Center OF or FOR Domestic Violence?

There seems to be a bit of a disagreement over the new family justice center announced by Mayor Chavez last week. (ABQ Journal - Subscription Required) Seems that the Mayor failed to sign legislation over a year and a half ago that would have done the same thing. Our fellow blogger over at the Wednesday Morning Quarterback gives a great play-by-play analysis (Read it Here) of what happened. Believe it or not, there might have been politics involved... that couldn't be true? Could it?

Who cares who gets the credit anyway? As Councilor Winter was quoted in the Journal as saying, "It doesn't matter who takes credit for realizing the need for the creation of the center." We wholeheartedly agree. There's just one problem... seems that the point man on this whole affair has been accused of, you guessed it... domestic violence.

Our Eyes on the Inside tell us that the former high-ranking APD officer that has been doing the preliminary work on the center has allegedly been accused of felony domestic violence while in uniform. Our Eyes tell us that there are two tapes of the alleged victim making a report to an APD officer that detail the incident. More importantly, this officer was ordered not to file a report and to get rid of the taped interviews! Seems that the accused officer held sufficient rank to warrant protection from their higher-ups.

Our Eyes tell us that the incident is widely discussed in APD circles and that the officer involved has protected himself by making sure that copies of the tapes have been stored in safe places including with his attorney. If our Eyes have the story straight, there are a few questions that need to be asked. First, why in the world would you put someone in charge of a domestic violence center that has been accused of domestic violence? Second and more importantly, what was APD doing ordering an officer not to file a report and to destroy evidence?

You can be sure that The Eye will be looking into this further.