The highest ranking cop under an internal investigation regarding allegations of corruption in the Albuquerque Police Department’s DWI unit has been terminated and another officer resigned this week.
Cmdr. Mark Landavazo, with the Internal Affairs Division, had been on administrative leave and under investigation since Feb. 13. He had been with APD since 2007 and was with the DWI unit from 2008 through 2013.
Emails obtained by City Desk ABQ earlier this summer showed the FBI had forwarded a tip in June of 2022 to Landavazo about an officer working with attorney Thomas Clear III and his paralegal to guarantee a DWI charge would go away if the defendant paid $10,000. According to those emails, Landavazo suggested the special agent contact the Civilian Police Oversight Agency and an APD spokesperson said he did not tell the chief about the allegations.
Read about those allegations and the man who reported them here.
Gilbert Gallegos, the APD spokesperson, said, Landavazo was fired after the internal investigation found he had violated three policies. Gallegos said he was disciplined for two of the policies and fired after the third investigation was completed. He couldn’t immediately say what those violations were for.
“I said we would leave no stone unturned with these investigations,” Chief Harold Medina said in a news release announcing the termination. “We will continue to follow the evidence and ensure everyone is held accountable.”
Also this week, a seventh officer — who had worked in the DWI unit within the past several years — resigned before returning to work from military leave.
Gallegos said Neill Elsman had been on military leave since October — before the investigation began — and after he was told he had to return to the department, he resigned on July 30. Gallegos said Elsman will still be asked to appear for a voluntary interview.
Elsman had been with APD since April 2014.
No one has been charged in the case — which burst into public view on Jan. 18 when FBI agents raided the homes of several officers and Clear’s office. The federal investigation is ongoing.
Explore City Desk ABQ’s timeline of the investigation here.
In the days that followed, Medina appointed Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock of the Criminal Investigations Division to lead the internal investigation into the officers’ conduct as well as into whether anyone else at the department knew about wrongdoing but did not report it.
Since then, six other officers resigned: Justin Hunt, Honorio Alba, Joshua Montaño, Harvey Johnson, Nelson Ortiz and Daren DeAguero.
A seventh officer, Matthew Trahan, was put on leave and put under investigation in May. An eighth — a lieutenant in the Internal Affairs Division who has not been publicly identified — was transferred to another division while he is being investigated.
The completed internal investigation will be submitted to the Superintendent of Police Reform, Gallegos said.
Read all the stories from City Desk ABQ on the scandal here.