Advocate says attorney, APD officers ‘spit in the face’ of DWI victims

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s an experience countless New Mexicans share – their lives impacted by drunk driving. “We were surprised when they didn’t show up. But the phone call came in, I don’t know, 11:30 p.m., 12:00 a.m., something like that,” Kent Cravens said. On Christmas Eve in 1992, he, his wife, and kids were waiting up for Cravens’s brother to stop by with his wife and three daughters for a Christmas carol sing-along. But the family of five never showed up.

“I will tell you that down, down to the minute, I remember it very well,” Cravens said. The details of the night Gordon House sped 90 miles per hour in the wrong direction on I-40 in Bernalillo County and plowed into Cravens’s family, killing his sister-in-law and three young nieces, and severely injuring his brother, doesn’t feel like thirty years ago. “It was yesterday. It was yesterday,” he explained. “Try to think of a worse scenario. On Christmas Eve with three little girls and their parents that had just gone up to Nine Mile Hill to look back at, the lights and say ‘Merry Christmas this is what Jesus has given us’,” Cravens said.

The crash changed the course of Cravens’s life and shaped New Mexico’s drinking and driving laws. Cravens noted, “It became a real cry from the community to do something.” His brother’s mother-in-law jumped right in. Nadine Milford’s name became synonymous with DWI reform. She worked tirelessly with the legislature to shut down drive-thru liquor stores and make a fourth DWI a felony, to name a few of her contributions.

Cravens became a lawmaker, spending more than a decade in the State Senate. He’s most proud of getting a law passed in the early 2000s that requires interlock devices in offenders’ cars. “It has been a long time, and it seems like we’re we, you know, we have taken a giant step backward,” he said.

Cravens is referring to the FBI’s investigation into a scheme KRQE learned centers on accusations officers were paid to get DWI cases dismissed. Knowing the feds are zeroed in on at least one attorney – Thomas Clear III – KRQE Investigates sifted through six years of his DWI court cases to find out how and why his clients’ cases were dismissed. From 2018 through 2023, Attorney Clear’s average dismissal rate was 63.3 percent. That’s more than double the typical dismissal rate in Bernalillo County.

The investigative team also looked specifically at the number of cases Attorney Clear had with the four Albuquerque Police Officers whose credibility has been called into question tied to this federal investigation. Throughout the past six years, 25 of Clear’s clients pulled over by Officer Honorio Alba, Jr. all had their cases dismissed. So did the four Officer Harvey Johnson handled. 31 of the 36 people Officer Joshua Montaño arrested saw dismissals. And 5 of 6 cases were dismissed with Nelson Ortiz as the arresting officer. Thomas Clear had a 91.5 percent dismissal rate with these four APD officers.

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Court records show that DWI cases handled by Attorney Clear had high dismissal and non-prosecution rates, particularly when some APD officers were involved in the case.

So, if one of those officers pulled you over and you hired Attorney Clear, your odds of not getting prosecuted seem pretty good. Only about 10 percent of the cases handled by both Clear and one of those officers ended in prosecution.

How? We can only look at reasons for a dismissal.

Court records show the officers repeatedly were not showing up to pre-trial interviews and hearings, which often led to a case being dragged out too close to the 6-month time limit. That leaves no other option than to dismiss. Court documents mention, in some cases, Alba and Montaño even failed to show up on Zoom. Other reasons for Montaño’s 31 case dismissals include a flat tire and not handing over evidence.

KRQE Investigative Reporter Ann Pierret stopped by Clear’s law office, which the FBI raided in January, to ask about his high dismissal rate and the federal investigation. While Clear answered the door, he refused to answer any questions.

Some dismissals are reasonable, when officers are out sick, for example. But community experts say the dismissal rates are concerningly high. “They owe this community a lot for this behavior here. Go serve your time. I hope they get convicted. This is — that’s a crime. Dear God. Wow!” Linda Atkinson said. KRQE brought the six years of data to Atkinson who has run the DWI Resource Center since the 1990s. Her work involves presenting “research-based solutions” on how to curb New Mexico’s drunk driving problem. “Disgusting. Despicable,” Atkinson said, looking through the data. “And it — to me, it really comes down to the lawkeepers are the lawbreakers.”

In those six years, the four APD officers pulled over a total of 71 people who then hired Attorney Clear and a judge dismissed their case. KRQE Investigates went through each of those defendants’ court records and found 18 of them had previous DWI convictions. Ten defendants faced new DWI charges after their case was dropped. “It all makes sense,” Atkinson said. “I just start getting so angry looking at this again and thinking 30 years back, easy. Yep. No change.”

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Atkinson said when guilty drunk drivers are let off the hook, there’s no true deterrent and the next time they get behind the wheel intoxicated, they may not just be hurting themselves. “Pretty corrupt, huh? Yeah. Where’s your faith in the system?” Atkinson asked. “I mean, where’s anybody’s faith in the system? And you talk to people who have lost loved ones.”

People like Cravens. He added, “That’s the part that makes it hard for me. It was a conscious decision to just spit in the face of everybody who’s ever had a tragedy in their life. And there’s thousands of families and the stories – man, it’s hard.”

At this point, the feds have not criminally charged Attorney Thomas Clear or any of the four Albuquerque Police officers. APD’s Chief has said this scheme could have gone on for more than a decade. The department is reviewing its own data going back at least 12 years to find out which other officers – if any – may be involved. 

Since January, APD has opened internal affairs investigations into seven officers. Five have since resigned, including Officers Honorio Alba Jr., Harvey Johnson, Joshua Montaño, and Nelson Ortiz.

Attorney Clear handled hundreds of DWI cases throughout the past six years with officers from across the Metro. So, could this scheme reach beyond APD? Both the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office and New Mexico State Police tell KRQE they don’t have any indications their current or former employees are involved.

But the State Police Chief said in a statement that the agency is conducting “an audit of DWI cases related to Attorney Clear.” The agency explained further, “If the case was dismissed, we research for the exact reason.  We can move forward if the reason is understandable (military deployment, FLMA, etc.). If the reason for dismissal is not reasonable, further review will be done to determine why, (discovery, officer failed to appear, etc.), and corrective action will be taken.”