Four members of APD DWI unit added to DA’s list of untrustworthy officers 

Four names were just added to the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office list of officers who have credibility issues—colloquially referred to as a Giglio disclosure.

They are Honorio Alba, Joshua Montano, Nelson Ortiz and Harvey Johnson and their names appear over and over as the arresting officers in the list of more than 150 DWI cases prosecutors dismissed last week in the midst of a federal investigation. The Albuquerque Police Department has said that the investigation involves “allegations of wrongdoing by officers who currently work for, or who have worked for the DWI Unit in the past.” 

Four officers are on administrative leave from the department and a fifth has been re-assigned. No charges have yet been filed and authorities have not released detailed information about the investigation. The office of a local defense attorney, Thomas Clear, was searched by federal authorities as well.

John D’Amato, an attorney for the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association, declined to comment.

In an interview with City Desk Abq on Tuesday, District Attorney Sam Bregman confirmed that the reason his office dismissed the DWI cases had to do with Giglio disclosures. 

“I had no choice but to dismiss those cases because I won’t put forth witnesses that have integrity issues,” he said. 

Untrustworthy officers make bad witnesses

Following the 1972 Supreme Court case Giglio v. United States, prosecutors are required to share information with defense attorneys that could cast doubt on the integrity of a witness—for instance, the officer who made the arrest.

Across the country, prosecutors keep track of law enforcement officers who have ethical or legal violations in their personnel file that could impact how a jury perceives their testimony in court.

­Maggie Shepard, a spokesperson for the Law Offices of the Public Defender, said if police officers have issues of credibility, bias or misperceptions they should be addressed.

“One problem is that the defense attorneys in Metro Court are no longer entitled to pre-trial interviews with officers, so we don’t have an opportunity to confront these issues before trial,” she said in a statement.  “It’s because officers have so much authority that they must also be transparent and accountable.”

When Bregman’s predecessor, Raúl Torrez, was the Second Judicial District Attorney, he made waves when he announced that as an transparency measure he would publish the names of officers who his office determined needed a Giglio disclosure.  

His office distributed questionnaires to all local law enforcement asking about any investigations or findings of misconduct or bias. The initial list contained nine names and could easily be found on the DA’s website. It did not include any information about what credibility issues the officers on the list faced.

Torrez is now the state’s Attorney General. His office did not respond to questions as to whether or not he would implement the same transparency measures as when he was district attorney.

After Bregman was appointed to step into the vacated DA position, he re-designed the website. The Giglio list of officers is no longer there. 

Nancy Laflin, a spokesperson with the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office, said the new administration updated their website months ago with information most frequently used by the public. 

“We also believe in transparency – and any information regarding those reports is absolutely available if requested,” she said. 

Laflin released the current Giglio list to City Desk ABQ in response to an Inspection of Public Records Act request. There are 20 officers on the list, 18 of whom are with APD.

But, Laflin said, the DA’s office won’t be publishing the list on the website again anytime soon.