APD Chief’s Timeline Doesn’t Quite Add up with FBI Case

BY: ABQ RAW staff

POSTED: 01/24/2024 @ 5:30PM

© 2024 ABQRAW All Rights Reserved – Please Request Permission Before Disseminating on Other Social Media Platforms.

On January 18, 2024, the Department of Justice / Federal Bureau of Investigation officials served search warrants on the homes of Albuquerque Police Department (APD) officers and a local attorney’s office around the Albuquerque Metro area.

On Tuesday, Chief Medina went on a selected media tour with KOB, KRQE, and the Albuquerque Journal. KOAT and ABQ RAW were left off the tour.

Since the investigation began, the US Attorney has remained mostly silent as to what this investigation is even about, but Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina has been talking.

In an interview with KOB TV, Medina sets forth a timeline regarding this investigation, but his timeline raises even more questions.

Medina tells KOBTV that a confidential source went to an APD Deputy Police Chief in

December 2022 with allegations about the DWI Unit making money off of DWI car stops.

Medina goes on to state that he then ordered an investigation into this matter. Medina does not disclose what his investigation found, who within APD did the investigation, or what Medina was planning to do with the results of the investigation.

Medina then tells KOBTV, “DA Bregman (Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman)

tells me that there’s some allegations that have come out against DWI officers and that the matter was turned over to the FBI.” Medina said this happened in October of 2023. Medina said APD then handed over its criminal case to the FBI at this time but continued to work on an administrative investigation.

This caused a number of individuals following this investigation to ask the most obvious

question, “Why didn’t Medina go to the FBI / DOJ in December of 2022 when he first became

aware?”

It wasn’t like it would be hard to find someone with the DOJ or the FBI, the Albuquerque Police Department have been under a DOJ consent decree for ten years now. The DOJ has basically set up shop within the police building to monitor the consent decree. Medina could have gone to any of those DOJ officials in December of 2022 to advise them of potential corruption within his DWI unit.

Medina did not notify the DOJ in 2022, and that raises many questions as to whether Medina and APD command staff are being honest and transparent with the DOJ.

Based upon Medina’s own statement, he admits that he knew about the corruption allegations for 11 months before he was forced to notify the FBI and that was only because DA Bregman had already gone to the FBI.

Medina must have known that any arrests made by suspected officers would have to be

dismissed. So far, 159 cases have been dismissed by the DA’s office, some of them involve DWI crashes where innocent people’s property was destroyed and where innocent people were hurt.

ABQRAW reached out to Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman hoping to shed some light on this bombshell admission by Medina about his knowledge of alleged corruption 11 months before going to the FBI.

Below are the questions we asked DA Bregman, with his responses.

1. When was Bregman made aware of the APD investigation that started in December

2022?

Cannot answer at this time.

2. Was Bregman’s office assisting APD in the investigation from December 2022 to

October 2023?

NO

3. If they assisted, in what way?

NOT APPLICABLE (see 2)

4. Did Bregman go to the FBI because Medina told him about the APD investigation?

NO

5. Did Bregman go to the FBI because he received his own tip?

Not answering at this time

6. Medina says that Bregman told him about reporting to the FBI in October 2023, is this

true?

Not answering at this time

7. Why did Bregman notify Medina about going to the FBI in October 2023?

Not answering at this time

8. Why did Bregman go to the FBI and not allow Medina and APD to handle it?

Not answering at this time

9. Are any members of the 2nd Judicial District Attorney Office under investigation in this

matter?

NO

Because the US Attorney is handling this case, Bregman’s responses to most questions were

expected. What was surprising was his responses to questions 2 and 4. Bregman appears to not have known about any APD investigation from December 2022 to October 2023.

Medina, in his comments to KOBTV, states, “After months of investigating, the Bernalillo County District Attorney Office helped move it forward.” Medina is misleading at best and based upon Bregman’s response to our questions (4), a lie at worst. Bregman’s’ office was not involved in assisting APD in investigating corruption within APD. Bregman went to the FBI with his own information, not information regarding what Medina was notified about 11 months earlier.

APD has been under a DOJ consent decree for various constitutional violations for ten years

now. Corruption allegation involving APD officers as suspects would be immediately handed over to an outside agency, like the FBI or the 2nd Judicial District Attorney Office.

Medina, by his own admission, did not do this and it appears he never disclosed these allegations to anyone with the DOJ / FBI nor to the chief law enforcement officer for Bernalillo County, Sam Bregman.

Soon the Federal Courts will unseal the search warrants and indictment affidavits and disclosing more information regarding this corruption investigation within the Albuquerque Police Department.

Many question remain, why did Medina wait to report this to the FBI until October 2023? Does hiding the allegations for 11 months fall within the consent decree agreement? Does having DWI Unit officers patrolling while under federal investigation put the public in danger?