EXPOSE’: The Murder and Cover-up of a Small Town Girl; Tera Chavez

PART 1 OF 5 in THE EYE ON ALBUQUERQUE EXPOSE’

PART 1: The Dirty Play Begins

Over the weekend of October 21st 2007, a young woman in Los Lunas died a brutal death. Around 9pm on Sunday October 21, former APD Officer Levi Chavez called 911 to report that he found Tera Chavez, the woman Levi Chavez was married to, deceased from a gunshot wound.

However, as we have been reporting here at the Eye since this incident occurred, nothing involving any of the players in this case is clear and straight forward. Over the next five days we are going to do our best to provide an analysis that many of our Eyes have put together concerning this horrible tragedy. We are going to do it in a level of depth that heretofore has not been presented to the public. Beginning today we are going to analyze Levi Chavez's hiring, then Friday we will analyze his work history, the events of October 20, 2007, his statements and representations, the crime scene, and then finally what came out in court and what we expect in the pending civil lawsuit.

Why now? Because in many ways, this incident and this case unfolded from October 21, 2007 to July 16, 2013 exemplifies the worst of New Mexico politics, law enforcement, and crime. This case helped remove Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez, and in ways that defy belief, has been aggravated by Albuquerque's current Mayor Richard Berry. Whether or not Berry shares in the downfall of Martin Chavez remains to be seen until the election in October.  The common denominator in both mayoral administrations is APD's current Chief Raymond Schultz. It was Schultz who hired Levi Chavez, it was Schultz who retained Levi Chavez, and it was Schultz who complicated and tainted the murder investigation of Tera Chavez.

This saga begins with the hiring of Levi M. Chavez II by the Albuquerque Police Department.

Levi Chavez started working for APD in January 2007.  Levi Chavez gained his certification after having the costs fronted by the City of Rio Rancho. You see, in 2005, Levi Chavez was hired by Rio Rancho's Department of Public Safety and they covered the cost of sending him to the State of New Mexico's Department of Public Safety peace officer academy.  However, no sooner had he completed his training and gained his state certification as a peace officer, Levi Chavez did what would be a recurring pattern: he abandoned his commitments and responsibilities. Instead of honoring the city and police department that had provided him income and benefits while paying for his certification by fulfilling his contract, Levi Chavez breached his employment agreement with Rio Rancho and pursued employment with the City of Albuquerque's Aviation Police Department. Not being afraid to steal certified candidates from other departments, ABQ Aviation Police Chief Marshall Katz readily brought Levi Chavez on to his department.

However, Rio Rancho did not sit by and simply let a breach of contract occur by a person they had invested so much time and money in. At the very least they wanted to be paid back. Despite sending numerous demand-letters admonishing Levi Chavez to reimburse the city (that is the public), Levi Chavez simply ignored them. Finally, on November 7, 2005 Rio Rancho filed a lawsuit against Levi Chavez for breach of contract. This case, D-1329-CV-200501253 landed in the courtroom of Sandoval County District Court Judge....George Eichwald.

In what would be one of the fastest district court level civil cases to be settled, on December 1, 2005 LEVI Chavez agreed to a stipulated judgment against him, whereby, he agreed to pay Rio Rancho $14,400 in costs and interest. What's odd about this is that a settlement could have been reached where a judgment was not required. A judgment has a particular sting on one's credit history, and to no surprise, this case remains open with no satisfaction of the judgment having been filed by Rio Rancho. In other words, if Levi Chavez came to you for a loan, upon reviewing his credit history it would show that he was sued by the city of Rio Rancho, agreed to pay at least $14,400 and has not fulfilled that amount. Does Levi Chavez sound like a safe and secure borrower or a high risk borrower?

Levi Chavez's time at Katz's department would prove to be short-lived. In 2006, APD promoted and offered a six week lateral academy. Enticed by even higher pay, Levi Chavez completed an online interest card and applied to be a lateral officer to APD. "Lateral" is just another way of transferring between departments. Because he was already state certified as a police officer, Levi Chavez would not have to go through the basic academy. APD offered a six week academy for such candidates to help familiarize them with APD operations. However, all candidates, whether laterals or new hires, had to pass the same qualifications. Upon being accepted, Levi Chavez abandoned his commitments to Katz and started the process with the department's big sister: APD.

Under APD's hiring process and standards, Step #4 requires each candidate to undergo an intensive background investigation (go to apdonline.com). Such BI includes providing a credit report to the recruiter and an investigation into the candidate's credit history.  This is a significant component to assessing any candidate's honesty and trustworthiness. What good is a police candidate if they have a poor credit history and references? Do they follow rules and do they honor obligations once they agree to take on responsibilities? If the answer is no, then there is a strong likelihood that they will abuse their authority as a police officer. As we all know, lying is one thing a police officer is not permitted to do. And the reason is simple:

Police officers are granted significant credibility in court because they are supposed to not only be law enforcers, but law abiders.

However, Levi Chavez somehow managed to surpass this stringent requirement. Not only had he breached a contract with another police department, he had failed to honor financial commitments to that department. Then when given notice about those responsibilities, he ignored them. Finally when confronted with the reality of being sued, Levi Chavez agreed to a judgment amount.

This should have been an instant bar to candidacy as an APD officer. Our Eyes confirm that even with this and signs of deception in his polygraph and concerns about his accuracy in his application, Levi Chavez was hired at the recommendation of then DCOP Mike Castro and confirmed by current APD Chief Ray Schultz.  This decision was made purposefully and willfully over the aggressive objections of APD Academy personnel.

Upon being hired, completing his lateral academy and finishing twelve weeks of in the field training, Levi Chavez would find himself in an environment ripe for exploitation. Not only were supervisors rarely seen allowing for endless opportunities of abuse, but there were so many "customs" that led to philandering it seemed too good to be true. The opportunities for making the most (that is abusing) of one's authority, self-promotion, power, and sex seemed limitless....