近距离内射合集

An award-winning Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office detective was found guilty Friday of obstructing justice by tipping off several Albuquerque drug traffickers that they were on the Drug Enforcement Administration鈥檚 radar.

After a four-day trial, a federal jury in Albuquerque deliberated less than four hours before convicting Paul Jessen Jr. on four of five felony charges.

Jurors acquitted the former deputy of lying to federal investigators during a March 2022 interview but convicted him of making false statements during an earlier FBI investigation in January 2022.

Jessen should have stood "shoulder-to-shoulder" with federal drug agents but instead chose to protect a North Valley drug dealer, even condoning the trafficker's continued methamphetamine and fentanyl sales in Albuquerque, federal prosecutors argued.

Jessen's partner and former deputy, Kyle Linker, pleaded guilty last year to obstruction of justice and served 30 days in prison.

The deputies' motive wasn't money, according to testimony and court records. Instead, prosecutors said it was payback, fueled by a belief that federal agents were muscling in on their drug investigations.

Despite their efforts to protect one drug trafficker in particular, it was that same dealer who exposed the detectives' scheme and secretly recorded a conversation with Jessen for the DEA in December 2021.

The trafficker, Rod White, 60, is in federal custody awaiting sentencing on drug charges but became the government's star witness against Jessen.

Jessen, who joined the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office in 2012, has been on unpaid administrative leave since federal prosecutors charged him in 2024. A sentencing date has not been set.

Jessen, who did not testify, appeared headed for a promising law enforcement career after being selected to serve on the FBI's violent crimes task force.

He and Linker arrested White and turned him into a confidential informant in July 2021, the same month then-Sheriff Manuel Gonzales III named them the Sheriff's Office's top nonuniformed deputies of the quarter.

In trying to shield White from other law enforcement agencies, Linker warned the informant about DEA investigations involving White and two of his associates. Linker learned about the federal investigations and related undercover drug buys through a computerized deconfliction system designed to prevent federal, state and local agencies from duplicating investigations.

During the trial, former Bernalillo County undersheriff Sid Covington testified the case revealed systemic dysfunction. Despite turf wars, narcotics investigators must work together, he told jurors.

But Sean Long, an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, argued in closing Friday that in the case of Linker and Jessen, "the systemic dysfunction became personal animus."

Specifically, Long said, the two detectives learned in late 2021 that the DEA planned an operation targeting an alleged trafficker known as "Sassy." Prosecutors said they plotted to alert her through White so federal agents would find no drugs when they searched her Albuquerque home.

In one text message, Jessen told Linker: "It would be a shame if there is nothing there."

"Gonna be a real shame," Linker replied.

Jessen had a choice between being "a law enforcement officer or ... supporting a criminal," Long told jurors. "He could have chosen to stay on the side of law enforcement."

Defense attorney Joel Meyers countered: "Paul Jessen is not Kyle Linker."

Meyers said he was not defending Linker, adding, "Some of his actions were completely indefensible."

But Meyers argued the case against Jessen amounted to "guilt by association."

"The records clearly show that Kyle Linker was running his own operation, acting independently and only looping in Paul Jessen after the fact," Meyers said.

Meyers also attacked White's credibility, calling him a "professional liar." White testified he hoped his cooperation would lead to his release from prison but said prosecutors had made no promises.

Sheriff John Allen, who was elected in 2022, has been closely monitoring the federal prosecution, BCSO spokeswoman Jayme Gonzales said Friday.

"Sheriff Allen believes narcotics enforcement requires strong oversight, supervision and accountability," she said in an email.

"This case is one of the reasons he has no plans to reestablish a standalone BCSO narcotics unit and instead supports continued narcotics enforcement through federal partnerships and task force work with agencies such as the DEA."

Colleen Heild is an investigative reporter for the Journal. Reach her at cheild@abqjournal.com.