How does the Media Pick and Choose?

In a recent story carried by KOB 4 (READ IT HERE) the media picks and chooses how they wish to put a “spin” on a story for their ratings benefit.  They selected to bash an APD officer who enjoys praise as a “terrific employee” and on the other hand paints APD and City leaders as victims.

How is it that APD, who is now under Federal control, the victim? How is it that ex-chief Schultz is facing criminal indictments, the victim?  How is it that droves of top brass have fled in fear of the collapse of APD, now the victims?  How is it that Richard J. Berry who has lead the City of Albuquerque to be one of the worst City’s in the United States of America for crime, now the victim?  The fact is; APD Administration and the City leaders are not the victims; they are the offending parties.  This is not hearsay these are facts.

 

The opening statement of the story states, “…a blog used to disparage the Albuquerque Police Department and city leaders…” the facts don't lie; APD Administration and City leaders have failed the community and the Eye On Albuquerque has called them out on their devilish deeds. How does this become disparaging? Do the job you were hired to do, do it right and do it morally correct and you will never hear anything from the Eye On Albuquerque.

 

 The second paragraph of the story states, “…operating under the screen name "Stealth" to write hateful, embarrassing and often untrue posts on the website ‘Eye on Albuquerque.’” There is nothing hateful about the truth.  If an APD Administrator or City leader gets embarrassed for conducting themselves or City business unethically; they deserve to be embarrassed.  As for the “untrue” statement; please back it up with facts.  The Eye On Albuquerque does not post a story until they have two different and separate sources to verify what has been stated.  Our stories have stood the test of time and time has shown and proven; our stories are and have been true. Simply stated here our critics; put up or shut.

 

 By telling the truth the Eye On Albuquerque has never:

 

• Diminished public trust and confidence in APD
• Personally attacked APD's leadership and city leaders
• Lowered morale at APD and used bad judgment
• Used information learned while on duty against APD

 

However, these are the legitimate and Bona-Fide charges against APD Administrators and City Leaders. This action against Roberto isn’t personally motivated or a personal attack?  The hope was to silence the “Whistle Blower.”

 

 Now that the facts are straight; ask the DOJ why they took over the APD by a forced Federal court action?

 

 One final thought on this story. The Eye has been told APD Administrators and City Leaders solicited assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).  How is that APD Administrators and City leaders managed to get the FBI involved in an employment action but they can’t get the FBI involved in solving a rape or murder?  If this does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt the City will stop at literally nothing to silence their critics; nothing will.  The ADP Administrators and City leaders who sought assistance from the FBI should be prosecuted for gross negligence.  The DOJ should now focus their attention on why the Federal Bureau of Investigations would waste valuable resource on an employment action.

 

 PS- Here is a question that should be asked about the hearing officer, Pete Camacho.  It is clear to us Camacho was unsure in his own decision stating: "I find [Roberto] did commit acts that indicate a lack of moral character that would adversely affect her ability to exercise the duties of a certified law enforcement officer.”  Read what he was thinking and expressed in his opinion; “…did commit acts that indicate a lack of moral character…” We must ask; what does Camacho mean by “indicates?”  If Mr. Camacho was given clear and convincing evidence the statement should have stated: "I find [Roberto] did commit acts that exhibited a lack of moral character that would adversely affect her ability to exercise the duties of a certified law enforcement officer.”  The word indicates of a suggestive nature and is not believable.  Since the hearing Officer, Pete Camacho is unsure of his own opinion, did someone “grease the wheels” like Schultz did for Tazer?

 

 And yes, the Eye On Albuquerque is alive, well and very active.

APD Implosion: Outgoing APD Chief Schultz gives excuses interview

Yesterday all the major news stations reported about the termination of a female APD officer who allegedly had ties to the Eye On Albuquerque. REALLY? This is what APD is concerned about; a small time public opinion blog like the Eye On Albuquerque?

APD is not concerned with the many murdered women dug up on the Westside? All the police officer involved shootings? Manning levels down below 800 when the city is authorized 1,100? A department entrenched with infidelity? A former officer on trial for murder? A Chief of Police who lied to a United States Federal District Court? A newly appointed Interim Chief who was caught lying during a termination hearing? Small children dying in hot cars left unattended? How about the police officer we were told about yesterday who killed himself??The list goes on and on. But APD is not concerned with any of these issues; they are putting all their efforts into a person who may have exercised her First Amendment Rights.

According to Schultz, “It can be a very destructive tool. And when I say destructive, is when you challenge the credibility and the impartialness required of being a police officer.” If this is true, the most “destructive tool” has been Schultz. He lost all his credibility and impartialness when he lied in the Sam Costales case. This all amounts to just another excuse by Schultz to be a monster; a bully to a female officer.

What about transparency? If APD, the City of Albuquerque and Mayor Berry told the truth; the Eye On Albuquerque would not exist.  Due to the lies and cover-ups, the Eye On Albuquerque is thriving. Perhaps if Perry, Berry and Schultz were honest and up-front about City business; there would be no need for the Eye On Albuquerque.

What ever happened to First Amendment Rights?  Freedom of Speech? When a government and/or its’ agent tries to abridge the speech of a person or the people because it hurt their feelings it is simply wrong.

Why was this female officer terminated? What APD is accusing her of is not illegal and does not Per se violate APD’s social media policy as pointed out by the media. Was APD accusing this female officer of lying? Then the question becomes, what ever happened to Schultz’s new policy that makes it okay to lie? It must be nice to fire anyone who has a mind of their own just because you got your feelings hurt.

SIDEBAR

Ironically; Interim Chief Alan Banks personally called one of the Mayoral Candidates (Paul Heh’s) campaign workers and asked this worker to surrender a computer to him because he thought she had ties to the Eye On Albuquerque. Targeting civilians and now their own employees? Why would a Deputy Chief of Police of one of the Nation’s largest police departments personally try to steal a computer that belongs to the Heh campaign? Why would a deputy chief abuse his position and authority? Now a female officer is terminated during a politically charged year.  Why all the fanfare? Is it because the Eye On Albuquerque is supporting Heh for Mayor? Are these acts the independent acts of APD or have they been given marching orders by Mayor Berry who is headed to a run-off and eventually the loss of his position as mayor?

END SIDEBAR

The hypocrisy, nepotism, ignorance and fascism of APD’s upper echelon are disgusting. If the rules that APD has in place were followed none of the people at the top of APD would be there, including Schultz. “Do as I say; not as I do.”  And Schultz is wondering why Berry told him to leave?

The cure for APD is simple: True leadership is desperately needed at the top of APD. Leadership 101, check your ego in at the door. A police department that is run by one who acts childish is a recipe for ruining “the organization” and APD is proof of that. Be honest and tell the truth.  Give the facts as they are known. Stop lying!

Schultz is trying frantically to “get even” with everyone before he leaves like a disgruntled child on the playground. If Schultz would have looked in the mirror and realized he had become a tyrant, his time with APD would not have been filled with controversy but a legacy of an honest man who gave it his all. Schultz hit the destruct button a long time ago and the implosion started. Hopefully the new chief will have the knowledge, skills, ability and other attributes to lead APD out of the hell hole it is in now.  Currently, the only blessing is Schultz will be gone shortly.

Our apologies to our readers but this issue had to be addressed now.  Part three of our five part Expose will continue tomorrow.

Nice Temper Tantrum Chief Schultz!

An interesting story came to us via email. As we started reading about the Appreciation Day that was held at the Valley Area Command Substation on Friday, we thought that for once the Administration of the Albuquerque Police Department would be shining for their outward support of the officers. THINK AGAIN. According to our letter, Chief Schultz was in attendance, standing near the APOA tent. Commander Rae Mason (our new hero) announced that for the first time ever, she was presenting an officer with the Officer of the Year award. According to the letter received, she announced Officer Dawn Roberto was receiving the award. As soon as Commander Mason announced the recipient, Chief Schultz turned and left. Even though he was standing directly behind the officer, he could not show the respect to even congratulate the officer. Lt. Dodi Comacho (our other new hero) quickly interjected. She stated all the good things Officer Roberto has accomplished and even stated no one can figure out why the countless nominations for Officer of the Month have been denied. Our eyes know why the nominations have not been approved. Chief Schultz is throwing another one of his well known temper tantrums. You know, the kind of tantrums he throws when people call him on the carpet, when he is caught off guard and has no time to devise an excuse. You may hate her, you may like her, but the eyes believe no one can doubt the fact that Officer Roberto is a hard working officer that has made this Chief look good. She is also a union member that continuously stands up for Officers and does not back down. We applaud Commander Mason and Lt. Camacho for their recognition. Chief Schultz, your tantrum was not gone unnoticed and you should be ashamed of yourself for the way you handle yourself. It is time for you to leave, bring the morale back to this department and for petes sake, leave the tantrums to the two year olds.

APD Woes: Someone's Got To Pay

You probably remember the arrest for DWI of undercover State Police officer John Lytle back in January (ABQ Journal - Subscription). You may also have heard that officer Lytle was found not guilty of drunken driving this June (ABQ Journal - Subscription). Unless you spend a lot of time down at Metro Court, what you won't have heard about is the story of APD Officer Dawne Roberto.

Officer Roberto was the arresting DWI officer involved in the incident, and was therefore called upon to testify for the prosecution at the bench trial of officer Lytle. As such, one of her obligations was to meet with the defense team in a pretrial meeting; most of the time these pretrial meetings are very brief and are not conducted under oath. In this case, defense attorney Sam Bregman subjected Officer Roberto to a 2 hour pretrial grilling.

After her meeting with the defense, Officer Roberto realized that she had given the defense team some inaccurate information. Realizing that this could present a problem at trial, she brought her misstatements to the attention of the DA's office and asked for their guidance on how to proceed. The DA's office knowing that this case could end up a high profile case put two of their most aggressive ADAs Jeremy Peña and Jason Greenly on the case. Their advice to Officer Roberto was simple - tell the truth - which is exactly what she did.

Judge Daniel Ramczyk subsequently found officer Lytle not guilty. It's important to remember here that not everyone accused of DWI is guilty of the offense and more importantly a finding of not guilty doesn't necessarily mean that the prosecution, the judge, or the arresting officer made a mistake. Sometimes defendants really are not guilty.

You would think that the story would end there. In this case, it didn't. You see... Our Eyes tell us that the State Police Chief was none too happy about Judge Ramczyk's finding and called APD Chief Ray Schultz to let him know about it. That's when things started to go wrong for Officer Roberto.

After the trial (and subsequent angry phone call to Chief Schultz), officer Dawne Roberto was subjected to what could only be called retribution. She was put on 2 days of administrative leave, and stuck on desk duty upon her return. Captain Ron Hetes (one of the Almighty Marty's four henchmen from Jim Villanucci fame), claimed that ADAs Jeremy Peña and Jason Greenly had indicated that she had a credibility problem with the DA's office and over at Metro Court with Judge Ramczyk.

If true, Officer Roberto would have a problem as all three are greatly respected by the department and at Metro Court. The problem is... when Peña and Greenly found out about the allegations against officer Roberto, they went straight to her attorney and denied the allegations and let him know that she had done nothing wrong at trial. Judge Ramczyk echoed the sentiment of the two ADAs and even called her in to his chambers to let her know personally.

To make matters worse, she was told that Captain Hetes was conducting his own investigation and that if he "found" anything she would be turned over to Internal Affairs. But, if she were to voluntarily transfer out of the DWI unit, everything would go away.

It's important to note that the DA's office and APD lose DWI cases all the time and officers are not (and should not be) punished for failing to convict the offenders. One high profile example is the recent case of developer Jason "Mario Andretti" Daskalos, who was found not guilty of DWI and reckless driving (ABQ Journal - Subscription). The Daskalos case hinged on the testimony of a Porsche expert; testimony that directly conflicted with the testimony of the arresting officer.

In the end, officer Roberto took the deal and asked for a transfer to the Valley Command; which was, you guessed it... denied. Despite an opening at Valley Command and despite her 8 years of service, she was sent to the Westside instead. Some of you are thinking... so what? Officers don't always get to go where they want. A true statement, but the position at the Valley Command was filled by a rookie with zero seniority.

Worse, Dawne Roberto is not only one of APD's finest - she's a single mom caring for two young children and her invalid mom. Her transfer puts her as far away from them as possible without joining the Grants police department, as her family resides in the Northeast Heights.

Unfortunately, we hear about cases like officer Roberto's all the time. APD seems to be replete with stories of petty retribution. One indication of a serious problem is that every officer with any time served seems to be lawyered up. In this case, a fine officer whose only crime was telling the truth was forced out of a job she loved because of an angry phone call. Someone has got to pay... especially if it's the wrong person.