近距离内射合集

One of my takeaways from recently unsealed court records is that Albuquerque defense attorney Thomas Clear III is lucky he didn't get whacked.

The DWI bribery scandal he masterminded 鈥� in which officers were given cash, jewelry, car accessories and free legal services for helping get DWI cases dismissed 鈥� has the makings of a Hollywood screenplay, starring a sleazy local defense attorney, his bag man, senior police officers involved in the decades-long conspiracy, and the Mothers Against Drunk Driving 2023 Officer of the Year for New Mexico.

The only nonfictional scenes missing from the movie script, fortunately, are a couple murders and a car chase at the end. It's a story of police corruption that has to be told, but one the chambers of commerce and powers that be would prefer not be shown in theaters. I suggest calling it 鈥淭he Burque帽o Connection," and filming it locally to receive tax rebates.

One of the most tailormade-for-movies scenes in the 30-year racketeering and extortion scheme involved a strip club, a birthday celebration, perhaps a gender-affirming lap dance or two, and betrayal on a biblical level.

By May 2014, former Albuquerque Police Department Lt. Justin Hunt, the last conspirator to be indicted in the case, said the scheme had grown into entrapment. No longer would Albuquerque police and Bernalillo County sheriff deputies be content with passively patrolling highways and shaking down defendants later. By then, the DWI conspirators had gotten proactive, setting up targets.

Hunt, in his January plea to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit interference with commerce by extortion under color of official right (being a dirty cop, basically), told the story of Ricardo "Rick" Mendez, Clear's paralegal and private investigator, taking one of Clear's clients out for a night on the town to celebrate the client's birthday.

They made their way to an unidentified strip club where Mendez bought more drinks for Clear's client and set the trap. Mendez then dropped a dime and alerted Hunt, who was on duty, that the client was highly intoxicated and headed out of the nudie bar.

Hunt pulled over the target, identified in court records as C.F., outside the strip club's parking lot and arrested and charged the client with DWI. The client of Clear later hired him as his attorney in the new DWI case. It was all very circular.

Mendez, who set up the client like Judas, was in the client's vehicle when it was pulled over. Now that's dirty.

I'd like to hear details of other set-ups, but Hunt has accepted a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that will conceal from the public further details of that sting and others in the sprawling corruption scheme.

Clear's co-conspirators were growing nervous as the DWI scheme surfaced in late 2023, largely through happenstance. A 2nd Judicial District Court employee had gotten arrested for DWI and reported it to his supervisor, but the case wasn鈥檛 filed, raising eyebrows. A complaint to the Civilian Police Oversight Agency in November 2023 also raised concerns about corruption, as had previous unheeded tips from local attorneys.

All leads in what prosecutors call the "DWI enterprise" 鈥� and what I consider the biggest police scandal and public corruption case in New Mexico history 鈥� were pointing toward Clear and Mendez. The dirty cops they recruited wanted assurances from the ringleaders that their betrayal of public trust would not become known.

Little did they know the FBI had tapped their phone lines, recruited a DWI suspect to gather evidence and even supplied $6,500 to the informant that was later handed to Mendez at Clear鈥檚 law office in the Northeast Heights, and which helped finally expose the criminal enterprise.

"You're playing with fire," Mendez told the DWI informant, whom Mendez said was running out of time to pay him the bribe to make his case go away.

Mendez, who had grown suspicious of the informant, later told him during a face-to-face meeting in the parking lot of Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers on Nov. 4, 2023, that he needed to be able to trust him and warned the informant not to "bad mouth" him to local attorneys. Mendez left Freddy's as a passenger in a marked APD DWI vehicle driven by an APD DWI officer.

The case could have become deadly at that point as the conspirators began feeling the squeeze and questioning each others' commitment to secrecy.

鈥淲e all know that (expletive) Tom鈥檚 not stand up, bro, he鈥檚 not going to stare down the (expletive) barrel of a gun anytime soon,鈥� Mothers Against Drunk Driving 2023 Officer of the Year Honorio Alba Jr. told Mendez in a Dec. 7, 2023, phone call recorded by the FBI.

Alba asked Mendez if he wanted to have Clear followed or place trackers or audio devices on Clear's vehicle. They discussed blackmailing Clear to keep him quiet, believing he would 鈥渞oll over.鈥� I bet some of the conspirators were contemplating murder at that point to avoid exposing the entire criminal conspiracy.

鈥淚 consider Tom too much of a liability to do business with him,鈥� Alba told Mendez, later adding, 鈥淗opefully Tom isn鈥檛 stupid enough to 鈥� (expletive) up business though, bro.鈥�

The conspiracy wasn't exposed until Jan. 18, 2024, when FBI agents searched Clear's office, Mendez's home, the homes of APD officers Alba, Harvey Johnson Jr. and Joshua Monta帽o, and an APD substation where the officers worked.

Since then, Clear, Mendez, Albuquerque attorney Rudy Chavez, a total of nine Albuquerque Police Department officers and one Bernalillo County sheriff鈥檚 deputy have pleaded guilty in federal court to racketeering- and extortion-related charges.

All 13 of them are awaiting sentencing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Molzen, a year and a half since Clear admitted to leading the "DWI bribery scheme involving numerous law enforcement officers and deputies from APD, New Mexico State Police and the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office."

Clear, 68, who joined his father's law firm in 1982, admitted to orchestrating the bribery scheme around 1995 and leading it for nearly 30 years.

In February 2025, he pleaded guilty in U.S. Magistrate Court to bribery of APD officers, racketeering conspiracy, aiding and abetting and interference with commerce by extortion. Under his plea, four of the counts are each punishable by up to 20 years in prison, while five other counts are each punishable by 10 years.

If those sentences were to run consecutively, Clear could face 130 years in prison. It would seem it's in the hands of the U.S. Attorney's Office to determine if, and when, Clear will finally be sentenced, and perhaps begin spending time in prison.

I bet he gets probation.

Clear made an appearance in federal court Tuesday morning for a status hearing. Prosecutors told federal Judge Matthew Garcia it would likely be early next year before they're ready for sentencing, KRQE reported.

Clear's attorney, Thomas Clark, told KRQE reporter Gabrielle Burkhart he was not "the driving force" in the sentencing schedule. Clark also said Clear felt "a great deal of remorse" for undermining "trust in the legal system, trust in law enforcement" and that Clear was experiencing a lot of anxiety facing a potential prison sentence.

I'd think so. But it looks like he'll have at least one more opportunity to experience Zozobra, Balloon Fiesta and the holiday season as a free man. He could be soaking up World Cup games now for all we know.

So could Mendez, the first person indicted in the case in January 2025. Mendez was scheduled to be sentenced April 29, 2025, but on Feb. 24, 2025, Molzen granted a motion allowing Mendez to travel outside the country. He could be attending World Cup matches in Mexico for all we know.

None of the 13 defendants has faced a public trial in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. The whole sordid affair is ending in a whimper when it merits public trials for every defendant.

When former U.S. Attorney for New Mexico Alex Uballez was running for Albuquerque mayor last year, I asked him during an Editorial Board meeting in September why Clear had been offered a plea deal, rather than face trial. Uballez said it was made in the interest of judicial efficiency.

That explanation rings hollow nearly a year later. Clear is walking free and Mendez went to Mexico. All of the conspirators are still free. That's not judicial efficiency, it's judicial bull.

Clear and Mendez, the kingpins, never should have been offered plea deals: They deserve no concessions, nor a mutual agreement. The dirty cops involved should also be facing juries of their peers. The whole scandal should have been laid out in detail for successive juries. That would not only serve the interest of justice, it would serve the public interest.

The public deserves to know every damn detail. Mayor Tim Keller should have been called to testify, as well as former Police Chief Harold Medina, the other four police chiefs throughout the 30-year scandal, and current Police Chief Cecily Barker.

Every supervisor and member of the DWI Unit over the past 30 years should be called as a witness, along with every so-called victim of the scheme. They knew something was fishy, perpetuated it, and merit no privacy: Many were legitimately arrested for DWI.

The conclusion of this disgrace should be publicly painful. Nothing about it should be swept under the rug.

A full accounting of the scandal and complete transparency is the only way for the city, APD and the public to put this scandal behind us.

I don't know if it's legally possible at this point since the federal court has accepted guilty pleas, but if it is, the U.S. Department of Justice should withdraw every one of the plea deals and proceed with the cases to trial, and pronto.

If that doesn鈥檛 work, the New Mexico Department of Justice should stop fighting Facebook and Trump for a while and root out local police corruption with state charges.

I鈥檒l take a trial over another dirty cops movie.

Jeff Tucker is a Journal columnist, former Opinion editor and a member of the Journal鈥檚 Editorial Board. He can be reached a jtucker@abqjournal.com.