How many citizens and or members of the local media, either main stream or independent have attended any of the seven guilty plea hearings in federal court regarding the APD DWI scandal? The answer is NONE because federal judges have been working in concert with the United States Attorney, defense attorneys’ and the federal clerk of court to make sure none of the proceedings are made public. This is unconstitutional and a serious attack upon the rule of law in our community.
The first and sixth amendments to the United States Constitution guarantee the publics right to attend and observe court proceedings. This ability for the media and the public to watch the court ensures fairness and transparency and is a crucial aspect of a free and democratic society. We don’t have this in New Mexico, the federal court ignores our constitutional rights.
Since early 2025 there have been seven guilty pleas by accused members of the DWI scandal. The court did not announce these on any docket prior to the defendant showing up in court. In fact, there were no criminal proceedings listed for any of these defendants in the federal court case system (PACER) prior to them pleading guilty. The information, guilty pleas, release rules etc were not made public until 24 hours AFTER each defendant had appeared in front of the judge to plead guilty, in secret/private.
No one from the media nor the public was allowed inside the courtroom to witness the proceedings. This appears to be done on purpose by judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys and the clerk of the court working their own conspiracy to violate the constitution.
When asked by KRQE why there was not a public docket announcing these hearings prior to them happening, former US Attorney Uballez stated that it was a “logistical issue”. That’s bull shit and everyone knows it. A logistical issue happens once, when you do it six more times, it’ a big middle finger to the media, citizens and constitution.
Why would federal judges, the United States Attorney, defense attorneys and the clerk of the court allow this violation of the constitution to routinely occur in the citywide multi-jurisdictional DWI scandal? Are they trying to protect the defrocked police officers, attorney Thomas Clear and his paralegal from the embarrassment of having the media filming them as they are going into and out of the courthouse? No one else would be provided this unconstitutional treatment, so one can only surmise that it has to do with the defendants being police officers and lawyers. They are getting special treatment from all involved. Treatment the rest of us as private citizens would never get.
The way the federal judges and the US Attorney are handling these guilty pleas are doing just as much damage to the trust citizens have in the criminal justice system as the DWI scandal itself. The federal court must immediately stop holding these secret proceedings and start following the United States constitution.
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I think MVD need to be looked at as well. A lot of these people that fell victim to these officers there was no real proof that they were indeed under the influence and years and years later MVD is still not reinstating their licenses.
Wonderful reporting. Contrast what is happening now with the enormous publicity surrounding Manny Aragon’s guilty plea in federal court in the early 2000s . Of course when Manny pled, NM had a Republican US Attorney.
What started this, greed?
Exactly!
I hope Elon Musk cleans it up.
Like he could be bothered by something that won’t enrich him personally at some point lol. Pure delusion.
Speaking of delusional, here you come running along like a self-assured little idiot
Well the other candidate had a history in law enforcement. Keeping prisoners locked up well beyond their sentence for the cheap labor. Some would say that’s a good track record on crime. You just have to deal with some cackling and verbal diarrhea, maybe WW3. BUT… but… criminals would be locked up forever.
Unless they’re illegal.
You can troll better than that, come on. That’s just low effort.
You really managed to say absolutely nothing with all those words. Daddy Trump would be proud.
Blue state wouldn’t expect anything less of these left America and constitution haters. ABTW any law enforcement that willingly breaks the law should get double the penalty.
Yeah, left leaning Americans are famously all about protecting the police when they commit crimes lol. Those stupid thin blue line stickers tend to only be on one kind of person’s truck, and they don’t vote blue.
Wouldn’t shock me to learn that when these cases are over, the unpunished officers will be quietly reinstated at APD…
Way it usually goes. Or they’ll get a job in a different precinct. You’ve gotta seriously fuck up to get actual punishment as a cop.
Harold with hire them back as a “civilian oversight” if they are his buddies, that way they get their retirement. He’s done it multiple times, because he’s all about integrity!!
Harold will hire them back as a “civilian oversight” if they are his buddies, that way they get their retirement. He’s done it multiple times, because he’s all about integrity!!
Seems to me between our current Administration in Washington and our local politics here in N.M. , we are headed to a dangerous , almost Biblical place of total selfishness , self-centeredness, and greed. I worry for my children the most.
F your children.
Lazy. Yawn.
You’re not wrong. Washington has always been corrupt on some level, but now it’s open season. Nothing is off limits, do whatever you want, break any rules or ethics requirements as long as it personally benefits you. And if you’re called out on it, refuse accountability and double down until people get tired and it goes away. It’s absolutely leaking into the states as well, blue or red. Open corruption and greed is back in style just like the 1920s. We all know how that went. It’s somewhat amusing to see the so called “moral majority” religious types go blindly along with it though. Things that would’ve given them an aneurysm under Biden or Obama are now things to be celebrated. Because they never actually believed in government transparency or accountability, cleaning up Washington, etc. It was just a hammer to hit people they hated with. Now they have the power and they’ve just dropped the charade entirely. It’s always been a power and wealth grab and now we’ll get to see the consequences.
If you’re not armed, I’d change that quickly. The second amendment isn’t just for maga freaks.
Besides the lack of transparency, what do the courts mean by plea deals? How long are these crooked cops and lawyers going to jail? I have no idea. All I hear is plea deal, plea deal, plea deal…