ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The former defense attorney at the center of a decades-long DWI scheme conducted backdoor deals from a home office in Albuquerque. Today, victims of the scheme are laying claim to the headquarters of that criminal operation.
As KRQE Investigative Reporter Gabrielle Burkhart reports, they’re going after that very place where they say they were unknowingly solicited into the scheme.
In the middle of a quiet suburban neighborhood in northeast Albuquerque, a massive criminal enterprise operated for decades behind closed doors. It was ground zero for one of the city’s biggest public corruption scandals.
“It was one of the houses that was raided and was on television,” explained Carlos Smith. “When I saw it, I was like, ‘Wow, I was at that house.'”
Once former defense attorney Thomas Clear III admitted in federal court to spending three decades scheming his way into case dismissals for DWI clients, victims started coming forward. “I just, I can’t understand how a person can abuse their power that way.”
Smith shared evidence with KRQE Investigates last year, revealing a former APD cop who arrested him for DWI, then connected him with a home office in northeast Albuquerque. An audio recording reveals he was offered a guaranteed dismissal for a price from Clear’s paralegal, Rick Mendez.
“So we charge $8,500, and you can do it in payments,” Mendez told Smith.
“And with you representing me, that would guarantee this doesn’t go on my record?” Smith asked. “Yes,” Mendez replied.
“I just started putting the clues together, all of them, and just came to realize it was definitely extortion,” Smith told KRQE. It turns out, he was right.
Earlier this year, Clear pleaded guilty to federal extortion and RICO conspiracy charges. Smith and other targets of the scheme are suing Clear and APD for civil rights violations.
Today, they’re also going after Clear’s Albuquerque home office. The same place, federal investigators say, where Clear ran the criminal enterprise, taking people’s money to skirt the justice system.
“The classic case we normally think of is seizing a yacht that was used to transport cocaine into the United States, or an airplane, or a vehicle,” explained UNM Law Professor Joshua Kastenberg. “In this case, I think the federal government’s theory of their forfeiture is that his home office was used to commit the fraud.”
A fight over Tom Clear’s property
Kastenberg is not involved with this case, but he explains the legal argument the victims are making for Clear’s property in federal court. “They have a couple of hurdles,” explained Kastenberg.
“First of all, they have to prove they have standing to intervene in the federal court, meaning – and this is an actual constitutional term – meaning that they’ve suffered a concrete injury by Tom Clear’s actions,” Kastenberg explained.
Attorneys for plaintiffs suing Clear argue, “There may be no other available funds for victims to receive from the criminal acts of Mr. Clear and his firm.” Their motion in federal court points out that Travelers Insurance has since denied coverage for Clear, arguing they were also lied to, and they’re not responsible for paying out any claims against the disgraced defense attorney.
“My sense is that Tom Clear does not have a huge bank account after his property was seized by the feds,” said Kastenberg. “And that if there was monetary damages, it would be very difficult for these plaintiffs to actually get that money to be made whole again. And so it may be that these property seizures are the only way they could be made whole.”
But it’s an argument the government is fighting in court, saying the plaintiff’s motion “Lacks substance as a matter of law.” As for what’s happening now with Clear’s former law office, he’s forfeited the property to the feds.
Any monetary value the home office may hold today, Kastenberg said, “Generally, there’s a federal auction or disposal process that’s supposed to be open and transparent, and it goes out for bidding.”
Who gets Clear’s assets?
When asked what happens with the money garnered from the property in a disposal like this, Kastenberg replied, “It goes to the general U.S. Treasury Pool. You know, some people will say, ‘Well, it might buy another tank for the Army, or it might help fill potholes.’ No, it goes to the general Treasury Pool. A big ocean of money, basically. So, we won’t know where this particular forfeiture would go.”
The public may never know how much money Clear and his criminal enterprise pocketed from the scheme over the years. And the road to justice through the civil and criminal courts is proving long and winding.
“Tom Clear undermined the public confidence in the law, the fairness of the law, and so for that, he’s going to be held for account by the state bar,” said Kastenberg. “And, he’ll be held to account in the federal court when the sentence comes down.
Clear was stripped of his law license. He and ten others who’ve pleaded guilty in the scheme have yet to be sentenced in federal court.
