Talk is Cheap!

This past April, we reported about how retired APD Senior Sergeant, Paul Heh, filed a complaint against the APOA for the questionable spending practices by former president (and former officer) Joey Sigala and former vice-president Felipe "Flip" Garcia. Sgt. Heh's letter was not only in response to APD Chief Schultz's erroneous claim that an investigation could not commence without a complaint, but it was also simply the right thing to do. Many who have either retired or resigned from the department had paid money into the APOA's general fund and thanks to APOA lawyer Fred Mowrer"s email alerting all to the issue, it seemed those funds were spent unlawfully. In fact it seems they were embezzled.

Chief Schultz initially wanted to the keep the financial crimes investigation in house by assigning White Collar Crimes Sergeant Anthony Sedillo to the case, but because of Sgt. Sedillo's conflict of interest, investigators from the NM State Police came in--and are still conducting their detailed investigation. As we reported last spring, Eyes close to that investigation have told us it is not "if" crimes occurred but "how many."

Despite all of this, the new leadership of the APOA, Greg Weber and Tommy Henderson remained motionless and silent in confrontation to the events swirling around them. While Sigala and Garcia resigned in disgrace, Weber and Henderson dutifully stepped forward and did a press release in Mayor Berry's media room and announced, to the Mayor's benefit, the suspension of providing any financial relief to officers who had been involved in shootings. Shortly thereafter, the APOA voted for a new vice-president and former Chicagoan Shawn Willoghby was elected. All during this dynamic period and much of the period over which massive funds disappeared from the APOA's coffers, APOA treasurer Matt Fisher remained in place and steadfastly held that he had done nothing wrong.

Finally, this past summer the APOA invited an auditor to come in to do their own investigation of the missing money. Our Eyes tell us this delay was the result of the assignment of a committee to look in to the matter and decide whether an audit was even necessary and decide on a CPA firm to do the work.

Well, after months of work and review our Eyes tell us the CPA presented her findings this week. After years of abuse of spending member's money, after the resignation of the former president (and his subsequent arrest), and vice president, after the maneuvering of new leadership seemingly at the direction of the mayor, after countless delays to invite an auditor in, after the public announcement of a criminal investigation into the matter by the NMSP, and after spending over $18,000 on the audit, our Eyes tell us:

Over $150,000 was spent via credit card and unjustified checks during Sigala's reign as the APOA president but that because there are no receipts and by-laws don't specifically limit such actions there no wrong doing can be proved.

In an email released to the media this week, APOA President Weber stated that the APOA is at a "cross roads" and never in the APOA's history have there been such regularly low turnouts. Monthly APOA meetings have only had enough members to show up for a quorum in one of the last ten months. That means nothing will get done because no motion can be heard or voted on for approval. Weber's response was to conduct yet ANOTHER survey of concerns the members have so that they can best be addressed. Matters addressing treasurer Matt Fisher have even been shelved because nobody feels they can do anything.

We at the Eye are flabbergasted! As our Eyes continue to flood us with emails, the issue is not that the APOA executive board needs to hear from the members, its that the members need to hear from the executive board! Over $150,000 remains simply unaccounted and members are told nothing can be done. The annual income of the APOA hovers around $300,000...that means almost half of each members contribution is unaccounted for! The mayor continues to breach and violate existing contract provisions and Chief Schultz has driven APD off a cliff thanks to his endless changing of procedures, grand standing on false incidents, lies, coverups, and seemingly criminal actions, yet the APOA leadership's response is to survey its members what to do. Really?!

Mr. Weber and to all the other executive members of the APOA, the time for talk and surveys has long gone. Your members need to see leadership and know that they are being represented. So far it seems not only are their financial interests been cast aside but their labor interests as well. It is time for demonstrable action, because staying in-line with the APOA's concern for its funds with a "talk is cheap" mantra is not helping. Despite the Albuquerque Journal's best effort to deflect criticism against Chief Schultz and his endless string of failures, the fact is APD is headed to a manpower and skills deficit crisis. The things that need to be done will surely invite scrutiny from the 5th Floor and the paper, but what needs to be done is restore respect amongst the members. The members need to know you care and words are not sufficient. They need to see ACTION!

Fisher - Off the Hook

We told you right before Christmas that the Eyes had it that Officer Matt Fisher was being implicated as the co-conspirator in the Jason Daskalos DWI duck-out from APD custody (read it here). Today our Eyes found out that Officer Fisher is off the hook so to speak.

Apparently, there are no plans to indict Officer Fisher at this time. Of course there were no plans to indict former Officer Ben Kirby until he had the temerity to sue to get his job back.

Speaking of Kirby... We're wondering exactly where this development leaves the DA's case against the former officer. We're not a lawyer but don't you need more than one person for a conspiracy? You'll remember that our Eyes had it that the Kirby grand jury came to a screeching halt when a juror decided to ask exactly who the other conspirators were (read it here).

We'd think at this point the DA is going to have a tough time of getting around this particular elephant in the room. Either they're going to have to start naming people involved in the conspiracy or settle for indicting a ham sandwich - 'cause they don't seem to be able to get Kirby without it.

Conspiracy Revealed?

Sixteen months after the Jason Daskalos DWI diversion from APDs paddy wagon, we finally found out who is accused of conspiring with former Officer Ben Kirby. Of course, the whole conspiracy thing didn't show up until fourteen months after the incident and just coincidentally right after Kirby filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the city (read about it here).

According to our Eyes, Officer Matt Fisher is the officer being accused of conspiring with Kirby to release Daskalos. Interestingly enough, Daskalos himself isn't being investigated for his role in the whole affair. It seems as if the DA's office is treating Mr. Daskalos - who was under arrest at the time - as an innocent victim even though he was the one escaping at the time.

As we've said before, this whole thing has been kind of strange. Daskalos was arrested for DWI; he is then taken on a field trip from the DWI paddy wagon, returned to the paddy wagon, booked on DWI, tried for DWI, and ultimately acquitted. As you all know, Officer Kirby was fired for his role; but what gets us is that the DA initially chose not to prosecute but fourteen months latter ended up deciding to begin a grand jury investigation that didn't involve Daskalos.

Seemingly, the conspiracy is revealed and those who conspired are APD rank and file officers. To us this just doesn't add up. Two APD officers decide - on their own - to bust Daskalos out of DWI custody with no orders from above and no indication of any personal ties to Daskalos himself.

Folks, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that there's a lot more to this story and that we'll probably never know what really took place August 25th, 2006.