My experience notwithstanding, I remain stunned by the lack of law enforcement ethics from the lowest-ranking officer to the highest-ranking legal official in New Mexico. I skip a re-hash of the LCPD’s refusal, motivated by antisemitism, to admit the falsity of five alleged code violations—a minor but revealing matter. Instead, I focus on the so-called investigation of LCPD Officer Jared Cosper’s murder of Sra. Amelia Baca—a major matter, one indicting all ranks.
Just over a year ago, I wrote two blogs about the investigation. In “Baca Investigation Compromised by Conflict of Interest - Non-Prosecution Almost Certain” (20 June 2022), I addressed the-conflict-of-interest issue of the four task force agencies—NMDPS, DACSO, LCPD, NMSUPD. I noted that the other agencies approved former LCPD Police Chief Manual Dominguez’s development of an edited version of the body-cam footage of the murder. Otherwise, I cleared the investigation of that problem. I wrote:
Investigators from three of the four agencies in the law enforcement community—the NM State Police, the DAC Sheriff’s Office, the NMSU Police Department—staffed a task force to report on the killing. Because its officer is under investigation, the LCPD was limited to a supporting role to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.
No one corrected the concluding statement, which I based on presumably reliable sources, the most reliable seemingly DA Sheriff Kim Stewart. But it is incorrect. For I soon learned that the LCPD had been involved in the investigation after the incident.
In “The Fix Is In: Task Force Officers in Conflict of Interest Ensure Biased Baca Killing Recommendation” (30 June 22), I reported that the task force committee to review its report included six LCPD officers of the twenty officers and DA representatives, and was chaired by an LCPD officer, with Dominquez present. I concluded, “I can double-down on my claim of a compromised task force recommendation.”
Even so, I assumed that these two conflict-of-interest incidents were departures from the rule made in a particularly notorious case with serious political repercussions. I have recently learned that I was wrong. The task force operated in compliance with a “Joint Powers Agreement” (14 October 2009); it stipulates, “The law enforcement agency that employs the officer involved in one of these situations shall be designated as the ‘lead agency’ for the investigation” (I.E.1). This agreement among four police agencies directs the agency with the most at stake in public embarrassment and financial risks to investigate itself and lead the reporting of its findings. So the other agencies approved LCPD’s biased presentation of the body-cam footage and LCPD’s. Local law enforcement agencies build conflict of interest into some investigations. Truth and trust are victims.
Third District Attorney Gerald Byers received the task force report on 21 June 2022. First, he said that he would make a decision on the Baca case in a few days; then, about ten days later, for reasons never given, he forwarded it to then Attorney General Hector Balderas, who then left it for Attorney General Raul Torrez. When I wrote Torrez about action on this case, an underling reported on 2 June 2023 that the case was still being investigated (the reason given for denying my IPRA request for the task force report). NMAGs have delayed this decision for over a year. Justice delayed is justice denied.
Everyone knows who the victim and perpetrator are, investigators have presumably interviewed family members and others who may have witnessed the murder or known its circumstances, and the public has seen unedited body-com footage. So it is hard to imagine that there is anything more to investigate. But it is easy to imagine that no investigation is on-going at all, only a stall to save Torrez from making a decision apt to infuriate either the police or the public—a result incompatible with his likely desire to run for governor in a few years. So Torrez will make no decision and will leave it to his successor as Balderas did. Political calculations dominate legal decisions in New Mexico.
The Baca case alone suggests that the state’s law enforcement community is riddled with systematic, self-serving, ethical lapses. Its people, inured to unprincipled conduct, tolerate police abuse in a moral wasteland.
But if police abuse in ordinary encounters and police violence causing bodily damage or death are to stop, some independent agency is required to begin reform by exposing abuse and violence. The opposition of City Council to police reform makes it worse than useless. It prefers the certainties of deaths and taxes (to pay citizens for settlements).
Problems with Progressives on City Council abound and abide. Some are too nice, polite, or timid to raise or debate controversial issues; or ignorant of Council procedures or government practices to operate openly and effectively. Others oppose police reform or whatever else the police oppose; some attack those who seek higher-quality policing. A case in point: District 2 Councilor Tessa Abeyta. From her hostile interrogation of Peter Goodman at a City Council working session to her membership in the secret Public Safety Select Committee—four members of Council knew nothing about it—, she tolerates police conduct unaccountable to citizens. Mayor Pro Tem and District 1 Councilor Kasandra Gandara, also a secret committee member, shares her proclivities. In matters of public safety, Abeyta, who seeks re-election, does not represent her constituents, and Gandara, who seeks the mayoralty, provides neither moral nor executive leadership. Both should be challenged and defeated. I say nothing about the Council member who appointed them, Mayor Ken Miyagishima, soon to leave office but not soon enough. All three support the police against the public, have deceived other counselors by hiding their membership on the secret committee, and ignore the ordinance which directs disclosure of membership and specifies its purpose, namely, to provide information and recommendations to Council, not make clandestine decisions on legal matters.
As I expect to show in a future blog, this committee operates in defiance of the spirit, if not the letter, of the Open Meetings Act. Abeyta may not know or care about this law. But Gandara should have learned something about the criminality of secret meetings from her husband, Bill Soules, who, convicted in 2002, apologized ten years later when he ran for office and won. Maybe she has learned not to apologize for breaking the law until an apology could have a timely effect on her campaign.
No comments:
Post a Comment