Ricardo Mendez, a private investigator, admitted to participating in a long-running scheme involving bribes to law enforcement officers in exchange for dismissing DWI cases. The scheme, involving Mendez's law firm and officers from the Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico State Police, and Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office, allowed DWI offenders to avoid legal consequences.
Albuquerque police cordon off streets near a protest that blocked one of the main gates to Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Thursday, May 2, 2024. A private investigator embroiled in a corruption scandal that rocked New Mexico’s law enforcement community for over a decade was the first to plead guilty to a slew of federal charges that include racketeering and bribery, according to court records released Friday.
“I admit that, since at least 2008, this DWI scheme I participated in constituted an enterprise that engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity that included multiple acts of bribery, chargeable under New Mexico state law, as well as multiple acts of interference commerce by extortion,” Mendez wrote in his plea.
Clients would pay Mendez or his associate an attorney retainer fee in cash, court records said. Then Mendez would pay officers in cash — US$5,000 or more — or in the form of gifts or legal services to not appear in court as a necessary witness to the driving incident, resulting in the dismissal of the case, according to court records.
“I admit that when drivers avoid criminal culpability for DWI, they become more likely to drive while intoxicated in the future, and, the more often that a person drives while intoxicated, the more likely they are to have an accident,” Mendez said in his plea.
CORRUPTION BRIBERY LAW ENFORCEMENT DWI ALBUQUERQUE POLICE DEPARTMENT
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