EXPOSE’: The Murder and Cover-up of a Small Town Girl; Tera Chavez (PART 2)

PART 2 OF 5 in THE EYE ON ALBUQUERQUE EXPOSE'

PART 2: ONE SHIFT

With a six week lateral, or transfer, academy and three months of on-the-job training under his belt and behind him, Levi Chavez was ready to hit the streets. As a new hire, Levi was still a probationary officer, a "P 2 C" and that meant significant restrictions and exposure. As a probationary employee he was not bound to the same protections offered to fully classified employees as he was technically still under review. This meant that if at any time his employer and department director, Ray Schultz, felt his job was insufficient; his employment could be terminated without the usual due process protections offered to regular classified employees.

This is not without significance. All new hires are told that until they complete one year of probationary employment, they have significantly fewer protections than other non-probationary employees. This gives the city a chance to make sure the employee is indeed a productive member of the workforce and, if they are not, the ability to send them on their way and fire them. New hires understand this going into the position and generally do their best to avoid generating any controversy.

Under §3-1-8 of the City of Albuquerque Ordinances asserts that "A probationary employee does not have a legitimate entitlement to continued employment and may be terminated for any or no reason." Despite knowing this and being ten months into his probationary period, Levi Chavez took a bizarre approach to his "duties" during his shift on October 20, 2007. Even to the casual observer, one will notice a distinct deviation in his activities that fateful night.

Assigned to what is now the Southwest Area Command, Levi Chavez was attached to Team 5 under the supervision of then Sergeant Gabe Mares (Mares is now an APD lieutenant). Team 5 is one of three police squads assigned to "swing" shift which at that time worked 2 PM to midnight, four nights a week, with their week starting on Wednesday and their last workday being Saturday. Without a car, or at least claiming not to have one in service, Levi teamed up with an even newer officer to APD, Russell Perea. Sgt. Mares was off that night and as our Eyes have told us, Mares is a highly devoted and active member in his church and is routinely performing church related functions frequently while on-duty. (Lt. Mares' career remains distinctive in the frequent happenstance of disturbing and high profile events. Three years later it would be under Sgt. Mares' supervision that an event eerily similar to what unfolds with Tera Chavez occurs but with prominent civil rights attorney Mary Han and a year later again it would be under Sgt. Mares' supervision that former APD Officer Matt Kindle is caught having a lunch time tryst with a prostitute while on camera.)

Paired up with Perea, Levi rode shotgun while Perea drove. Computer Aided Dispatch logs indicate Levi logged on to the system at 1311 hours with the rider "Saint Michael." He the logged "75" which is an out-of-service code officers usually log when they are in briefing which is where Levi should've been heading to. The pair's activities, assigned as E139, took on the following assignments for what would be a most fateful shift:

At 1445 Hours they went to an audible alarm, or a "52," dispatch to an address on Sundoro Place NW. They logged en-route to it at 1512 hours, 27 minutes after being dispatched to it. They then arrived at the location at 1529 hours, 44 minutes after being dispatched to it. They then cleared it as a false alarm, or "89," at 1546 hours, or 61 minutes after being dispatched to it. No report taken.

At 1546 hours, they were dispatched to a criminal sexual penetration call or a "27-2" and were sent to an address on Camino Contento NW. They logged en-route and arrived at the same time of 1546 hours. They remained on this call, until 1611 hours, or about 25 minutes. No report taken.

At 1627 hours, they were dispatched to another audible alarm call to an address on Molten Place NW. They arrived there at 1638 hours, or 11 minutes after being dispatched. They then cleared it as a false alarm at 1650 hours, or 33 minutes after being dispatched. No report taken.

At 1650 hours they were dispatched to the Wal-Mart on Coors in reference to vandalism, "38" call. They logged 4 minutes after being dispatched at 1654 hours and then cleared it at 1700 hours, or 10 minutes after being dispatched. No report taken.

At 1703 hours the pair was dispatched to an accident without injuries, a "44," to a location on Ladera NW. They arrived about 12 minutes after being dispatched at 1715 hours. They remained on this call until they cleared it with a police report at 1757 hours, or 54 minutes after being dispatched.

At 1806 they were dispatched to a disturbance call, a "39," to a location on Bright Star NW. They arrived 13 minutes after being dispatched at 1819 hours and then cleared it without a report at 1909 hours, or 63 minutes after being dispatched.

So far the shift seemed fairly steady and the pair had taken six calls over the course of just over three hours. They had little down time between calls, or at least while they stayed logged on calls, and as soon as they cleared a call their dispatched assigned them a new one almost immediately. They were efficient and they seemed to pace their work steadily and remained in control of it. Things were about to change though.

At 1909 hours, the E139 was dispatched to assault/battery call, a "27-4," at a location on Central NW. They logged en route immediately and arrived at 1918 hours, about 9 minutes after being dispatched. At 1944 hours they updated their location to the Westside Substation, or "WSSS," with 1 person in custody, 26 minutes after arriving at the location on Central. They remained at the substation until updating their location at the Prisoner Transport Center at 2117 hours, about 93 minutes after arriving at their substation. They remained at the PTC at 4th/Roma until they cleared the call with a report at 2152 hours, or 128 minutes after arriving on the scene at the location on Central.

Except there was no "they" at the PTC, only Russell Perea was seen on the PTC's video monitor and only Russell Perea's property inventory and prisoner transfer sheet was signed at about 2135 hours. Perea asserts that Levi  remained at the Westside substation where he completed the report and tagged into APD's evidence system a single tape from his duty belt mounted audio recorder. The police report consists of a face sheet without a narrative and a single half page written narrative supplemental form.

E139 then logged out on lunch, or "61," at 2152 hours at "Chiles" and remained there for 50 minutes until they logged themselves "75" at 2242 hours and "WSSS Evidence/42s." They remained logged this way until they simply logged off at 2357 hours, 3 minutes before midnight. Doing what, nobody seems to know and neither Perea nor Chavez can adequately explain what they were doing. Even more surprisingly, IA investigators from APD even failed to identify this gap in their review, the pair's activity that night.

From the moment E139 had arrived at the location on Central NW, they had remained unavailable for service, unresponsive to any supervisor, unresponsive to other dispatches for 279 minutes, or over four and a half hours. E139 was unaccountable to anybody.

Aside from the call Russell Perea and Levi Chavez took on Central at 1918 hours, there is no verifiable history of where Levi was after Russell left him to book the suspect at the PTC. For a pair that tore through six calls earlier, did all they could to avoid writing any reports, they immediately changed pace, arrested and charged a male offender for throwing small religious figurines (probably a St. Michael) at his sister. They then milked a call to the end of shift with, as expected, no accountability from any supervisors. And in that 4.5 hours, one officer drove a suspect to the PTC while Levi spent the rest of the night writing a two page report and tagging a single item into evidence. And then after logging out for dinner at Chiles they returned to the substation to do just that.

After being so efficient with their calls, they now exhibit the type of conduct a probationary employee would most fear: neglect of duty. But was this neglect or was it design?

Tera Chavez's home as mapped out via MapQuest is just over 30 miles from the Southwest Substation located at 6404 Los Volcanes Road SW and is almost a straight shot down Coors SW. There is nothing in the record by Perea or Chavez that accounts for this gap in their time. The task to complete the police report and tag evidence doesn't cover it. Booking a non-combative suspect doesn't cover it.

The Office of the Medical Investigator put Tera's time of death between 2200 hours on 10/20 to 0400 hours on 10/21. Did Tera Chavez die during the time that Levi Chavez was unaccountable? Is it a coincidence that this is exactly the time that Levi is unaccounted for? Yet Levi would have us believe she sent him a text the day of 10/21 indicating she was afraid she was going to hurt herself...? If Tera Chavez died on 10/20; who sent that text message to Levi Chavez?