This was not a good week for John Allen, the elected sheriff of Bernariro County, New Mexico. “I’ve never been betrayed like this in my life. I’m pretty flickering now,” he announced. Press conference On Thursday, we attack the lecture for emphasis. “I’m very angry right now.”
Why is Allen so mad? Rep. Johann Jareno, who described Allen as “my right hand” at the Barnaliro County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) on Monday. Resignation At Allen’s request, he was involved in a long-term, widespread police bribery scheme that included three law enforcement employees who took back in exchange for eradicating the DWI case. The next day, Deputy Jeff Hamel, who Allen took administrative leave a month ago, learned that the FBI was investigating him, Plead guilty to federal government’s bribery and terror accusations.
Hammerel has admitted to conspire with Albuquerque’s defense attorney Thomas Clear, his paralegal, and “representative of the supervisor BCSO” (an obvious reference to Jareno) to help Clear’s clients avoid prosecution and maintain their driver’s license. In exchange for cash payments, Hammerel will refrain from filing a DWI request or willfully miss a hearing, pretrial interview, or trial, and allow him to seek dismissal based on the absence of an arrest officer. The scheme, which also involves New Mexico State Police and almost all officers assigned to the Albuquerque Police Station (APD) squad that arrested the drunk driver, began in the 1990s and continued into 2023.
The sheriff received another hit Wednesday Albuquerque Journal Published The photo of Beaming Allen with his arms around Ricardo Mendes played a central role in what prosecutors call “DWI Enterprises” a clear paralegal and investigator. In a photo taken during lunch at a small Anita restaurant in February 2023, Jaleno stands behind a racket confessed to as the sheriff.
All this sheds light on complaints Allen ventilated a few weeks ago Interview With Krqe, CBS affiliate in Albuquerque. Allen accused the FBI of not allowing him to investigate corruption. This was revealed in January 2024 after an agent searched Clear’s office and the home of several Albuquerque police officers. “I’ll work with you,” Allen explained his attitude towards the FBI, saying, “But I don’t have any more trust in you.”
As Allen admits now, it was actually the opposite: in light of his close work with Jareno and his isolation with Mendes, federal agents did not trust him. he. “Why didn’t the FBI trust Sheriff Allen?” he said at a press conference, repeating the questions he said he saw “on social media.” He answered the question with another question: “How will the FBI trust me, the man on my right hand speaks for me? [was a suspect]”Of course, when they spotted me in the photo with this guy, they’d doubt me,” he added.
Allen was already nervous about his connection with Mendes in a February 12 interview with KRQE. “I was actually a friend,” Mendes “donated to my campaign,” Allen said. Allen worried about the “recognition that they have access to me” and said, “That perception is there, so it really bothers me.” On Thursday, he complained that local news outlets are “starting to slander my character,” emphasizing the appearance could be deceived.
Jaleno, who began working for BCSO in March 2009 and worked at the DWI unit from December 2011 to October 2019, said in 2021 that he “referred to Mr. Mendes,” Allen said at a press conference. Allen is a Democrat and Mendes is a Republican, but Mendes liked Allen enough to donate $200 to the 2022 election campaign. (Jarreno, for him Donation $1,000. ) “I don’t remember exactly how many times I met Mr. Mendes,” Allen said, they will discuss “my behavioral health plans,” “what I was trying to do about the crime issue,” and “corruption.”
Allen, who was appointed as sheriff in January 2023 but worked for BCSO from 2001 to 2019, said he had not inked about corruption in his office until the FBI investigation was revealed. “If he knew that Mr. Jaleno and Mr. Mendes were doing what they were doing, he said, ‘Do you think you’d have lunch with him? No, I don’t.”
That lunch Allen said Jaleno had “set it up,” he pointed out, “three weeks after my term,” and said, “it’s fine for me to have lunch.” As a “politician and sheriff,” he said, he has many lunches and many photos poses. This particular photo he highlighted does not mean “I have something to do with this DWI scandal.”
Allen also said he doesn’t know Mendes’ criminal history. say It included a felony conviction “going back to 1990” and “more than 60 pounds of marijuana,” and was on 18 months of probation. Albuquerque Journal Report Mendes also faced accusations of cocaine, which will help with the ongoing investigation “was dismissed after prosecutors said they provided ‘information’.” “Why do you ask if he was already a paralegal, if he was criminally convicted or if he had a criminal history?” Allen asked the reporter. “That’s not something I’d ever imagined.”
Lunch at Little Anita might have been as innocent as the sheriff explains, just in case Allen had pancakes but “didn’t eat all three” because he was full, so he was full, so you might have been wondering. But Allen engaged in a bit of revisionism when he said, “I’m not even going to call it friendship.” Just a few weeks ago, Allen volunteered to “actually be friends” with Mendes. Even if Allen “has nothing to do with this DWI scandal,” his trust in Jaleno was clearly misguided.
“It makes me sick to my stomach…I know he’s close to me,” Allen said. “I literally got sick and was thrown into the trash can.”
Like Allen, Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina claims there are no clues about the corruption discovered by the FBI. With his first participation in APD in 1995, he held senior positions for over a decade, and has run or supported the department since 2017, Medina’s Avowed Obliviations is hard to guess.
According to a lawsuit by a driver arrested in DWI, Medina “ratified” the actions of corrupt officers by failing to intervene after receiving multiple notices that it “violated the law.” For example, in December 2022, the APD got hints that DWI officials, including those who later pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges, were paid to ensure the lawsuit was dismissed. The investigation into that hint found no evidence of bribery. It is also possible that APD under Medina revealed a suspicious pattern of absence and dismissal when clear clients are involved.
In contrast, Allen emphasizes that he has been running BCSO since January 2023. But is it plausible that you’ve never caught the wind of a clear racket in your 18 years at BCSO?
Allen himself suggested that agents who were not directly involved in the plan may have heard about it. “If you know anything about this and don’t do anything to stop it, get hell from my agency,” he said. “We have an obligation to report… we have an obligation to intervene.”
Previous evidence suggests that corruption is less prevalent among BCSO and state police than APDs that include “almost entire” DWI units. In addition to Hammerel, three APD officers have previously pleaded guilty along with Mendez and Clear. Dozens of other officers are publicly involved in the “DWI Enterprises,” including a former commander of the APD’s interior affairs department, his deputy, three of the EUs, and a state police sergeant who was lionized for catching a drunk driver. The scheme dates back decades (“30 years” according to Allen), so dozens of officers could easily get involved.
Allen defended the decision not to conduct an internal investigation, as APD did. “Everyone continues to ask me about the interior investigation,” he said. “I’m so tired of hearing that question. I’m not going to do anything to interfere with the criminal investigation. [by] Federal Bureau of Investigation. ”
Allen didn’t want to speculate about what the investigation would ultimately find. “Are you surprised that someone else has been named?” he said. “I [wouldn’t] At this point, in fact, from the perspective of what happened in the past before I came here, and from the perspective of what happened a few months after my tenure… We’ve seen this explode in the last 16, 17, 18 months. At this point there’s nothing to surprise me anymore. ”
In his KRQE interview, Allen appeared to be more angry about the FBI investigation than about the corruption it revealed. But yesterday he sounded appropriately concerned about the latter. “This isn’t black eyes for the agency,” he said. “This is a punch in the gut. This is my ball and a kick to the two black eyes. To be honest,” he admitted that public confidence in law enforcement has been “completely lost,” “and we have to rebuild it.”
