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

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.

Police Watchdog Leaving Position

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.

ABQ Journal: City Must Find Funds for Police Oversight

A city with a $450 million general fund budget ought to be able to scrape together $140,000 to hire two more investigators to probe citizen complaints against police.
The number of complaints filed with the city's Police Oversight Commission against city police officers has grown steadily since its inception in 1999. Last year, the agency investigated 307 cases.
Independent Review Officer Jay Rowland says his two investigators handled 271 cases in the first nine months of this year, and he expects they will handle up to 350 before the year ends.
Cases Rowland's investigators can't get to— and that has grown to more than 50 percent of the complaints— are handled by the Albuquerque Police Department's Internal Affairs office.
That's not the type of independent investigation citizens want. Indeed, Rowland cites a drop in "customer satisfaction" of citizens filing complaints.
The mayor and City Council should re-examine priorities and find $140,000 to reinforce Rowland's team.

APD Top Brass Didn't Help; Evidence Case Reviewer Couldn't Get Interviews

By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

Former Albuquerque Police Chief Gilbert Gallegos declined to cooperate with the city's independent investigation into the police department's evidence room.
He wasn't the only one, according to an edited version of a report released Monday. The former civilian director of the unit, a retired detective and two former employees suspected of stealing from the evidence room all refused to give interviews to the city's independent review officer.
The report indicated that lieutenants in charge of the department's internal affairs bureau feared retaliation for investigating the department's top brass, and that the entire department needs sexual harassment training.
Jay Rowland, the independent review officer, was asked in March by Mayor Martin Chávez to conduct an investigation into the evidence room.
The investigation started about the same time Gallegos resigned as chief amid allegations that he allowed the two employees accused of theft to continue to work in the evidence room, thus giving them access to records that might have proven their guilt.
A yearlong investigation into the thefts conducted by the Attorney General's Office concluded that thefts likely occurred but that there wasn't enough evidence to present a case to a grand jury. The report also determined that "poor record keeping, deficient supervision and unrestricted access to all evidence room employees" would hamper any prosecution.
Rowland was assigned the task of investigating allegations that some of Gallegos's deputy chiefs were retaliating against officers who had come forward with accusations.
Two weeks ago a four-page "executive summary" was released to the public, but the 20-page report of Rowland's investigation was withheld until Monday. About 13 pages of that report were deleted from the version that was made public.
City officials said the portions of the report that were withheld involved personnel matters and therefore could not be released.
When asked if Gallegos cooperated, Rowland told the Journal on Monday, "We sent him letters, and he did not call for an interview."
Gallegos has requested that the Journal never contact him for comment.
Ann Talbot, who was the civilian director of the unit, has not returned several phone calls left by the Journal over several weeks.
Talbot left APD in February to take a job as director of the state Department of Public Safety's crime lab.
The report concluded that lieutenants in charge of the department's internal affairs division feared retaliation for doing investigations involving APD's top brass.
Rowland concluded in his report that their fears were justified and recommended that all investigations involving top APD officials be investigated by the city's Police Oversight Commission, the board to which Rowland reports.
"Efforts by captains and below to resolve issues involving captains and above were met by the deputy chiefs having the captains investigated and removed from their command positions or threatened with removal," the report states.
One captain, Ron Paiz, had internal affairs removed from his authority after he opened an "informal, preliminary" investigation into Gallegos and a deputy chief after he heard about allegations at a union meeting.
"When (Gallegos) learned of this, he terminated the captain's efforts, relieved the captain of his duties over internal affairs and opened an investigation into the captain," the report states.
According to the report, several witnesses interviewed by Rowland's staff raised "sexual and gender issues, including inappropriate emails by senior officers, sexual discrimination in recruiting and assignments and inappropriate relationships."
Some senior officers were accused of having "inappropriate relationships," but Rowland's staff determined they had "no basis in fact" and "we made no findings in these."
When asked about the specific allegations of sexual harassment, Rowland said, "I thought that there was enough there that they should have some type of sexual harassment training."

Feds Holding Off on APD Probe

By T.J. Wilham, Journal Staff Writer

The U.S. Attorney's Office is not going to join the list of agencies investigating the Albuquerque Police Department's evidence room— at least for now.
On Friday, U.S. Attorney officials said that, despite Mayor Martin Chávez's request last week to start an inquiry, they are going to wait for the results of state Attorney General Patricia Madrid's investigation before a decision is made on whether to start a probe of their own.
"It would be premature to launch a federal investigation, especially given the fact the AG is already conducting a criminal investigation," said Norm Cairns, an assistant U.S. attorney. "If (Madrid) requested assistance, we would assist. Absent such a request, our office is going to wait and see how the state investigation turns out."
Chávez initiated talks with the U.S. Attorneys Office in Albuquerque after Sgt. Cynthia Orr told the Journal last week that Chief Gilbert Gallegos has lied and attempted to cover up problems at the evidence unit. Gallegos has denied the allegation.
Chávez said he understands the decision.
"I respect the decision, but this really tightens the need to get the AG investigation complete," Chávez said. "There are certain things as mayor I can not get done until (Madrid) gets her investigation complete.
"I have to make sure of the factual predicate before I do things that could devastate careers."
The mayor has said changes will be made in APD because of the ongoing evidence room issues. He would not comment one way or the other if Gallegos will lose his job.
Last year, the AG's Office started to investigate APD's evidence room after an anonymous memo was sent to law enforcement officials claiming cash, drugs and jewelry were missing from the unit. The memo also questioned APD's own investigation into the matter.
AG officials have acknowledged their investigation is complete, but they are reviewing it before they issue a report.
Chávez said he does not know when the AG's Office will issue a report.
But, "from my conversations with (Madrid), it is not on the immediate horizon," he said. "She is restricted on what she can tell me."
Chávez said part of the delay is that Madrid is in Spain visiting her son and is not expected to be back for at least another week. He said Madrid does not want anything issued until she has a chance to read it.
According to APD memos obtained by the Journal this week, the AG's office is investigating the loss of more than $75,000 in property. Four police employees— including two officers— have been implicated in the thefts.
The officers are cooperating with authorities, and it is likely they will not be charged with a crime, the memos show. The memos say the employees were able to take property out of the evidence room while it was going to auction.
So far, the city's internal auditor, APD detectives, a private security company, the city' Independent Review Office and a private consulting company have conducted or are conducting reviews, audits or investigations into the evidence room.
Chávez said he has also asked the IRO to investigate the timeliness of APD's internal investigation and allegations Gallegos allowed two employees accused of wrongdoing to work in the evidence room for six months, thus allowing them the opportunity to destroy evidence that would have proven their guilt.