Albuquerque –
Back in February of 2024, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina ran a red light and crashed into a classic Mustang severely injuring a man. Chief Medina had his wife in the vehicle and claims he saw a fight with a shots fired at or near him. The case has been fraught with controversy from Mayor Tim Keller calling Chief Medina a hero immediately after the crash and public outcry about why Chief Medina fled from the shooting. Even APD deciding to do their own internal investigation into the incident that left Chief Medina unscathed for any policy consequences.
On Friday, August 23, 2024, District 1 Louie Sanchez, who is a retired APD Lieutenant, filed a complaint with the New Mexico Department of Public Safety (DPS) to investigate potential misconduct by Chief Medina at the scene during and after the Chief’s February 2024 automobile crash.
Councilor Sanchez submitted a formal request for a state investigation into the conduct of Chief Medina at the scene of the February accident. The request, known as a LEA-90, comes in the light of Medina’s admission to APD Internal Affairs that he intentionally and purposefully did not activate his body-worn camera when involved in a police action. Such action by Medina appears to be violate Governor Michele Lujan Grisham’s 2020 public safety accountability bill which requires police officers to wear the body worn cameras and record encounters with citizens.
The Law Enforcement Training Act (Section 29-7-1 through 29-7-16), grants the Law Enforcement
Academy Board of Directors the power and duty to refuse, suspend, or revoke the certification of a police officer or tele-communicator for just cause as provided for under the Law Enforcement Training Act and Board Rules.
“As the chief Law Enforcement officer of the state’s largest police department, the chief should hold
himself to a higher standard than that of his rank and file, not lower. We are at a crossroads where officer
morale is at an all-time low and public trust might even be lower,” Councilor Sanchez stated. “Chief
Medina’s actions are the type of actions that brought the U.S. Department of Justice oversight in the first
place. Here, he openly disregarded state law.”
An internal APD review of the crash found that Chief Harold Medina did not activate his body camera during the crash incident because he wanted to plead the 5th. In 2020 Governor Grisham ordered that all NM Officers must use body cameras for citizen interactions. N.M. Stat. § 29-1-18 A law enforcement agency shall require peace officers the agency employs, and who routinely interact with the public to wear a body-worn camera while on duty, except as provided in Subsection B of this section. APD policy SOP 2-8-5.A specifically states that any contact with a person in the public the camera must be activated. Chief Medina told internal affairs investigators that he refused to activate his camera because he was invoking his 5th Amendment Right to Not Self Incriminate. Attorneys we have spoke to have argued that this argument does not work and here is why: Chief Medina was not in custody and he wasn’t giving a compelled statement therefore his invoking the 5th during his interviews had no application. Not to mention the civil implications that may come forward out of this. NMSA 29-1-18 Section C: “Peace officers who fail to comply with policies and procedures required to be adopted pursuant to Subsection A of this section may be presumed to have acted in bad faith and may be deemed liable for the independent tort of negligent spoliation of evidence or the independent tort of intentional spoliation of evidence”. In Chief Medinas interview to investigators he is also depending on spousal privilege, however spousal privilege only applies to civil matters, not criminal matters. The 5th Amendment applies to criminal investigations only. None of this comes into play when an officer is on duty and required by state law to be running OBRD, but the problem for Chief Medina is he can’t have it both ways.
We reached out APD Harold Medina via email for comment. We also reached out to the the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board director Sonya Chavez for comment. Neither have gotten back to us yet.
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Sounds like a case of entitlement. If there’s nothing to hide then follow the rules set for all officers. Plane and simple. Being the top cop should he not set an example? He still works for us not the other way around.
¡No point, he’ll just be rewarded further for his rogue mentality!
Kudos to Councilor Sanchez for having the courage to stand up to the crowd surrounding and supporting Chief Medina! Medina needs to be held accountable, not rewarded with an expensive new truck.
Medina’s Brand New 4×4 sure cost a lot, does it have a Video camera, too? If so can the City get a Refund, since he will not use it? The Law says he must turn on his video body camera, but does the Law apply?
I find myself hoping that Big Chief Candy Ass meets an… “unfortunate” end.
Soon.
On camera.
This is ridiculous. The mayor and his cronies continue to protect a man who is an embassaament, who violated APD police, and broke NM state statue requiring officer to have their camera on. Let’s help Sanchez’s effort by signing the petition to have Medina fired. Please sign and share https://www.change.org/terminateharoldmedina
The level of cowardice from the mayor’s office and police department for cancellation of that survey and now turning a blind eye to chief moron is incredible.
Both of those idiots need to be replaced.