ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An Albuquerque attorney who investigators alleged was at the center of a sweeping corruption scandal that allowed people arrested for driving while intoxicated to evade conviction has pleaded guilty to federal charges, according to a plea agreement filed Wednesday.
Thomas Clear III admitted to running what federal authorities have referred to as a “DWI Enterprise” in which his firm offered gifts and thousands of dollars in bribes to officers in exchange for having DWI cases dismissed. His plea comes a day after he was suspended from practicing law by the New Mexico Supreme Court.
A third former Albuquerque police officer, Neill Elsman, also pleaded guilty Wednesday. He was among 12 officers placed on leave after the allegations became public last year.
Clear pleaded guilty to racketeering, bribery and two extortion related counts. Elsman pleaded guilty to receiving a bribe and two counts of attempted interference with commerce by extortion.
Clear’s former paralegal Ricardo Mendez pleaded guilty to a slew of federal charges last month that included racketeering and bribery.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said Wednesday that his department worked with the FBI and federal prosecutors to expose the scheme and that the police force has worked internally to hold officers accountable. Aside from three former officers reaching plea agreements, Medina noted that 10 officers have left the department as a result of the investigation.
“As I have said, we will leave no stone unturned, even if it means going back 30 years to scrutinize the actions of officers,” Medina said. “We are learning more details every day and we anticipate exposing more wrongdoing as our investigation continues.”
In his plea agreement, Clear said he worked with numerous officers from the Albuquerque Police Department, New Mexico State Police and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office as part of the scheme, in which officers would receive money or gifts to not appear in court as a necessary witness to the driving incident, resulting in the dismissal of the case.
Clear said the enterprise evolved over the years, growing as more Albuquerque officers began referring cases to his law firm so they could secure and increase payments to themselves. He said some officers would help recruit and train the “next generation” within the police force’s DWI unit so they also could participate in the scheme.
Clear also said Mendez was warned about which officers to stay away from, explaining there were some in the unit who would have reported the criminal activity had they known about it. Still, he said, generational participation in the scheme allowed it to “take root amongst almost the entire APD DWI unit over a lengthy period of time.”