA and DEA as Schedule III controlled substances. The Crime Control Act of 1990, approved on November 29, 1990, includes provisions for control of these drugs and penalties for inappropriate trafficking in them. The Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004 further amended this law to increase the number of AASs that were included and make it easier to add additional drugs.
The drug or other substance has a potential for abuse that is less than the drugs or other substances in Schedules I and II.
The drug or other substance has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. Abuse of the drug or other substance may lead to moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence.

Too long to fit here... Read on !!!
http://policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&article_id=1512&issue_id=62008

When Repression Rains, It Pours

2008-07-21T20:33:00.002-06:00

Submitted by Elliott

Something has lit a fire in my gut lately, and it's not the tangy gazpacho chilling in my fridge. It's not the body bags piling up in Iraq, or the precipitous decline of our planet's wild systems, or any of the other train wrecks concocted by elites in the Global North. For the last three weeks, I've been spitting barbs because so many people I know have been getting targeted, terrorized and thrown in jail by the police.

The number of folks in my field of vision who've been rounded up since mid-June is startling, and I feel compelled to write about them here. Though they might appear in the news as a series of disparate, isolated incidents, I think my friends' stories indicate a broader pattern of police repression that's all too common--particularly against activists of color.

NYC

Following the April 26th acquittal of four cops who killed Sean Bell and wounded two others in a hail of 50 bullets, NYC saw a surge of social movement calling for police accountability and community power. Rallies, marches, and a near-riot popped off around the city, while Al Sharpton's "slowdown" blockades on May 8th captured national media attention. Since that time, actions specific to the Bell case have largely subsided, and much of the public energy and outrage has dissipated (or, at least, been brought to a simmer.)

At the same time, a few sustained projects have taken root in the wake of the NYPD's most brazen murder yet of an unarmed person of color. Among these is a series of citywide copwatch trainings being promoted by the People's Justice Coalition and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, coupled with a growing interest in community alternatives to policing generally.

Caught in this climate is Rebel Diaz. A conscious hip hop crew comprised of three MCs--Chilean brothers RodStarz and G1, and Afro-Boricua rapper Lah Tere--Rebel Diaz is well known in both activist circles and hip hop scenes in NYC. In the crowd I run with, they're public figures you can count on to be outspoken about imperialism, racism, gentrification and police brutality. So it's not surprising that they were singled out for special treatment by New York's Finest.

On June 18th, Rodstarz and G1 stopped to observe several police officers harassing a street vendor in the Hunts Point area of the Bronx. Knowing a sense of public accountability can deter police abuses, the two MCs asked for the badge numbers of the cops in question. But this time the strategy backfired: the police snapped, dragged the two men to the ground, beat them up a little, and hauled them off to the 41st precinct. They were later charged with "obstruction of justice" and "resisting arrest."

Within hours of RodStarz and G1's arrest, a citywide call went out for folks to demonstrate at the building where the brothers were being held, and to barrage the precinct with calls in protest. (In Michigan at the time, I was hit with a stream of text messages about the situation.) The emergency actions drew a big response, and both brothers were released the following morning; their court cases are pending.

If the story ended there, I'd take it as a sign that cops are touchy about public confrontations following the Bell trial, but that prompt action on our part can keep their abuses in check. Unfortunately, there's more to tell. A week after the brothers' arrest, in the early hours of June 25th, unidentified police officers burst into G1's apartment in Harlem with guns drawn. According to G1's official statement

The uniformed police officers did not knock, nor announce themselves, nor verbally identify themselves before or during their entry into my apartment.

They pointed their guns at us the whole time as they verbally barraged [my roommate DW, my friend] MM and I with questions as to who we were and what we were doing there.

As I lay on the ground with my hands up, I replied loudly and clearly that I lived there, and that everyone in the house was supposed to be there.

They replied incredulously, repeatedly yelling their questions as to who we were, with threats as to what would happen to us if I was found to be lying.

After various other taunts and threats, including accusing us of harboring a fugitive criminal suspect, they departed just as quickly as they had arrived, down a side stairway adjacent to my apartment.

They did not stay to search me or my roommates, or the apartment for any signs of the supposed fugitive they were looking for.

G1 did get the badge numbers of two officers involved in the raid--by running into the middle of the street and flagging down a police vehicle that was peeling away from the scene. But even with that information, the incursion remains a mystery: "Both the 25th and 23rd NYPD precinct, which patrol my block, have denied that the officers involved are from their command."

Two weeks ago, this news filled me with a sense of dread. I asked myself: where did the officers who raided G1's apartment come from? Is this a police scare tactic, considering the high profile of the Rebel Diaz crew? Are police officers in New York veering into the realm of paramilitary-style violence against activists of color?

There's still only sketchy information available at this point, but alongside other recent cases of police abuse, a formula seems to be emerging. The sequence of events goes like this: first a high-profile case of police brutality evokes public outrage and disgust; then, a few modest grassroots projects emerge to curtail police violence; finally, the cops execute targeted crackdowns on activists who're bringing them scrutiny. By late June I had a feeling that the events in NYC contained an inner logic. My hunch was confirmed when I heard about a recent house raid in Philadelphia.

Philly

In the city of brotherly love, the same formula was repeated almost verbatim. First there was a case of police brutality: on May 5th, 12 to 14 Philadelphia cops were caught on camera by a Fox News helicopter as they dragged three shooting suspects from a vehicle and took turns kicking and beating them en masse. Much like the Bell case, footage of a rampaging mob of Philly police also prompted a broad public response. In fact, just a day after protesting the acquittal of Sean Bell's killers, Al Sharpton announced his intention to travel to Philadelphia to address the situation. But beyond public speakers and movement figureheads, action was also a-brewin' at the grassroots.

Some movement crystallized in the Francisville area of Philly, where a multiracial collective house started circulating petitions to address growing police harassment. Like many soon-to-be gentrifying neighborhoods, Francisville has endured aggressive policing as cops patrol on behalf of wealthy landlords and residents from encroaching developments. The house's petition confronted the climate of fear and intimidation by calling on Philadelphia's Mayor and Police Commissioner to attend community meetings on police brutality, surveillance cameras, and "stop and frisk" policies.

The response was fast and flagrant: on June 13th, the Francisville house was raided by plainclothes police officers. As in New York, the cops entered without a warrant, and in this case the housemates were detained for 12 hours without charge. The pretext used by police to enter the house still isn't clear (officers on the scene called the housemates a "hate group," alleging they found "literature about killing cops" and "propaganda against the government" on the premises) but it is known that the Department of Homeland Security, the Housing Authority and the Department of Licensing all conducted tours of the property within hours.

When the residents eventually returned home, they found their building closed by the city for code violations, and it became clear later that the property had been thoroughly searched. Daniel Moffat, a resident of the Francisville house, found that

My computer was gone. I was informed that the Department of State had taken my computer for evidence. I couldn't find my phone list that was posted on the wall. I couldn't find a notepad with a bunch of my notes in it. I couldn't find this little book with a lot of phone numbers in it.

News of the raid in Philly reached me just a few days after the arrests of RodStarz and G1, and it shook me up. Not only was it troubling that a measly petition could draw the ire of the power structure, but two of my friends had stayed in the Francisville house just weeks before it was raided, and thus narrowly escaped being detained themselves.

Right now the folks in Philadelphia have regained access to their house, but continue to fight a legal battle over the building's alleged code violations. Investigation also continues into why the house was targeted by local and federal agencies in the first place, and much like in New York, many questions remain. I'm troubled by events in Philly and the implications they could have for us in NYC--but at the same time, I'm preoccupied with yet another case of repression that recently exploded on the west coast.

LA

After the Rodney King beating and the 1992 riots, the LAPD may be most famous for its crackdown on the Los Angeles May Day rally in 2007. As a huge, peaceful rally of community organizations and migrant groups came to a close in MacArthur Park that spring, the LAPD waded into the crowd, firing rubber bullets at families and elders and clubbing those who didn't disperse fast enough. Police helicopters hovering above the scene declared the rally closed, while below a phalanx of cops in riot gear chased people into the surrounding blocks.

Outcry over police brutality at the May Day rally received sympathetic coverage on national news networks, mostly because members of the corporate media were shoved, clubbed and beaten along with rally-goers as police swept through the park. At the same time, the LAPD's actions further solidified the work of Copwatch LA, an organization that documented the police attack on the rally and had been active for several months beforehand.

To my knowledge, Copwatch LA is the most active group of its kind in the United States. After gaining big public attention from a police brutality case early in its existence (a video they publicized of officers beating a man while suffocating him made the front page of Yahoo News), the group has built a large network of volunteers to document police activity around the city. Their website even features live feeds of copwatch photos from cellphones around LA, which is an impressive techy feat for a non-funded, grassroots group. Yet the early successes of the Copwatch LA have also put a powerful spotlight on the group's organizers--particularly a young man named Joaquin Cienfuegos.

Joaquin is a Latino anarchist from South Central LA, who came to New York this summer to meet folks struggling on the East coast, and share an almost-finished documentary on the 2007 attacks. He crashed in my apartment in June after a raucous evening in lower Manhattan, and we emailed a little afterward. Just a few days ago, I received word that he had been arrested and was being held on $40,000 bail.

Fearing a repeat of NYC and Philly, I emailed for more info, and found the situation even higher-stakes. On June 27th, police officers pulled over Joaquin and a friend on their way home from a fundraiser for Copwatch LA and an Anarchist People of Color regional gathering. The anonymous friend put out a public statement a few days ago:

Joaquin said "they're pulling us over" as we were turning down my block (La Mirada Avenue). I told Joaquin not to stop until we got in front of my house, because if they were going to kill us or beat our asses, it was going to happen on my block and in front of my house where people could see.

The police approached the car, and found Joaquin didn't have his license on him (it had been stolen a few weeks earlier.) This was reason enough to cuff Joaquin immediately, at which poin I also told them Joaquin needed to get my wheelchair out of his trunk so I can get out of his car. The pig came to the driver's side of the car and popped the trunk, went to the back and put the wheelchair together. At that point the pig saw a machete in the trunk and asked Joaquin "what was he doing with a machete?" Joaquin said that "he does gardening work from time to time and it shouldn't be 'illegal' to have a machete in his trunk."

As I exited the car. they told me I could go home. So I crossed the street and observed them from in front of my home. From afar, I hear the pig ask Joaquin, "what's in this case?"

In the case was a gun owned by Joaquin, which resulted in a felony charge of "possession of a concealed firearm."

I can't comment on the prevalence of guns in Los Angeles activist circles, never having worked on the streets of South Central. But I do know that the LAPD has proven itself at least as dangerous with loaded firearms as activists on the left, and at the same time, I know that the LAPD has a habit of throwing arms charges at activists they see as a threat.

In fact, the same thing happened recently to members of the Black Riders Liberation Party, a political formation made up of former gang members and black youth from around Los Angeles modeled on the Black Panther Party. Last fall, most of the Riders' leadership was rounded up in a statewide sweep, charged with "conspiracy to purchase a concealed weapon," and held on $500,000 bail. Joaquin had been working closely with members of the BRLP to document their legal struggle, and Riders were in attendance at the fundraiser the night of Joaquin's arrest. These connections, one imagines, would've been enough for the police to put Joaquin in their sights.

Today

As of this post, Joaquin has just been released from jail, where he was held on lockdown for most of his time inside. He now faces a lengthy legal battle, along with a fundraising effort to cover the loans needed to bail him out. And after the house raid in Philly, the attack on G1 in NYC, and this new arrest in Los Angeles, I'm struck by the brazenness of police attacks on activists of color in the U.S.

Three times in the last six weeks, the same formula came into play: after an incident of police brutality evoked public outcry and was met with a modest grassroots response, the power structure went to extreme lengths to target and eliminate activists working against cop impunity. This pattern suggests activists working for accountability and community power can expect repressive responses from local authorities, often without regard to public oversight or legal constraints and with the backing of federal agencies. Yikes.

At the same time, these acts of repression remind us of the scope of our struggles, and of the hurdles any movement that wishes to fundamentally transform our world must inevitably face. It's a frightening prospect, sure, but it's also an arena that can shape our tactics and strategies beyond theory and booklearnin'. To face these challenges, I've heard, you need to have a fire in your gut.

APD Must 'fess Up, Revise Interrogation Procedures

2008-07-03T20:19:00.002-06:00

from the Albuquerque Journal

By Jeff Buckels, New Mexico Public Defender Department

Journal readers can't have missed Saturday's front-page story about how DNA evidence cleared my client Robert Gonzales of murder after two and a half years in jail. And you can't have missed that Robert confessed to the murder at the time.
It was a false confession, and it's not that rare. Nearly a fourth of 218 DNA exonerations documented by the national Innocence Project have involved false confessions.
Police use sophisticated techniques to get confessions. They start by putting the suspect off-guard with friendly chitchat, visiting about the suspect's school, family, favorite TV shows.
Having established that they are the suspect's pal, interrogators put the confession machinery in gear. They accuse the suspect of the crime and refuse to credit his denials. To make resistance seem pointless, they exaggerate or simply lie about the evidence they already have (“You were seen with the victim!”). In virtually every case of false confession involving compliant suspects, the interrogators minimize the suspect's blameworthiness (“I'd have done the same thing!”) and offer face-saving excuses which seem to promise leniency (“We know you were provoked!”). If the suspect still resists, they tell him that confessing is the only way to make the interrogation ordeal come to an end (“You've got to help us if you want to get this over with!”). If he still resists, the interrogators say he's wrong, and insist again and again that the only way to make the ordeal end is to get it right.
These techniques and others are mixed and repeated over and over, for hours if necessary. Every one was used on Robert Gonzales, who stopped resisting and confessed to a murder he didn't commit.
I expect this reaction from many readers: “If I were accused of a crime I didn't commit, nothing, except maybe torture, would make me confess.” I don't doubt it. But while you are enjoying your morning coffee and newspaper, consider whether you are not different from Robert Gonzales in at least two important ways.
First, you are not unusually vulnerable to manipulation and suggestion. Even persons of normal and high intelligence have succumbed to the interrogator's bag of tricks. Retarded and youthful suspects are like putty in a trained interrogator's hands.
Second, you have not been arrested, shackled and stuffed in the back seat of a police car. You are not surrounded by armed police in an interrogation room. Your mug shot will not be on the six o'clock news. You are not scared out of your wits. You are not easy pickings.
Robert Gonzales was. And it took a double-whammy of DNA evidence to stop what interrogation procedure and a false confession started.
More than two years ago, the police learned that scores of scientific tests — DNA evidence, fingerprints, hair samples, fiber evidence — had failed to place Robert at the scene of the crime or connect him to the victim in any way. The DNA pointed consistently to a single unknown person — not Robert. But in the teeth of the scientific evidence, the prosecution pushed on, relying on Robert's “confession” alone.
Two weeks ago, the other shoe fell. The DNA taken from the victim matched a prisoner at the federal lockdown outside Estancia. Then and only then did the prosecution throw in the towel.
I am not writing to vent or to celebrate (“All's well that ends well!”). I am writing to call attention to police policy and training — or rather the lack of it.
The two senior APD officers who interrogated Robert Gonzales knew they were dealing with a suspect who was young and probably retarded in some degree. He told them he was in special education classes in school. Yet they admitted in pretrial interviews and under oath at a hearing that they didn't even consider handling Robert's interrogation differently than any other. The fact is, APD had provided them with no training in interrogating developmentally disabled suspects.
Such training and policies exist and are in effect in other police departments. This specialized training helps officers recognize suspects who are retarded and requires them to make sure the suspects really do understand Miranda warnings. They are to curtail the usual tricks to elicit confessions, treat confessions skeptically, and do double duty corroborating such confessions before committing to prosecution.
Maybe if procedures like this had been in place at APD when Robert Gonzales was arrested, Robert wouldn't have given a false confession or maybe the police wouldn't have believed it. Failing that, maybe they would have gotten the message when the DNA evidence came in over two years ago and pointed to somebody else. This would have saved the prosecuting authorities, the court system and the taxpayers a lot of time, trouble and money.
And it would have saved a vulnerable young man from serving thirty-two months in jail for a horrific crime he did not commit.
Jeff Buckels is the supervising attorney of the Capital Crimes Unit of the Public Defender Department.

Cameraman's Charges Dropped

2008-07-01T15:47:00.001-06:00

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

By Joline Gutierrez Krueger And T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

The attorney for veteran KOB-TV cameraman Rick Foley claims police illegally searched his client’s news vehicle and failed to read him his Miranda rights before cuffing him, throwing him in the back of a police car and charging him with refusing to obey an officer.
Charges against Foley were dropped Tuesday.
APD officials said Tuesday they were trying to determine if a search had occurred. A police spokesman said it’s common for officers to do an “inventory” during someone’s arrest.
Foley was covering a police standoff near Copper and Charleston NE on May 29 when rookie officer Daniel Guzman told Foley to move to a different location, according to a police report. A video captured by Foley’s camera shows the officer lunging at him. Foley was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police car and cited.
Guzman was placed on administrative leave last weekend pending a disciplinary hearing scheduled for next week.
The refusing to obey charge was dismissed Tuesday after Metro Court Judge Benjamin Chavez ruled that Guzman had not provided sufficient facts, or probable cause, to support the allegation.
Chavez said Guzman had incorrectly used a traffic citation form and not a criminal complaint when citing Foley and that he had only repeated the charge and not the circumstances of the case on the citation.
Chavez dismissed the charge without prejudice, meaning that police can refile the charges at a later date.
“I think this case is dead,” Foley’s attorney, Matthew Coyte, said afterward. “It was dead from the beginning.”
Foley said after Tuesday’s hearing that police never read him his rights before charging him.
In a statement released to the Journal through Coyte, Foley said he watched in “amazement” as police searched his news vehicle without a warrant.
According to legal experts, the law allows police to search vehicles if the driver is in the process of being arrested. If the car is being towed, police can take an “inventory” of the vehicle to make sure valuables don’t come up missing.
Foley was not taken to jail.
APD spokesman John Walsh said officers routinely search the vehicle of someone who is being arrested and taken to jail.
In Foley’s case, Walsh said an officer might have taken inventory anticipating that Foley was going to be taken to jail — if his vehicle was searched at all.
Walsh also noted that neither Foley nor KOB-TV has filed a complaint with the department alleging an illegal search.

Officer on Leave After Attack

2008-07-01T15:22:00.001-06:00

By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

An Albuquerque police officer who was captured on video attacking a KOB-TV news photographer has been placed on leave.
Officer Daniel Guzman, who had been working with another officer since the May 29 incident, is to appear at a disciplinary hearing next week. Afterward, Police Chief Ray Schultz will decide what disciplinary action, if any, should be taken against the officer.
Veteran KOB photographer Rick Foley was covering a police standoff near Copper and Charleston NE when Guzman, a rookie, told Foley to move to a different location, according to a police report. Foley was some distance from the police cars blocking the street and outside an area that had been blocked by officers.
Shortly after Guzman told Foley to move, the two argued, and Foley asked Guzman for his name and badge number.
A video captured by Foley's camera shows the officer lunging at him. Foley was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police car and cited for refusing to obey an officer.
Foley has a court appearance today in Metropolitan Court. In a statement released through his attorney, Foley on Monday called for Guzman to seek dismissal of the charges.
“In my 27 years covering the news, I have never interfered in officers performing their difficult jobs, nor would I,” the statement said. “My father was a career police officer, and I have been brought up with the greatest respect for the job they do. Yet one officer found time to grab me on a public street, handcuff me, place me in a police car and prevent me from doing mine.
“I hope the officer will do the correct thing and dismiss this criminal case.”
Shortly after the incident, Schultz asked the city's independent review officer to conduct the investigation.
Schultz said he made the decision to place Guzman on leave after reading the independent review officer's report, which he received Friday.
He declined to comment further.
“There is very little I can say until the disciplinary hearing is conducted,” Schultz said. “I can say the reason he is on leave is related to the incident.”
Schultz has acknowledged that “mistakes” were made during the incident, and he has drafted a new policy on how to deal with onlookers.
He has met with members of the local news media to discuss the new policy.

Does Law Aid Officers, Or Is It Abused by Them?

2008-06-29T16:12:00.002-06:00

Sunday, June 29, 2008

By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal

You could be arrested for having a party.
Interrupting a police officer could land you in jail.
And if you videotape a crime scene on a public street, you could be cuffed, thrown in a police car and charged.
All of this has happened in Albuquerque: people engaged in what appear to be legal acts arrested and charged by police for “refusing to obey” a lawful order.
But are the orders lawful and is refusing to obey them a crime that is jokingly referred to in legal circles as “contempt of cop”?
It’s not a joke, of course. In addition to a possible trip to jail that night, refusing to obey carries a fine of up to $500 plus up to 90 days in the slammer.
But the charges frequently wash out when they hit the courthouse.
In 2007, Metropolitan Court judges dismissed 70 percent of the refusing to obey charge in 517 arrests made by police and sheriff’s deputies in Bernalillo County under a city ordinance called “resisting, obstructing or refusing to obey an officer.”
The top reason: 45 percent of the dismissals were due to a lack of prosecution, the officer was unwilling to proceed with the charges in court, a lack of probable cause or proper reports were not filed. Thirty percent of the dismissals were due to a plea agreement in which the defendant pleaded guilty to other charges.
“This law they are arresting people under is unconstitutional,” said Albuquerque attorney Ray Twohig. “Police in Albuquerque think they can give whatever order they want. You have constitutional violations happening in Albuquerque wholesale.”
The city ordinance that gives police the authority to arrest someone who disobeys them was adopted in 1973, a year before the city charter was written. Part of the ordinance says a person can be charged if he or she refuses to obey or comply with any lawful process or order given by a police officer. Anyone found guilty could be sentenced to up to 90 days in jail.
Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said the ordinance is needed because officers face situations when they have no choice but to arrest someone to avoid violence.
For example, police might respond to a domestic violence call in which both sides are arguing, and the situation will likely escalate. Officers will ask one side of the dispute to leave in order to avoid violence. If they don’t, they get arrested.
Many of these cases get dismissed.
Overlapping laws
Defense attorneys like Twohig question why the ordinance is needed since New Mexico already has a law called “resisting, evading or obstructing an officer.”
Twohig said the city ordinance gives police too much authority and is much more broad than state law, which does not include the word “obey.”
“Police in Albuquerque have more power than officers in any other jurisdiction in the state,” said Twohig, who last year represented a Roswell city councilwoman who successfully fought her arrest under the state’s version of the law. “You have a whole lot of people being arrested in Albuquerque for ‘contempt of cop,’ and it seems to me this law encourages it.”
Schultz acknowledged that sometimes it is questionable whether the order is lawful, but, he said, that’s what the courts are for.
“The courts recognize it’s a tool that law enforcement has to use to separate parties or to get someone to do something they don’t want to do,” Schultz said. “Without that tool, it would ratchet it up to the next level, and it is going to result in physical violence or a serious crime as a result of the parties not being separated.”
The ordinance does not explain what a “lawful order” is. According to legal experts, it’s a “gray area.”
Retired Judge Woody Smith said that when he was on the District Court bench, he judged each case individually and always looked for whether someone’s constitutional rights were violated by the order.
“You can’t define what a lawful order is,” said Smith, also a former prosecutor, Metropolitan Court judge and public defender. “It depends on the circumstances. Police have a lot of discretion, and lot of times it is determined after all of the facts are known.”
Smith noted that he felt the law at times was “overused” and certain police officers tended to use it more than others.
Schultz said most of the arrests are coupled with other charges. In the rare circumstances in which someone is only charged with refusing to obey, those arrests are closely scrutinized by supervisors who review the arresting officer’s report and criminal complaint to make sure there is enough probable cause.
“A clear majority of the cases, had the person just left the area and done what they were being asked, they wouldn’t have been arrested,” Schultz said. “These charges are the result of someone saying ‘No, I don’t want to, I don’t have to.’
“The officer just can’t leave — then the calling party would be upset at us for not intervening. This charge is used as a last resort. When the officer has no other option.”
TV photographer
The law was spotlighted last month when KOB-TV cameraman Rick Foley was arrested for refusing to obey an officer.
Foley was covering a police standoff May 29 near Copper and Charleston NE when rookie officer Daniel Guzman told Foley to move to a different location, according to a police report.
Foley at the time was some distance from the police cars blocking the street and was outside an area that had been blocked by officers.
Shortly after Guzman told Foley he needed to move, the two exchanged more words and Foley asked Guzman to provide his name and badge number.
A video captured by Foley’s camera shows the officer lunging at Foley. Foley was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police car and cited.
An investigation into Guzman’s conduct is under way, while criminal charges against Foley are pending.
Since then, Schultz has acknowledged that “mistakes” were made and has drafted a new policy on how to deal with onlookers. Guzman, meanwhile, has been paired with a veteran officer until the investigation is complete .
Recent cases
After Foley’s arrest, the Journal examined 36 recent arrests in which the defendant was charged only with “refusing to obey” an officer under the city ordinance.
Some of those arrests include:
Nestor Pons Ocana, 47, was arrested May 4 after he interrupted an Albuquerque police officer. According to court records, Ocana was a passenger in a car that was stopped for a noise violation. The officer was citing the driver for the violation when Ocana told the driver not to sign the citation because the officer’s action was “racist.” The officer noted that he told Ocana to be quiet, but Ocana continued to yell, preventing the officer from hearing the driver. Charges against Ocana were dismissed due to a “lack of probable cause.”
Raymond Medina, 37, was arrested Dec. 29 because he refused to end a party at his apartment. Officers had responded to a noise complaint. When they arrived, police told Medina that he had to end the party. Medina said he would “keep it down,” but officers insisted the party was over and his guests had to leave.
Medina refused, saying he didn’t want his guests to get DWIs. An officer then stuck his foot in front of Medina’s door, preventing him from closing it, and took him into custody. Charges against Medina were dismissed due to a lack of prosecution. Medina was never charged with violating the city’s noise ordinance. Even if he had been, city attorneys acknowledge, officers can’t force everyone to leave.
Antonio Serna, 39, was arrested Dec. 4 when he initially refused to let police into his house. The officers did not have a warrant. According to court records, officers were looking for Serna’s son in connection with a child abuse case. They went to Serna’s home looking for him. Serna told officers his son was not home. When officers insisted on searching Serna’s house, Serna responded that they needed a warrant and tried to shut the door. The officers said Serna was “preventing the possibility of further investigation.” The officers peeked in, saw his son and arrested both of them. Refusing to obey charges against Serna were dismissed because officers failed to file a report.
Peter Simonson, New Mexico director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said his organization has received several complaints from people arrested under the city ordinance. The ACLU has successfully represented clients charged under the ordinance.
He said he doesn’t think the law is unconstitutional, just APD’s interpretation of it.
Simonson said he takes issue with Schultz’s theory of letting the courts sort things out.
“It shouldn’t have to get to that point,” Simonson said. “It is up to the police to properly enforce a law like this and not rely on the court to correct their errors. People should not have to go to court to prove they were not violating the law.”
Robert Saavedra decided not to prove his innocence.
Saavedra and his friend were Downtown on Dec. 21 when someone shot his friend’s truck.
They waited for several hours while police investigated. After awhile, Saavedra and his friend thought the investigation was over, so they started to get in the truck to leave, Saavedra said.
Officers got upset and took Saavedra’s friend into custody for refusing to obey, he said. Saavedra, who was not in the truck, called his friend’s brother to tell him what was going on when officers told him to leave the scene and to get off the cell phone.
Officers said in a criminal complaint that Saavedra took one step back, but proceeded to make a phone call and refused to move back on the sidewalk.
Saavedra was then arrested and taken to jail with his friend.
Saavedra decided not to fight the charges. He said he didn’t have enough money to hire an attorney. Instead, he said the officer told him that if he paid some fines and agreed to stay out of trouble, his case would be dismissed.
According to metro court records, that occurred in 16 percent of the cases in 2007.
“I didn’t back-talk him. I wasn’t mean. I just tried to explain that I was on the phone with my buddy’s brother so he could bond him out,” Saavedra said. “They didn’t want to listen. They just wanted to take someone to jail that night.”
In Saavedra’s criminal complaint, the arresting officers maintained that Saavedra refused to leave the area despite being told several times to do so.
Similar laws exist throughout the country.
But over time, some jurisdictions have eliminated the laws because homeless advocates have challenged their use, said William Walsh, a former New York City police officer and director of the Southern Police Institute in Louisville, Ky. Walsh said a similar law was in place when he was a police officer in New York City in the 1960s.
He said that officers mainly used the law when they needed to arrest someone involved in a riot, and he cautioned against getting rid of such laws.
“Police officers get called to disputes, and they are expected to settle them. They can’t walk away,” Walsh said. “The only tools they have is their own persuasion, their use of force and the law.”

City Code 12-2-19 RESISTING, OBSTRUCTING OR REFUSING TO OBEY AN OFFICER.

Resisting, obstructing or refusing to obey an officer consists of either:
(A) Knowingly obstructing, resisting or opposing any officer of this state or any other duly authorized person serving or attempting to serve or execute any process or any rule or order of any of the courts of this state or any other judicial writ or process; or
(B) Resisting or abusing any judge, magistrate or peace officer in the lawful discharge of his duties; or
(C) Refusing to obey or comply with any lawful process or order given by any police officer acting in the lawful discharge of his duties; or
(D) Interfering with, obstructing or opposing any officer in the lawful discharge of his regular and affixed duties.

Cops: Man Had Gun in Store

2008-06-19T21:34:00.001-06:00

By Jeff Proctor, Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

Police-issue gun belts and .40-caliber pistols aren't typically what gas station clerks and fast-food employees are hoping to see on customers.
Especially if those customers aren't cops.
But twice in as many weeks, Joe Citizen has walked into an Albuquerque establishment sporting police-type paraphernalia around the waist. Not surprisingly, both incidents , which police say are likely unrelated although similar, caused a stir.
In the latest incident, shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday, 49-year-old Robert Lark walked into the Giant gas station at 201 Coors NW wearing a “police-style duty belt” complete with a holster holding a high-powered Glock handgun, according to a criminal complaint filed in Metropolitan Court.
“Concerned security guards” called police, who on arriving at the store, disarmed Lark and took him into custody, the complaint says. Lark's vehicle was towed, along with the duty belt.
In an interview with police, Lark said he knew he should not have entered the store armed to the teeth, the complaint states. But because the security guards did not confront him about the weapon, he “thought it was no big deal” and felt he was “OK.”
It is unclear whether Lark had a permit for the pistol.
Police took Lark to the Metropolitan Detention Center, where he was booked on a felony charge of unlawful carrying of a firearm in a licensed liquor establishment, the complaint says. He remained at the West Side jail Wednesday in lieu of a $2,500 cash or surety bond.
The first incident, in which an as yet-unidentified man in his 20s allegedly robbed a McDonald's manager on Wyoming NE on June 3 wearing full law enforcement regalia, spurred APD to copyright its patch and badge.
Robbery detectives planned to question Lark about the robbery on Wyoming NE but do not believe he was the perpetrator, police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said. Investigators are pursuing another lead in that case.
As for the good name of APD: Police officials recently obtained a copyright for the department's patch and are in the process of getting one for its newly designed badges, which went into circulation last month.

Attack on Cameraman Prompts New APD Policy

2008-06-12T21:40:00.001-06:00

By T.J. Wilham Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer

Police Chief Ray Schultz plans to retrain his entire police force because of mistakes he acknowledged were made by an officer who attacked a KOB-TV cameraman after ordering him to move from an area near a crime scene.
The incident— which was caught on tape, aired on TV and posted on the Internet— sparked hundreds of complaints to APD.
Schultz said Wednesday that he has drafted a policy that he plans to take to all of the city's news organizations for input. He also said the police force will go through training on the new policy and how to deal with crime scene onlookers.
One change would require an officer involved in a disagreement with the media to call a supervisor or public information officer.
The officer involved in last month's incident has been paired to work with a veteran officer— and never alone— until an investigation is complete.
"I have always said that we learn from our mistakes," Schultz said. "Obviously, there were some mistakes made. So, let's learn from them instead of repeating them."
Veteran KOB-TV cameraman Rick Foley was covering a police standoff on May 29 near Copper and Charleston NE when rookie officer Daniel Guzman told Foley to move to a different location, according to a police report.
Foley at the time was some distance from the police cars blocking the street and was outside an area that had been blocked by officers.
Shortly after Guzman told Foley he needed to move, the two exchanged more words.
A video captured by Foley's camera shows the officer lunging at Foley. Foley was handcuffed, placed in the back of a police car and cited for "refusing to obey an officer."
The citation was filed Tuesday in Metropolitan Court. Foley has been given a July 1 court date.
Schultz said he couldn't intervene and have the citation dismissed. Only an officer or a judge can dismiss a citation once it has been written, he said.
Shortly after the incident, Schultz asked the city's independent review officer to investigate.
That investigation is ongoing. The IRO has reviewed Foley's tape but has not conducted any interviews.
The Journal made an official request on June 2 for records involving any prior disciplinary action taken against Guzman as well as any other resident's complaints.
Police have yet to produce the documents.
A deputy city attorney said in an e-mail that they are reviewing the request and will have a response within 15 days.
Schultz said action was taken shortly after the incident because of the severity of the allegations and the fact that his office has received about 200 e-mails— most of which attack Guzman and the chief. Schultz said that two of those e-mails had a threatening tone and that those e-mailers wanted to know where and when Guzman works so they could "talk to him."
"Because of the nature of some of the e-mails, we thought it was in his best interest not to put him in a situation where someone has an encounter with him and something escalates," Schultz said.
Schultz said that when he watched a video of the encounter, he noticed that several mistakes were made, although he declined to elaborate until the IRO completes its investigation.
Schultz pointed out that Foley had asked Guzman for his name and badge number, and that the officer refused to give it.
"That's an obvious policy violation," Schultz said. "We have a distinct policy you will provide name and identification number when asked by anyone. That did not occur."
Schultz said the new policy he drafted deals mostly with how officers are to treat representatives of the media when they think a reporter or photographer is disobeying a lawful order.
The drafted policy calls for the officer to contact his supervisor or a public information officer, but not to initiate an arrest.
The department already has a policy in place that says anyone from the community can record any crime scene as long as he or she is not standing in the scene.
"We want any conflicts addressed at the scene and not have our officers jump to enforcement action," Schultz said. "Let's get the right people there and not get to the point where someone is being arrested or cited."

Video: APD officer, photographer scuffle

2008-05-29T16:00:00.001-06:00

By: Tom Joles, KOB-TV, and Joshua Panas, KOB.com

An Eyewitness News 4 photographer was cuffed and cited Thursday morning for disobeying a police officer. It was a situation where the photographer was trying to do his job. And now the Albuquerque Police Department is reviewing the tape to see if the officer crossed the line.

APD says a driver and officers had exchanged gunfire at Copper Avenue and Rhode Island Street NE. An Eyewitness News 4 photographer covering the incident approached two police cars at Copper and Grove NE, believing the suspect was already in custody. The photographer was told that he had to go to a media staging area, but he claims the officer wouldn�t tell him where that was, so he just moved back.

The two officers briefly talked, and then one of them told the photographer where to go.

Video of the incident shows one of the officers walking away, looking at the photographer, and then walking out of frame while the other officer drives away from the scene.

The photographer then began to put his camera in the news vehicle to move to the media staging area when the officer begins circling around.

�I�m not putting the camera down until (inaudible),� the photographer told the officer as he was approached.

The two scuffled for a short time, and then the photographer was handcuffed and detained for about 90 minutes.

A police report identifies the officer as a D. Guzman and Eyewitness News 4 was told Thursday evening that Guzman had been a police officer for 13 months and on the street for seven months.

APD Chief Ray Schultz has yet to release a statement about the video, but APD spokesman John Walsh said the tape will be looked at.

�I can't comment on exactly what occurred on it. That will be reviewed by the independent review officer and, like I stated, he will come across with recommendations and the Albuquerque Police Department will act on those recommendations," Walsh said.

APD says they will proceed with the citation against the photographer.

Unedited Footage of APD officer attacking KOB-TV Cameraman

2008-05-28T15:49:00.000-06:00

What can we learn from a gun?

2008-02-29T10:17:00.001-07:00

by Hakim Bellamy (Op-Ed)

I never wonder if those fatally labeled by the school district as “bad” kids are being hurt by the label, as much as I worry about them being hurt by the actions that accompany those labels. For the few of those that accurately belong under the umbrella labeled “bad”, before self fulfilling the prophecy, I reserve very little wonder or pity. However unfair the labeling is, it is nothing compared to the open umbrella which is symbolic of a Pandora’s Box…open. Guns don’t protect people, umbrellas protect people. Guns don’t shield, don’t play defense, guns play offense. Their defense lies in who “plays” offense first, who is quicker to be offensive. Looks like Albuquerque Public Schools is the winner. So, I suppose through reasonable deduction measures, that makes the other team, “the losers”. Let’s have a look at the other team.

I do, however, typically wonder about those who dress the part, look the part and act the part of “good” kid. Those that get aptly labeled by the school district as “inside-the-box-fitters”, “inside-the-line-colorers”, the well behaved. Sometimes the geniuses are all the above, many times the geniuses are none of the above. I say this as an impending father. One who hopes his kid is called genius once the label of “critical thinker” is added, even if it is at the expense of the label “well behaved”. I digress, I do wonder about the “good” kids because they are the ones who are being guilty until proven innocent by the decision to welcome armed police officers into schools. They are the ones who are now profiled by association, guilty by Gestapo. You just met the “other” team.

El Cajon, California. March 22, 2001. Granite Hills High School – Three students and two teachers were wounded as gunfire erupted at a high school less than three weeks after two students were killed at a nearby school. Yes, seventeen days earlier, four miles north, in the same school district at Santana High School, a 15-year-old student killed two classmates and injured 13 others. The Santana High School tragedy was followed by the placement of full-time armed police officers at each of the Grossmont Union High School District Schools, which included Granite Hills. According to Mike Nelson, Director of Keys to Safer Schools, “Administrators and teachers reviewed crisis plans, and students were encouraged to report the slightest threat or rumor.” Times of crisis or post-tragedy are a perfect time to fear-monger and systematically eliminate civil liberties, as though it prevents future deviance rather than just make certain sub-groups feel safer. It is a prerequisite to fascism, but what ubiquitous contemporary authoritarian model would these school districts be following in the footsteps of? Does “Uncle Sam, I learned it by watching you,” ring familiar? Sort of like anti-drug campaign commercials in the ‘90s, and perhaps just as effective. Anyway, all innuendo and poetic license aside, Nelson went on to write, “In the aftermath of Thursday’s attack, school and city officials wonder if there is anything they can do to prevent campus violence.”

Let us not use this as an excuse to do nothing, as I am sure the supporters of armed police in schools would attempt to argue. We certainly cannot use the futility of arming officers in schools as a loophole to activism, when episodic research and statistical research do not support the idea that schools are safer because of the presence of guns. That is not what is being said here. Though, we could argue the point that children mimic what they see, and if they see guns in school, then…show and tell. In just the same way our school districts learn how to use a tragic event to create more opportunities for surveillance and intrusion. They didn’t make that up, they learned it by observation.

I think some observations from the “other” team are in order here. Sean Connacher from Granite Hills, an 18-year-old senior at the time of the shooting, said, “I don’t think the administration is to blame. He was an angry kid. What are they going to do?” Ronald D. Stephens, executive Director of the National School Safety Center said, “You don’t want to turn the teachers into the Gestapo. And yet at the same time, it’s difficult for a student to focus on decimal placement in math class if he or she is worried about being shot before the day is out. So it’s a question of how do you strike a balance.” Maybe not a “strike” at all Mr. Stephens, perhaps some defensive tactics or preventative tactics are in order. You don’t have to apply pressure to a wound if you avoid getting cut altogether. We must go back to the idea that there are “good” and “bad” kids as classified by their teachers, counselors, culturally insensitive standardized tests and our society as a whole. Believe it or not, some of these “good” kids just go to school in “bad” districts, “bad” areas where schools are more likely to have armed police officers or security guards. These same areas are more likely to have a higher police officer-to-people ratio. These same areas have more liquor stores and check cashing spots. These same areas have more bi-lingual signage and less urban beautification money from city and state agencies.

"A lot of children know absolutely nothing about guns other than what they see on T.V., and those are the wrong things." –Marion Hammer

What a lot of the children where I grew up know police officers as, is not the same thing as someone who grew up in the North East Heights of Albuquerque. When you say “police officer” in South Jersey and South West Philadelphia, “protect and serve” don’t necessarily come to mind. Not to label all cops as “bad” cops, though this is the posture that we are adopting towards our “good” kids by arming officers in schools, but two wrongs don’t make a right or a very productive discussion for that matter. The “good” kids in these bad situations are now being punished, in a sense, psychologically bullied into a code of conduct, which sometimes gets perverted by a few bad apples at the expense of the bunch. But for the sake of a rare tragic few, should we rot the brain of our healthy, well-adjusted “good” kid majority by surrounding them with symbols that they may associate with death, suffering, pain, guilt and sometimes, injustice? Should we jade them, make them insecure, make them feel guilty until proven innocent, “bad” until proven “good” by arming the officers in the schools. Many of us already know that there is no difference between those that get government contracts to build schools and those that get contracts to build prisons. Why don’t we just merge them and cut our losses, we are already carrying ourselves as though there’s really no difference now anyway.

Billy Ditzler, a 16-year-old at Granite Hills at the time, said “I’m supposed to feel safe at school. If I come to school thinking I’m going to be shot, what’s that going to do? I’m just afraid it’s going to happen again.” Is he a “good” apple or a “bad” one? It’s hard to tell, I guess it depends on where he goes to school. A parent in the district, Mike Cook said, “Brick-and-mortar schools will cease to exist if this continues. If we can’t stop it, home-schooling will start and Internet education will take over.” Some parents in the hood have adopted this same opinion when their respective districts decided to arm its officers. It’s not just children who distrust the guns, regardless of who has them, in the schools.

At a $2 million price tag just to get a stand alone police force up to code, Albuquerque Public Schools could be more proactive than reactive. Perhaps we should arm students in self-defense? Charles “Andy” Williams is now 21-years-old and currently serving 44 more years to life in prison for his fatal rampage at Santana High School. He was tried as an adult. Aren’t we just trying our “good” kids as adults? After his arrest he told investigators “he was tired of being bullied”. His mother was in the US Army and deployed in the Middle East when he was 3. His dad raised him, first in Maryland, then in 29 Palms, CA. Just before his 15th birthday, he found out his best friend was killed in a bus accident. Before stealing his father’s Arminius .22-caliber revolver and killing two people, he had two skateboards stolen from him that day. Did he get therapy after his friend was killed? How much would that have cost? Perhaps we’re not securing anything, or protecting anything by arming officers, just throwing salt in open schoolyard wounds?

Jason Hoffman offered little emotion and no explanation for his non-fatal rampage at Granite Hills, neither before nor during his hearing. In all fairness, he was wounded mid-rampage by school resource officer, Rich Agundez. One shot to the face of Hoffman shattering his jaw, and one to his buttocks. The officer was not hurt, just teachers and students. Who are the guns protecting again? Anyway, the “other” team has some bad apples that don’t fall far from the tree. According to Union-Tribune staff writers Karen Kucher, Joe Hughes and Alex Roth, Hoffman lived with his father after his mother moved out of the house in 1983 shortly after his birth. The mother accused the father of tossing 1-year-old Jason into the deep end of a pool and urinating on him in the shower when Jason was 7. According to court records Ralph Hoffman was a parent who struggled with alcohol and once spent time in jail on a child-endangerment charge. With $2 million, how many endangered youth can we arm against negligent parents? Hoffman took a shotgun and a semiautomatic pistol to school the day he wounded five people. It was a day after he was rejected for Navy enlistment. He was disqualified for being overweight, a skin condition and having been convicted of assault and battery for hitting another student in the head with a racquetball racket in gym class three years prior. He said he was sorry. On October 29th, 2001, a week before his sentencing, he hung himself in a downtown jail cell after being taken off of suicide watch.

I don’ feel sorry for the “bad” kids who might be deterred by the presence of an armed officer in the school. They’ll find other ways to create havoc, mayhem, tragedy and change other people’s lives for the worse. Schools are no safer than the homes these children come from, they will be a product of their environment. What kind of environment are we creating in our militarized-prison-industrial-“we gotta gun”-complex school systems? I worry about the “good” kids, who will be demoralized, dehumanized and depressed by the presence of guns, where books should be…for about the same price. The presence of punishment where encouragement should be. The presence of fear where comfort should be. So yeah, I worry about the “other” team. Maybe they aught to have a say in the matter

© Hakim Bellamy September 12, 2007.

APD Officers Pair With Needy Children for Meal, Movie and Wal-Mart Trip

2007-12-14T13:48:00.001-07:00

Monday, December 10, 2007
By Jack King, Journal Staff Writer

In the toy aisle of a Northeast Heights Wal-Mart on Sunday, one little girl stood up in a shopping cart lined with clothes and shouted at the flurry of shoppers blocking her way, "Beep, beep."
In the clothing department, another little girl laid her face against a pair of velour pants and purred, "Whoa, I want these."
Bernalillo County Sheriff's Deputy Richard Castillo surveyed the fairly well-controlled pandemonium and said, "It makes the job worth it all the rest of the year."
For the last 13 years, area police and sheriff's departments have held Cops for Kids. Children from low-income families are recommended by their school counselors. On a day before Christmas, the officers show up at their doors in squad cars, take them to breakfast, then on a shopping trip using $100 gift cards paid for by private donations, said Albuquerque Police Department Detective Patricia Paiz, who coordinates the program.
This year, 102 officers were paired off with 102 students from elementary and middle schools throughout Albuquerque and Bernalillo and Sandoval counties.
Ten of the students came from Sandoval County, four of them from Bernalillo. Many of the rest came through the Albuquerque Public Schools Homeless Project, and all are from homes with household incomes of less than $800 monthly, Paiz said.
"It's invaluable," said Bernalillo County Deputy Jessica Tyler, of Cops for Kids. "There's the interaction between the kids and the officers, and it gives these kids a Christmas they otherwise wouldn't have."
This year, the day began with a breakfast at Golden Corral that included— as Apache Elementary School third- grader Makayla Sulls firmly asserted— ice cream. Breakfast was followed by a cavalcade of police cars to the Academy NE Wal-Mart parking lot, where Santa Claus, actually Albuquerque Public Schools Police Chief Bill Reed decked in the traditional red and white suit and beard, arrived by helicopter. Later, there was to be a showing of "Enchanted" at the Century Rio 24 theater.
But first, there was serious shopping to be done.
Paiz said she visits the students' homes and gets a shopping list from their parents. They are required to buy a winter coat, shoes or a set of clothes, whatever they most need. But afterward, if there is anything left on their gift cards, they are free to buy toys.
Not all of them do. Some are like Chelwood Elementary fourth-grader Michael Romero, who told his escort, "No, I want to buy something for my dad now.
"He's really nice and he always gets me stuff. He's kind of like wasting his money on me, so I want to get him something."
Wal-Mart assistant manager James Short said Michael isn't the only unselfish student of the many groups he's seen in the 13 years the store has hosted Cops for Kids.
"That's the funny thing. When these kids come in, they always want to shop for their families," he said.

Ex-Chief's Divorce Messy

2007-12-14T12:10:00.000-07:00

By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

The daughter and wife of former Albuquerque Police Chief Sam Baca are seeking a restraining order against him, citing a history of abuse dating back 40 years.
Baca, who was Albuquerque's police chief from 1985 to 1990, has championed himself as a domestic violence advocate. He started APD's Domestic Abuse Response Team and has testified before Congress on domestic violence issues.
Baca, who was named police chief of Lakeland (Fla.) Police Department when he retired from APD, is also seeking a restraining order against his wife, claiming she has attacked him in the past.
Two separate hearings took place Thursday in District Court. The request from Baca's daughter, Jennifer, was taken under advisement. A hearing for Baca's wife, Vera, was continued to sometime next year.
The court has not heard Sam Baca's request.
Temporary restraining orders, though, are in place for the parties.
In court Thursday, Jennifer Baca told Commissioner Reed Sheppard that her father threatened her twice.
The fist time occurred Nov. 19, when Jennifer Baca met her parents at a Northeast Heights restaurant. Vera Baca intended to leave her husband that day and pretended to go to the restroom with her mother, who also was at the restaurant. She did not return. Jennifer Baca said she was threatened by her father after telling him that her mother was leaving.
Vera Baca filed for a divorce the next day.
"He told me that he knows the law," Jennifer Baca said in court. "He said that accidents happen and break-lines are undetectable.
Jennifer Baca said the second threat occurred when her father called her on Thanksgiving, about a week after her mother left him, and asked if she knew where his bullets were.
Jennifer Baca testified that she hated her father since birth, adding that she had been abused in the past by him.
Baca, who returned to Albuquerque in 2000, said he never abused his daughter or threatened her. He said he has always had a strained relationship with his daughter and that she was trying to embarrass him.
"(My daughter) is very vindictive," he said. "She would like to ruin me."

Case Dismissed For DWI Sergeant's Son

2007-12-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

Albuquerque Journal Staff Report

The son of the Albuquerque Police DWI commander, who was charged in May on suspicion of being a minor in possession of alcohol, had his case dismissed in Metropolitan Court on Tuesday.
Samuel Armijo, the 20-year-old son of Sgt. Louis Armijo, was late for his appearance before Metropolitan Court Judge Sharon Walton, court records show.
But so was the arresting officer, who was to testify, according to court records. The officer sent word to the court that he was having car problems, but the message didn't get through until after the case had been called.
The case had been continued twice— once because the judge wasn't available, the other because the officer was out of state— and the rule requiring cases be adjudicated within six months was set to expire Dec. 19, court records show.
State Department of Public Safety officers stopped Armijo April 14 on suspicion of drunken driving. He showed signs of impairment but was ultimately taken home by his father. Sgt. Armijo was on duty at the time.
Albuquerque police officials said they have conducted an investigation and found that Sgt. Armijo did nothing wrong.
Both APD and DPS have said the other should have arrested Samuel Armijo on DWI charges.

Cop Accused of Rape Resigns

2007-12-12T13:28:00.000-07:00

By T.J. Wilham, Albuquerque Journal Staff Writer

An Albuquerque police officer accused of raping a female suspect has resigned.
Officer David Maes, 28, was placed on paid administrative leave two months ago following his Oct. 11 arrest on charges of criminal sexual penetration in connection with the sexual assault of an inmate he was transporting.
Maes has not been indicted by a grand jury.
Police Chief Ray Schultz said Tuesday his investigators had just completed a criminal investigation into the incident and were starting an internal inquiry when Maes resigned.
Schultz said Maes likely would have been fired if he hadn't quit.
"It was the right thing for him to do," Schultz said. "His biggest concern at this point is the criminal investigation."
According to court records, Maes was arrested six days after a woman told Metropolitan Detention Center officers that she had been raped by Maes while en route to jail.
The woman had been arrested after a stolen car she was riding in was involved in a crash.
While detectives were questioning the woman, she complained her vision was blurry and was taken to Lovelace Hospital for treatment.
Maes was assigned to guard her and transport her to jail once she received treatment. While at the hospital, Maes allegedly sexually assaulted the woman in an exam area and then assaulted her again when he stopped at a baseball field before taking her to jail, according to court records.
Maes had been an Albuquerque police officer since Jan. 22, 2005.Cr

Assault Alleged at Hospital

2007-11-15T21:48:00.000-07:00

By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

A woman who has accused an Albuquerque police officer of raping her while she was in custody says he assaulted her at the hospital while she waited to be treated by doctors, according to documents unsealed Wednesday.
She said he later drove her to a baseball field, where he assaulted her twice more before taking her to jail.
Patrol officer David Maes, 28, was arrested Oct. 11, six days after the woman told correctional officers that she had been raped by Maes while he was transporting her to jail, police said.
"We have not unfounded or discounted her claims at this point," Police Chief Ray Schultz said Wednesday. "We are continuing our investigation."
He said his investigators have obtained video surveillance taken from the hospital that supports some of the woman's claims. The woman was at the hospital for possible injuries after being in a car crash.
Maes, who has been with the Police Department for two years, has been charged with criminal sexual penetration. He was released from the Metropolitan Detention Center the day after his arrest, after he posted $200,000 bail.
He remains on paid administrative leave.
As part of the criminal investigation, Maes' DNA is being compared with samples taken from the woman.
At the time of his arrest, a warrant detailing the allegations against Maes was sealed. On Wednesday, the District Attorney's Office agreed that the documents could be unsealed after a request from the Journal, KOAT-TV and KRQE-TV. Judge Denise Barela Shepherd signed an order unsealing the documents.
According to those documents:
On Oct. 4, the woman was riding in a stolen car that was involved in a crash at San Mateo and Gibson SE.
After the collision, the passengers in the stolen car ran away. Police caught the woman, arrested her and took her into custody for questioning.
While auto theft detectives questioned her, she complained that her vision was blurry. An ambulance was called, and she was taken Downtown to Lovelace Hospital for treatment.
While she waited for physicians, Maes was called to watch her at the hospital.
The woman claims that while Maes was watching her, he "immediately started making nasty and rude gestures to her."
"I didn't know to take him seriously," the woman told investigators. "He's an officer that has authority over me. After a while, I realized he wasn't playing no more, then it started to get a little bit scary."
At one point he told the woman that he wanted her to perform oral sex on him.
Maes pulled a privacy curtain shut, exposed himself, and performed a sex act on her, the woman claimed.
After the woman was treated at the hospital, Maes took the woman to her home so she could change clothes, she told investigators.
Doing so would be a direct violation of APD policies, Schultz said Wednesday.
"A prisoner is supposed to go to one place, and that is either the transport center or the jail," Schultz said.
According to documents, Maes then drove the woman to a baseball field near Locust and Odelia, where he sexually assaulted her twice outside his police cruiser, she told police.
Afterward, Maes drove back to the hospital. Once he was in front of the building, he radioed a dispatcher, said he was transporting a prisoner and gave his mileage.
Officers routinely call out when they are transporting prisoners to avoid false accusations such as sexual assaults or brutality claims.
Schultz said that he will make a decision on what discipline action, if any, should be taken against Maes once his department completes an internal affairs investigation.
Prosecutors have not presented the case to a grand jury.

Police OK'd to Test For Steroids

2007-10-31T16:15:00.000-06:00

By T.J. Wilham, Copyright © 2007 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer

Concerned that steroid use can trigger outbursts of rage and unpredictable behavior, the Albuquerque Police Department will soon begin testing some of its employees for anabolic steroids.
For the past several years, APD has had a random drug testing policy in place. But the only steroid testing it did was of all new officers before being hired, as required by state law.
Now, under a new procedure recently approved by city leaders, police administrators can test any officer or civilian employee who demonstrates signs of steroid use.
Police Chief Ray Schultz already wants to test one of his civilian employees after other employees said they noticed changes in the person's appearance.
"Under this new procedure, we need some sort of reasonable suspicion in order to test," Schultz said. "Change of behavior, their physical appearance or reliable information they are users would be good enough for us to order the employee to take a test.
"It's important we do this because we are finding more and more that the use of anabolic steroids can result in rage or unpredictable behavior."
For a police employee to be tested for steroids, Schultz has to write a letter to the city's human resources director requesting the test and stating "reasonable suspicion."
The employee must take the test once the request is approved by the human resources director and the city chief administrative officer. Refusal could result in termination.
A positive result also could result in termination.
APD developed a policy several years ago that allows administrators to randomly test its officers. Under the policy, a computer generates a list of about 20 officers every two weeks.
At a cost of $30 to the department, the officer takes a urinalysis test that determines whether narcotics such as marijuana, methamphetamine or cocaine have recently been used.
Schultz said there were no plans to include steroid tests in the random drug testing. To do so would likely involve negotiations with the department's union.
And the cost for testing for steroids is $130 per test. That would cost the department more than $67,000 a year.
Schultz inquired in July about testing for steroids after being told one of his employees might be using them. City attorneys reviewed the request, and under a medical evaluation policy adopted in 2001, they determined Schultz had the right to request the test.
This month, city attorneys developed a procedure that allows him to do so.
Under the 2001 policy, city department heads can request drug tests if they believe an employee is not physically or mentally capable of performing their duties.
Albuquerque Police Officers' Association President Ron Olivas said he was unaware of the new procedure.
However, he said he didn't object to it.
"I guess they don't have to consult us, but it would have been nice to know so we could inform our members," he said. "We don't have a problem with it as long as there is something in place to ensure the officers' rights are protected and they are not doing this without some sort of just cause."

October 22nd Events In Albuquerque

2007-10-20T14:26:00.000-06:00

Day of Action To Stop Police Brutality, Repression and the Criminalization of a Generation

films:
The Legacy of Torture: The War Against the Black Panther Party
The Thin Blue Line

Join us at:
Out 'chYonda, 7 p.m.
929 4th Street SW

open community forum/discussion
gentrification and the police state

www.copwatch505.blogspot.com
copwatch505@riseup.net

Ex-Cop's Charges In Rape Dropped

2007-08-25T15:26:00.000-06:00

Journal Staff Report
The New Mexico Attorney General's Office filed paperwork Friday saying it is dropping the sexual assault case against fired Albuquerque police officer Timothy Chavez.
The notice was filed without prejudice, meaning the case could be refiled.
Attorney general spokesman Phil Cisneros said a nolle prosequi was filed because "we didn't feel it would serve the public to proceed."
"It's a good day for Tim. He can put this to rest," said Mary Han, who with co-counsel Paul Kennedy defended Chavez at trial this month. The trial ended Aug. 14 with a hung jury that voted 11-1 for acquittal on all but one count. It voted 10-2 for acquittal on that count.
"They spent vast amounts of money prosecuting a case I think they didn't analyze carefully. They put that man through all kinds of hell, when there perhaps were other remedies they could have sought and didn't even try," Han said.
Chavez, then a 33-year-old decorated vice cop, was arrested on the rape charges in May 2005. The girl told police she had been raped after meeting a man on Live Links, an adult telephone dating service.
The girl admitted during testimony that she had lied about her age to Chavez and other men to get onto the service.
Chavez said that the sex was consensual and that he thought the girl was 18.
The girl, Marissa Mason, and her mother have filed a civil lawsuit against Chavez and Albuquerque. The city is defending that lawsuit.

Councilor wants gang members posted online

2007-08-21T00:18:00.000-06:00

By: Eric Kahnert, Eyewitness News 4, and Reed Upton, KOB.com
See Tha Video Here

A city councilor working with the mayor’s office has introduced legislation that would create an online registry of the mug shots of gang members. Councilor Ken Sanchez introduced the bill Monday night. The council will consider it at the next council meeting. Under Sanchez’s proposal, the pictures and names of gang members would be available on line if APD determines someone was involved in a gang related crime. Addresses will not be posted with the pictures and names in order to minimize the possibility of retaliation.

Sanchez says, unlike the sex offenders Website, people on the gang Website could eventually get off of it.

“Young kids make mistakes and hopefully they will take the right path in the future,” he says. “Once they’re on the registry, it’ll be for two years unless they take a prevention program. [Then] they’ll be taken off immediately.”

*** *** ***

Some thoughts from a citizen with eyes open:

So walking with two of your friends on central will get youth entered into an online database next to sex offenders and pets that the city is about to euthanize!! How would you feel if the APD or APS Police entered your kid into this database, branding them as a gangster for two years, maybe the rest of their life?

How does the APD define who is in a gang? Baggy pants? Brown or Black skin? A blue hat?

This humiliating bill didn't pass, but we should count it as a near victory for legalized racial profiling. Call up Mayor Martin "Gentry" Chavez and Councillor Ken Sanchez and let them know that this looks like just another vindictive attack on youth of color by the City government.
You can leave comments for Councillor Ken Sanchez here:
If the idea is to protect the public, we should create an online database of crooked politicians and abusive cops, with their photos and descriptions of their crimes.

Wrong Man ID'd in Child Porn Case

2007-08-18T16:48:00.000-06:00

Journal Staff Report

The Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department on Thursday released the wrong name as a suspect in a child pornography case it is working.
The department incorrectly identified Victor Sandoval, 27, as being the person suspected of having thousands of files of child pornography found on a computer located in the home where he is living.
On Friday evening, Lt. Scott Baird, spokesman for the department, called the Journal about the misinformation. He said he had just spoken to the lead detective and was informed that Sandoval was not the person who admitted possessing the pornography. He said it was a housemate of Sandoval's who made that admission. He declined to name that person.
Deputies searched the home Monday and arrested Sandoval on unrelated car theft and DWI charges from Colorado.
No one else was arrested at the time of the search and seizure of several computers, a lap top, external hard drives and numerous other items.
Baird said late Friday that on Thursday— when confirming to the Journal that Sandoval was the pornography suspect— he did not have accurate information.
The Journal contacted Baird again Friday morning to reconfirm the facts in the Journal article published that morning. He did.
But he called back late Friday to say he was incorrect.

APS officers' sickout follows gun vote

2007-08-17T17:01:00.000-06:00

By Susie Gran, Albuquerque Tribune

Almost all of the Albuquerque Public Schools police force failed to show up to work early today in an apparent sickout, but by mid-morning most were back at work.

The 26 officers' absence came after the Board of Education on Thursday refused to allow them to carry guns around the clock and didn't act on a recommended pay raise.

"Everybody's very concerned," said Albuquerque Public Schools acting Police Chief Steve Tellez.

Tellez said the sickout was not a union-sanctioned event and that he was not warned to expect a protest.

However, Tellez said he knows what the officers' issues are: pay and guns.

"We told them the safety of the students is more important than what they were doing," Tellez said. "They were trying to send a message.

"They realized their priority and came back to work. Their emotions got the best of them."

Tellez said he expected all the officers to be back at work today. The district has policies for violating sick leave, he said. Also, there is a "no-strike" clause in the police union contract with the district.

"If discipline is necessary, then we'll take that action," Tellez said.

The school district has 33 sworn officers who are allowed to carry their weapons before and after school hours. They have been pressuring the school board to allow them to be armed during school hours.

A pay raise also has been under discussion. APS police officers make $12 per hour compared with $19 to $21 per hour for city police and sheriff's deputies.

School board members this morning said they did not believe the officers' absence caused a safety crisis.

"There's no question our schools are very, very safe today," board member Robert Lucero said.

But Lucero said he's disappointed in the officers who didn't show up.

"It kind of reminds me of a child throwing a temper tantrum," he said. "The fact they could do this is incredibly childish."

Board member Marty Esquivel said he didn't agree with the sick-out tactic, although he can understand officers' frustration with the gun issue. School police should realize there will be more discussion about the gun policy, he said.

"It's not over, although they seem to think it's over."

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said plans were developed at an emergency meeting this morning to patrol the schools.

About 20 city police officers and sheriff's deputies on desk assignment were shifted to schools, wearing their guns and ready to respond to emergencies, he said.

"This is not a long-term service" to the schools," White said, although he left open the possibility of asking payment from the district for the police coverage.

The school police absences were "placing a burden on everyone," White said, although the morning was calm.

The school police protest followed a 4-2 vote Thursday by the school board's Policy Committee to make no immediate changes to the police force.

A commission formed by Superintendent Beth Everitt has met this summer to consider changes to the APS Police Department.

An audit this year identified various problems in the department, and longtime police chief Gil Lovato's contract was not renewed. Lovato has since sued the district for wrongful termination.

The commission, the Mayor's Office and White all support arming the school police, but the school board kept the status quo Thursday.

"We like what we have," said Dolores Griego, a South Valley board member who has opposed arming school police around the clock.

The committee vote left open the possibility of upgrading the department someday to an accredited, fully armed police force, but that could take as long as three years, board President Paula Maes said.

"They won't have a Police Department by then," Albuquerque Public Schools Sgt. Kim Murray said Thursday night. "This Police Department is about to disintegrate."

Officers are resigning over the gun issue and low pay, he said.

Everitt said Thursday she endorsed the commission's recommendations, which could be phased in over three years.

She said legislative or legal action would be necessary to create an accredited police force that meets national standards; that a police chief should be hired now; and that the department should be reorganized and salaries increased for officers.

Paul Broome, the mayor's education adviser, criticized the board for not resolving the gun issue and not endorsing the commission's work.

"This is a classic example of what the mayor has been talking about. This school board won't make the hard decisions. They put everything off. They don't take a stand," he said.

Broome served on the commission, along with principals, students, parents, law enforcement officials, a legislator and community members.

But board members Griego and Berna Facio said the commission did not represent all segments of the community. Several students complained that the student voice wasn't being heard.

Broome took issue with the criticism. "This was not a slanted commission," he said. "Quite frankly, that's an insult to the entire group."

Two students on the commission, from Cibola and Manzano high schools, favored arming school police.

Griego, Facio, Maes and Lucero voted for the status quo. Esquivel and Mary Lee Martin said they wanted to follow the commission's recommendations. Gordon Rowe left the meeting before the vote.

Maes said her vote "had nothing to do with guns" and that she was giving a vote of confidence to school police.

The committee vote is not final. The full board will consider the commission's recommendations at a later date.

At a news conference this morning, Maes said the board will vote to accept the commission recommendations.

"The first choice of this board will be to have a standalone Police Department," she said.

A standalone Police Department would require accreditation, armed officers and higher pay, the commission said.

Lucero argued that creating a full-fledged police force wasn't allowed by state law, based on a legal opinion by board attorney Art Melendres.

Lucero said the board should wait for an opinion from the attorney general before taking action.

Another discussion on the gun issue is inevitable, board members agreed.

"We'll rehash this issue when the next chief is on board," Lucero said.

APS Board Tentatively Sticks to Police Plan

2007-08-17T16:33:00.000-06:00

By Andrea Schoellkopf, Journal Staff Writer

The Albuquerque school board is considering keeping its police force status quo despite numerous recommendations for change.
A four-member majority of the board endorsed a plan Thursday to continue the current police arrangement— an unaccredited security force— overriding two recommendations by its administration and a community commission that spent the summer studying the issue.
Ultimately, some felt the lines were being drawn on the issue of whether to arm officers full time.
Currently, APS police officers are only allowed to carry guns after school hours, and must keep the arms locked in their vehicles. If there is an emergency requiring a weapon during school hours, the officer must first obtain permission from the APS superintendent.
Superintendent Beth Everitt— who recommended the change— said the current force already has commissioned officers, and city and county police now carry guns in the schools anyway.
"We're more liable for them not to be a police department because of the way it's already set up," Everitt said. "We need to either be fish or fowl."
The final vote will go before the school board in a regular meeting later this month.
"I feel, quite frankly, we wasted a whole lot of time," said Paul Broome, education adviser for Mayor Martin Chávez and a member of the commission, which was created after an APS audit found problems with the district's police department under former chief Gil Lovato.
Board members appeared close to supporting the committee's recommendation until Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White— a commission member who supported a fully authorized police department— told the board he didn't think legislation would be approved that would permit a school district police force.
Board president Paula Maes suggested that the district continue with its current force while pursuing other options.
"I don't think it's going to make much difference whether we (create a stand-alone police force) or continue the way we are," Maes said. "We had a police department that works. We had a leader that didn't work."
She said the board has already approved the commission's recommendation for upgraded police equipment, and other considerations for higher pay could go into effect with or without a certified department.
Maes said she felt compelled to stay with the current force after White said Thursday that APS may not be able to have a full police force until 2010. Her motion drew support of the anti-gun board members— Robert Lucero, Berna Facio and Dolores Griego— with Marty Esquivel and Mary Lee Martin voting against.
APS has asked the state Attorney General's Office to issue an opinion on the legality of a school district police force.
The policy committee meeting was moved into the main boardroom to accommodate the nearly 90 attendees, most of whom were there in regard to the police policy.
Opponents— waving hand-made posters arguing against any guns in the schools— argued that students should be consulted on the matter.
But those who supported the changes were not pleased.
"You will have my resignation by the end of the month," APS officer Simon Beltran said. "And there are probably two to three officers that will go with me."

S.F. Narcotics Chief Accused of Battery

2007-08-16T23:10:00.000-06:00

by Bruce Daniels, Albuquerque Journal

Sgt. Michael LeBlanc, current head of the Santa Fe Police Department's burglary/narcotics unit, was charged this week with a misdemeanor domestic violence count of battery of a household member, The New Mexican reported today on its Web site.

It was, according to court records, the second time in the past 3 1/2 years that LeBlanc has been charged with domestic violence, The New Mexican said.

According to the paper, a domestic violence hearing officer in state District Court in Albuquerque issued a yearlong restraining order against the 34-year-old LeBlanc, requiring him to stay away from his estranged wife.

The latest charge stems from an incident on July 22 in which LeBlanc allegedly punched his estranged wife on the left arm and left thigh following an argument, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Bernalillo County Metro Court, The New Mexican said.

The complaint also alleges that LeBlanc pushed his estranged wife up against a wall three days after the July 22 incident, The New Mexican reported.

LeBlanc was not arrested but charged by a criminal summons and is scheduled to be arraigned in Metro Court at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 4, according to the report.

His wife filed for divorce in Albuquerque on Aug. 8, The New Mexican said.

The New Mexican reported that LeBlanc was charged with battery on a household member in 2004 in which he was accused of walking the mother of his older daughter away from his home using a police technique known as an "arm-bar," and of threatening to shoot the pregnant woman in the stomach, according to a Rio Rancho Department of Public Safety report.

LeBlanc, who denied making the threat or brandishing a weapon, was given a deferred sentence at the time and after six months the charges were dismissed, The New Mexican reported.

LeBlanc replaced Sgt. Steve Altonji, who was put on leave early this year after the U.S. Attorney's Office notified Santa Fe police that Altonji was the target of a federal grand jury investigation at the beginning of the year, The New Mexican said.

Police Chief Eric Johnson told The New Mexican that LeBlanc will not be placed on administrative leave because the allegations against him are not as serious as those against Altonji.

Safe Schools Are Gun Free Schools!

2007-08-16T15:16:00.000-06:00

Hi SWOPISTAS, allies and supporters,

Just a friendly reminder that tonight the APS Policy Committee will be accepting or
rejecting the recommendations to the Safety Commission on creating their own armed
police force for APS.

We need all parents and supporters to come to the meeting today at 4:30pm to state
that we need a Comprehensive Safety Emergency Plan that focuses on our kids and not
on weapons.

The information is below. Please call the office if you have further questions.
There will be media present so we need to be visible. KOB-TV came to SWOP this
morning to interview Monica and will be reporting later tonight. Please show your
support.

Safe Schools are Gun Free Schools!

APS Policy and Instruction Committee Meeting on Thursday August 16, 2007 at 4:30pm

6400 Uptown Blvd NE (across from Coronado Mall) De-Layo-Martin Community Room. What
you can do: women@unm.edu

1. Meet us at SWOP at 3:30pm Thursday or show up at the meeting at 4:30pm to say:
Reject the recommendation of the Commission. APS should create an emergency plan
that prioritizes a comprehensive approach to safety without guns. Safe schools are
gun free!

2. If you cannot make it please call (505) 880-3739 or e-mail (click links below
to e-mail) the School Board members Wednesday and say: Reject the recommendation of
the Commission. APS should create an emergency plan that prioritizes a
comprehensive approach to safety without guns. Safe schools are gun free!

3. Come to the School Safety Focus Group to talk about alternatives Tuesday August
21, 2007 211 10th St SW @ 5:30pm.

For more information call SWOP at 247-8832 or e-mail Monica at monica@swop.net

E-mail your APS Board Rep by clicking their name below the flyer.

Paula Maes
President
(District 5)

Dolores Griego
Vice President
(District 1)

Gordon Rowe
Board Member
(District 7)

Martin Esquivel
Board Member
(District 4)
(

Mary Lee Martin
Board Member
(District 6)

Robert D. Lucero
Board Member
(District 2)

Berna V. Facio
Secretary
(District 3)

Mónica Córdova

Youth Coordinator

SouthWest Organizing Project

211 10th St. SW

Albuquerque, NM 87102

505.247.8832 (phone)

505.247.9972 (fax)

KRQE: Church group resumes park feeds

2007-07-29T23:22:00.000-06:00

ALBUQUERQUE (July 29, 2007) - A church group that was citied by police because of the way it was helping feed the homeless is back in business tonight.

Trinity house workers were at a park near 14th and Central NW handing out meals this afternoon.

Police told the Trinity House it couldn't feed the homeless in city parks because it didn't have the proper permits.

The church group said it is now getting special event permits each week to serve.

Neighbors near Robinson Park where Trinity House used to serve also raised concerns about homeless people in their neighborhood.

Trinity House said the homeless have to eat somewhere. Organizers said they feel the park near 14th and Central is a good location.

"It seems like folks are feeling like this is a good place," Chelsea Collange of Trinity House said. "It's nice to be back in the shade and back in a public park.

Trinity House has been serving meals to the homeless every Friday and Sunday for the past two years.

Approximately 100 people show up to eat each meal.

Source: KRQE News 13 | Web Producer: Bill Diven

Church group cannot feed the homeless in Albuquerque park, police say

2007-07-13T23:25:00.000-06:00

By Michael Gisick, Albuquerque Tribune

A Catholic group that gives free meals to homeless people is looking for a new place to serve after the city barred it from handing out food at a Downtown park.

The move comes after months of complaints by residents and business owners, who say the Sunday meals at Robinson Park draw drug dealers and other criminal activity to the area and leave the park and their yards fouled by trash and human waste.

But members of the Trinity House, a South Valley group, worry the decision will leave homeless people with few options for a Sunday meal and effectively limit their access to public space.

The group says it plans to go on serving meals from privately owned parking lots and is looking at several other parks as possible permanent locations.

"We want everybody to be happy," said Marcus Page, a founder of Trinity House. "If I have to choose between the happiness of the cops and the happiness of the homeless people, I'm going to choose the homeless people. But I don't want to have to choose."

Trinity House, which draws on the traditions of left-wing Catholic activism, has clashed with some Downtown residents since the group began serving Sunday meals about two years ago. While city officials acknowledge that the group has improved the way it cleans up the park after meals, Trinity House still hasn't allayed neighbors' concerns.

Those issues came to a head during a June 26 meeting between city officials and service providers for homeless people, officials say. Trinity House was told their application for a food service permit had been rejected. The next time they arrived at the park, they were met by police.

"With all the complaints we were getting, it came to our attention that nobody from the Police Department had approved their permits," Albuquerque police Detective Liz Thompson said, adding that police have seen an uptick in crime near the park. "There had been no input from the neighborhood."

Thompson is part of the Albuquerque police crisis and outreach team, which tries to link homeless people with services rather than treat them as criminals. She said the dialogue with Trinity House is continuing.

"The door isn't closed by any means," she said. "We do not want people to stop helping the homeless. But the parks don't really have the appropriate infrastructure - electricity, hot and cold running water, bathrooms."

Thompson said a number of ideas were floated during the June meeting.

The Library Bar and Grill on Central Avenue offered to donate food and the use of its kitchen if Trinity House could find somewhere to serve meals besides Robinson Park, located at Central Avenue and Eighth Street.

Thompson said she suggested a rotating schedule of meals at different parks to keep Robinson Park and its neighborhood from being overburdened. She also suggested Trinity House find a partner to provide an indoor location for the meals.

Page, who attended the meeting, said his group has gotten permission to prepare meals at the South Valley Economic Development Center's commercial-grade kitchen. That should allay concern's linked to the group's food service permit, which had been rejected, Page said.

A separate permit to serve on city-owned property may be a tougher hurdle, however.

Complicating matters for Trinity House is that a number of other church groups also sometimes hand out food at the Downtown park. Thompson said she's counted at least three and believes as many as six other groups make occasional forays Downtown from as far away as Belen.

Thompson said crime often follows the groups' departure.

"You have a certain element that comes and preys on those people," she said. "Believe it or not, as little as many homeless people have, there are people who will rob them."

Drug activity is also a problem, she said.

Although Trinity House's food-serving permit is still pending, Page said the group plans to go on serving from private property.

"We're going to stay away from the park because we don't want to fight that battle," he said. "We're hoping the cops won't want to enforce the health permit. How much of a crime is it to want to feed people?"

Corporate Prison Boom, Immigration, And The Law

2007-07-04T14:36:00.001-06:00

from Prison Legal News
By Tilda Sosaya

Prison construction is booming in the USA, and New Mexico has been the guinea pig for the largest of the private prison corporations like Corrections Corporation of America, Cornell, GEO Corp. (aka, Wackenhut, Group 4 Falk) and MTC. In New Mexico about 45% of our prisoners are in private, for-profit prisons and jails, while the national average is less than 10%. Wexford, and Aramark, medical and food service providers - have had their hands full of cash from our state coffers but have proven less than adequate in providing services, eventually losing their contracts. In a scandal-ridden expose in 2006, it was revealed that Joe Williams, NM Corrections Secretary had been engaged in an intimate relationship with their lobbyist, Ann Casey (moon-lighting from her regular job as an assistant warden in Indiana). Wexford and Aramark both denied that she worked for them, but she was listed as an official lobbyist in the Secretary of State's office. Joe Williams was placed on "administrative leave" in March of 2006 by the Governor, pending an investigation, but the scandal was buried after Richardson's office found "no grounds for further investigation." Prior to being appointed a cabinet post in the Richardson administration, Williams had been the GEO warden in the Lea County Correctional Facility in Hobbs where a series of incidents (1998-99) left two inmates dead. A state commissioned study into levels of violence found that Hobbs had the highest number of prisoner injuries among all the state prisons. Yet Williams, in spite of his record, was appointed by Governor Richardson - and approved by the NM State Legislature - to run the State prison system.

All the "privateers" have their hands in the prison potty here, as do many of our elected officials. Private for-profit lock-ups are nothing new, they've been around now for more than a couple of decades. The Hamilton County jail in Chattanooga, Tennessee was the first local jail in the U.S. to "go private." CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) was awarded the contract in 1984 to operate the "secure adult facility." And a few years later, CCA built the first private prison in NM which opened in Grants in 1989 under the administration of Governor Garrey Carruthers (R). Until the mid-nineties, it remained the only private prison in our State, but during the administration of Republican Governor Gary Johnson four more private prisons (and several privately owned and operated municipal facilities) were constructed, while others were expanded, many by various contractors friendly with Johnson who had previously been owner and CEO of Big J Enterprises, a major construction company in the State. Recall, if you will, that Governor Gary Johnson was the poster child of the drug reform movement in the late nineties for his stand on legalizing marijuana. In spite of his "liberal" ideas about drugs (perhaps because he's a high mountain trekker, even climbed Mt. Everest ... now he's faded into a quiet retirement, a multi-millionaire at 55 who travels the world in Ray-Bans and a long faded-blonde pony-tail) Johnson took absolutely no interest or responsibility for conditions of confinement in New Mexico prisons. He was only interested in building them.

The private prison corporations have created a whopping boom-economy in the marketing and trade of human flesh, as our State so clearly exemplifies. The stranglehold of prison corporations is wasting state and national resources. These corporate giants are raking in hundreds of millions of dollars, and they are willing to spend mega-bucks in campaign contributions. Bill Richardson, while running his first campaign for the Office of Governor, promised that he'd "build no more prisons, public or private" in our State. He seemed to have changed his mind, however, after raking in $65,000 from GEO alone, more than GEO donated to any other Democratic gubernatorial candidate in the nation in that election cycle. In addition, GEO gave an equal amount of dollars to the Democratic Governor's Association during Richardson's tenure as National Chairman in 2004. Shortly after his second election success in 2006, a no-bid contract was awarded to GEO to build a new prison in Clayton, NM at a cost to taxpayers of $132 million, nearly twice the usual costs of construction. When questioned about these costs, Williams claimed it was due to the "high costs of labor" in New Mexico. Funny ... New Mexico is one of the poorest States in the nation, and wages here are consistently low, keeping the people at poverty levels almost unimaginable in other parts of the nation. Further, an expansion of GEO-owned Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa is also a done deal approved by legislators as well as the Governor. The new prison in Clayton and the Santa Rosa expansion will add at least another 12-1,500 prison beds in New Mexico. Even now, Williams is saying that we will need more prison beds by 2009 and consideration is being given to a Phase 2 building plan in Clayton. Unfortunately, Richardson is not alone in filling his pockets with money from these flesh-peddlers. Many of our elected officials, from mayors to legislators, have accepted significant contributions from private prison companies, ranging from a couple of thousand dollars and up, and that's on both sides of the aisle. The Institute on Money in State Politics states that GEO donated nearly $80,000 to other New Mexico politicians in just the last election!

Not only does the prison-for-profit industry build prisons, but they also supply virtually everything from medical services to hygiene products and seasonal clothing, paid for by prisoners or by their family members who are often struggling to make ends meet. The market is huge, more than 2.5 million captive customers, and it is a "growth industry." Private prison transport companies, medical and psychological, telephone, food and commissary services are reaping ever-increasing profits from the burgeoning Prison Industrial Complex which is now among the largest contributors to the US GDP (gross domestic product). From apprehension to endless years of lock-up, the justice system and prison industry costs the nation about $150 billion annually. While the government pumps up the rush of fear in the meager minds of a propagandized nation, prison building is at an all-time high.

At the same time in near-by Texas, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado prison building is reaching an all time high as more and more immigrants are rounded up by ICE and Homeland Security under the "detain and deport" agenda (2002), replacing the former "catch and release" tactics of la migra. The ante has been raised - considerably. ICE is rounding up hundreds, if not thousands - of immigrants every day and their goal is to lock up 12 million immigrants by 2012. Right now, more than 200 children, toddlers, teens, and babies - are locked up in CCA's Hutto Residential Facility in Taylor, Texas, while others - teen-agers, children of immigrants - are literally being disappeared. As the prison boom escalates at exponential rates, building contractors like Halliburton and KBR are getting into the game, contracting to build facilities for "owner operators" like GEO and CCA. Prisons no longer rehabilitate, they entomb and dehumanize people. Prisoners are mere commodities stacked in warehouses, moved where/when they're needed, all for profit. Furthermore, there is virtually no oversight of prisons, security issues continuously cited as the primary reason. Even the UN investigator, Jorge Bustamante, was denied entry into Hutto as well as other immigrant facilities around the nation.

While crime rates continue to decline, prisons continue to be built, overcrowding most often cited as the "reason" behind the perceived need. Prisons are overcrowded for many reasons, but in New Mexico there are several specific reasons that prisons are bursting at the seams: prisoners are not being released on time, when their sentences are complete. In a report just completed in May by the NM Legislative Finance Committee, it states that the Parole Board removed "20% of inmates scheduled for parole from hearing dockets because of inadequate or missing documentation, facility transfers, or other reasons." This report also lists the various administrators in the system, including the Population Control Administrator, Janet Bravo, formerly a compliance monitor with the state overseeing GEO's contract facilities. Her husband, Erismo Bravo, had been warden at GEO?s Guadalupe County Correctional Facility in Santa Rosa back in 2000-02. Now he holds a higher, regional position, but his wife is "minding the store" at the New Mexico DOC's central office in Santa Fe, making sure the prison population is well controlled.

Reasoned excuses for increased prison building are proffered by the Corrections administration at the tables of legislative committees. They and the so-called experts (too often, former corrections professionals) rather easily convince legislators to build more prisons. Furthermore, recidivism in New Mexico is ridiculously high with at least 70% of all convicts returning to custody - a few are repeat offenders - but most are taken back to jail for "technical violations," which include testing positive for drugs, having overnight guests in their residences, possessing high-tech equipment, such as a new computer, being unable to find or keep a job, or merely for missing an appointment with a parole or probation officer. Employers are annoyed by the ever-present PO's coming into businesses like gang-busters, disrupting the work environment, and causing undue customer concern. The Probation and Parole division should not be under the sole authority of the Department of Corrections, perhaps, as in the Federal system, we should simply eliminate parole, and subject all probationers, both those coming from prison, as well as those who receive no prison time - to the jurisdiction of the courts. As it stands now, probation and parole often ignore even judges' orders and they're getting away with it. The system is a mockery of justice.

All of this must cause us to wonder a few things. First, who profits? Politicians, stock-holders and the corporations, in brief, but also the "corrections professionals" who move with ease between public and private sectors. Joe Williams, for example, will probably be re-hired by GEO in a high-level management position when his tenure with the State expires. Secondly, who will fill all those prison cells? We know that for now, at least, the focus is on immigrants, many who come here seeking asylum from war-torn nations and others merely trying to support impoverished families. We should also know that children, our children are being targeted, third grade reading scores are one of the components tallied in the projected need for prison beds. While educational funding declines and prison funding increases, the child left behind will inevitably be a prisoner in ten years, they figure. While charter schools arise and are publicly funded, private schools are growing nation-wide and the pressure to privatize education will continue to increase across the country. The children left behind, will undoubtedly be minorities and/or from among the poorest families in a nation now sadly dominated by the never ending wars - foreign and domestic - against people of color. The neo-con ideology guarantees that economic disparities will continue to grow, and thus prisons will be needed to contain those of us at the "bottom of the barrel." There will be three "classes" of people if this continues: the wealthy elites, the watched, and the watchers. Maybe the rest of us will just have to hide.

And, as I write this I must wonder what further affects will face my family as a result of this article? My son, who has been incarcerated for almost ten years, has been thwarted many times in his efforts to be released, in spite of the approval of the parole board last year. He's been abused and harassed, punished and even tortured, but that's another story. He is soon to be released and I have awaited his homecoming for five years, the expected time he'd have served except for my outspoken criticism of the system. Since he's been in prison, his brother died, his three sisters have all moved to other states, and he has a niece and nephew he's never seen. He has spent seven of almost ten years in solitary confinement and he's only 28 years old. Yet he urges me to continue in the struggle and for that I laud his strength and resilience, and I love my son, he's my shining star in spite of his situation. Ultimately, we've realized that even the parole board seems to have little power, nor do judges, our legislators have given it all to parole and probation officers. The local parole office still will not approve his parole plan, and we've come up with more than a few alternatives. PO's harass and humiliate ex-cons on a daily basis, and who profits? Corporations like GEO, CCA, KBR and Halliburton and their rich stockholders. Who suffers? We all do. Our communities are degraded; our people are wounded and angry. This is an environmental issue, an issue of race, economics and class, an issue of too little concern from too many people. We must stand and take notice. One out of every 136 citizens - mostly people of color - are behind bars in the USA today, but according to industry estimates, one in twenty Americans will spend time in a prison or a jail by 2020. And that was before 9-11 and The War on Terror. How many more wars, how many more deaths, how many more prisons, how many more broken families will it take before this nation crumbles, and notions of "freedom" are ground into dust? ... one can only wonder.

Tilda Sosaya has been an advocate for the rights of prisoners and their family members in New Mexico for the last ten years. She may be contacted at: society@cybermesa.com.

Armed Albuquerque Public Schools police force costly, estimate reveals

2007-06-21T23:56:00.000-06:00

Check Out SWOP's Blog

By Susie Gran, Albuquerque Tribune
Thursday, June 21, 2007

An armed school police department with patrol cars and higher wages will cost Albuquerque Public Schools an additional $1.8 million.

That's the estimate being provided on June 21 to the Community Safety Commission, a group that will propose changes to the district's police force to Superintendent Beth Everitt.

The estimate was prepared by Chief Business Officer Bill Moffatt, who cautioned the district would have to keep police salaries competitive with local law enforcement "which could provide a potential drag on funding to schools."

Moffatt said the current district budget for school police and campus security is $5.2 million.

The commission is considering several options: contracting for law enforcement services with local police agencies; upgrading the current school police force; turning the school police into an unarmed security department or contracting with a security agency.

Everitt is seeking recommendation for reorganizing school police in the wake of a critical audit and the ouster of School Police Chief Gil Lovato.

A deeply damaged life collides into greater tragedy

2007-06-20T17:08:00.000-06:00

By Joline Gutierrez Krueger, Albuquerque Tribune
Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Cynthia Seeley told people she wanted to die.

In her short, painful 40 years of life, she had buried a son and been raped by a relative and, later, by an Albuquerque police officer.

She had fallen into booze and crack cocaine to escape the anguish of many failed relationships, male and female. She was a convicted felon, a drug trafficker, a forger and a woman on the edge.

She had also been a near-millionaire after receiving $943,380 in a federal lawsuit against Christopher Chase, the police officer she accused of rape.

In the courtroom that day in February 2005, she had smiled. And cried.

Two years later, money had apparently not bought her happiness.

In the morning of June 16, she tried to kill herself, according to a criminal complaint.

She downed a pint of vodka and a handful of alprazolam, an anti-anxiety medication. She got behind the wheel of a Chevy Avalanche and hurtled on Georgia Street Northeast through a residential neighborhood north of Expo New Mexico.

No one knows why she was there.

She ran a stop sign at Mountain Road and slammed into a silver Lexus driven by Tran Dung, 47, sending his car spinning and snapping his neck, the complaint says.

Doctors at University of New Mexico Hospital say Tran, a recent immigrant from Vietnam, is paralyzed and will likely die a "slow, painful death," the complaint says.

His condition had been so grave that Albuquerque police had initially charged Seeley with vehicular homicide.

For now, though, Tran will live. He is listed in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Seeley will live, too, whether she wants to or not. She is charged with great bodily harm by vehicle and remains in the Metropolitan Detention Center in lieu of $100,000 cash-only bail.

She had walked away from her SUV, crumpled into the front of a house. Police say they found her curled on a front lawn, rocking and muttering, "I didn't want to hurt anyone."

Less than a mile from where she sat was the place that on a cold February day in 2002 she had been hurt, too.

She had testified at her federal lawsuit trial that Chase, an Albuquerque police officer for four years, had parked his squad car behind a Bennigan's at Louisiana Boulevard and America's Parkway Northeast and raped her in the back seat.

When it was over, he threw her and her purse to the ground "like trash" and drove away, she testified.

Chase had been one of two officers called to her apartment to investigate a call of domestic violence with her girlfriend.

Chase had offered to drive her to a friend's house so that the two women could separate and cool off when he veered off to the Bennigan's instead.

Seeley's lawsuit was one of six against Chase. All told, the city has paid out nearly $3 million in those cases.

Chase is serving a 15-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to 10 criminal charges involving attacks on seven victims, including Seeley, between 2001 and 2003.

If she is convicted, Seeley could be serving prison time as well. Certainly then her mental state will be brought out again in court.

During Chase's trial two years ago, psychologist Elaine Levine testified that Seeley had diagnoses of long-term depression, anxiety, alcohol and drug dependence and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Seeley, Levine said, was born of a mother strung out on heroin and into a life where nothing and no one could be counted on. She was sexually molested by a grandfather, Levine said. She gave birth to her first child when she was a child herself; by age 18, she was a mother of two.

Seeley married the second child's father, who abandoned her with three children when she was 21, Levine said. She began using cocaine and crack cocaine, especially after the death of her youngest son, killed, ironically, in a car crash.

"She has really suffered her whole life," Levine said.

The psychologist had advised the court that Seeley would need intensive long-term psychotherapy to help her "peel back layer after layer of trauma."

Whether Seeley had engaged in such treatment is unknown. If she had, it apparently had not worked.

Now, the pain that has brought her to her knees has apparently brought pain and paralysis to Tran and his family. The legacy of her sorrow is passed on, ugly and cold and relentless.

Police officers shouldn't carry guns, review team says

2007-06-14T00:02:00.000-06:00

Check Out SWOP's Blog

By Susie Gran, Abq Tribune
Thursday, June 14, 2007

It's time to disarm the school police and let city and county cops carry the guns, the experts say.

Contracts with Albuquerque police and the Bernalillo County sheriff are the best law enforcement option for Albuquerque Public Schools, a review team from the Council of Great City Schools says.

The team's recommendation was reviewed on June 14 by the district's new Community Safety Commission, formed to help determine the fate of the embattled APS Police Department.

The council team also recommended overhauling the district's police department to create a new safety and security arm.

The team said the Albuquerque Board of Education and its administration don't seem to have the will or leadership to run an armed police force.

"Based on their past performance, it is not apparent that the Board of Education and the district's executive leadership team would provide the executive leadership, support and backing, and make the critical and difficult decisions that would be required to create a safety, security and professional, fully authorized law enforcement department," the report said.

The review team said the proposed safety and security department could concentrate on intervention and prevention in creating safe schools.

The commission will review the team's recommendation, then forward its own recommendation on to Superintendent Beth Everitt.

The goal is to have all changes in place by the time school starts in August, said district spokesman Joseph Escobedo.

The APS Police Department has a $3.1 million budget and 40 sworn officers, who are allowed to carry their weapons before and after school. Currently, there are 32 officers and eight openings.

Everitt called on the Council of Great City Schools to make recommendations on best practices for school police after the debate over arming officers heated up and audits verified problems in the department.

The chief for the last 16 years, Gil Lovato, has been on administrative leave since January amid allegations of misconduct and mismanagement of his department.

Everitt has said she will not renew his contract when it expires June 30.

Under Lovato, the district's school police operated as a police department with sworn officers. Many officers have urged the school board to allow them to carry guns around the clock.

The school board agreed to review its gun policy after the council review. Some board members also suggested the district consider disbanding its police force and asking the city or county to contract police services.

Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, who is a member of the safety commission, said on June 12 that APS must decide whether it needs its own police department, an unarmed security force or a little of both.

"It's kind of like an identity crisis," White said of school police.

"The district needs to do a needs assessment to determine if they need sworn officers. If they do, then they need to be armed."

White said it's not his recommendation for the sheriff or city police to take over school police.

"We should have close coordination, and the head of school police should report directly to the superintendent," he said.

Meanwhile, the district and Lovato are preparing for a court battle over his contract.

Lovato's attorney, Sam Bregman, said he intends to sue the district on the grounds of wrongful termination, defamation and retaliation.

The district refused Bregman's offer of a $500,000 settlement to end the dispute, district spokesman Rigo Chavez said.

An internal audit of Lovato's department identified 20 infractions including poor evidence-room inventory

Details of APD SWAT shooting revealed in search warrant

2007-06-12T18:48:00.000-06:00

By Michael Gisick, Albuquerque Tribune

An Albuquerque SWAT officer fired a gunshot into a house where a knife-wielding man had barricaded himself and his daughter, according to a search warrant. Moments later, officers stormed the house and shot and killed the man.

The warrant, filed Monday, offers new details on the confrontation between police and Jay Martin Murphy, 42.

Murphy was killed June 5. Police say he threatened officers and his 14-year-old daughter with a 12- to 14-inch knife.

According to the warrant, police were called to 1608 Spence St. S.E. at about 1 p.m. June 5 after a report that Murphy was in his front yard with a knife.

A uniformed officer found Murphy driving through the neighborhood and followed. Murphy threw a beer bottle out the window of his truck, the warrant says.

Murphy then returned to his house on Spence Street and, after walking toward the front door, turned toward the officer while holding the knife. His son, Jay Murphy Jr., 19, exited the house and "advised the officer his dad was `harmless' and tried to calm the situation down," the warrant says.

As Murphy Jr. and the first officer continued talking, a second officer arrived and found Murphy Sr. standing on the porch. Murphy threw a beer bottle at the officer and started throwing other items from the porch before retreating behind a wrought-iron screen door.

Murphy's daughter, Mariah, tried to leave the house but Murphy grabbed her arm and told her, "You are not going anywhere," the warrant says. Before he closed the house's front door, officers also heard Murphy say, "Shoot me," "Shoot the knife" and "I see you guys with guns."

A SWAT team arrived at the scene and decided to force its way into the house after determining Murphy's daughter was in immediate danger.

"Prior to the entry into the residence, a SWAT officer observed Jay Sr. make an aggressive move toward Mariah and believed her life was in danger and fired one shot into the residence from an outside location," the warrant says.

As officers stormed the house, "Jay Sr. attempted to stab one of the officers" and was shot, according to the warrant. He was taken to University of New Mexico Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police spokesman John Walsh said the officers involved in the shooting have been cleared to return to work after a standard, three-day paid leave.

The officers who shot Murphy have been identified as Josh Brown and Russ Carter. Both are 10-year veterans.

Asked whether it would be unusual for an officer to fire into a house where someone had been taken a hostage, Walsh said:

"There's no way to say whether it would be unusual or not. Every single scene is different and fluid and dependent on human events."

The mother of Murphy's two children told police that Murphy had a history of using crack cocaine and other drugs, according to the search warrant.

Murphy had faced several domestic violence charges, including aggravated assault on a household member and child abuse.

Albuquerque Police Identify Man Shot by Officers

2007-06-07T12:05:00.000-06:00

Associated Press

Albuquerque police have released the identity of a man who was fatally shot by officers.
Jay Martin Murphy, 42, was killed Tuesday after barricading himself inside an Albuquerque home with his teenage daughter, authorities said.
He was armed with a knife and at one point threw bottles at officers, police said.
Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh did not release the identities of the two police officers who fired their weapons. The officers are on standard three-day paid leave, he said.
Police have said Murphy had previous run-ins with the law, including arrests on charges of aggravated assault on a peace officer, vehicle theft, criminal trespass, battery and child abuse.

Zap! You're on APD's new Taser camera

2007-06-01T18:53:00.000-06:00

By Christopher Sanchez, Albuquerque Tribune

The Albuquerque Police Department is getting more cameras, but they're not to catch people running red lights.

The department will evaluate 20 Tasers with video cameras attached to them starting next week, city officials said Thursday. The cameras are intended to document incidents when the stun guns are fired.

Though Tasers are an important alternative to lethal force, they can be deadly, Mayor Martin Chavez said at a news conference. The cameras will increase accountability for officers and for people getting arrested, Chavez said.

"So there are no questions at the end of the day," he said. "It simply gives us a record."

Stun-gun usage has become a nationwide issue in recent years. According to a 2006 report by Amnesty International, 152 people died in the United States since 2001 after being shocked by the devices.

There haven't been any Taser-related deaths or lawsuits related to their use in Albuquerque this year, Albuquerque police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said.

In May 2005, a 40-year-old Albuquerque man died after officers used Tasers to subdue him. Police said he suffered a heart attack and that his behavior suggested he had taken some kind of drug.

The Taser cameras cost about $850 each and can record 75 minutes of footage.

Once the Taser is charged and ready to fire, the camera records audio and video. Infrared technology allows the device to record at night.

Albuquerque police will be one of the first agencies in the state to try the device, Chief Ray Schultz said.

Schultz said the department will evaluate the technology for three to six months.

"If we see good results, we'll go forward with ordering more," he said.

The department has more than 400 Tasers, Schultz said.

Vice Cop Charged In Rape of Girl

2007-05-25T19:36:00.000-06:00

By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

An undercover Albuquerque police vice detective faces charges on suspicion of raping a 14-year-old girl he met through a dating service, police said.
Late Tuesday, 13-year APD veteran Timothy J. Chavez, 33, was in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center on charges of kidnapping and criminal sexual penetration, jail records show. His bail has been set at $75,000.
Chavez, who is expected to be arraigned today in Metropolitan Court, was identified by the alleged victim in a restaurant last week.
Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz announced the "sad news" during a Tuesday news conference.
"We feel it is very important to get the news out to the community," Schultz said.
According to a Metropolitan Court criminal complaint, the girl, who lives in Northwest Albuquerque, called police on April 22 and reported that a man she met through a dating service had raped her.
She said she called the service that day and connected with a man over a chat line for about 10 minutes.
Eventually, the man asked if he could come over to the girl's home. The girl agreed, gave him directions and waited in her front yard for him to arrive, court records say.
When the man, who police said was Chavez, arrived, the girl "immediately" told him that she did not want to have sex, according to arrest records.
Chavez walked into the house and sat on the couch with the girl and talked with her for about 15 minutes. During the conversation, the girl told Chavez her age and that she attended school, court records say.
Once he learned how old the girl was, she told police, Chavez stood up, walked toward the door, turned around and kissed her on the lips.
After Chavez kissed her, the girl once again told him that she did not want to have sex. However, Chavez pushed her on the couch, removed her clothing and started fondling her, she told police.
He eventually took off his clothes and started having sex with the girl, which lasted about 10 minutes, the complaint shows.
During that time the girl had repeatedly told Chavez "no," the complaint states.
At one point Chavez asked the girl if she wanted to "have his children," the complaint shows.
The girl, who is a ninth-grader, again said no.
After the alleged assault, Chavez then put his clothes on and left in a hurry, according to complaint.
The teenager then called police and reported the alleged assault.
The girl told police that during the alleged incident, which occurred between 2 and 4 p.m., she kept her eyes closed the entire time and did not know his name or who he was, court records say.
DNA was taken from the girl and police started an investigation. All the girl could tell them was that he was Hispanic, was in his late 30s, had short hair, was five 5-feet-6, and drove a maroon vehicle.
"Our detectives were actively working the investigation and it came to fruition immediately as she saw him," APD spokesman John Walsh Tuesday.
On Thursday, while waiting in line at Furrs Cafeteria, the girl spotted Chavez in line ahead of her.
She was at the restaurant with her friend and her therapist, who called police, the complaint shows.
Officers passed Chavez while walking into the restaurant. As the officers were talking to the alleged victim, Chavez had left the restaurant in a maroon vehicle.
Eventually, they stopped Chavez in an unmarked police vehicle at the intersection of Montgomery and Monroe NE, the complaint shows.
Investigators were then able to get search warrants for his home, his car and his DNA.
Police arrested Chavez Tuesday after DNA taken from the victim matched his, the complaint shows. Police were also able to obtain records from the dating service that confirmed Chavez had made a call at the time the girl said she connected with him. According to court records, Chavez has had an account with the dating service since May 2000.
Police said they do not know if Chavez was on duty at the time the alleged assault occurred. He has been placed on "administrative leave" pending an internal investigation.

Family Presses City to Re-Examine Case

2007-05-22T22:20:00.000-06:00

Tuesday, May 22, 2007
By Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writer

The family of a grandmother who was killed a year ago Monday when an Albuquerque Police officer struck her with his squad car wants the case re-examined.
And if Police Chief Ray Schultz, Sheriff Darren White and District Attorney Kari Brandenburg won't take another look at the circumstances surrounding Flora Aragon's death, "we'll hit the streets with petitions and let the voters decide whether these people should still have jobs," Aragon's granddaughter, Denise Baker, said during a rally Downtown on Monday. "We won't stop until police officers stop thinking they are above the law."
On May 21, 2006, officer Zachariah Floyd was responding to a domestic violence call in which a man was trying to remove a child from a home just after midnight near 53rd and Central. On the way, his car hit a block wall and went into a yard where Aragon was outside chatting with family. The car pinned Aragon against a table, killing her.
A grand jury in March decided not to indict Floyd.
Baker and other family members have filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Floyd and the city of Albuquerque. It is pending.
On Monday, members of the family and local watchdog group Vecinos United signed a citizen's arrest warrant for Floyd and letters to the City Council and Brandenburg asking for a criminal trial.
The group— about 20 people at its largest— marched with picket signs from police headquarters to City Council chambers, where the council was meeting.
Baker walked to the front of the room and asked to present "some paperwork," to which Council President Debbie O'Malley replied: "Excuse me, you're out of order."

Group calls for citizen's arrest of cop in fatal crash

2007-05-21T18:10:00.000-06:00

By Michael Gisick, The Albuquerque Tribune
Monday, May 21, 2007

A police watchdog group is seeking the citizen's arrest of an Albuquerque police officer involved in a fatal wreck last year.

New Mexico Vecinos United is also calling for the resignations of Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz and Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, charging both with condoning abuses by their officers.

A letter calling for the resignations will be handed over to city and county officials during a protest today, Vecinos United director Andres Valdez said. The protest marks the one-year anniversary of the crash that left 74-year-old Flora Aragon dead.

A grand jury this year cleared APD Officer Zachariah Floyd of criminal wrongdoing in the crash.

An APD investigation found that he was speeding through a South Valley neighborhood while responding to a domestic violence call when he swerved to avoid another vehicle and hit a wall outside Aragon's home. The wall collapsed, killing Aragon and injuring two other people.

Valdez said the group will hand over a "citizen's arrest warrant" against Floyd as part of the protest, scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. outside the main police station Downtown.

"We're going to present it to the chief and see what the response is," Valdez said. "We're not going to grab (Floyd) and use excessive force against him."

Valdez said the "warrant" has not been signed by a judge.

"And we probably won't find one who will sign it," he added.

APD spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said a warrant without a judge's signature has no legal standing. She said she'd never heard of private citizens swearing out an arrest warrant.

"There's a process in place, and it was followed," Hoffman said of the Floyd case. "The grand jury determined that no crime was committed."

Aragon's family has filed a wrongful death suit against APD, said Aragon's granddaughter, Denise Baker.

The letter from Vecinos United claims officers initially called in the crash that killed Aragon as a minor traffic accident, and that as a result emergency medical responders weren't prepared to treat her injuries.

It also claims police tried to have firefighters wash away blood at the scene to destroy evidence.

Baker said she hopes the arrest warrant, which was her idea, will prompt a second look at the case.

"We don't know what was presented" to the grand jury, whose proceedings are secret, Baker said. "We want another court to look at this."

Baker said the failure to prosecute Floyd left the impression that police officers are "above the law, in some cases."

Vecinos United charges Schultz with condoning abuses by officers in several cases, including Aragon's.

"Thank God most police officers are reputable and good officers," the letter to Schultz states. "You are not one of them."

But, it continues, "You must resign so that there may be some hope for a police chief that would get rid of officers that hurt, kill and abuse human beings."

A letter to White employs similar language and says the group calls for his resignation with "much joy."

Valdez was instrumental in pushing for the creation of APD's independent Police Oversight Commission after a series of police shootings in the late 1990s. He's since been critical of the commission, saying it sides too often with police.

An attempt to make a citizen's arrest of a law enforcement official is not without precedent in New Mexico.

As Valdez noted, Chicano land rights leader Reyes Lopez Tijerina used the proposed citizen's arrest of a district attorney as the basis for the famed 1967 raid on the Rio Arriba County Courthouse in Tierra Amarilla.

"That's not to say we're intending to raid anything," Valdez said. "We're not."

May Day 2007 Statement

2007-05-13T22:31:00.000-06:00

Cop Watch Los Angeles

On May 1, 2007 (May Day), Cop Watch Los Angeles participated in the march
and rally organized by MIWON (Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing
Network) in MacArthur Park. Our role during the march was to observe and
document police harassment and brutality, and to defend the people in the
community as well, at the request of MIWON organizers. As the police began
their attack on peaceful protestors, Cop Watch Los Angeles and other
community members directed families to safety, acting as a buffer between
police and the people.

At no point did Cop Watch LA provoke the mass beating and shooting of
demonstrators that occurred on May 1st. There is no justification for the
actions of the Los Angeles Police Department. In some cases, community
members attempted to defend themselves as they were being brutalized,
acting on their human instinct of self-preservation, by throwing water
bottles or food; this level of defense is far removed from the injurious
rubber bullets, beanbags and tear gas being fired indiscriminately into a
park filled with thousands of people, including families, children and
elders.

The attack commenced when the police disturbed a sacred indigenous
ceremony by plowing their motorcycles into the participants. Armed with
only angry words, Cop Watch LA members and the community took on a
defensive position during the assault and posed no offensive physical
threat to the police’s weapons and technology. Cop Watch LA does not
control the imagination and will of other young people who want to take
any sort of action against the police, or imitate our organization in an
undisciplined manner. Our role was to defend those people and stand with
them. Members from Cop Watch LA were heard saying, “We need to get
children out of here, the police are about to attack.” There is also video
footage of members putting their bodies on the line for the people to get
them out of harm’s way.

Many organizations and media outlets have begun to place blame on youth
and anarchists, asserting that throwing trash necessitates a full-scale
police assault on peaceful protestors and families. Video footage from
numerous angles and at several locations clearly discredits those
accusations – it is unmistakable that the police are at fault.

Contacts from the Mayor’s office have confirmed that the attack on
protestors and the community of Pico Union was pre-meditated due to the
desire to test out months of counter-terrorism training and last year’s
embarrassment, when the LAPD could not stop the people from taking the
streets.

The strategy by the LAPD, the media, and even some “progressive”
organizations has been to focus on Cop Watch LA as the direct cause of the
May 1st incident is an attempt to get the people on the side of the state
and to isolate CWLA from the communities we live in and organize in. This
is the same tactics that were used by COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence
Program) to destroy organizations like the Black Panther Party, American
Indian Movement, and other groups who focused on making fundamental change
in society. Today as we live under the Patriot Act, these tactics of the
police state continue to go after anybody who resists the status quo. We
hope that organizations and individuals don’t fall into the divide and
conquer methods of the state.

The scapegoating of anarchists today is reminiscent of 1886 Chicago
Haymarket Square Massacre in the first May Day ever celebrated, where
police instigated a massacre during a worker’s strike. The state blamed
the anarchist organizers and railroaded eight innocent people into prison
and hung four (while the other committed suicide).

We must also hold the organizers, organizations, and individuals who are
falling into this accountable. We have to stand on the side of the people,
not the police state.

The mayor Antonio Villaraigosa found himself in El Salvador, on a trip,
while this attacked happened right in the middle of the biggest
concentration of Central American people outside of Central America. Then
he has the nerve to guarantee Chief William Bratton a second term. They
are both responsible for implementing this type of policing and repression
that our communities are facing today.

This attack is not unprecedented! It has happened before and will happen
again – until we put a stop to it. In communities where populations are
predominantly working class or unemployed people of color, police abuse
and harassment is an everyday occurrence. For years, our communities have
struggled to overcome oppression at the hands of those sworn to “protect
and serve.” Still, death tolls and brutality cases continue to climb in
the neighborhoods of South Central, Compton, Watts, Pico Union, Maywood
and Boyle Heights.

Cop Watch’s main goal is to put an end to the injustices that plague our
streets and to oppressive institutions like the Los Angeles Police
Department.

We stand on the side of the people and always will.

Cop Watch Los Angeles

May 8, 2007

¡Ya Basta!

Statement Signed and Supported by:
Asians for Jericho / Mumia
East Side Café
Garden Action Collective
Lea Chavez
Los Angeles – Anarchist Black Cross Federation
National Chicano Moratorium Committee
People’s Network In Defense of Human Rights
People of Color Caucus – Peace and Freedom Party
Puerto Rican Alliance
Revolutionary Autonomous Communities
Southern California Library for Social Studies and Research
Students for Peace and Social Justice – Cal State Fullerton
Unity Mission to Free the Eight
Youth Justice Coalition

To be included in this statement, please contact us at:
copwatchla@riseup.org

APD, IRO strike deal on complaint against officer

2007-05-11T19:14:00.000-06:00

By Maggie Shepard, Albuquerque Tribune

An Albuquerque police SWAT officer faces discipline for falsifying arrest documents, but has been exonerated on other charges leveled in a complaint last year.

The complaint filed with the Independent Review Office stemmed from a man's arrest in October on charges of littering and disobeying a police officer. It alleged that Officer Eric Brown made up a reason to justify the arrest.

Jay Rowland, the city's recently retired Independent Review Officer, investigated the complaint and sided with the civilian, but Police Chief Ray Schultz disagreed.

The differing views could have been brought before the volunteer Police Oversight Commission at its televised meeting Thursday night, but a last-minute deal between the Albuquerque Police Department and the review office kept the issue out of public view.

The deal concedes that Brown did falsify the documents, but not intentionally, said APD Internal Affairs Lt. Paul Feist.

It also concedes that the department's disciplinary plan for him is sufficient, said IRO investigator Trey Flynt.

Word of the agreement spread quickly through the audience, which was packed with Albuquerque police officers, including several of Brown's superiors.

Lt. Bob Huntsman, Brown's SWAT commander, said the two dozen SWAT team and bomb squad members came to the meeting to support their fellow officer.

Huntsman said he felt satisfied with the agreement, which has yet to be finalized by Schultz and must still go before the commission for final approval at its June meeting.

The police report of the incident says Brown found an American Indian man and his family parked in a handicap spot at a Wal-Mart.

Brown says in his report that "they obviously did not have any physical impairments."

He wrote that after he confronted the family, members yelled at him, accused him of racially profiling them and then one of the vehicle occupants tossed his gum on the ground. He only picked it up after several commands to do so, Brown wrote.

The report also says that when Brown suspected the man of being intoxicated, the man became belligerent and would not provide identification.

The woman in the car filed the complaint. It says the family showed Brown a handicap sticker for their son's illness, but that Brown continued to harass them using curse words to the point their children began to cry and bystanders began to ask if they were OK.

Feist and Flynt, representing the police and the IRO, respectively, agreed that Brown broke several rules in addition to falsifying documents, but was exonerated of other allegations in the complaint.

Discipline matters, including officers' names, are generally not made public by the Police Department; the oversight commission does not reveal officers' names.

Brown's name was found in several court and police documents related to the case.

In other news from the meeting:

The political stalemate between the City Council and Mayor Martin Chavez that has kept one commission seat vacant continued.

For at least the 12th time, commissioners heard the mayor's staff say he has submitted a candidate to represent Councilor Brad Winter's district on the commission and is waiting for the council to vote on it.

For at least the 12th time, commissioners heard City Council staff say the council rejected the mayor's candidate. The council maintains that the mayor must select one of Winter's two proposed candidates, and forward one for approval.

Chavez says the city charter allows him to pick whomever he wants, and this time it wasn't one from Winter - a political rival.

Newly selected Independent Review Officer William Deaton, up for confirmation at the next City Council meeting, did not attend.

Nor did his predecessor, Jay Rowland, who retired in April.

The commission gave Schultz its support in light of a recent police union action that may result in giving the chief a vote of no confidence.

Some union members started the process to denounce the chief in an April meeting. The final vote comes in about three weeks.

APD officer spied on couple's naked doings, entered home, then assaulted them, lawsuit says

2007-05-08T19:17:00.000-06:00

By Maggie Shepard, Albuquerque Tribune

Naked dancing. A dead dog. A police officer with an eye for detail and a can of Mace.

It's not the beginning to a great country song. It's the story laid out in a civil lawsuit filed in state District Court on Wednesday by Gary and Penny Schinagel against the Albuquerque Police Department and the city.

On Sept. 6, 2005, the Northeast Heights couple, married for more than 20 years, decided a bit of romance was the best way to celebrate their youngest child's departure for college.

Clothes came off. Music came on.

And soon, Albuquerque Police Officer Russell Moore was at their window looking in, responding, police say, to a call from a neighbor about loud music.

According to the lawsuit, a tape recorder on Moore's belt that records his actions indicated he stayed at the window for six minutes before making his way into their home.

Alarmed, the couple rushed to find their clothes. Gary Schinagel ended up in his wife's robe, confronting the officer, who had entered the home without a warrant and made his way to the kitchen, the lawsuit says.

Here, accounts of the bizarre night differ. The Schinagels say the officer took their fear and shock as aggression and sprayed Mace at them and their dog. The dog later died from complications, the lawsuit says.

The couple said they were handcuffed, still partially dressed, while they bled from being hit with a flashlight and were prevented from relieving their burning eyes.

The officer, according to police reports, said the Schinagels were aggressive and assaulted him, hurting his jaw. They were arrested on charges of battery on a police officer, which were later dismissed, according to court documents.

The lawsuit says the police officers who arrived later failed to help the family dog and left the home unlocked.

An Albuquerque TV station on Sept. 7, 2005, broadcast a report showing the couple's home near Tramway and Menaul boulevards Northeast and noting that the Schinagels weren't available for comment because they were out of town.

The home was burglarized early the next morning, the lawsuit says.

"It's hard to believe," said Ken Wagner, the Schinagel's attorney. "We have a right to privacy in our homes, and there is a right way and wrong way to enter."

Albuquerque police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman was not immediately able to determine if Moore or other officers involved in the incident had been administratively sanctioned.

New IRO will take charge in June: William Deaton says job is about `finding facts'

2007-05-05T19:25:00.000-06:00

By Maggie Shepard, Albuquerque Tribune

One Albuquerque police officer admits but defends punching a handcuffed Downtown reveler in the mouth, busting her lip and breaking her tooth.

Dueling polygraph results support both a citizen who says an officer maced a homeless man for no reason and the officer who said he never maced anyone.

And the family of a handicapped boy says a police officer lied in paperwork to justify harassing them in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

The three cases pending before the Police Oversight Commission illustrate some of the difficult questions facing newly selected Independent Review Officer William Deaton as he prepares to take his post.

Deaton, set to become chief investigator into police misconduct complaints, has yet to be confirmed by the City Council.

Upon confirmation, he plans to start June 1.

He said he might not make the commission's Thursday meeting, where the cases will be discussed, but they likely will still require attention when he takes control of the office in June.

In addition to overseeing investigations into such cases, Deaton, an active 77-year-old, may also have to battle concerns that he is too closely tied to the police union.

The union did not support Deaton's predecessor, Jay Rowland, whom members felt was too tough on officers and overstepped his bounds by suggesting policy changes.

Rowland was informed in December that Mayor Martin Chavez would not renew his contract.

But with support from the citizen Police Oversight Commission and Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz, Rowland put his name in for the job anyway.

The job was advertised for only one week, and only locally - not at the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, as Rowland suggested it should.

Among a handful of applications, Rowland, Deaton and Bruce Thompson rose to the top.

However, Rowland resigned his post last week and withdrew his name from the applicant pool, saying he wants to move to New York and focus on his family.

Thompson, an attorney and land-use policy analyst for the city, also withdrew his name in April.

Deaton, a long-time federal magistrate judge with a dynamic military history, said he put his name in the running after a police union attorney approached him about the job.

Despite the union's solicitation, Deaton said his investigations and rulings won't be biased toward the police officers.

"I can't say I don't have any biases. If I didn't, I'd be dead," he said Wednesday, speaking by cordless telephone from his roof, where he was doing maintenance.

"It's about finding facts. That is what I did at the state bench and the federal job, so I have the fact-finding-type experience."

Aware of the union's involvement in Deaton's application, commission Chairman Steve Smothermon said he is willing to give Deaton the benefit of the doubt, but said the commission will be watching for bias.

"We're going to take a more involved role in this, and the IRO works for us; we don't work for him," Smothermon said. "If we don't like the findings, we'll do what we'll need to do."

Here's how the process works:

• The IRO leads a team of investigators that digs into citizen complaints of police misconduct. The IRO judges whether investigators turned up enough evidence to prove or disprove an officer misbehaved. If there isn't enough evidence to prove it either way, the complaint is put into limbo - not sustained, but not proven false.

• While the team works on the case, police investigators do the same.

• Results of both investigations are brought to the Police Oversight Commission.

• Commissioners, chosen by city councilors and then appointed by the mayor, scrutinize the investigations.

• If the two teams disagree on what the evidence proves or a citizen pursues a complaint when the teams say it can't be proved - and both happen a few times a month - the commission must rule on who's right.

• Unsatisfied citizens have two chances to appeal their cases, first to the commission, then to the city's chief administrative officer.

In the complaint about the homeless man, investigators and commissioners sided with Scott Cameron, the citizen who witnessed the incident. Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz wants to appeal the decision, though the policy only allows citizens to do so.

The Downtown reveler, a 22-year-old woman, complained that APD Officer Debbie Heshley punched her in the mouth while she was handcuffed.

Though Rowland ruled in favor of the woman, the commission initially sided with the chief that there wasn't enough evidence to prove the assault occurred. The woman appealed the commission ruling and was allowed to give a statement in person. She was so persuasive that the commission, for the first time ever, changed its mind entirely and ruled in her favor.

The case is pending until Schultz, too, changes his mind and decides to discipline the officer. If he doesn't, the woman can appeal.

The Wal-Mart case is also waiting on administrative steps. It will be heard by the commission Thursday.

Mayor would support arming campus cops

2007-05-04T00:06:00.000-06:00

By Susie Gran, Abq Trib
Friday, May 4, 2007

If Albuquerque Public Schools were to dissolve its police department, the district would have $2.79 million to spend on contracted services. The 2006-07 school police budget includes:

$1.64 million for 51 salaried employees, including 33 certified officers.

$169,000 for secretarial, clerical and hourly employees.

$546,000 for employee benefits.

$77,177 for police chief salary.

$95,000 for supplies and materials.

$33,563 for furniture and equipment.

$15,530 for employee training.

Source: APS

Mayor Martin Chavez is siding with school police in the gunfight at Albuquerque Public Schools.

"Our kids will be better served if APS police are armed" at all times, Chavez said Thursday.

School police have long wanted to carry sidearms during school hours to react more quickly to emergencies. Current school policy requires them to keep their guns locked in their cars until they get the superintendent's permission to retrieve them.

The debate over arming school officers took a turn Wednesday when school officials said they wanted to explore the idea of contracting out police services rather than running their own police department.

The mayor also said he would support a merger of the school police with either the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department or the Albuquerque Police Department - but not all three.

The school district has 33 certified police officers who could be absorbed by the larger law enforcement agencies, which would then provide services to the schools.

"I'm receptive to it as long as it isn't a multiheaded creature," the mayor said of a possible merger.

Chavez said he recognizes that the school district could enter into a contract with the Sheriff's Department instead of the city.

If that were to occur, the city might pull its officers now assigned to high schools and middle schools, he said.

"That would be an option to look at," he said. "At the end of the day, whatever protects the kids is what we want."

The city currently assigns armed officers to all high schools except Rio Grande, which is located in Bernalillo County. Some of the middle schools also are assigned city police officers.

"If they (APS) ask us to come in, it would make very good sense," Chavez said. "We would be receptive to a request for a merger."

Albuquerque Board of Education member Robert Lucero said he and APS Superintendent Beth Everitt were going to meet with Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White this morning to discuss the possibility of a contract.

Lucero said he hopes Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz will also join the discussion and help change the focus from guns to an areawide safety plan.

"If truly safety is the issue, a safety plan is the way to go, not a gun plan," said Lucero, who opposes arming school police 24/7.

"We need to decide what would work covering all 130-some schools. That's impossible for our 33 officers," he said.

The only decision made by the school board Thursday was to hold a public hearing and continue the dialogue.

Board members invited the public, students, teachers and grass-roots organizations to a hearing, but no date was set.

Tom s Garduno of the SouthWest Organizing Project also weighed in Thursday with an anti-gun message.

"Arming security guards only perpetuates fear and violence," he said in flyers distributed in the board room.

Board member Gordon Rowe said he thinks the community wants the board to act, not spend months talking and listening.

"They expect us to do something," Rowe said. "We need to get out in front on this."

Study: Police treat minorities unfairly

2007-04-30T10:22:00.000-06:00

by Michael J. Sniffen, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON - African-American, Hispanic and white drivers are equally likely to be pulled over by police, but African-Americans and Hispanics are much more likely to be searched and arrested, a federal study found.

Police were much more likely to threaten or use force against African-Americans and Hispanics than against whites in any encounter, whether at a traffic stop or elsewhere, according to the Justice Department.

The study, released Sunday by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, covered police contacts with the public during 2005 and was based on interviews by the Census Bureau with nearly 64,000 people age 16 or over.

"The numbers are very consistent" with those found in a similar study of police-public contacts in 2002, bureau statistician Matthew R. Durose, the report's co-author, said in an interview. "There's some stability in the findings over these three years."

Traffic stops have become a politically volatile issue. Minority groups have complained that many stops and searches are based on race rather than on legitimate suspicions. African-Americans in particular have complained of being pulled over for simply "driving while black."

"The available data is sketchy but deeply concerning," said Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington bureau. The civil rights organization has done its own surveys of traffic stops, and he said the racial disparities grow larger, the deeper the studies delve.

"It's very important to look at the hit rates for searches - the number that actually result in finding a crime," Shelton said. "There's a great deal of racial disparity there." He called for federal legislation that would collect uniform data by race on stops, arrests, use of force, searches and hit rates.

"This report shows there are still disturbing disparities in terms of what happens to people of color after the stop," said Dennis Parker, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's racial justice project. He said better reporting is needed.

Like the 2002 report, this one contained a warning that the racial disparities uncovered "do not constitute proof that police treat people differently along demographic lines" because the differences could be explained by circumstances not analyzed by the survey. The 2002 report said such circumstances might include driver conduct or whether drugs were in plain view.

Traffic stops are the most frequent way police interact with the public, accounting for 41 percent of all contacts. An estimated 17.8 million drivers were stopped in 2005.

African-American, Hispanic and white motorists were equally likely to be pulled over by police - between 8 percent and 9 percent of each group. The slight decline in African-Americans pulled over - from 9.2 percent in 2002 to 8.1 percent in 2005 - was not statistically significant, Durose said, and could be the result of random

differences.

The racial disparities showed up after that point:

-African-Americans (9.5 percent) and Hispanics (8.8 percent) were much more likely to be searched than whites (3.6 percent). There were slight but statistically insignificant declines compared with the 2002 report in the percentages of African-Americans and Hispanics searched.

-African-Americans (4.5 percent) were more than twice as likely as whites (2.1 percent) to be arrested. Hispanic drivers were arrested 3.1 percent of the time.

Among all police-public contacts, force was used 1.6 percent of the time. But African-Americans (4.4 percent) and Hispanics (2.3 percent) were more likely than whites (1.2 percent) to be subjected to force or the threat of force by police officers.

People interviewed described police hitting, kicking, pushing, grabbing, pointing a gun or spraying pepper spray at them or threatening to do so. More than four of five felt the force used was excessive, but there were no statistically significant racial disparities among the people who felt that way.

Two years ago, the Bush administration's handling of the 2002 report and its finding of racial disparities generated considerable controversy.

Departing from normal practice, the earlier report was simply posted on the statistics bureau's Web site without any press release announcing it.

The bureau's director at the time, Lawrence A. Greenfeld, appointed by President Bush in 2001, wanted to publicize the racial disparities, but his superiors disagreed, according to a statistics bureau employee. Greenfeld told his staff he was being moved to a new job following the dispute, according to this employee, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

This time there was a press release.

Cop Watch LA Interview on Uprising Radio

2007-04-18T23:58:00.000-06:00

Maywood Police Department Accused of Brutality and Abuse

http://uprisingradio.org/home/?p=1431

GUESTS: Joaquin Cienfuegos, Copwatch LA and Revolutionary Autonomous Communities, Ramon Medina, former President of the Maywood Police Commission

The City of Maywood’s police department has come under increasing criticism in recent months. Community members and organizations, such as Padres Unidos de Maywood, have accused the department of corruption, brutality and abuse. A recent Los Angeles Times investigation revealed that at least a third of Maywoodâ€™s 37 member police force had been hired despite having questionable past records which included terminations from other agencies for misconduct and brushes with the law. Following the investigative report, interim police chief, Richard Lyons, who himself has a criminal background, promised police reforms. Among the officers hired by the Maywood Police Department are Frank Garcia, who was charged with drunk driving and firing his weapon negligently. Among the allegations of police abuse is the case of a Maywood police officer impregnating a 15 year old teenager who rode along with patrols as a police explorer. Community members and lawyers have filed numerous lawsuits against the city. The Maywood Police Department is also being currently investigated by the FBI, the California attorney general, and the LA County district attorney.

Officer Won't Be Charged in Death

2007-03-21T22:23:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
By T.J. Wilham
Journal Staff Writer

A 12-member grand jury decided this week not to indict an Albuquerque police officer whose speeding patrol car struck and killed a grandmother in May.
Family members of 73-year-old Flora Aragon said Tuesday they are angry at the justice system and feel that officer Zachariah Floyd should be charged with something.
"We don't think it is right. We don't think it is fair," said Aragon's granddaughter Denise Baker. "Police officers can do whatever they want. They pretty much own our streets. If it was you or I, we would be sitting in front of a judge right now being sentenced."
On May 21, officer Floyd, 23, was responding to a domestic violence call in which a man was trying to remove a child from a home just after midnight near 53rd and Central. On the way, his car hit a block wall and went into a yard where Aragon was outside chatting with family members. The car pinned Aragon against a picnic table, killing her.
Floyd was trying to pass a truck on a two-lane street when the vehicle turned in front of him, causing the officer to swerve and lose control.
During a six-month internal affairs investigation, police determined that Floyd was driving his cruiser 43 mph in a 25-mph zone.
In January, police Chief Ray Schultz suspended Floyd for three weeks without pay for speeding and making a dangerous pass.
Deputy District Attorney Gary Cade said his office presented to the grand jury witnesses who saw what happened, and who were not police officers.
He also noted that a multi-jurisdictional team investigated the crash and rendered its findings to the grand jury.
"We presented information about what happened, and we did not attempt to shade it one way or the other," Cade said. "We presented information from almost all of the witnesses, and the grand jury made its decision and we respect that."

Deputy: Fellow Officers Raped Me

2007-03-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

By Rozanna M. Martinez, Journal Staff Writer

State Police are investigating claims by a female Sandoval County sheriff's deputy that she was raped by other deputies at a party in December.
Sandoval County Sheriff John Paul Trujillo told the Journal on Friday he contacted State Police as soon has he received information about the alleged assault.
The incident involved off-duty sheriff's officers and occurred in December outside the sheriff's department's jurisdiction, Trujillo said.
"I had an outside source look into it so they could verify or see if there was a criminal act that took place," Trujillo said. "At this point we don't know, it's in State Police hands."
Trujillo said he could not comment further.
State Police spokesman Lt. Rick Anglada said his agency was notified by the sheriff's department Thursday and began its investigation the same day.
"We were asked to conduct an investigation on the incident that was reported internally (in the sheriff's office) through the chain of command," Anglada said. "The allegations are that a female deputy reported to them that there was some type of party in December and in it she is claiming to have been provided alcohol... She's alleged some male deputies raped her."
Anglada did not know Friday the number of deputies alleged to have been involved.
Several witnesses and suspects as well as the accuser need to be interviewed, Anglada said.
"It happened back in December, so there's obviously no physical evidence to go by," Anglada said.
Once the State Police investigation is concluded, it is expected to be turned over to the appropriate district attorney's office for possible prosecution, Anglada said.

Eyewitness Testimony Conflicting

2007-03-07T22:09:00.000-07:00

By Carolyn Carlson, Journal Staff Writer

Jurors heard conflicting testimony between eyewitnesses in a civil wrongful death trial against two Albuquerque Police Department officers in the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old.
On Nov. 29, 2003, Eric Harrison was shot in the back by officer Matthew Thompson outside the police training academy near Montaño and Second NW during an incident between Harrison and then-54-year-old Cipriano Salazar, according to police reports.
The lawsuit contends the officers used excessive force and were negligent and reckless.
Officer Brad Ahrensfield was named in the lawsuit along with the city and Thompson. But after the plaintiffs rested their case Tuesday afternoon, U.S. District Judge James Parker dismissed Ahrensfield from the lawsuit saying there had not been any evidence to show Ahrensfield breached his duty as an officer.
Plaintiffs attorneys Miguel Campos and Phillip A. Martinez claimed that while Ahrensfield did not fire his weapon, he did not take any action, verbal or physical, to dissuade Thompson from firing the fatal shots. Nor did Ahrensfield warn Harrison that shots were going to be fired.
Parker also dismissed the city from the claim saying the plaintiffs did not present any evidence the officers were not properly trained. Parker also dismissed punitive damages from the claim saying there had not been any evidence presented showing the officers were reckless or negligent.

Honor roll
Martinez and Campos put Harrison's mother, Maria E. Chavez, on the stand. Chavez testified she was in prison at the time of her son's death. She said her son was on the honor roll in middle school and was chosen to go to Washington, D.C., because he was on the honor roll and because he was a good student.
"When Mr. Thompson took my son he took a part of my heart," Chavez said through tears.
During cross examination, Levy brought out that Harrison actually spent little time being raised by Chavez. Instead, Harrison lived with Chavez's mother, an aunt and her brother or sister. Chavez testified she was a crack addict and stole to support her habit before going to prison. Chavez was released from prison in January 2005.
"The most consistent role model mother was your mother, right?" Levy asked.
"Yes, I wanted him to be where he was well taken care of," Chavez said.
Chavez said Harrison would live with her on and off depending on how stable she was.
Along with Harrison, Chavez has three other sons younger than Harrison and from a different father.
Harrison's father spent 16 years in prison and did not have any contact with his son after he was released, Chavez said.
Chavez said Harrison dropped out of high school in the 10th grade when she moved to a different school district.
The eyewitness testimony was from two women who gave Harrison a ride so he could follow Salazar to get his bicycle back. The two eyewitnesses and Harrison followed Salazar to APD's Valley substation and training center parking lot, near the Montaño and Second Street intersection, where the shooting occurred.
Testimony from the first witness, Letisha Gonzales, was a reading of transcripts from her October 2006 deposition. Campos said they were unable to locate Gonzales for the trial.
The second eyewitness to testify was Janice Martinez Crawford. Crawford was sentenced to 18 years in prison last week in Bernalillo County District Court after being convicted of multiple counts of trafficking crack cocaine.
Gonzales testified she and Crawford went to the Walgreens at Fourth and Montaño on Nov. 29, 2003, to pick up some items for dinner. Gonzales said she saw Salazar hit Harrison in the face in the store's parking lot. She said she and Crawford gave Harrison a ride so he could follow Salazar. She said she believed Salazar had stolen Harrison's bike. She said they followed Salazar to the parking lot of APD's Valley substation and training academy. She said she never saw Harrison strike Salazar with the T-ball bat. She said Harrison did not even have the bat in his hand when he was shot. She also said that after she saw Harrison get shot she jumped out of Crawford's truck and ran towards the officer who shot Harrison. She said she was yelling "Why, why did you have to shoot him?" She said the officer then pointed a gun to her head and told her that for her "own good" she should not tell anyone anything about this incident.

Conflicting tales
Crawford's testimony differed. She testified that while waiting in the Walgreens parking lot she saw Salazar get on a bicycle and Harrison tell Salazar to give him back his bicycle.
"The older man pushed the child to the ground and the back tire ran over the child's ankle," Crawford said.
She said Harrison chased Salazar out of the parking lot on foot when she stopped her truck and asked Harrison if he needed help. She said Harrison jumped in the bed of the truck and they followed Salazar. They lost sight of him at one point but saw him again at the APD parking lot. She said she drove to the parking lot and Harrison jumped out of the truck with her son's T-ball bat that was in the bed. She said Harrison followed Salazar to the doors of the training center.
"Eric had hit him and was getting ready to hit him again when I heard shots being fired," Crawford said.
Crawford said to the best of her memory, Gonzales did not get out of the truck until officers told them to get on the ground. She did say officers had their guns drawn and pointed at them until she and Gonzales were handcuffed. She said they were unhandcuffed when officers took them, separately, into the Valley substation for questioning.
Deputy City Attorney Kathryn Levy while cross examining Crawford brought out that in a prior statement Crawford said Harrison was "raging mad" when he jumped out of her truck to go after Salazar with the T-ball bat.
She said she did not remember many of the details from that day because it was so long ago.
Levy reaffirmed through her cross examination that Crawford saw Harrison with the bat raised and ready to strike again when Thompson fired his gun.
After the shooting, Salazar was taken to a hospital and was released four days later.
The plaintiffs rested their case after Crawford's testimony.
Levy put Thompson on the stand as the defense's first witness.
Thompson said he confronted the situation on Nov. 29, 2003, when he was leaving APD's training center after SWAT training. At first when he saw an older man on a bicycle being followed by the truck with Harrison in the back he thought it was a police cadet training exercise.
When he realized it was not, he went over to where he saw Harrison hitting Salazar with the bat.
Thompson said he heard Harrison tell Salazar, "Do you think the cops will be able to help you?"
Thompson said he gave several clear commands to Harrison to stop what he was doing. He said he saw Harrison strike Salazar twice with the bat and raise it a third time when he fired two shots hitting Harrison.
"I believed the male with the bat was about to murder the victim on the ground," Thompson said. "I had no other choice."
He testified that police officers are trained to use deadly force if they feel their life or the life of another is being threatened.
The defense continues today, and the jury is expected to get the case by midafternoon.

Trial Begins In Death; Police Sued Over Shooting of Teen

2007-03-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, March 6, 2007
By Carolyn Carlson
Journal Staff Writer

Attorneys in a civil wrongful death trial against two Albuquerque Police Department officers began to paint a picture of events leading up to the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Eric Harrison in 2003.
"There are two sides to every story or we would not be here," Phillip A. Martinez, one of Harrison's family attorneys, said during opening statements in the federal trial.
On Nov. 29, 2003, Harrison was shot in the back by officer Matthew Thompson outside the police training academy near Montaño and Second Street during an altercation between Harrison and then-54-year-old Cipriano Salazar, according to police reports.
Officer Brad Ahrensfield is also named in the lawsuit.
Martinez and attorney Miguel Campos filed the lawsuit on Nov. 28, 2005, the day before the statute of limitations would have run out.
On Monday, Martinez said Harrison was a good kid who had been punched in the face by Salazar when Harrison tried to get his bicycle back from Salazar, who Harrison thought had stolen it.
"Eric grabbed the bike and they fought, but Eric never hit Cipriano," Martinez said.
He added that two eyewitnesses will testify to that as well.
Martinez said testimony will show that Thompson then held a gun to one of the eyewitnesses' head.
"Did the police act prudently and responsibly and could they have done something different?" Martinez said. That was the question the jury must ponder, he said.
Deputy City Attorney Kathryn Levy in her opening statements said Harrison was full of rage and fueled by alcohol and cocaine at the time.
"This case is about the one thing every officer thinks about every day. That they might have to take the life of one person to save the life of another," Levy said. "These police officers took the only actions they could take to save the life of the victim."
According to police reports, Thompson and Ahrensfield confronted Harrison and Salazar, who were fighting over a bicycle with a T-ball bat. Thompson saw Harrison beating Salazar in the head and ordered Harrison to stop, but Harrison struck Salazar again with the bat. Harrison was in a striking position when Thompson shot him, the reports said.
The lawsuit contends the officers used excessive force and were negligent and reckless. And it contends that, although Ahrensfield did not fire his weapon, he did not take any action to dissuade Thompson from firing the fatal shots.
Salazar was taken to an area hospital and was released four days later.

APS Top Cop Finds Himself on Hot Seat

2007-02-11T16:40:00.000-07:00

By Colleen Heild, Journal Investigative Reporter

Nearly 17 years ago, Gil Lovato took the reins of a school police agency racked by controversy.
Now, as the veteran chief of the Albuquerque Public Schools police department, it is Lovato who finds himself on the hot seat.
He's been on paid leave since Jan. 6, pending an internal audit of the school police department that still isn't complete. Normally, such audits take two weeks.
Outside private investigators have also been called in.
The scope of the inquiry has broadened beyond the initial examination of whether evidence room money was mishandled.
Investigators in recent weeks have been questioning whether Lovato took liberties in running his department and whether he improperly directed APS resources to benefit one of his supervisors.
They've also been looking at several investigations he ordered.
Lovato, 60, has declined to comment publicly since being placed on leave.
"The only thing I can accuse myself of is working hard," he told the Journal last month.
The supervisor, Cynthia West, oversees the eight-person dispatch unit of the school police. She is a 20-year APS employee whose husband works as a school police lieutenant.
West referred questions to her attorney, Kari Morrissey, who said last week she wouldn't comment about specifics because of the ongoing investigation.
"What I can tell you is that I have talked to her (West) and she feels absolutely 100 percent confident that she has behaved professionally and ethically," Morrissey said. "She's never engaged in any type of misconduct, and we expect that this investigation is going to yield those results."
School district officials— who had been sweating out a mill levy election until last week's "yes" vote— remain tight-lipped about the department probe.
They have ordered police employees not to talk and say they don't know whether any aspect of the investigation results will ever be made public.
Journal interviews with current and former school employees, along with documents obtained by the Journal, provide insight into areas of inquiry.
For instance, during Lovato's tenure:

Nineteen people have contacted the school district's Equal Employment Opportunity office to complain about personnel issues in the police agency. Twelve of the complaints name Lovato as a respondent. Allegations include harassment, use of abusive language, sex discrimination and sexual harassment. APS won't say how any of those were resolved.

Hundreds of dollars seized as evidence were moved to the police agency's petty cash fund when the money should have been returned to district coffers.

No documentation exists for deposits into the petty cash fund and records are missing as to how money was spent.

West earned more than $5,000 in overtime last year. While on vacation, she was permitted to add to her paycheck by selling compensatory time back to APS.

During her monthlong vacation, Lovato made 91 calls to West on his APS cell phone, records show.

Lovato approved installing a high-tech surveillance camera at West's home and sent a team of APS detectives to Texas to investigate a suspect accused of harassing her on the telephone— a misdemeanor. No charges have followed.

West is the only civilian in the school district who has a take-home car. She drives an unmarked police car in an agency where a lack of vehicles has forced school police employees to double up or use personal cars to answer calls.

Taking over a 'mess'
Back in 1990, Lovato won out over 69 candidates who wanted to head what was then called APS school security.
Lovato had been a captain with the Albuquerque Police Department at the time— winding up a career that had its ups and downs.
He had a disciplinary record and was sent to "anger management," according to a newspaper account in 1985.
Lovato called it "conflict management" and noted he had 80 letters of recommendation in his personnel file.
Three days after retiring from APD, Lovato took over a school district police agency that outside auditors had characterized as a "mess" and "a disaster area."
The agency of 130 employees is now called the APS Police Department and handles security and law enforcement duties for an 89,000-student district of 131 schools, according to the APS police Web site.
Since Lovato took over as chief, his annual salary has jumped from $37,879 to $77,597. The agency's annual budget has nearly tripled and is now an estimated $2.7 million.

'Unethical activity'
APS documents show that, since the early 1990s, 12 of 19 people who contacted the district's EEO office about police department-related issues complained specifically about Lovato.
Of those who complained, one is a well-known high school principal; another is a high-ranking APS official.
APS spokesman Rigo Chavez wouldn't reveal the outcome of any of the complaints.
In November, a former school police campus service aide filed a lawsuit against APS alleging employment discrimination, retaliation and harassment.
Christine Apodaca alleges that Lovato denied her the opportunity to become a sworn law enforcement officer. She also accused him of belittling her in staff meetings, creating a hostile work environment and intimidating and threatening her.
At least two unsigned letters were sent to APS officials over the past six months alleging, in the words of one letter, "immoral and unethical activity that has been taking place in our police department."
The allegations weren't officially investigated until APS internal auditor Alan Wesson received information in January about problems with the school police evidence room.

Take-home car
Back in 1997, a member of the APS Board of Education asked during a public meeting why the school police dispatch supervisor needed a take-home car when district finances were tight.
Lovato, according to a news report at the time, replied that the dispatch supervisor also served as the evidence clerk and was on call to enter crime evidence, such as confiscated items.
School district spokesman Chavez said the APS police organizational chart currently shows West as having responsibility for evidence, "but she has not actually had that responsibility for the past three years."
More recently, employees say, Lovato has defended West's take-home car, describing it as a "mobile communications dispatch center."
Last year, APS budget cutbacks forced about three dozen district administrators to give up their take-home cars, according to news reports.
But West was allowed to keep her car. Chavez said APS officials concluded that West and school police were deemed to be "emergency responders" and needed cars.
A Journal survey of UNM police, APD and Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department shows none of their dispatch supervisors is permitted a take-home car.
The shortage of APS police cars in recent months has forced some police officials to drive personal vehicles on the job.
Meanwhile, campus police aides have been doubling up or tripling in police vehicles because there aren't enough cars to go around.
Two new vehicles are expected to arrive later this month.

$5,100 in overtime
Investigators have also been looking into compensation issues.
West, who earns $46,597 annually, claimed more than $5,100 in overtime in 2006.
Nearly all of it was for working on Saturdays or Sundays.
Most of the overtime was claimed in the latter part of 2006, while West accrued more than 128 hours of compensatory time from June 2005 to May 2006.
Her reasons for the extra work were listed as "dispatch" or "dispatch shortage."
Lovato generally signed off on her overtime.
At times, her husband, Lt. Dave West, signed on Lovato's behalf.
Since Lovato was placed on leave Jan. 6, West hasn't claimed any overtime. She had two hours of compensatory time last month.
Last September, West announced in an internal e-mail that she would be on annual leave from Sept. 23 to Oct. 23 and an acting supervisor would take her place.
West used 80 hours of compensatory time for the first two weeks and then took two weeks vacation leave.
Investigators looked into a tip that she had paid overtime while she was on vacation.
West was paid $304.10 in overtime following the week ending Oct. 6.
But records show the overtime was for work she did in early September, before going on vacation.
Records also show West sold back 20 hours of her accrued compensatory time to APS last October.
Spokesman Chavez said he is not aware of any written policy allowing such a practice. He said it "is not a common practice," but added, that "it is not unheard of."

Cell phone calls
Investigators have also been looking at Lovato's cell phone calls.
A Journal review of APS phone bills shows 460 calls were placed from Lovato's APS-issued cell phone to West's private cell phone during a six-month period from June 11 to Dec. 12 last year.
During that time period, Lovato received 261 calls from West's private cell phone.
Roughly 60 percent of the calls occurred after 5 p.m., on weekends or while West was on vacation.
The dispatch office said West typically works days, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
On Dec. 4, records show 56 calls from Lovato's APS phone to West's. The calls were made between 5:14 p.m. and 11:56 p.m.
During West's vacation— which included a trip to Europe— 91 calls were made from Lovato's phone to West's.
More recent records weren't available from APS.

Surveillance camera
Last May, the school police dispatch office began receiving hang-up calls. Then an anonymous caller began targeting Lovato and West in calls peppered with insults and abusive language.
Before it was over, Lovato had put four different officers and a police computer technician on the case, which was a misdemeanor crime.
Two APS detectives traveled to Odessa, Texas, to interview a suspect, and Lovato ordered a low-light night vision surveillance camera installed at West's home.
The investigation was estimated to have cost more than $6,000 in overtime and travel.
No arrests related to the telephone harassment case have been made. The camera can still be seen outside West's far Northeast home.

Evidence room cash
The issue that triggered the current inquiry was whether money seized as evidence from students during campus drug busts ended up being improperly converted to the petty cash fund controlled by Lovato.
Lovato said in early January that his agency's petty cash fund amounted to only a few dollars a month, collected from copying charges for police reports requested by the public.
But APS could produce no ledger or accounting for the fund over the past three years. APS was also unable to produce any records of deposits, even from fees for copying police reports.
More than a dozen handwritten receipts APS turned over show Lovato tapped the fund to buy bottled water, soda for the office, and to get his patrol car washed in 2004 and 2006.
There were no receipts for the year 2005.
APS records show at least $300 was transferred to the petty cash fund after being seized as evidence and forfeited by a District Court judge in 2005.
Other records obtained by the Journal show $1,085 was placed in a police department safe in late 1998— only to be depleted by a series of withdrawals.
One document has handwritten entries showing six withdrawals of $165 or more at various times during 1999.
The withdrawals appear to have been made by Lovato or his secretary, and most carry his initials.
One handwritten note dated Sept. 23, 1999, states "$300 to Gil Lovato." Underneath that sentence is another handwritten note stating, "Returned $300 on 10/6/99."
Another note dated Dec. 30, 1999, states "$200 to G. Lovato for flashlight Y2K."
By September 2000, the last $165 was removed from the fund.
"New balance from evidence is 0," states a handwritten notation.
State law requires that money seized as evidence or "fruits of a crime" be returned either to the rightful owner or be forfeited.
If a judge had approved a forfeiture, the money should have been returned to the APS general fund where administrators could allocate it back to the police department, according to former APS business officer Michael Vigil.
Vigil said he would never have approved a loan from the fund.
Lovato has said the money was transferred appropriately and was used to buy office supplies.

Independent agency
When Lovato was tapped for the APS job, he faced a major public relations task.
His predecessor, security chief Daryl Harrell, had resigned in the wake of a Journal investigative report.
According to story published in February 1990, Harrell and his operations assistant, Roxie Joyner, had spent work time together in a Sandia Mountains cabin.
The story also reported Joyner had collected $25,000 overtime in a 30-month period. The Bernalillo County district attorney and the Albuquerque Police Department launched a joint investigation.
No criminal charges were filed. But the APS-funded audit that followed was highly critical, citing a lack of accountability and professionalism within the department.
School board member Leonard DeLayo was quoted back then as saying his primary concern is "what kind of system do we have that lends itself to no accountability."
DeLayo, who didn't seek re-election and leaves the board March 1, said in a recent interview that he has heard nothing negative about the APS police agency with Lovato as chief.
He added, "I think one of the issues with that department is that it traditionally has been independent, and I think as a result of that independence things tend to get skewed."

Victim's relative: Cop had lax penalty

2007-01-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

By Michael Gisick, Abq Tribune
Friday, January 19, 2007

The granddaughter of the 74-year-old woman killed last year when an Albuquerque police officer lost control of his car and crashed says the officer's three-week suspension isn't nearly enough punishment.

"If he were a regular person, he would be charged with reckless driving or voluntary manslaughter," Denise Baker said. "Instead, in our eyes he gets a vacation while our family suffers every day."

Baker said she had been told the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office would take the case before a grand jury in March to determine whether Zachariah Floyd, 23, broke any laws. She said the officer should be suspended until then.

District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said the case likely would be taken to grand jury, though she said she couldn't confirm when.

"Car accidents do happen, and there isn't always a crime involved," she said. "The issue here is whether any laws were broken."

Police confirmed this week that Floyd had been suspended over the incident and said the case had been forwarded to the District Attorney's Office for review.

A police investigation following the May 21 crash found that Floyd was speeding through a neighborhood as he responded to a domestic violence call.

He swerved to avoid another vehicle, then hit a brick wall at 5208 Crestview Place S.W. The impact killed Flora Aragon and injured her daughter and a family friend.

Baker said Police Chief Ray Schultz called her Wednesday and told her Floyd had been suspended for three weeks.

"He said that was the longest he could suspend him because of the union," she said.

Police spokesman John Walsh said department rules prohibit him from confirming the length of the suspension, saying only that it was "substantial."

He said Floyd would return to patrol duties following the suspension and would also be required to talk to cadet classes about his experience.

Police Watchdog Leaving Position

2006-12-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Journal Staff Report
Albuquerque's top police watchdog will soon be out of a job.
Jay Rowland, 60, a retired Air Force colonel who has headed the city's Independent Review Office for the past four years, learned Monday his expired contract with City Hall isn't being renewed, he said.
As the review officer, Rowland receives complaints from citizens about possible Albuquerque police misconduct. He can also make policy recommendations to the mayor, police chief and other city officials.
Rowland said he plans to continue with the job until a successor is hired, as is called for under his contract.
Mayor Martin Chávez commended Rowland for his job performance. "I think he's had a good run in there," Chavez said late Monday. The mayor also said a change would be healthy for the office.
Rowland's tenure included the 2005 investigation into problems within the police evidence room. A 1,000-page report that Rowland signed found that former Chief Gilbert Gallegos didn't follow basic procedures.
Through the end of October, Rowland's office had received 248 complaints alleging misconduct by police officers or police department employees. Of those, 206 had been investigated and 42 were pending, according to the most recent documents available.
Citizen complaints about misconduct have increased in recent years, according to city statistics. In 2003, there were 220 complaints of misconduct; in 2005, the figure climbed to 351.
Chavez said he expects the search for a successor could take a couple of months. A finalist selected by Chavez will go before the City Council for approval.

Details Sought In Shooting

2006-12-12T22:05:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, December 12, 2006
By Carolyn Carlson
Journal Staff Writer

Black community leaders are urging anyone who has any information on how Jerome J. Hall ended up shot to death along North Fourth Street on Thanksgiving to come forward.
"We are asking (investigators) to be vigilant to find the culprit," Joe Powdrell, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said Friday.
More than two weeks after Hall, 42, was found dying on Fourth Street near Schulte NW, investigators are still trying to piece together how he ended up there. Hall was found suffering from gunshot wounds. He died on the way to the hospital.
Detectives with the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department have not released many details about the shooting, except that Hall died of gunshot wounds.
"We have made some progress, but it has more to do with eliminating things," Lt. Gregg Marcantel, lead homicide detective for the Sheriff's Department, said Friday. "We do not have a clear suspect yet."
Powdrell said the fact that no real evidence has surfaced could create a sense of fear in the community.
"The city does not need a person who killed another person running around loose," Powdrell said.
Marcantel said no other details of Hall's autopsy or details from the crime scene are being released. He said doing so would undermine the case.
Six days before Hall died, a federal jury had awarded him $307,000 in an excessive force case against three Albuquerque Police Department officers. Hall had not collected any of the money at the time of his death.
Marcantel said he appreciates the leaders of the black community urging anyone who may have any information to come forward, because it will only help the investigation.
Marcantel has said that on Thanksgiving afternoon, several residents living in the area where Hall was found called the Sheriff's Department at least four times to report gunshots being fired.
But when deputies went out on the calls they did not find anyone shooting guns or any evidence that shots had been fired, until they found Hall, according to Marcantel.
According to federal court documents in Hall's excessive force case, in 2002 the officers said Hall was acting suspiciously as he looked into Nob Hill business windows.
The officers said Hall was combative and that is why they used a Taser on him. Hall was so severely burned by the Taser that he lost part of an ear.
In a Journal interview after the verdict, Hall said he did not want anyone to know where he was living because he feared retaliation.
Marcantel said anyone with any information on Hall's death, or information on the gunshots that were heard Thanksgiving Day, can call Crime Stoppers at 843-STOP or 980-2496 if they want to talk directly with a detective working the case. Either way, Marcantel said, they can remain anonymous. A $1,000 Crime Stoppers reward is being offered.

Black Leaders Seek Witnesses

2006-12-12T22:01:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Around the Metro Area
Journal and Wire Reports

"Black Leaders Seek Witnesses
Black community leaders are urging anyone who has any information on how Jerome J. Hall ended up shot to death along North Fourth Street on Thanksgiving to come forward.
"We are asking (investigators) to be vigilant to find the culprit," said Joe Powdrell, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Two weeks after Hall, 42, was found dying on Fourth Street near Schulte NW, investigators are trying to piece together how he ended up there. Hall was found suffering from gunshot wounds. He died on the way to the hospital.
Six days before Hall died, a federal jury had awarded him $307,000 in an excessive force case against three Albuquerque Police Department officers. Hall had not collected any of the money at the time of his death."

Residents Called Sheriff About Shots

2006-11-30T22:11:00.000-07:00

Thursday, November 30, 2006
By Carolyn Carlson
Journal Staff Writer

Residents living in the area where Jerome J. Hall was found shot on Thanksgiving called the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department at least four separate times that afternoon and evening to report gunshots being fired.
Six days before Hall died, a federal jury had awarded him $307,000 in an excessive force case against three Albuquerque Police Department officers.
Lt. Gregg Marcantel, lead homicide detective for the sheriff's department, said the calls started about 4:30 p.m. with the last one coming in about 9:30 p.m., shortly before deputies found Hall, 42, suffering from gunshot wounds. He died on the way to a hospital.
"The shots-fired calls ceased with that event," Marcantel said Wednesday during a news conference.
He said when deputies went out on the calls they did not find anyone shooting guns or any evidence that shots had been fired, until they found Hall.
"We are appealing to the public for any knowledge of who may have been doing the shooting," Marcantel said.
He said the shooters may have been in a car.
"It sounds like it did involve autos and the discharging of guns," Marcantel said. "It is unclear if the shots were into the air."
He would like to talk to anyone along Fourth Street, from Guadalupe Trail to Paseo del Norte, who heard gunshots or saw someone possibly in a car shooting a gun during those five hours.
"The Los Ranchos area does not get frequent shots-fired calls," Marcantel said.
He said detectives have not found any locations where bullets may have hit.
"Someone may have heard or seen something at 5 p.m. and not connect it to the 9:30 p.m. shooting," Marcantel said. "They may not be connected but we still want to know what, if anything, the public saw or heard."
Marcantel did not release any other information other than Hall's autopsy confirmed he died of gunshots.
He said they were keeping any pertinent information "within the notepads of the detectives and close to our chests."
He said he did not want to undermine the detectives working the case. Detectives are looking in a number of directions, he said.
Marcantel said newspaper coverage of the award might have suggested to someone Hall possessed lots of money, even though he had none of it yet because of the lengthy legal process.
According to court documents in Hall's excessive force case, the officers said Hall was acting suspiciously as he looked into Nob Hill business windows in 2002.
The officers said Hall was combative and that that is why they used a Taser on him. Hall lost part of an ear because he was so severely burned by the Taser.
In a Journal interview after the verdict, Hall said he did not want anyone to know where he was living because he was afraid of retaliation.
Anyone with any information should call Crime Stoppers at 843-STOP. If they want to talk directly with a detective they can call 980-2496. Either way, Marcantel said, they can remain anonymous.

APD Suit Winner Feared Retaliation

2006-11-29T22:07:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, November 29, 2006
By Carolyn Carlson and Debra Dominguez
Journal Staff Writers

The man found dying from gunshots along Fourth Street on Thanksgiving evening earlier had said he was afraid of retaliation after winning more than $300,000 in an excessive force case against city cops.
Jerome J. Hall, 42, told the Journal just after the federal jury reached its verdict that he was living in an apartment but did not want anyone to know where because he was afraid of retaliation.
On Thanksgiving evening, Hall was found suffering from bullet wounds outside of an appliance store near Fourth and Schulte NW. He died while en route to the University of New Mexico Hospital.
Just six days earlier, a U.S. District Court jury awarded Hall $307,030 in damages in an excessive force case against three Albuquerque Police Department officers.
Hall had received second- and third-degree burns when one of the officers used a Taser on him multiple times during a 2002 arrest. Hall lost part of his ear as a result of being burned.
The jury found that officers Tim Gonterman, Sean Higdon and David Hinson used "excessive force" when arresting Hall, according to court documents.
During the Nov. 17 interview, Hall also said he had been sober for 16 months and, despite one recent relapse, was back on the wagon.
"Being in recovery is a new chance to turn my life around," Hall said. He added he was now living in an apartment.
"I don't want to say where— I don't want retaliation. I just don't want anyone to know where I live now," Hall said at that time.
Hall, a self-admitted drug user, said he had occasionally lived on the streets east of Nob Hill before getting his apartment.
Lt. Gregg Marcantel, lead homicide detective for the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department, said Tuesday investigators are taking into consideration the timing of Hall's death.
"The timing of the award suggests suspicion, but to what extent I don't know," Marcantel said. "We are taking it into consideration that it was publicly announced that he was awarded the money."
Marcantel said the department is not going to release any information that only the offender would know, such as the type of gun used.
"It is not in the best interest of the investigation to undermine the case," Marcantel said.
He did say investigators were looking into a framework of some things occurring in the area.
"There are some things that stand out," Marcantel said.
Terry Hodges, a pastor at the Shilo Baptist Church where Hall attended, said Hall was an "all-around good guy" who had been working hard to turn his life around.
Hall told the Journal on Nov. 17 that he has three boys who live here in Albuquerque and a daughter in Seattle.
According to court documents, Hall had a pending paternity case, filed in March in Bernalillo County by a Frankie Pinkney. The case is still open and paternity has not been established. Pinkney could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
In order for paternity to be established on a deceased person, the Office of the Medical Investigator must have either the permission of the family or a court order to release blood samples for a DNA test.
Hall said after the jury's award that he wanted to use the money to help his four children and to get his life back on track by going back to college. Hall has said he was a former medical technician and disabled Army veteran.
Hall's mother, Gloria Bishop, came into town from Florida to be with Hall during his federal trial. Hodges said Bishop is too distraught to talk right now. He said Hall's two sisters are now in town and funeral arrangements are being planned.
During the Nov. 17 interview, Bishop said she was in tears when she heard the tapes of the beating and Tasing her son took during the 2002 arrest.
"Here we are in 2006, and I can't understand how this kind of thing is still going on in a country my son willingly and gladly served," Bishop said of her son, who beginning in 1985 served in the U.S. Army Reserves about six years. "It was almost as bad as him being in combat in Iraq. He could have lost his life over this."

APD Suit Winner Killed a Week Later

2006-11-28T22:12:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
FOR THE RECORD:This story has been corrected to reflect that Kathyrn Levy is an assistant city attorney.
By Carolyn Carlson
Journal Staff Writer

An Albuquerque man who last week was awarded more than $300,000 in damages in a civil lawsuit against city police has been identified as the man found shot on Fourth Street on Thanksgiving.
Jerome J. Hall, 42, died on the way to the University of New Mexico Hospital after he was found Thursday evening in the 6700 block of Fourth Street, near Osuna, suffering from gunshot wounds, according to Sgt. David Knowles, spokesman for the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department.
Just six days earlier, a U.S. District Court jury awarded Hall $307,030 in damages in an excessive force case against three Albuquerque Police officers.
Hall received second- and third-degree burns when one of the officers used a Taser on him multiple times during his 2002 arrest. Hall lost part of his ear as a result of being burned.
The jury found that officers Tim Gonterman, Sean Higdon and David Hinson used "excessive force" when arresting Hall, according to court documents.
"This is really tragic," said attorney Robert Gorence, who represented Hall in the case. "Here we have someone who had put his life in order and finally had the means to do the things with his kids that he always wanted to do."
Hall did not live in the neighborhood where he was found shot, Gorence said Monday.
After last week's verdict, Hall said he had been addicted to drugs but had quit them and had gone through rehabilitation programs.
Hall said he was going to use the money from the verdict to help his four children and get his life back on track by going back to college in the fall.
Hall said he was a former medical technician and disabled Army veteran.
Gorence said he does not know if Hall had a will. He also said he did not know what city attorneys plan on doing in light of Hall's death.
"There are lots of things that need to be answered," Gorence said.
Assistant city attorney Kathryn Levy said her office is reviewing the case for post-trial motions.
"This is something we would normally do," Levy said.
She said she has never seen something like this before.
In the 2002 incident, Hall's attorneys claimed the officers had no lawful reason to arrest, assault or imprison Hall, saying he was just walking along Central in Nob Hill and complied with all of the officers' orders.
City attorneys claimed in court documents that the officers acted in good faith, using reasonable police procedures and tactics.
Court documents say Gonterman stopped Hall because police had received complaints of narcotic sales by people on foot in the area and that he had observed Hall acting suspiciously.
Knowles said detectives are investigating Hall's shooting as a homicide.
Anyone with any information on the case can remain anonymous and call Crime Stoppers at 843-STOP.

APD Loses Brutality Case

2006-11-18T21:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday, November 18, 2006
By Debra Dominguez-Lund
Copyright © 2006 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer

A formerly homeless man who suffered severe burns and lost part of his ear when he was arrested by three Albuquerque police officers four years ago was awarded about $300,000 by a federal jury Friday.
Despite the verdict in U.S. District Court, Jerome Hall, who suffered permanent disfiguration from the September 2002 incident, said he'll never feel he's gotten complete justice.
"They took my dignity away from me in public," said Hall, who says police officers unlawfully arrested him, used Tasers on him and beat him excessively after he was warned not to walk along Central east of Nob Hill. "They treated me like an animal because I was black and homeless— like I was less than nothing. It was a public lynching in modern times."
The jury found that Albuquerque police officers Tim Gonterman, Sean Higdon and David Hinson used "excessive force" when they arrested Hall in September 2002, said Hall's attorney, Louren Oliveros.
Kathryn Levy, the city attorney representing the police officers, couldn't be reached for comment.
However, City Attorney Robert White said the city accepts the jury's decision.
"The jury entered its verdict, and we accept its decision with regard to the amount (awarded to Hall)," White said. "And since that particular incident, APD has reviewed and changed its Taser policy."
Hall's attorneys claimed the officers had no lawful reason to arrest, assault or falsely imprison Hall, saying he was just walking along Central and complied with all officers' orders. City attorneys claimed in court documents that the officers acted in good faith, using reasonable police procedures and tactics.
City attorneys also maintained, according to court documents, that the officers had probable cause to arrest Hall, 42, for various crimes, including public nuisance, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and criminal trespassing.
Court documents say Gonterman stopped Hall because police had received complaints of narcotic sales by people on foot in the area, and that he observed Hall acting suspiciously.
Oliveros claimed in the suit that the three officers beat Hall, and that Gonterman applied his Taser "to Mr. Hall's body multiple times inflicting second and third-degree burns."
She said Hall lost part of his ear as a result of being burned.
Hall admits that he had been addicted to drugs but says he has since been through rehabilitation programs. He said he's going to use the money to help get his life back on track and help his four children.
"I want to re-establish my relationships with them and eventually go back to college in the fall," said Hall, a former medical technician and disabled U.S. Army veteran.
"I hope my story shows people redemption is possible for anyone," said Hall, who said his drug addiction led him to homelessness. "The beating made me feel like I was written off as a subhuman, like I had no rights, like I was less than an animal and worthless.
"But homeless or not, we have rights and a voice," Hall said. "And I feel those men should not be cops or even security guards because they pose a possible threat to anyone who's not like them."
APD spokesman John Walsh said that because the incident took place in 2002 under former APD Chief Gilbert Gallegos, he didn't know whether the officers ever faced any disciplinary action. All three still work for APD.
"I'd be more than happy to review it, though," Walsh said. "But as far as that chapter's concerned, it's closed now."
"The position of the city is that it felt strong that the actions of the police officers back then fell under the scoping guidelines of 2002 and the use-of-force model (for Tasers)," said Walsh, adding that the Police Department's policy regarding Tasers has since been made much more restrictive.
Oliveros, who represented Hall with her husband, Robert Gorence, applauded the jury's verdict.
"The defendants did their best to make Hall look as least human as possible," she said. "But the jury's verdict is a good sign society is starting to see through racial and class profiling, as well as the complete disregard these people are often treated with."

Lawsuit Claims APD Officers Assaulted Man

2006-10-27T15:46:00.000-06:00

Friday, October 27, 2006
Associated Press

A federal lawsuit filed against three police officers alleges they sexually assaulted a man while serving a search warrant that involved a former tenant at the man's apartment.
The lawsuit, filed Monday on behalf of 36-year-old Leo Michael Baca, claims officers locked Baca in a bedroom in August 2005, sexually assaulted him and threatened to cut off his testicles if he refused to give information about a previous tenant of the apartment.
The lawsuit names as defendants the city of Albuquerque, Officer Lucas Townsend and two officers Baca said he couldn't identify.
Police spokesman John Walsh declined to comment on the lawsuit.
City Attorney Bob White said his office is reviewing the lawsuit. He had no further comment.
An internal investigation into Baca's allegations cleared the officers, according to a police report.
The investigation included interviews with 13 police officers and an acquaintance of Baca's who were present during the search. All said they did not witness an assault against Baca and said Baca was in the apartment's living room throughout the search.
Investigators were unable to obtain information from audio recorders worn by six officers involved during the search because all six had turned them off after entering the apartment, according to the report.
Police had obtained a warrant to search the apartment in connection with a drug trafficking investigation.

Protestor arrested at weapons symposium

2006-10-02T10:26:00.001-06:00

Media Credit: Photo by Luis Martin
Robert Anderson, a Central New Mexico Community College professor and local antiwar activist, is arrested by UNM Police officers in the Santa Ana room in the SUB on Friday.

by Maggie Ybarra, Daily Lobo

A protestor was arrested on charges of battery on a police officer at a symposium about nuclear warheads in the SUB on Friday.

Robert Anderson, 62, who is a Central New Mexico Community College professor, former UNM professor and local antiwar activist, pleaded not guilty on Sunday to the charge.

The symposium was held to discuss the future of the U.S. nuclear weapons program and the development of new warheads.

The event was sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories, UNM and Women in International Security.

Anderson told the audience he was protesting the event because it encouraged the creation of nuclear weapons, and the panel members did not represent diverse opinions.

The panel included at least three members of Sandia National Laboratories and a member of the National Nuclear Security Administration.

Members of Stop the War Machine, including Anderson, set up a table with posters and bumper stickers outside the Santa Ana room where the symposium was held.

The group is dedicated to educating the public about the military-industrial complex, according to the group's Web site.

Vera Norwood, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said in an interview Sunday that she told the protestors they were allowed to have the table and participate in the symposium. However, they were not allowed to bring signs into the room, she said.

"I told him (Anderson) they were welcome to do whatever they wanted outside the room," she said. "But inside the room, there would be a series of presentations, which a lot of people had come to hear."

About 80 people attended the event.

When the presentation was about to start, Anderson and student Andrew Marcum began shouting questions to the speaker, Norwood said.

The student was holding a sign that read "Educate for peace,

not war."

Norwood told Anderson several times to stop interrupting the presentation, or he would have

to leave.

Protestor arrested at weapons symposium

2006-10-02T10:26:00.000-06:00

Family Seeks Money Damages From APD

2006-09-01T22:02:00.000-06:00

By Carolyn Carlson, Journal Staff Writer

The family of a 17-year-old who was shot and killed by Albuquerque Police Department officers in 2003 is seeking monetary damages from the city and the officers.
On Nov. 29, 2003, Eric Harrison was shot in the back by Officer Matthew Thompson outside the police training academy near Montaño and Second Street during an altercation between Harrison and then-54-year-old Cipriano Salazar.
A police spokesman at the time said the officers were leaving a training session at the academy when they saw a beating in progress. They ordered Harrison to drop a baseball bat he was using to hit Salazar. Harrison refused and raised the bat to strike again, the spokesman said.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed on Nov. 28, 2005, the day before the statute of limitations would have run out, according to attorney Miguel Campos.
Campos and attorney Phillip A. Martinez are representing Maria E. Chávez, who had raised Harrison since he was a toddler.
According to court documents, Campos and Martinez contend Thompson and Brad Ahrensfield confronted Harrison and Salazar, who were involved in the altercation over a T-ball bat.
"One of the officers without adequate warning opened fire upon (Harrison) shooting him twice in the back causing fatal injuries," the lawsuit says.
Campos and Martinez said officers used excessive force and were negligent and reckless.
"It is sad all the way around," Campos said Thursday. He declined to comment further.
Court documents say Ahrensfield did not fire his gun.
Campos and Martinez say in the lawsuit that even though he did not fire his gun, Ahrensfield did not take any action, verbal or physical, to dissuade Thompson from firing the fatal shots. Nor did Ahrensfield warn Harrison that shots were going to be fired.
City attorneys Robert M. White and Kathryn Levy said in court documents that Thompson saw Harrison beating Salazar in the head with a baseball bat. Thompson ordered Harrison to stop but Harrison struck Salazar a second time with the bat. Harrison was in a striking position when Thompson shot Harrison.
They say the actions taken by Thompson saved Salazar from further serious injury or even death and were in full compliance with standard and acceptable police procedures, the city's response to the lawsuit said.
Salazar was taken to an area hospital and was released four days later.
"The city will defend its actions in the lawsuit," White said Thursday.
At the time of the shooting, Harrison's family said the shooting was a tragedy beyond belief.
Frank Chávez, Harrison's uncle, has said his nephew was a good kid and had never been in trouble. Chávez has said he and his mother, Maria, raised Harrison since he was a toddler because both of his parents were in prison.
"This has devastated our family," Chávez said at the time. "The police could have handled this differently. He was just a little guy. Two big cops could have taken him down."
Chávez said his nephew was about 5-foot-5 and weighed only about 130 pounds.
The lawsuit asks for damages to be determined at trial. The case is currently set for a March 2007 trial date.

State Police Officer Charged With Battery

2006-08-15T22:27:00.000-06:00

By Rene Romo, Journal Southern Bureau

LAS CRUCES— City police filed a criminal complaint Monday charging an off-duty State Police officer with aggravated battery for his alleged part in a fight last week.
Nicholas Zepeda, 23, was charged with two felony counts— aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and aggravated battery with intent to commit great bodily harm.
State Police spokesman Lt. Rick Anglada said Zepeda will be placed on administrative duties, pending the outcome of an internal investigation and the criminal case.
Zepeda, stationed in Española, was attending a training class in Las Cruces at the time of the incident, Anglada said.
According to a statement of facts filed in Magistrate Court, a dispute that began at a bar carried over to an apartment complex shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday. Three men, including Zepeda, were involved in an altercation with Daniel Reyes, 23, of Las Cruces.
Amy Orlando, chief deputy district attorney, said prosecutors are considering filing charges against the two men who were with Zepeda. She said she did not expect charges would be filed against Reyes.
Reyes told an investigator that, as he was leaving the bar, he punched Zepeda because Zepeda allegedly insulted him.
Zepeda and two friends then drove to Reyes' apartment. Zepeda told police that as he approached Reyes, Reyes reached into the bed of his truck, grabbed a beer bottle and smashed it against Zepeda's head. A fight ensued.
Reyes told police he struck Zepeda with a bottle in self-defense after Zepeda and two other men arrived at his apartment complex and rushed him.
A witness told police a man matching Zepeda's description made "two quick stabbing movements" to Reyes' back with what appeared to be a piece of glass. Reyes suffered two puncture wounds to his back.

Police Settle Death Lawsuit

2006-08-02T15:36:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, August 2, 2006
By Martin Salazar
Journal Staff Writer

A lawsuit filed over the September 2004 State Police shooting that left a Chimayó man dead has been settled, parties on both sides of the case confirmed Tuesday.
The amount of the settlement— executed in late April— wasn't disclosed.
Leo Lopez, 44, was fatally shot by an undercover State Police narcotics agent during a drug investigation on Sept. 22, 2004. His family filed a wrongful death suit in October 2005 alleging that police failed to identify themselves, that the officer shot Lopez without provocation and that authorities then withheld medical treatment, causing his death.
State Police have said agents identified themselves as police officers when Lopez, who was inside his truck, "aggressively backed up in an apparent attempt to use his vehicle as a weapon against the officers." A State Police officer shot at the driver "while trying to protect himself and others from being severely injured or killed," the agency said.
An investigative grand jury determined in October that the shooting was justified, though the attorney representing the Lopez family has previously said that the grand jury may not have been given all the information in the case.
Plaintiffs attorney Robert Rothstein said he was bound by a confidentiality clause in the settlement and couldn't disclose how much the Lopez family was paid to drop its suit, which had been filed in state district court in Tierra Amarilla.
"My clients were very pleased with the overall settlement and glad to put it behind them," Rothstein said.
A stipulated order of dismissal dropping officer Sean Wallace, who the suit identified as the shooter, and Wallace's former supervisor Roman Jimenez as defendants was filed on April 26. On May 3, a stipulated dismissal order was filed dropping the suit against the remaining defendants— the State Police and the New Mexico Department of Public Safety.
DPS spokesman Peter Olson said he was prohibited by statute from disclosing the settlement amount, but he said the settlement wasn't an admission of wrongdoing by DPS or State Police.
"There are many, many reasons why lawsuits are settled," Olson said. "Among them are expediency and saving taxpayer money for prolonged lawsuits or trials."
Under state law, settlements handled by the state Risk Management Division remain confidential for six months.
Olson said Wallace is still a State Police officer. Jimenez, who had been overseeing the Region III narcotics task force, is now assistant district commander for the State Police district in Deming.
Wallace was named in another 2003 lawsuit alleging excessive force when he worked for State Police in Las Vegas. Wallace had been accused in the suit of battering a man after pulling him over without probable cause. The suit was settled for $19,999 in September 2005.
State Police have refused to confirm that Wallace was indeed the officer who fatally shot Lopez. The agency also has denied multiple requests from the Journal and other media outlets in New Mexico to inspect incident reports from the Sept. 22 shooting that resulted in Lopez's death.
The Journal, Santa Fe New Mexican, Rio Grande Sun and the Albuquerque-based New Mexico Foundation for Open Government filed suit against DPS in August 2005 to get access to the reports. That case is still pending.

Court Limits Schools' Search of Students

2006-07-19T16:37:00.000-06:00

By Amy Miller, Journal Staff Writer

Students can't be searched just because a school official has a hunch they have done something illegal, the state Court of Appeals has ruled.
The ruling upheld a district court decision that two Rio Grande High School campus security aides didn't have reasonable suspicion to search a student who was "acting a little nervous" when approached.
The student, identified only as Pablo R., was found in possession of a weapon and drug paraphernalia. The ruling grants the student's request to suppress evidence in his juvenile case.
Assistant Attorney General Arthur Pepin said his office was disappointed.
"We feel the safety concerns the school expressed are legitimate, and it (the ruling) makes it more difficult for the school to provide a safe learning environment," Pepin said.
The decision was filed in April, and the state Supreme Court declined to review it in June.
Assistant Appellate Defender Nancy Hewitt said the court case should not change how schools operate.
The U.S. Supreme Court has established that school officials must have a good reason to suspect that students have violated the law or a school rule before searching them.
That has been Albuquerque Public Schools' policy for several years, APS spokesman Rigo Chavez said.
However, he said APS police officers and campus security aides will be briefed on the decision and others that define reasonable suspicion during annual training sessions.
Peter Simonson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico, said the decision does "clarify the rights that students have against unwarranted, unjustifiable searches of their person by school administrators."
"We have such a problem in our public schools with misunderstandings about where students' constitutional rights begin and end," he said.

Reasonable suspicion
The court said school officials don't need a search warrant or even probable cause to search a student's belongings.
But students have a constitutional right to privacy, so "the search of a student must still be reasonable under the circumstances in order to withstand constitutional scrutiny," wrote state Appeals Court Judge Michael Vigil. Judges Cynthia Fry and Ira Robinson concurred.
The court said school officials must have reasonable suspicion based on specific facts, and there must be a connection between what they searched for and what they found.
What reasonable suspicion actually means on school grounds to school officials has been a gray area, legal experts agreed.
"Reasonable suspicion is a standard that inevitably will vary from case to case, depending on the circumstances school officials find themselves in at the time," said Chief Public Defender John Bigelow.
In this case, the student was walking down a Rio Grande High hallway on Dec. 15, 2003, without a pass. He said he had been late to class and been instructed by his teacher to go to the office for a late pass.
A campus security aide stopped him and thought "something was wrong" because he seemed nervous and fidgety.
The student was directed to the security office, where two aides frisked him and searched his jacket. They found a pipe containing what appeared to be marijuana residue and a pair of brass knuckles.
The campus security aide admitted that when he stopped the student, he did not suspect any criminal activity or smell marijuana. He became concerned the student "might have a weapon or anything else like marijuana," because the student appeared nervous.
The Appeals Court said that didn't meet the test to allow a search.
"This was nothing more than a hunch and insufficient as a matter of law to provide reasonable suspicion to conduct the search," Vigil wrote. "Reasonable suspicion must exist at the inception of the search; the State cannot rely on facts which arise as a result of the search, such as the discovery of the weapon and drug paraphernalia on Child."

Officer Involved In Fatal Shooting

2006-07-06T22:40:00.000-06:00

By T.J. Wilham And Julie Medina, Journal Staff Writers

An off-duty Albuquerque police officer was involved in a fatal shooting that left his "stepfather," Kirk Carroll, dead in his doorway Tuesday night, police said.
Investigators suspect that Carroll, 48, was struggling with Officer Orlando Camacho for control of the officer's service-issued weapon when it discharged.
Carroll is being described to investigators as Camacho's "stepfather," said John Walsh, an Albuquerque police spokesman.
Walsh said investigators are trying to confirm the information but have yet to find official documents that verify the relationship.
According to tax records, the South Valley home, 1716 Desert Breeze SW, is owned by the two men.
Neighbors said Wednesday that Carroll and Camacho appeared to be father and son.
Camacho wasn't scheduled to work his normal shift and investigators are trying to determine why he was in uniform at the time of the shooting.
Within hours of the shooting, Camacho, a three-year member of the department, was placed on administrative leave and released from police custody. He did give a statement to investigators.
"This case is being investigated just like any other. We are making sure that this investigation is conducted with the utmost integrity," Police Chief Ray Schultz said. "This is not an officer-involved shooting. This is a shooting involving someone who is an officer."
Police said they would submit the investigation to the Bernalillo County District Attorney's Office, which will decide whether charges will be filed.
According to police, at 11:05 p.m., Camacho called on his radio that he needed an ambulance and a rescue unit sent to his home for an "emergency situation."
When rescue crews arrived, they found Carroll dead, lying in the doorway.
Investigators said Camacho had just pulled into the driveway in his squad car and within minutes got into an argument with Carroll over "life issues," Walsh said.
Walsh said the dispute had been brewing over a long time.
The argument eventually turned into a struggle for the gun, police said. Investigators don't know if Camacho drew the weapon.
Walsh said tests will be done to determine who was in control of the gun when it fired.
"It is so preliminary in the investigation right now," Walsh said.
Neighbor Christine Shugars said occasionally she could hear Carroll yelling at Camacho.
"He wasn't nice to his son," Shugars said.
She said when she asked Carroll to join the neighborhood association he was "rude" and told her he didn't care what happens in the neighborhood.
"He just flat wasn't the friendliest," she said.
However, Shugars' daughter, Trudy McKenzie, said Camacho is known around the area to be "pretty friendly."
She said when one neighbor came home and found her house had been broken into, Camacho checked out the home to make sure it was safe for her.
Another neighbor, Irene Ornelas, said the two men were frequently outside working on the yard or the home and appeared friendly.
"Whenever we passed by (Carroll) would smile or nod," she said.
None of the neighbors said they heard anything late Tuesday beside fireworks and a lightning storm.
About five hours before the incident, Joshua Thomas was arriving at a friend's home just a few homes away from where the shooting occurred.
As he passed the home, he saw Carroll standing outside, wearing beige pants and a white T-shirt.
"I waved to him," Thomas said. "He waved back."
Camacho was in uniform and driving off in his squad car, Thomas said.
"He didn't look disturbed," he said.

Gary E. Salazar of the Journal contributed to this report.

APD Officer Involved In Fatal Crash

2006-05-22T22:13:00.000-06:00

Monday, May 22, 2006
By Miguel Navrot and Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writers

An Albuquerque grandmother sitting at a picnic table with family members died early Sunday after a police car crashed through a cinder-block wall, pinning the 73-year-old against the table.
Flora Aragon had been in the front yard of the family home around midnight, enjoying the cool air and chatting with her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend when the squad car slammed onto the property.

Crash Kills Grandma

Lucas Coshenet/Journal
Shantel Perez looks at the shrine placed in honor of her grandmother Flora Aragon, 73.

The crash killed Aragon and injured the other two.
But it is the police's handling of the crash, which happened on Crestview SW near West Central and 53rd Street, that family members talked about most Sunday.
As they gathered for a candlelight vigil for Aragon, they pointed out the dried blood stains on the picnic table.
"The police department's not telling us anything," said Denise Baker, one of Aragon's 29 grandchildren. "They're not offering condolences. They're being rude to us, like we're the criminals here."
A multi-agency group is investigating the crash, which involved a rookie officer identified as Zachariah Floyd, 23, Albuquerque police spokesman John Walsh said. Much of that investigation is expected to be completed this week.
"This is a tragedy, just an absolute tragedy," Walsh said Sunday. "The officer is extraordinarily upset over the events and, obviously, so, too, is the family of the victim."
The crash happened as police answered a domestic violence call in the West Side neighborhood.
Floyd, responding to the call, was preparing to park his squad car when another vehicle veered alongside, Walsh said. Floyd steered sharply, struck a curb and drove through the 2-foot high cinder-block fence.
The impact struck Aragon from behind, family said, pinning her between the car and the wooden picnic table.
The crash also injured her daughter Tonnie Sanchez, 52, of Albuquerque and Sanchez's boyfriend, Ismael Villalobo, 39.
Rescuers took Aragon to the University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
An inter-agency team composed of Albuquerque police, Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office and State Police is investigating the crash, Walsh said.
The local District Attorney's Office is expected to oversee and review the investigation.
Floyd is on three-day paid administrative, pending the investigation, Walsh said.
Neither alcohol nor speed appears to have been a factor in the crash, Walsh said. Authorities took breath and blood tests from Floyd after the crash.
"We've done breath tests and a blood draw, which is standard on all fatals," Walsh said. "In any event, neither of the two factors appears to have been present at the onset of this investigation. It is, however, still ongoing."
Walsh noted that the airbags on Floyd's cruiser didn't deploy. A deployed airbag can indicate high speed.
Walsh said it is "very unlikely" Floyd will face a vehicular homicide charge. He added that, for such a case to be made, the driver must either have been intoxicated or driving recklessly at the time of the crash.
Aragon's family disputed the contention that Floyd wasn't driving recklessly. The cinder-block wall that was toppled in the crash was reinforced with metal rebar, family said.
Further, they said, flying debris punched at least two holes in the home, one through an exterior wall and another through the wood door.
"We left this here because it tells a story," Baker said of the blood-stained picnic table, which authorities cut through to extract Aragon.
Baker said another granddaughter of Aragon's who arrived at the home after the accident was tackled by police after she started taking photos of the scene. Officers confiscated the camera and hadn't returned it as of Sunday night, Baker said.
"We feel the cops are covering up the incident a little bit," Baker said. Other family members agreed.
Baker did have compliments, however, for a violent crimes detective who personally offered flowers, condolences and assistance with memorial services.
On Sunday, as debris and fallen plants covered the crash site, family placed fresh flowers and photographs of Aragon next to the shattered picnic table. Photos included snapshots and portraits from when she was 10 years old through this past New Year's.
Aragon came to Albuquerque in 1965 from Del Norte, Colo., a town in the San Luis Valley. She had six children.
A parishioner of St. Therese of the Little Flower Church, Aragon retired as an inspector for Honeywell in Albuquerque, family said.
Services are pending.

Birthday plans end in fatal crash

2006-05-21T22:28:00.000-06:00

by Megan Arredondo
Tribune Reporter
Sunday, May 21, 2006

It was just after midnight, and 74-year-old Flora Aragon was getting ready to bake a birthday cake for a granddaughter who was turning 10 that day.

Aragon sat at a wooden picnic table early Sunday in her front lawn at 5208 Crestview Place S.W. with daughter Tonnie Sanchez and her daughter's friend Ismael Villalobo, the eggs and cake decorations in front of her.

She never got to make the cake.

Albuquerque police Officer Zachariah Floyd, 23 and a rookie of less than a year, crashed his cruiser through a low cinder-block wall surrounding Aragon's home and into the three.

Sanchez, 52, said she and Villalobo were thrown several yards.

Her mother was not so lucky.

The vehicle hit her from behind and pinned her against the picnic table and bench.

"My mom didn't even see it coming," Sanchez said.

Aragon died after being transported to University of New Mexico Hospital, police said.

John Walsh, spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department, said Floyd was responding to a domestic violence call in the 200 block of 53rd Street Southwest when the crash occurred.

Floyd was traveling south on 53rd Street and was passing another southbound vehicle when the other driver turned left, into his path, Walsh said.

It forced Floyd to veer into Aragon's yard, Walsh said.

The officer did not have emergency lights or sirens on when the crash occurred, but that is common practice when approaching a domestic violence disturbance, Walsh said.

While the investigation continues, it doesn't appear Floyd was speeding because his car's air bag did not inflate in the crash, Walsh said. Floyd was not injured in the crash, Walsh said.

Sanchez said Floyd didn't immediately try to help her or her mother.

"I laid there on that (patio) floor in pain for 45 minutes before anyone came to me," Sanchez said. "It took them forever."

Walsh, however, said rescue units arrived within four minutes of the call.

Sanchez suffered lacerations on her leg and thigh and required stitches for a cut on her arm. Villalobo had minor cuts on his head, lip and back, she said.

Meanwhile, Aragon remained pinned in front of her home.

Family members say emergency respondents didn't come prepared, lacking equipment that could've expedited the rescue.

"They were yanking her (Aragon) by the arm," said Eva Marie Candelaria, one of Aragon's grandchildren.

Emergency workers eventually cut apart the wooden table that pinned her, Candelaria said.

On Sunday afternoon, more than half a day after the crash, pieces of the table and bench still lay in front of the house like a bloodied jigsaw puzzle. Broken cinder block was strewn across the front yard, some of the pieces marked with dried blood.

A makeshift memorial of flowers, candles and photographs were placed amid the rubble where Aragon was trapped.

"She was a wonderful person," son Alvin Aragon said. "A wonderful mother."

His mother built the bench and table set she was pinned against, he said, along with the wooden fences on the side of her home.

Granddaughter Denise Baker said Aragon lived for her family.

"Life without one of her kids was not life," Baker said. "Family was everything."

She said she was devastated when she got the phone call that her grandmother had died.

"I could feel everything in my body leave," she said wearing a T-shirt stained with her grandmother's blood. "We were all in shock; it still hasn't settled in. We're still waiting for her to get up."

The most upsetting part for Baker and other family members was the way police treated them, she said.

Baker said police confiscated a camera one family member was using to photograph the crash scene.

She also said police called in the crash as "bravo," meaning injuries were minor, rather than "delta," which meant there were serious injuries. As a result, Baker said, the emergency crew was unprepared for what it found.

"Who's to say what would've happened if it was done properly," Baker said. "They were more concerned about getting the officer, who didn't have any injuries, out."

Walsh said Albuquerque police don't differentiate when they report a wreck with injuries.

A second officer arrived at the scene shortly after the crash and called for aid, Walsh said. "You couldn't have any faster response" than occurred, he said.

Walsh said the crash is under investigation by a team consisting of representatives from the Police Department, State Police, Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department and the District Attorney's Office.

Floyd has been put on paid administrative leave for 72 hours while the investigation is being conducted, he said.

Baker said the family is looking for an apology from the Police Department.

"We want some respect," she said. "They took her life and walked away like they did nothing wrong. . . . They're supposed to be there to serve and protect. Well, they didn't serve and protect her."

Ex-Cop Gets 15 Years in Assaults

2006-03-31T16:57:00.000-07:00

By Scott Sandlin , Journal Staff Writer

Ex-cop Christopher Chase, a man who once put people in handcuffs, saw them slipped on his wrists by court officers Thursday after he was sentenced to the maximum possible penalty— 15 years behind bars.
Despite his attorney's request for voluntary surrender, Chase was taken into custody as soon as the sentencing hearing ended— to wails from his family.
Chase, 31, an Albuquerque Police Department officer fired after his indictment on multiple sexual assault and kidnapping charges in June 2003, entered a plea in February acknowledging he could be convicted if he went to trial. The so-called Alford plea was to 10 counts of criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping and other crimes related to six victims.
District Judge Denise Barela Shepherd then found him guilty.
But Chase and family members speaking on his behalf continued to insist his innocence and said he took the plea only to provide some resolution for his young family. His daughters, ages 1 and 4, and his wife, Darla, appeared at the hearing as they have for virtually every court event in the longstanding case.
His wife, who said there were mistakes in the investigation, emotionally threw her arms around Chase before he was ordered to prison.
A succession of victims also offered emotional evocations of their experiences with Chase, whom they never knew before their official encounters with him. The women, some of whom were high school teens at the time the crimes were committed, spoke of the lasting effects of the assaults on them and their families.
Veronica Edwell, pulled over by Chase for an alleged traffic infraction and assaulted, and Marissa Senigo, who was 16 when she was pulled over by Chase in 2002, said they fear police when they see them.
Prosecutor Michael Fricke, urging the maximum penalty, said Chase had figuratively raped the city as well as the individual victims.
Detective Monte Curtis said that, until he investigated, he would never have believed a police officer capable of the assaults. Chase has eroded years of work building relations between police and the community, he said.
Defense attorney Jacquelyn Robins urged Shepherd to sentence Chase to five years in prison and 20 years probation. As an ex-cop, she said, her client will have to remain in protective custody— meaning 23 hours a day in his cell.
She said Chase took the plea despite his desire for a trial because, if he'd been convicted of even one set of incidents in the indictment, he could have faced an even longer sentence.

Former Albuquerque Officer Sentenced in Plea Deal

2006-03-30T17:52:00.000-07:00

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Associated Press
A former Albuquerque police officer accused of sexually assaulting and beating motorists was sentenced Thursday to 15 years in prison.
State District Judge Denise Barela Shepherd sentenced Christopher Chase to 60 years, but suspended all but 15 years — the maximum allowed under a plea deal Chase reached with prosecutors in January. She also sentenced Chase to five years of probation upon his release.
The judge rejected a defense proposal to give him a shorter prison sentence and 20 years of probation.
He had entered Alford pleas to 10 counts involving the alleged attacks, which occurred between 2001 and 2003 while he was a patrolman. Under an Alford plea, the defendant does not admit guilt, but acknowledges prosecutors may have enough evidence for a conviction.
Shepherd said Chase will be put in protective custody in prison because of his law enforcement background.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Fricke said Chase violated the public trust, his uniform and his badge.
"Chase is more than a rapist who rapes victims,'' he said. "He raped the city.''
Several people who spoke on Chase's behalf said he could not have committed the crimes.
"There has never, ever been a doubt in my mind that they have got the wrong man,'' said his wife, Darla.
Chase could have been sentenced to more than 140 years had he been found guilty of all the charges at trial.
Prosecutors accused Chase of randomly selecting vehicles to pull over, then forcing himself on the motorist. The incidents occurred both while Chase was on- and off-duty and while he was using his marked police car.
Chase was fired from the department after he was indicted June 2003 on 32 charges, including five counts of rape and two counts of criminal sexual contact.
The plea agreement includes four counts of rape, three counts of kidnapping, two counts of criminal sexual contact and one count of aggravated battery.

Ex-APD officer gets 15 years in prison

2006-03-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

By Joline Gutierrez Krueger, Albuquerque Tribune

Posted 3:45 p.m. Former Albuquerque police Officer Christopher Chase will spend the next 15 years in prison after being sentenced today for the sexual assaults or beatings he dealt out to seven motorists from 2001 to 2003.

CHASE LAWSUITS
Besides the criminal charges, former Albuquerque police officer Christopher Chase was also named in six lawsuits, filed in federal and state courts.

All cases have been settled, costing the city about $3 million.

State District Judge Denise Barela Shepherd rejected a proposal from Chase's attorneys for a lesser sentence but a 20-year-probation.

Instead, she gave Chase the maximum allowable sentence under terms of a plea agreement signed in January.

And because of his law enforcement background, Chase will be placed in protective custody, Shepherd said. He will spend 23 hours a day in his cell.

The former officer entered Alford pleas in January to 10 counts involving attacks on motorists while he was a patrolman based in the Foothills Area Command.

An Alford plea does not admit guilt but acknowledges that enough evidence exists to convict. In the state's eyes, it is equivalent to a guilty plea.

Prosecutors say Chase randomly selected vehicles to pull over, then forced himself on the motorist, most of whom had not committed any traffic offense. The incidents occurred while Chase was both on- and off-duty, and while he was using his marked police car.

The victims include three women and three teenage girls. The charges also involve a teenage male relative of a high-ranking law enforcement official whom Chase is accused of beating with a flashlight and assaulting with a gun during a traffic stop in September 2002.

Tears flowed freely during the emotional sentencing hearing. Several victims spoke, saying they no longer trusted authorities, including police, and that the assaults had changed their lives forever.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Fricke called Chase a serial rapist. "Chase is more than a rapist who rapes victims," he said. "He raped the city."

The former officer violated the public trust, his uniform and his badge, Fricke said.

Several people spoke on Chase's behalf, denying that he could have committed the crimes.

"There has never, ever been a doubt in my mind that they have got the wrong man," said his wife, Darla.

She then started crying, prompting Chase to cry.

Chase was fired from the Albuquerque Police Department after being indicted in June 2003 on 32 charges, including five counts of rape and two counts of criminal sexual contact.

He was freed on $15,000 bond, but Shepherd in January ordered him into the Community Custody Program, where he was forced to wear an ankle monitor and check in regularly.

Until recently, he had been employed as a foreman for a construction company.

Today the judge denied a request from Chase's attorney, Jacquelyn Robins, that Chase be allowed to turn himself in.

Shepherd ordered him taken into custody immediately. He will need protective custody even during his processing at the Central Mexico Correctional Facility in Los Lunas.

Cop Fired In DWI Cover-Up

2006-03-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz fired one of his officers Friday for her role in trying to cover up an alcohol-related crash involving a fellow cop.
Sara Harris, 23, a 21/2-year member of the department, has 10 days to appeal the firing.
"We are sending a very clear and strong message to the department and to the community that we hold people accountable," Schultz said. "The facts of the case are at a level where termination is the only option."
Contacted Friday, Harris referred questions to her attorney, who was out of town. Harris said she had yet to discuss with her lawyer whether she will appeal the termination. She said she learned she lost her job through news reports Friday.
An internal investigation found that Harris was in uniform working an overtime shift at a Northeast Heights bar on March 9 when she left her post to pick up officer Brandon Wilcox, 25, who is accused of wrecking his squad car while intoxicated.
Harris took Wilcox home, and moments later, Wilcox's 19-year-old brother, Bryan, showed up at the crash site in the 5500 block of Comanche NE. The younger Wilcox sat in the driver's seat, called police and waited at the scene, court records state.
When officers arrived, he told them he had stolen his brother's police car to pull a prank on some friends.
Meanwhile, Harris went back to her post working security.
Eventually, Bryan Wilcox admitted that he wasn't driving and directed officers to his brother's home nearby, records state.
There, officers found Brandon Wilcox, whose blood-alcohol content was tested at 0.20.
Investigators learned Harris might be involved after another officer came forward, Schultz said.
At the time of the crash, Harris was working chief's overtime, a program in which businesses can hire officers to work security.
On Thursday, Brandon Wilcox, who was arrested on aggravated DWI charges, resigned from the department.
Had Wilcox not resigned, Schultz said, Wilcox would have been terminated.

APD Cop Accused of DWI

2006-03-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

An off-duty Albuquerque police officer was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after police say he wrecked his take-home patrol car and got his brother to claim responsibility.
When other officers found the wrecked car in Northeast Albuquerque early Thursday morning, officer Brandon Wilcox's younger brother, Bryan, was in the driver's seat, according to a police report.
Bryan Wilcox, 19, claimed he had stolen his brother's police car to pull a prank on some friends at a party.
Police say they believe Brandon Wilcox had called his brother after the crash and got him to take him home. Bryan Wilcox then went back to the wrecked police car and said he was driving it.
Officers went to Brandon Wilcox's home, where it took them 10 to 15 minutes to get him out of bed.
Wilcox, 25, performed "poorly" on a series of field sobriety tests, and his blood-alcohol content was more than twice the legal limit of 0.08, according to court records. He was booked into the West Side jail on a charge of aggravated DWI.
Police said Wilcox earlier went to a bar, had made it home but then went out again before the crash occurred.
"I am extremely disappointed," Police Chief Ray Schultz said Thursday. "This shows that DWI is a problem that plagues this entire community including law enforcement."
Schultz has placed Wilcox on administrative leave with pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation.
Additional charges against both brothers could be filed, police said.
Wilcox, a patrolman and a four-year member of the department, didn't return phone calls Thursday.
Schultz said he has "zero tolerance" for DWI and pointed out that he has fired every officer that has been arrested for drunken driving under his command. He would not say what action would be taken against Wilcox.
"We will do what we have to do," Schultz said. "I think everyone knows how I feel about DWI."
According to police reports and court records:
Police were called about 1 a.m. to the crash site in the 5500 block of Comanche NE after Wilcox's brother called 911 and reported that he had wrecked his brother's police car.
He said his brother didn't know that he had the car, had been drinking elsewhere and was at his house passed out.
The car had hit a curb, spun across Comanche, hit another curb and ended up off the roadway. The squad car had minor damage.
Police were suspicious of Bryan Wilcox's story and say he eventually admitted he wasn't the driver.
Officers went to Brandon Wilcox's home a few blocks from the wreck, but neither his girlfriend nor police could wake Wilcox, and paramedics were called.
Ten to 15 minutes later, before the paramedics arrived, Wilcox woke up. He had problems standing, had to be held up by other officers, had slurred speech, a "strong odor of alcohol on his breath" and stumbled as he made his way out of the home.
Wilcox was released to a police sergeant after being booked into the jail.
That sergeant drove Wilcox home, where he took possession of Wilcox's duty weapon, shotgun and badge.

APD Targets 2 In Evidence Case

2006-03-02T20:21:00.000-07:00

By T.J. Wilham, Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer

The Albuquerque Police Department is investigating two officers to determine whether one— or both— helped cover up missing property from the evidence room while it was being investigated by the state Attorney General's Office.
Although neither officer has been charged, Police Chief Ray Schultz said he plans to issue "harsh" punishment in the case.
The two officers, who were partners, are blaming each other for allowing two civilian evidence room clerks to have access to property logs.
Attorneys for officers Robbin Burge and Scott Lopez say their clients are innocent.
The internal investigation, which started last fall, is the last of many evidence room probes. It started after the city's Independent Review Office noticed discrepancies in evidence room logs.
Schultz said he is awaiting the results of a lie-detector test for Burge.
A temporary restraining order prevents APD from giving her a lie-detector test, and a hearing on the restraining order is scheduled next week. Lopez already took a lie-detector test, which his attorney said he passed.
"We are in a situation where this is someone's word against someone else's word," Schultz said. "There are some questions that still need to be answered. That's why I need the (lie-detector test). ... Based on what I know now, there will be discipline. ... It will be harsh."
According to court records and police reports obtained by the Journal, Burge claims that Lopez was having a relationship with an evidence room clerk who was a target of the attorney general's investigation.
That investigation determined that more than $58,000 was missing from the evidence room and that criminal conduct had occurred. However, no one was prosecuted in connection with the missing evidence.
When questioned, both detectives said the other was responsible for allowing the clerks access to the logs.
Both clerks, who were civilians, were terminated from the department for other reasons.
Rob Perry, who is representing Burge, said his client was a primary source in the IRO's investigation.
After she came forward with the information about her partner's involvement, APD launched an investigation into her, Perry said.
"We don't have a problem taking a fair (lie-detector test). We do have a problem taking theirs," Perry said. "It's concerning they even want to do one given all of the evidence against my client's accuser."
Lopez's attorney Peter Schoenburg said his client has done nothing wrong.
Both officers have remained on duty during the investigation. Burge remains a detective, and Lopez has been promoted to sergeant.
"This investigation is the last thing that needs to be done with the evidence room," Schultz said. "This is us making sure that everything with the evidence room is dealt with.
"I am doing everything I said I was going to do. We are addressing everything and are not going to brush anything under the carpet."

Black Panthers Stress Social Aims; Members Address Crowd at UNM

2006-02-19T21:56:00.001-07:00

By Lloyd Jojola, Journal Staff Writer

On the heels of the civil rights movement, the Watts riots, the slaying of Malcolm X and with the Vietnam War as a backdrop, the Black Panther Party emerged in America.
"We were founded not on a street corner but on a college campus," David Hilliard, a founding member of the Black Panthers, told a crowd of a few hundred people at the University of New Mexico on Saturday. "So we've always felt very much at home among people from college campuses, where the free flow of ideas can be discussed."
Hilliard, who also served as the party's chief of staff, was part of a panel discussion titled "Origins of the Black Panther Party." The event is part of a program to mark the 40th anniversary of the organization. The panel also featured Ericka Huggins, who was director of the Black Panther Party school (The Oakland Learning Center); Elaine Brown, the only woman to chair the party; and Fredrika Newton, a party member and wife of the late Huey P. Newton.
It was Newton and Bobby Seale who in 1966 launched the organization in Oakland.
The group is unfortunately identified more with militancy than with the social changes it sought, Hilliard said.
"It's important to set the tenet of our movement because it's so misunderstood," he said. "What is really remembered is the militancy without any other characteristics. We're frozen in sensationalist imagery of leather jackets and guns.
"We don't deny that."
In its nascent stage, it was known as the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The group saw itself as a "revolutionary action movement," he said, and campaigns to end police brutality and the murder of black people were points in their platform.
But other program points advocated for such things as universal health care, decent education and housing.
"That has been totally written out of the history," Hilliard said. "The only thing that remains is the militancy. To set the record straight, we were not a 'black power' organization; not in that traditional sense. Not in the sense that we were separatists."
Hilliard said the group worked alongside such leaders as César Chávez and Dolores Huerta and for people who fought for gay rights.
"We're here to try to help introduce our particular style of work to students who are seeking new movements," Hilliard said toward the end of his comments. "We challenge you to draw on our Black Panther Party because there are important lessons to be learned from our movement and we'd like to do that by having a curriculum here at this university."
Hilliard raised the idea of partnering with the university to investigate how the federal government tried to undermine the party.
"There's never been one accounting about what the FBI did to our Black Panther Party, so we think that this is a good time to make that happen," he said.
Huggins was an 18-year-old student at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania when she read a magazine article about a young African-American man— Newton— who stood accused of killing a policeman.
The reading was predictable; the photo, appalling, she said.
"The picture was of this young man strapped to a hospital gurney with a bullet wound in his stomach with a seemingly huge, to me at that time, European American police officer in full uniform laughing into the camera.
"I studied that picture for quite some time. I didn't even have tears for it, I was so appalled."
Huggins traveled across the country and joined the Southern California chapter.
"We were about local change, and this is what scared the government into minimizing our principles and calling us racists," Huggins said. "We were about redistribution of the wealth as an equal."

Ex-Officer Guilty on 10 Counts

2006-01-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

Saturday, January 28, 2006
By Scott Sandlin, Journal Staff Writer

Former Albuquerque police officer Christopher Chase faces up to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping and other crimes.
Chase entered a plea Friday in which he acknowledged he likely would be convicted at trial. District Judge Denise Barela Shepherd then found him guilty of nine felony charges and one misdemeanor.
She scheduled sentencing for March 30.
The plea brings to a close a costly chapter for the city, which has been a defendant in lawsuits filed by the former officer's victims.
One case went to trial last February in federal court and resulted in a jury verdict of $943,380 plus $150,000 in legal fees. The city has appealed to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Another case involving a former prostitute was settled for $300,000 in November, despite Mayor Martin Chávez's policy of not settling cases involving police officers.
Three remaining civil lawsuits in which women claimed they had been sexually assaulted by Chase were resolved by Thursday with a $600,000 settlement, their attorney said.
The legal cases against Chase stem from traffic stops that started in September 2001 where he sexually molested, beat or kidnapped at least 11 motorists.
A subdued Chase, 31, appeared before Shepherd and answered "Yes ma'am" and "No ma'am" to questions about the individual charges.
His wife, mother-in-law and two young daughters watched. So did family members of one victim, who wept as Chase entered the plea to counts involving the then-16-year-old girl stopped by Chase and fondled in 2003.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Fricke said the plea was a good outcome for the victims, who won't have to testify, and for the public.
Defense attorney Jacquelyn Robins said her client faces less time than if he had gone to trial and been convicted.
There could have been at least three and possibly six trials.
Shepherd ordered a presentence report and said Chase would be remanded to the community confinement program pending sentencing.
That means he can continue working at the construction company where he supervises 30 employees, putting in some 70 hours a week, according to Robins. She said Chase wanted to keep working so he can provide for his family before he goes to prison.
The charges in the plea agreement include criminal sexual penetration, kidnapping, criminal sexual contact of a minor by a person in a position of authority and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Fricke said he will argue for the maximum sentence.
Robins said she will ask that he be sentenced to nine years, with as much probation as the statute will permit.
The plea agreement may have been encouraged by an FBI investigation that could have led to federal charges of civil rights violations.
The civil lawsuits began mounting soon after the criminal indictment was handed up in June 2003. Chase was fired by APD shortly thereafter.
Attorney Brad Hall said he settled cases filed on behalf of three women on Thursday for a total of $600,000.
"I think we could have done better at trial, but they wanted to get this behind them," Hall said.
He said he believes the city has paid nearly $800,000 in legal fees in the collective cases involving Chase.