Another New Mexico Cop Lauded for Nabbing Drunk Drivers Admits Taking Bribes To Let Them Off the Hook
SOURCE:Reason
A guilty plea by a retired Albuquerque officer who served in law enforcement for more than 30 years illustrates the extent of the biggest police scandal in the state's history.
In September 2021, Albuquerque police officer Timothy McCarson arrested an intoxicated driver who had been hospitalized after he was injured in a crash. But McCarson never filed charges against the driver, and he explained why in a federal plea agreement last week: A local defense attorney, Thomas Clear, paid him $5,000 to make the case go away.
McCarson's guilty plea is the latest example of the corruption revealed by a federal investigation of a long-running scheme in which Clear bribed police to ensure that his clients would not be convicted of DWI charges. Two dozen people, including defense attorneys, Albuquerque police officers, and Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies, have been implicated so far, and a dozen have pleaded guilty. This "DWI Enterprise," as federal prosecutors call it, is the biggest law enforcement scandal in New Mexico's history. It goes back 30 years—a period during which Clear handled about 2,500 DWI cases.
McCarson's guilty plea illustrates the extent of the corruption, which allegedly involved widely respected, long-serving police officers, often in senior positions. McCarson, who joined the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) in 2006 and previously worked for the Las Cruces Police Department, had a law enforcement career spanning more than three decades. He served in the APD's DWI unit, where prosecutors say bribery was institutionalized and "generational," for 11 years before retiring in 2022.
McCarson was selected by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) as New Mexico's Outstanding Enforcement Officer of the Year in 2019. After his retirement, he ran a consulting firm that was awarded a four-year, $1.2 million contract with the New Mexico Department of Transportation (NMDOT). KRQE, the CBS affiliate in Albuquerque, reports that the federally funded contract involves providing "specific training to specialty officers, including members of DWI units." After McCarson's guilty plea, an NMDOT spokeswoman told KRQE the department is "aware of the issue and is evaluating."
McCarson pleaded guilty to one count of violating 18 USC 1951(a), which applies to extortion conspiracies implicating interstate commerce. Although that felony is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, the plea agreement says prosecutors will recommend "a sentence of no greater than 46 months' incarceration," noting McCarson's "acceptance of responsibility."
In addition to the bribe involving the hospitalized driver, McCarson describes the outcome of a DWI arrest he made at a sobriety checkpoint in August 2015. McCarson says the driver was the uncle of another officer involved in Clear's conspiracy, who asked Rick Mendez, the lawyer's investigator and paralegal, to "offer me a bribe in exchange for not appearing as otherwise required" at the man's administrative hearing and trial, which resulted in dismissal of the charges.
As Clear and Mendez explained when they pleaded guilty in January and February, that was typically how the bribery scheme worked. Clients would pay them sizable fees with the understanding that Clear would help them avoid suspension of their driver's licenses, interlock-device requirements, and criminal penalties. Clear would use some of that money to pay off police officers, who would be conveniently absent from administrative hearings, pretrial interviews, and judicial proceedings.
"Without the Conspiring Officers' agreement and participation, the high success rate of [Clear] in avoiding criminal and administrative consequences for DWI Offenders would not have been possible," McCarson says. "I agreed to intentionally fail to appear at required criminal and administrative settings associated with the DWI-related arrests, allowing [Clear] to move to dismiss the proceedings in exchange for payment of cash and other gifts. I was aware that as part of the scheme, DWI Offenders retained [Clear] as their attorney following their DWI arrests. After the DWI Offender hired Clear, I was paid in cash to agree not to perform my duties on the particular DWI Offender's case. [Mendez] typically handled communications with me to arrange meetings to exchange payments."
McCarson adds that Clear and Mendez "also provided or offered me non-cash rewards
such as Christmas gifts." He "understood that these gifts, while not tied to a particular case, were given to DWI officers to develop goodwill."
In addition to confirming the bribery scheme, McCarson's account suggests that corrupt officers would sometimes make special efforts on behalf of people with whom they were personally connected. Former Albuquerque police officer Louis A. Henckel III, who pleaded guilty to the same extortion charge on June 23, offers another example.
In February 2019, Henckel says, he "arrested C.W." for "DWI and other related charges." C.W. "was romantically involved with another APD Conspiring Officer," who "asked me to not appear at C.W.'s trial," which Henckel agreed to do as "a professional courtesy," calling in sick that day. After the case was continued rather than dismissed, C.W. hired Clear, who paid Henckel $500 to miss the rescheduled trial.
"I now know that the APD Conspiring Officer provided the cash to [Mendez], which [Mendez] then used to pay me," Henckel says. "I understand that C.W.'s case was ultimately dismissed with prejudice on July 2, 2020, after I intentionally failed to appear at C.W.'s trial."
McCarson's plea agreement alludes to the public-safety impact of these arrangements. "When drivers avoid criminal culpability for DWI, some may become more likely to drive while intoxicated in the future," he notes. "The more often that a person drives while intoxicated, the more likely they are to have an accident."
The fallout from the corruption scandal may have a similar effect. As of February, prosecutors had dropped 230 pending DWI cases because they involved officers who were deemed untrustworthy after they were implicated in the scandal.
McCarson is one of several officers who were lauded for their anti-DWI work before they were accused of taking bribes to let drunk drivers off the hook. Albuquerque police officer Honorio Alba Jr., who likewise was honored by MADD's New Mexico chapter, pleaded guilty to bribery, extortion, and racketeering charges in February. New Mexico State Police Sgt. Toby LaFave, who was known as "the face of DWI enforcement" because he was featured in an NMDOT ad campaign against drunk driving, was fired in October after he fell under suspicion.
Prosecutors say former members of the APD's DWI unit helped keep the scheme going after they were promoted—in several cases to positions in the department's internal affairs division, which is charged with investigating police corruption. Senior officers implicated in the scandal include Commander Mark Landavazo, who was placed on administrative leave in February 2024 and fired the following August; Deputy Commander Gustavo Gomez, who was placed on administrative leave in October 2024 and fired several months later; Lt. Justin Hunt, who resigned in February 2024; Lt. Kyle Curtis, who retired in January after he was placed on administrative leave; and Lt. Matthew Chavez, who was placed on administrative leave the same day as Curtis and fired in March.
Clear and Mendez have not been sentenced yet, and neither have any of the former officers who have pleaded guilty. In October, KOAT, the ABC station in Albuquerque, noted that Mendez was allowed to travel abroad while his case was pending. KOAT reported that the investigation had "stalled, with no sentencing hearings scheduled despite several guilty pleas, raising questions about the case's progress." A "source familiar with the case" said the defendants' plea deals "may be contingent on information they provide." Perhaps "there are targets that are larger than these officers in the sights of the prosecutors," a criminal defense attorney suggested.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina, who joined the APD in 1995 and has run or helped run the department since 2017, was avowedly oblivious to all of this. Medina says he had no inkling of the pervasive and persistent corruption until he was briefed on the FBI's investigation of the DWI unit in October 2023.
Despite his cluelessness, Medina, who has repeatedly promised to "make sure that we get to the bottom of this," wants to take credit for revealing the bribery that was happening under his nose for decades. "We uncovered the DWI scandal," he told KRQE last week, saying it was "a low point" to see "people I worked with for 20 years" were "involved in that." He expressed "disappointment" that "individuals that I believed in, I worked with" had "given up their integrity and lost everything, all the honor of their career," simply "for money."