The Piercing Truth

This is right from the dictionary and seems to describe Albuquerque, Berry and Schultz. Fascism (f ash ,izem) noun An authoritarian right wing system of government and/or social organization. (in general use) extreme right wing, authoritarian, chauvinistic and/or intolerant views or practices. Fascism tends to include a belief in the supremacy of one group over another, national, ethnic, especially social strata or monetarily; a contempt for democracy, an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader, and a strong demagogic approach. Compliments of one of our Eyes

Mar 16, 2012

You Can Always "Bank(s)" on a Liar

The credibility issues challenging the Albuquerque Police Department are not the result of sporadic officer misconduct incidents. Rather they are the consequence of persistent deviations from sound management practices and leadership. As echoed throughout the EYE there are endless examples of these deviations. Most recently the violence that unfolds each weekend night downtown was given special attention. The fights and mayhem that occurred during Fat Tuesday are nothing new to any officer who has worked Valley graveyard for the last twenty years. Despite the downtown shootings which occurred on New Year’s Day, APD again failed to adequately prepare for another holiday distinctive for its celebration and partying: Fat Tuesday. APD’s response was to present an effort represented as novel and new: out came a watch-tower, horses, and additional cops on the front page of the Albuquerque Journal. Sadly, nothing is new. The watch-tower was purchased over four years ago. Horses have always been used to combat the crowds, and officers have always been expected to be present at bar closing time. This information may appear to be new to average citizens, but to the ranks of officers throughout the department this representation is false. What message does this send to officers when their chief openly lies to the public when addressing a legitimate safety concern? What issue does this raise for patrons of downtown bars/restaurants expecting a safer environment because of Chief Schultz’s representations when in fact they are simply the same?

Discipline practices continue to be disparate and arbitrary. Some officers seem to do no wrong despite egregious misconduct while others are subject to unprecedented scrutiny. Frequently, officers become scape-goat targets when there is media generated negative publicity concerning APD. Last summer, Detective Russell Perea was named as a target in an IA investigation related to former officer Levi Chavez. The media focused significant attention upon APD’s leadership for the ongoing employment of Levi Chavez who for years had been on administrative reassignment pending a Valencia County investigation. With Chavez’s employment with the city finally terminated when he was indicted for the murder of his wife, attention was given to officers associated with Levi Chavez and those that responded to his house the night it seems Tera Chavez was murdered. This attention immediately followed negative publicity in the Albuquerque Journal. Russell Perea was named as a target because he is Levi Chavez’s alibi as they were working together as a two-man unit that night. Despite the fact that APD had recently just praised Perea publicly for his involvement in some highly publicized cases, APD conducted an IA investigation into Perea. It’s not clear what the triggering offense was that Perea did other than be assigned to work with Chavez but nonetheless he became a target. Ultimately, Perea was found to have violated a few SOPs carrying low levels of discipline (a verbal reprimand for being profane for instance) but was terminated for “untruthfulness.” The issue of untruthfulness draws from inconsistencies Perea made in statements to IA investigators when compared against answers to similar questions made during a deposition of a civil case. APD claimed Perea’s statements to the lawyer of Tera Chavez’s estate were not identical to the statements he made to IA investigators. The statements that were inconsistent or (unforthcoming as DCOP Allen Banks likes to say) involved whether or not Perea remembered seeing Chavez texting a lot the night Tera Chavez died. The difference was much like “Not really” and “I don’t know.” In January, Perea won his labor hearing with the hearing officer finding that APD was without cause in terminating Perea never mind disciplining him.

Yet, in the midst of Perea’s investigation, APD found no issue with almost all of the other officers involved with Levi Chavez. All the APD officers, including APD Lt. Shawn O’Connell, who went out of their jurisdiction to a violent death scene, who removed and destroyed personnel effects not belonging to them, and who intimidated in jurisdiction officers were found to have NOT violated ANY SOPs. That is except for Officer Nick Wheeler who was disciplined with hours off for having a personal relationship with Tera Chavez. Keep the elements of this incident in mind as another tragedy equally as disheartening yet involving even more and higher ranking APD personnel is starting to unfold....


Below is a recording from the closing arguments at Russell Perea’s public labor hearing. While you listen to the representations made by SID Commander Doug West, Deputy Chief Paul Feist, and Deputy Chief Allen Banks, ask yourself the most glaring question of all that remains unasked and unanswered: If Russell Perea in fact lied as he covered up for Levi Chavez, why is he not the subject of a criminal investigation law enforcement? It stands that IF indeed Perea lied in his actions and statements then he is guilty of numerous felonies from tampering with public records to being an accomplice in a murder. Yet, he has not been investigated, nor seems will he be investigated, for these offenses because if he is named as a target than all of APD’s involvement with Levi Chavez is subject to scrutiny—including the numerous attempts of other supervisors who tried to have Chavez terminated before his wife’s death. Ask yourself if the statements and representations made by two of APD’s Deputy Chief’s reinforce confidence in their ability to run a major city police department? Ask yourself, if Perea’s discipline for discrepancies between two sworn statements is termination, what level of discipline for Deputy Chief Allen Banks’s intentional misrepresentations are justified?

Sadly these two examples of APD’s challenges are not isolated but are part of a management culture that has lost all value of what it means to be a police officer. Being a police officer means more than maintaining order and enforcing laws, it means setting an example and doing the right thing ESPECIALLY when nobody is looking….

Due to overwhelming requests;please click here to hear the actual recording.

34 comments:

Anonymous said...

Basnks we love you so much. We love your credibility which is no better than Sandy, Levi, Russell, and J. Montgomery. It all comes back. But I know what you will do, you will no longer appear at these hearing so they cant impeach you. Guess, what, the defense will subpoena you, you lying little fu)* head. I hear you are gonna retire? Go ahead maybe Schultz can save you, and he is a liar also, now hopefully everyone will not believe a word that comes out of either one of your mouths. You all are liars.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this eye.

Anonymous said...

May God help you and your children that they too are not subject to Tera's Fate.

Anonymous said...

Perea is a worthless POS and is totally complicit in helping Levi and deserved to be fired. TOO BAD APd can't even do that right when somebody deserves to get their ass canned.

Anonymous said...

Outstanding! If the journal could pen something half as good as this, containing just a fraction of the truth this article holds, they could call themselves a newspaper. Well done and a long time coming. These liars need to be FIRED.

Anonymous said...

It seems like all of the top brass on the 5th floor of APD are LIARS yet the hypocrits point the finger and call everyone else liars. Just like the article in the paper the other day. These two get caught lieing, instead of shutting the fuck up and settling, the stupid arrogant city attorney calls for the removal of an arbitrator who calls them on their corruption. The city attorney then speculates and throws out unbased accusations. These scum need to get hit with a slander lawsuit. These officials need to get indicted for their corruption. Perjury, tampering with and intimidating witnesses, false reports, it is all there. The CAO and the top brass conspire, Chief and DCOPs carry out the treachery and Levy plays stupid and covers it up. I hope you are reading this Levy. If you have an ounce of intelligence you will settle every case Schultz, Feist and co. have a hand in until they are gone, because you are going to lose. Delaying the inevitable is only going to make it worse.

Anonymous said...

Maybe so about Perea, but you don't see, or are missing the real picture here. It's the means to the end. The chief and his cronies preach policy and proceedure, yet at every turn they are violating their own policies, breaking their own rules, and averting proceedure in order to go after officers and produce a preconcieved outcome. When they don't get their way, or outright lose, the violations get worse. Their motives are not even true. Retribution, vendettas, and opportunistically using officers to divert attention away from their own illegal, unethical, and immoral actions. Go ask the two officers who were recently used to get these officials out from under a pending DOJ investigation. Officers can shoot a suspect they believe is armed who is wanted for misdemeanor charges. They state that subject has a gun, and they saw it, and it is justified after a crime scene investigation reveals there never was a gun. Two officers arrest a wanted robbery, kidnapping and homicide suspect who is driving a stolen truck high on meth armed with a stolen handgun enroute to the hotel where he was hiding out in that is full of families. He has fled and successfully escaped police numerous times. These officers catch him, he resists and goes for a gun. These officers dont shoot him and they are fired! Something is broken here!

Anonymous said...

Very nice article-whether you are a Perea fan or not, it all boils down to right and wrong. Believe it or not there is a reason why the department has Administative, Procedural, and General orders, they are meant to be followed from the civilians all the way up to the Chief. The Chief and the Department had plenty of warning time about Levi Chavez and some supervisors actually tried to discipline him up to including termination. But, for whatever reason it was brushed aside by Schultz and his cronies until it culminated into the tragedy that it is today. The ineptness of the Administration to cover this up wreaks of Corruption, inability to manage, and inability to properly investigate. Schultz and his Clown faced tagalong Levy bent on retaliating on everyone who speaks the truth or calls them on their misdeeds is destroying the Department credibility. Do to the fact the Chief cannot afford another civil rights violation Dep Chiefs like Banks or Fiest are left totally unprepared to hold the bag, then self-destruct on the stand burden by the piles of lies they are forced to tell to cover for Schultz and Levy.
The chief sits on the LEA board but cannot follow his own adminstrative investigation procedures and has the Civil Rights Violation handed down by a jury to prove it! Schultz then has the gall to go after other officers certifications just to show he can! If that is not an abuse of power apparently nobody knows what is!
Wait till the truth comes out about the tragic death of Mary Han and how Department personnel handled that! Yes it will come out how the Chief and his sidekick allowed it to turn into a freak show compromising a possible crime scene and how many of you wrote a report after you walked into the scene just to look at her and explore her house! Again, just violating policy that you would do an officer for! ooooo and lets not forget about how property from her house was stolen while the department was in control of it, maybe to the tune of millions of dollars?? You know Im RIGHT!
Mr. Mayor, how many millions are you going to let Schultz and Levy cost us, the citizens of Albuquerque before you have an outside agency investigate all the corruption going on right under your nose? They have ruined your career and ruined the integrity of the Albuquerque Police Department.

Anonymous said...

Kudos to the author of this topic. Iknow there must be more where this article came from. Keep it coming. Hopefully, for the "EYE" these types of informative articles will continue to be posted about the corrupt, manipulative, despicable,lying conduct of the leadership of the APD. Everyone needs to hear and listen to the truth that is being stated about them.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Too funny. Is that YOUR final answer

Anonymous said...

Bregman chewed and spit out the Commander and Chiefs.

Anonymous said...

What I dont understand is why aren't all the women involved named? Wheeler took a hit for sleeping with Tera. Why didn't all the females that were sleeping with Levi take a hit too. Debra Romero, Desire Gonzales, Heather Hindi-Chavez, Heather Hooper-Dietzel, Regina Sanchez and lord knows who else. Where are their names? What they did was no differnt than Wheeler.

Anonymous said...

Seriously? Get your facts straight. I know for a fact two of those women on that list of yours weren't sleeping with that asshole and am good friends with them. Text messaging and KDT conversations doesn't equal sex. Get your facts straight before you start pointing fingers and naming names.

Anonymous said...

Not sure why you would call Perea a POS. He always worked hard and was the first to help other officers. The media drove this investigation and the administration crumbled when they were put on the spot because of a lack of response. Fact is no officers (aside from Chavez himself) did anything wrong including Perea. They threw Perea under the bus just to silence the mob. They knew all along it would be overturned but sa the saying goes...when the music stops they will no longer be in the game to worry about having a chair. Its a shame but those of you bashing Perea should remember....if they had anything they would attempt to indict him and we all know that hasnt and wont happen.

Anonymous said...

Put all of these corrupt City Officials in jail along with their legal handelers and enablers. They have done enough damage. It is known across the country that the administration of APD is a mess. Hopefully this is just the tip of thge iceberg and beginning of the exposure of the truth that these dirty individuals don't want to get out. Beating around the bush, word games, evasive answers, talking in circles, responding to a question with a question. A good lawyer or mediator can see right through that crap. You don't need to say it. It can be seen. Adults, and ranking members of a Police Department for Christ sake playing games on the stand, in the media and to every citizen's face. Keep it coming! Out these dirty scum like the viruses they are!

Anonymous said...

Ref Perea, they wouldnt indict him because like the writer said a whole can of worms would be opened up.

Anonymous said...

Geir keep up the hot spot. Its working very good another shooting.

Anonymous said...

What do some of you have against Grier?

Anonymous said...

Here we go with the double standard...watch your ass Martin!!! Ref Gieir, the comments are cause he's been pushing a return to HotSpot style targeted policing. Nothing new there either.

Anonymous said...

I went out for dinner on St. Patrick's Day. I sat at a table next to a large group of people who were discussing APD. You could overhear their heated discussion with little effort. The general consensus was that the chief is a disgrace. The officers are trying to do their job with a cancer for leadership. The officers are being used and have no backing from either their brass or the union. It is a treacherous job to be a police officer in the city of Albuquerque these days, and it has nothing to do with the criminals, or should I say criminals on the streets.

Yesterday I heard that a federal investigator was looking into the upper command staff along with the APOA for the union funds issue. It is sad that everyone involved at a high level in that agency is only concerned with themselves to the point that they sell their own asses out. What brings an individual to the point where they bow down to one or two creeps, do all of their wishes, and sell out their own integrity to protect some manipulative loser who wouldn't piss on THEM if THEY were on fire.

Perea's case is just the beginning. If enough pressure is put on these civil rights violators, they will be charged.

They think they can get away with lieing at an arbitration hearing just because it is not a judge presiding. Well, it sounds like it will be going to district court where those lies will be confirmed. Just like Camacho's trial they will lose AGAIN. It's already there. Saying that you don't know who they were talking about firing in the media when the only cop fired was Perea makes you sound like a stupid kid trying to cover it up. People can see right through that testimony. Lies...All lies!

Anonymous said...

On Perea issue its not just the few mentioned 34s that have had affairs that would be subpoened to testify. There were more on the list to give depos don't fool your self. Some were high ranking already retired and some are current ranks. So everyone dont be so quick to judge Wheeler till you examine your own pants.

Anonymous said...

Yes union funds...$26K in "stipend" pay, $9K in overtime, misuse of credit card funds, monies to wifey.....hmmmm ever heard of Jerome Block. Sounds like embezzlement to me. NOT that union leaders ever steal money from union coffers....jesus fucking christ, file the report already. If you can't stand up for yourselves who can you stand up for!?!?!

Anonymous said...

Hey Eye where is the story about Joey and the stolen union funds? How about those christmas bounes the union passed out to board members? When are the cops going to do a vote of no confidence on Joey and his followers? How about the $5000. plus payment to Joey's wife for "about two weeks" worth of work? It's easy for you to bash the brass on APD but wont touch a story about the APOA being ripped off by the president and vice president? Must hit to close to home for someone involved with the Eye.

Anonymous said...

They really went after Camacho for going against the grain in a self defense shooting where expert witnesses said it was self defense. They went after him for 2nd degree murder. And in his trial against the city, the judge did not his attorneys present evidence that would of brought Shultz down. No wonder no one stands up against this corruption.

Spear Fisher said...

Well, the evidence is still there. Camacho, along with every officer wronged, retaliated against, or framed by schultz and his group of followers need to get together, hire an attorney, and force a probe into the evidence and acts committed by these people. Do just like they do. Bring it to the media. They fight all of their battles in the media like idiots, giving statements in the press that can be used against them. Let them run their mouths. Take what you have now. Record everything they say, and bring the litigation, civil and criminal charges to their doorstep.

The use of Youtube was genius!
They can't control that. The internet is the gateway to exposing this corruption and it is unforgiving to dirtbags who can't hide from the truth.

Anonymous said...

Hey, give the Eye a chance. The Eye will definitely get to Slick Joey and his misappropriation of funds,etc. Can't wait. I definitely see a different spin from the Eye based on the last two topics posted. I don't think the Eye is done with the Chief and Company yet since there is so much to tell. But don't leave it all up to the Eye to do everything. You all need to start to speak up and make some noise, not just the EYE.

Anonymous said...

To ----- Anonymous said...
at March 19, 2012 1:33:00 AM MDT
Don't forget Levi banging Casey Marquez in the parking lot of the academy.

Anonymous said...

The cops in this town are so chickenshit they can't even standup for themselves nevermind each other...

Anonymous said...

I though CM was Anthony's girl?

Anonymous said...

That link didnt work for me but I found it on youtube any way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5CaJaQ61tw

Anonymous said...

So did Sammy, cheaters only cheat once right????

Anonymous said...

APD is pathetic. End of story

Anonymous said...

I heard sammy had a chance to finally punch anthony's clock, word is that little spineless punk anthony got sammy hosed from the department. It's true, High density turds float to the top......

Anonymous said...

When will this end for Tera's family. Finish this already and let Tera rest in peace. Make Levi accountable along with the ones who have helped with the cover-up including Heather (his now wife). I would love to see them get karma back ten fold.