PART 5: A Family Ripped Apart
On September 27, 2007, Tera Chavez reported Levi's Ford F-250
was stolen from their driveway. In addition to a police report, in the report
to Allstate Insurance on October 6th, an affidavit was completed whereby Levi Chavez
claimed all of the keys to the truck were accounted for. However, neighbors
state they recall seeing Levi drive away in the truck in late September followed
by at least one marked Albuquerque Police Department vehicle (police unit).
Several hours later, Levi is seen returning to the house in his marked unit but
the truck was never seen again at the Chavez home. Not again until it was
recovered in Mexico around March 30th, 2011, with a changed VIN (Vehicle
Identification Number) from a vehicle owned by former APD police officer and
police APOA Union President, Pete Dwyer. And oddly, the truck had no damage to
its steering column...
Dwyer would later be terminated by APD for his posting of inappropriate
comments on Tweeter. Dwyer was also under suspicion by the APOA Union for
unaccounted debts he racked up while he was president of the union. Dwyer was pressured to resign from the
Unions’ top spot.
On October 15th, the NM Insurance Fraud Bureau received a
call concerning how to report a "fake stolen truck." A name similar
to Tera's is left and the callback number left is the one for Tera's salon.
Also in October, Levi opened up a new bank account and changed his APD direct
deposit information to the new account so Tera could not see or access Levi’s
income from APD.
Tera Chavez told fellow workers at the Salon, she owned, and
her family if she turned up dead it was Levi who killed her. You see Tera felt guilty about succumbing to
Levi’s pressure and reporting his truck stolen. Levi reportedly told Tera and
his friend that he wanted a “Caddi.” The purpose of reporting the truck stolen
was to do insurance fraud which would allow Chavez to purchase his “Caddi.” Tera was reported as telling friend and family
that Levi threatened her; if she ever told, he would kill her.
Since 2005, Levi has been
overextending himself with loans and credit card debt. The City of Rio Rancho
sues him for breach of contract. Capital One credit card sues him for
non-payment. Levi Chavez, Sr. takes out a credit card in his son's name and he defaults
on that account leaving the credit card company to go after his son. They have
high interest truck payments for the F-250 (which at that time has a resale
value of around $20,000...so the payments are almost as large as a mortgage),
they have high interest payments on the house because of his Zero-Down VA loan
(in fact they owe more than it's worth), they have monthly bills and expenses,
and Levi of course is living it large as he bounces from bed to bed with his
various sex partners who are all cops.
Over the weekend of October 21, 2007, Levi states that Tera
called him "hundreds" of times. Yet his Verizon cell phone records
show only sixteen calls on October 20, 2007, with his last call to his
voicemail at 11:26PM. Then on October 21, 2007, he makes nine calls with his
first one at 3:32PM to a City of Albuquerque phone number. At about 8:45PM he
calls Debra Romero and talks with her for about 8 minutes. He then states he
calls 911 around 9:01 stating he found his wife deceased and quickly plants the
notion that her death is from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. From this call an
avalanche of issues ensue, and intentionally lost in the debris is a crime
scene.
VCSO deputies arrive and meet Levi in front of his house. He
is quick to show them a text on his phone that states, "I'm so
sad..." and shows a time of 1:06AM earlier that day. Levi keeps asserting
it's her fault she did this. That he should've known. VCSO Detective Aaron
Jones arrives and completes a brief interview with Levi. Levi has not given
anybody information regarding Tera's parents. He has not expressed concern
about Tera's children or Tera's family--especially Mr. Cordova who had given
them a loan earlier to help them with their financial difficulties. Jones
eventually obtains Tera's parents information and leaves the scene in the care
of fellow VSCO deputies while he goes to provide notification to Tera's
parents.
While Jones is away, Levi's lieutenant, former APD officer
Shawn O'Connell was notified about the incident. He briefs his then commander,
and current U.S. Marshall for New Mexico, Conrad Candelaria, that he is headed
down to Tera's house on Ash Place. Also en route is Sgt. James Silver of
APD Internal Affairs, APD Officer Rick Ingram as a police union representative,
and none other than APD Officer Ron Olivas. There are allegations that there
were at least four other APD officers in addition to these four but they, as of
today, have not been identified. APD Standard Operating Procedures
require that when an officer's duty is discharged an IA sergeant is sent to
investigate. Consistent with that policy would be that the sergeant bring along
a Field Investigator to examine the scene and discharged weapon. Given that
there is City of Albuquerque property involved and harm stemming from the discharging
of that property (the gun), it would be poor policy for the city not to inspect
the scene or at least show that they made an effort to.
While this entourage of APD officers heads down to Los
Lunas, Tera Chavez's father is notified of his daughter's death by Detective
Jones. "Lock down the house" is Mr. Cordova's immediate response. Not
denial that his daughter is gone, not disbelief at what he is being told in the
early hours of October 21, but immediate problem solving.
But by then it's too late.
But by then it's too late.
Inside the house, at least Lieutenant O'Connell, Sergeant
Silver, and Officer Ingram go through the property walking past VCSO deputies
and OMI personnel. Conveniently outside is Officer Olivas. Later Olivas would
forcefully argue and sell that he "didn't go inside" sensing that
something was wrong. Without speaking up, Olivas either let the others destroy
the crime scene OR in fact helped. This would happen again almost two years
later when Olivas "didn't go inside" but led former APD Officer Brad Ahrensfield
believe that his son's arrest was imminent.
Inside the house, instead of throwing away a mattress that
he claims was "cleared" by OMI and VCSO detectives, O'Connell cut
away a patch of blood stained mattress fabric while Ingram and Silver later
rummaged through furniture and personal effects. Something bloody is flushed
down the toilet. Even though the weather had been very warm, VCSO detectives
note that there are damp towels draped across chairs in the house.
Whatever other information the scene may have told about what happened is now
gone under the footprints and manhandling of the Levi’s buddies evidence
eradication team. This incident of flooding a crime scene (murder set up to
look like a suicide) with cops would be repeated again but on a much grander
and more macabre scale nearly three years later but this time with APD Deputy
Chiefs and Captains.
With the scene walked over, Tera taken away, and Levi
propagating a story that Tera was so troubled, despite getting divorce
paperwork finalized, that she was so worried about finances, despite putting
things in place for her own salon, and that her life revolved around him,
despite her using APD Officer Nick Wheeler as a stepping stone to get out from
Levi's manipulations, it seemed too late for there to be open consideration
that this young woman's death was the result of a homicide.
In the years since this happened, former Officer Russell
Perea was ultimately fired from APD. It turned out that HE tagged the belt tape
and not Levi. But despite there being this absence of any activity where it is
clear with clear and convincing (as the standard goes) evidence that Perea lied
and covered for Levi Chavez, APD couldn't even fire him correctly. They
terminated him not for lying to the dispatcher or his supervisor or his
colleagues about being out of service and what he was doing (covering for Levi
Chavez) but for not being "forthcoming." In other words, instead of
relying on all that they had in hand, APD speculated about why Perea lied.
Perea appealed his termination in the 2nd District Court room of Judge Bacon
last month. If Perea would have told the
truth in the Levi Chavez murder trial it would have proved the City’s case
against him. Perea had to lie to save
his job he was terminated from with APD and that is still on appeal.
In the summer of 2007, Perea had
just lateraled over to APD via the 7th Lateral Academy class. He did not have a
car yet and was assigned to work Team 5 of the Westside area command and to
work with Levi Chavez. On the night of October 20, 2007, Perea drove Levi's car
and Perea did all of the work while, in Perea's own words, "Levi texted
all night."
Levi would remain on the city's payroll until he was
indicted in April 2011. Shortly thereafter, APD's chief would finally fire him.
After endless occasions where it was clear Levi had lied to supervisors,
citizens, and colleagues about his whereabouts and what he was doing, had
falsified police records in the computer dispatch system, had dispatcher
Desiree Gonzales falsely log him at places he wasn't at, had injured untold
numbers of fellow officers....Chief Schultz waited to fire him until he had the
cover of an indictment to terminate the officer. In true Schultzian fashion,
Ray Schultz waited until it was not his decision to make. Keep in mind, when
the murder occurred, Levi Chavez was still a probationary employee and could
have been terminated for “any reason or no reason at all.”
Current CACU detective, and Levi's wife, Heather Chavez, was married to another officer in 2007. Upon returning home in mid-November not even a month after Tera's murder, that officer saw a car parked around the corner from his house. He pulled up the call history for the officer on his patrol computer and found it was a car assigned to Levi Chavez. But Chavez was logged on a call nowhere near his house. The officer pulled adjacent to his driveway, walked into his house, and inside found his wife with Levi Chavez.
Current CACU detective, and Levi's wife, Heather Chavez, was married to another officer in 2007. Upon returning home in mid-November not even a month after Tera's murder, that officer saw a car parked around the corner from his house. He pulled up the call history for the officer on his patrol computer and found it was a car assigned to Levi Chavez. But Chavez was logged on a call nowhere near his house. The officer pulled adjacent to his driveway, walked into his house, and inside found his wife with Levi Chavez.
One has to ask, if a person will falsify a police report,
will lie about his location to a dispatcher, will seduce a fellow officer's
wife in that officer's very home in the presence of their child....what won't
that officer do?
EPILOGUE
Much of the details in this narrative over the last week come
from public record sources. Sadly, much of this information was not presented
to the jury in the trial because of weak lawyering by Valencia County
Prosecutor McKay. We at the Eye were so disgusted with the miscarriage of
justice in the trial of Levi Chavez that we hope this effort over the last week
tells the Cordova family that you are not alone and while many are afraid to
speak out, we are not. And given the recent events over the last week, we will be
even more aggressive in our exposure of misconduct and crimes by those in
power. If you think we've been a pain to corrupt office holders over the last
six years, stand by...
APD's new Chief, Allen Banks will
take office this Friday. A few years ago when he was asked in a deposition
about whether fraternization issues could negatively impair performance by APD
officers given all that had happened with the Levi Chavez. Banks hesitated and
then tried to evade the question by asking for clarification. When the
interviewer reduced it to simple terms such as, do you think officers sleeping
with fellow officer's wives would be problematic for the department, Banks
answered, "I truly don't understand what you're asking me."
Who is the guilty one...
