Liars Again: This Case has it all; COPS, LYING, SEX, and MURDER

In case you missed it, here's a repeat of a major event that is unfolding in the Levi Chavez trial. On March 16, 2012 we broke the story (READ IT HERE) about how APD's current Deputy Chief Allen Banks was caught lying while under a sworn oath to tell the truth when he was testifying in the labor hearing involving former APD officer Russell Perea.

We also partnered up with other folks to make sure that audio got spread out on the web: Listen to it (HERE).
 

Not surprisingly, we heard another wave of threats about how the 5th and 11th floors were going to take your lovable Eye out. But since these recordings are public record and can be obtained from the city's Administrative Hearing office, and well, are simply the truth, our little terrorists in city power did what they always do....fade away in the night.

Now to be clear, we never supported Russell Perea as a person. It seems there are some very suspicious discrepancies in his account of what he and fellow officer Levi Chavez were doing at the time they were working together that fateful Saturday night in October of 2007. We were critical of APD's efforts to unlawfully terminate an employee. We remain highly critical of Schultz, Banks, and Feist's inability to do the right thing even when it was so obvious there was a coverup for Levi's whereabouts when he was at work. They were so pathetic it almost seems they tried to bungle the termination. And when then hearing officer Zane Reeves overuled the termination, Rob Perry did what Rob Perry does when he doesn't get his way: fire people.

Interesting fact: The murder of Tera Chavez occurred in Los Lunas; Russell Perea worked for Los Lunas Police Department before lateraled over to APD. Hum...Levi Chavez was a lateral too who left Rio Rancho and is in default for the cost of training.

Now Mr. Perea is doing everything he can NOT to testify for his buddy Levi Chavez. How weird is that. One year ago he argued he and Levi were simply working a DV call together where one tagged evidence and wrote the report while the other booked the suspect over a course of a few hours. NOW Mr. Perea is asserting his 5th Amendment right not to self-incriminate himself...

Weird.
 

But don't take our word for it. Listen to the audio and let us know what you think is going on up their in Judge Eichwald's courtroom.

Click on the Picture Below to hear it all (same link as above for YouTube)...

 

DISTRACTION TECHNIQUES; RESTART

Last Friday as much of the city waited for the verdict in the wrongful death trial of Ken Ellis III, RJ Berry and his cohorts, Perry, McCleskey and city attorney David Tourek moved Berry's re-election effort into full gear. You see, hours before the verdict which, on paper, awarded Mr. Ellis' son over $10,000,000 in damages (we say on paper because no sooner was the verdict read then Tourek and Perry moved to have the judgment set aside, a reversal of Judge Bacon's summary judgment ruling, and a new trial--all of which will delay justice due to the Ellis family) not so coincidentally APD's notorious chief announced his pending retirement. In the world of policing; this is referred to as a "distraction technique."

NOTE: Why was Schultz's Letter of Retirement dated March 13, 2013, but was not publicly announced till March 15, 2013? Why has Berry, Perry and Schultz refused to comment on it until Monday, March 18, 2013? This was all a distraction technique to shift the publics' attention away from the $10,000,000.00 verdict.

The premeditated announcement of Schultz's "retirement" dominated the newscasts. While the stations and paper covered the Ellis verdict, that story was overshadowed by Schultz's announcement. We heard about how long he's been chief. What's happened since he's been chief. What he's done since he's been chief all ad nauseum. But of course we didn't hear when the chief is retiring.

You see it's because he isn't. Or is not planning to. His letter is dated two days before it's release and it is sent not to Mayor Berry but to CAO Rob Perry. It also does not identify a date except that it may be after the election. But we all know what that means. IF Berry were to win re-election, we will no doubt hear about Schultz making the greatest personal sacrifice while stepping up to the call of duty and REMAINING as APD's chief of police.

The local paper saw fit to reflect on some cherry picked items noting the highlights and lowlights of Schultz's tenure in office. Let's flesh that out a bit shall we? In fact, let's just keep it to 2012...

•APOA survey identifies morale is at the worst it could be and that the mayor and chief have led the department to it's horrid state.

APOA president Sigala is arrested and booked and investigated for massive embezzlement and fraud yet the case mysteriously disappears while Schultz remains silent.

•Officer misconduct cases where Schultz was aware of the misconduct but failed to do anything prior to the news media breaking the story.

Chad Solis, Conner Rice, Ron Suran and the runaway taser and beating incidents.

Patrick Ficke; allegations of drunk driving in a police car and domestic abuse against a family member and other inappropriate behavior both on and off duty for over a year.

Several ranking members of APD whom were with Ficke drinking are now also under investigation.

Adam Casaus; allegations of speeding through a red light at 80+ MPH resulting in the death of a young lady and severely injuring her sister.

•IPRA violations and noncompliance resulting in ongoing lawsuits

•Lieutenant lawsuit by over four lieutenants who allege discrimination in the department promotional process

•Age discrimination lawsuit by dozens of APD officers after federal EEOC investigators found they had cause to sue.

•DCOP Banks lying under oath in sworn hearing.

•Violations of officer involved shooting SOPS (Peck, fleeing car, Parrish)

Releasing of evidence

 

Contaminating (spoilage of) evidence

Tainting witnesses

•Unlawful termination of employees and intimidation of employee favorable witnesses. All we need to say is John Doyle and Robert Woolever.

Unlawful use of public property

 

Friends of SWAT operating out of the Valley Area Command

Karen Salazar’s new private ARAPA organization operating out of the Main Police station

Personnel staffing Tiburon

TJ Wilham’s use of RTCC for private purposes

•Schultz seen socializing with disgraced nefarious PSD Darren White at MMA fights in ringside seats while technically the duty-chief and on call.

•Staffing problems

Limited recruits

Accelerated retirements

•Officer response times all time high

•High profile misconduct

Han (botched murder investigation) incident

Retired District Court Judge Murdoch

•SWAT losing federal certification

•Financial mismanagement

$160M for a department 15% smaller than it was 5 years ago

•Creation of a 4^th deputy chief position

•Nepotism

Police cadets related to sworn personnel who are not qualified to be hired because of fitness disqualifications or criminal issues.

•Termination of T. Zane Reeves who is recognized as one of the country's leading employment hearing officers

•National recognition of the worst kind in media stories across the country:

Police shootings

Mary Han’s crime scene intentional contamination and bias

•Promotion system built on cronyism

Christman, Rowe, Comacho

•Deputy Chief’s assigned to bureaus they have no experience

 

Banks as FSB DCOP

•West Mesa Murder investigation dropped
 

•Manipulation of UCR data (past and current)

•Leaderless leadership style—nobody is in command

City lawyer David Tourek never present

CAO Perry never aware

Mayor Berry never knowing

Chief Schultz not knowing

•Property crime is up

•Berry’s and Schultz’s Our city, Our property initiative is a total failure

•nITE detectives unit fiasco

 

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST: a full blown comprehensive federal investigation of APD by the US Department of Justice which now our Eyes tell us, includes a criminal investigation as well.

 

After all of this in just one year, what else can one say but it is time to take out the trash and restore this department to the model police department it was. We hope the door does hit Schultz on his way out; oh wait, that whole thing about retiring was just a distraction technique unless Berry loses.

But if there was any doubt that our local paper is nothing short of a propaganda piece for the Berry administration, one only has to look at Sunday's editorial by Michael Coleman of the Journal's "Washington Bureau." In the editorial he describes as "explosive" and "serious" allegations in the Assistant AG Perez's Civil Rights Division that certain conservative DOJ lawyers have their feelings hurt. In a review of 10,000 documents and interviews with over 80 people, an inspector from the Inspector General's office found troubling evidence of "liberal bias" and employee intimidation (READ it  HERE).

We just want to make sure we understand the standards the Journal adheres to: If you are an assistant attorney general of the United States and some employees have their feelings hurt the paper will do a Sunday Edition with an editorial scrutinizing you. But if you are a "major city" police chief and you leave a trail of ruined lives, death, cover-ups, financial mismanagement, confirmed patterns of age and racial discrimination, perjury, lies, deception, omission, and acts of abuse of power the paper will refrain from any direct criticism or editorials condemning your activities.

Is this right?

City does the Insane to Zane

In The Matter of T. Zane Reeves….

On Tuesday, May 1, 2012, City of Albuquerque’s CAO Robert Perry sent notice to Dr. T. Zane Reeves informing him that “effectively immediately” he had terminated the city’s contract with Dr. Reeves. This action comes after the city’s personnel board denied having any jurisdiction over the city’s issues with Dr. Reeves. Astonishingly, Mr. Perry’s action comes after district court Judge Nan Nash denied the city’s effort to obtain a restraining order against Dr. Reeves from hearing any more city personnel grievance appeals hearings. Having failed in all other areas where an objective review of the city’s allegations against Dr. Reeves were found to be without merit, Mr. Perry simply, and some say personally, took matters into his own hands and fired Dr. Reeves.

For over twenty years, Dr. Reeves has been a hearing officer for the city of Albuquerque. Under the city’s Merit System Ordinance, employees who receive discipline in excess of five days off (and up through termination) may grieve and appeal their discipline though an administrative hearing. The hearing is run much like a bench trial with the city represented by a department executive and city lawyer and the grievant represented by a lawyer. By city ordinance, the hearing is presided over by a “hearing officer” who acts much like a trial judge. While paid by the city, the hearing officer is an independent contractor and is hired as a neutral third party to determine facts and render a recommendation. This recommendation is then taken into consideration by the city’s personnel board which either upholds or declines to follow the hearing officer’s recommendation. Hearing officers are hired on a competitive basis and are generally lawyers, academics, or certified arbitrators.

Dr. Reeves is a retired UNM professor and holds a Ph.D in political science from the University of Southern California. He is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Arbitrators and has been recognized as the most competitive candidate to operate as a hearing officer for the City of Albuquerque. Dr. Reeves travels the country hearing cases as an arbitrator, training arbitrators, and holding administrative hearings.

On February 6th, 2012, Dr. Reeves rendered a recommendation concerning former APD officer Russell Perea. Dr. Reeves recommended to the city’s personnel board that they reinstate Mr. Perea because the city failed “to demonstrate employee wrongdoing, much less that he deserved to be discharged.” It was during this hearing that Deputy Chief Allen Banks was caught lying under oath, and where the testimony by Chief Ray Schultz, Deputy Chief Paul Feist, Commander Doug West was successfully challenged and defeated. Following this decision the city embarked on what can only be described as a smear campaign full of intimidation and retaliation. The city claimed Dr. Reeves’ recommendation was the result of internal bias. The city’s evidence that he acted with bias consisted of the following: a 2011 editorial concerning the Wisconsin labor/management crisis, post hearing ex parte communication with labor union representatives, and soliciting buyers for his book on Hungarian victims of the Holocaust.

The city (through lawyer Rebecca Wardlaw who failed the city in the Perea hearing) argued that these elements comprised a “pattern of conduct” and are proof of Dr. Reeves’ bias and thus invalidated the Perea decision and compromised any future hearings held by him. The city argued unsuccessfully in front of the personnel board and an openly irritated Judge Nash that these elements were proof of his bias and that such bias was in conflict with the state’s code of judicial conduct. Upon failing in all other regards, Mr. Perry then took matters into his own hands, and by absurdly claiming victimhood at the “stacking of a deck”, arbitrarily terminated Dr. Reeves’ contract.

Reviewing this matter in daylight presents many troubling issues. But instead of repeating what the personnel board and Judge Nash have already done, determine that the city’s arguments hold no merit, we are concerned with the larger picture this effort raises:

-If the city is so concerned with reinstating Russell Perea, why are they NOT appealing

the personnel board’s decision? The city makes no effort to dispute Dr. Reeves’ findings.

-If Russell Perea’s reinstatement is not the target of the city’s efforts, what was Dr. Reeves scheduled to hear that the city so desperately sought his removal?

-What will be the chilling effect upon the other independent hearing officers by the city’s arbitrary action to terminate Dr. Reeves’ contract?

-Because the city breached Dr. Reeves’ contract by wrongfully terminating him, what liability has the city burdened the citizens with?

-What additional liability has the city burdened the taxpayers with by contaminating the hearing process with their arbitrary and threatening behavior and thus prejudicing all pending and future grievants from having fair and impartial hearings?

-Dr. Reeves’ past decisions include upholding the termination/discipline of many APD officers including Ben Kirby, Al Walck, Anthony Zambrano, John Messimer, Lt. Paul Rees, and Sgt. Bret White, given this action by the city, do these parties (or estates of the parties) now have new claims against the city?

-The “interim” chief hearing officer Stanley Harada’s objectivity was challenged when he summarily dismissed red-light camera tickets in the spring of 2007 when confronted by the media, can we expect him to similarly fold under the pressure of Mr. Perry? (our Eyes also tell us Mr. Harada almost lost his law license in a malpractice claim where he missed a statute of limitations deadline.)

In the matter of Dr. Reeves, our recommendation is the time has come to hold Mayor Berry, Robert Perry, and Mayor Berry’s police chief, Ray Schultz, to the same level of scrutiny they so comfortably hold on others. Given the unfolding and on-going saga of ex-APOA president Filiberto “Joey” Sigala, we’re sure to see the threads of stolen money, stolen property, and other criminal issues cross over from APD’s 5th floor to City Hall’s 11th floor…but this time it is agents of the New Mexico State Police following the trail…we wonder if they will see what is an obvious pattern of bias, intimidation, and quite frequently illegal conduct.

A Zebra Cannot Change its Strips or Can They?

A person is generally the sum of their habits, passions, and values. Different circumstances may enhance or suppress certain traits, but those distinct characteristics that make a person unique are always there. For example, a general attribute of police officers is their willingness to engage conflict. Persons who fear conflict generally do not thrive in the environment officers work in on a daily basis. The attributes that make a person a successful officer do not simply disappear when they take off their uniform. They remain assertive and direct, and willing to confront challenges. Most people remain aligned with their attributes regardless of the circumstances because it is the healthy and natural thing to do. Recent studies indicate there are serious health consequences when one is being unfaithful to their attributes and out of alignment with them. Such consequences include high blood pressure, weight gain, and diminished immune system.

Why is the Eye concerned about this? For some time we’ve been watching and trying to figure out what is going on with the City of Albuquerque’s Chief Administrative Officer, Rob Perry. APOA Attorney Fred Mowrer recently described Mr. Perry as “…the one actually running the city.” Mr. Perry is lawyer and graduate of Whittier College School of Law (a school perpetually on the American Bar Association’s probationary list for accreditation), and after a brief time with a prosecutor’s office in Florida, Mr. Perry came to New Mexico and bounced around between significant politically appointed jobs and private law practice. In New Mexico, Mr. Perry worked as an assistant to democratic Senator Tom Udall when Sen. Udall was the state attorney general. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Perry’s political contributions came through and in the late 1990’s he became the state’s Secretary of Corrections under then governor Gary Johnson. Mr. Perry appears to have done a respectable job streamlining the state’s prisons and was aggressive in combating corruption and abuses especially in the privately run prisons. Frustrated with actions by the private for-profit companies like Wackenhut, Mr. Perry remarked, “I'm at the point where I don't want to hear explanations or excuses. I want to hear about corrective actions.” (Lubbock-Avalanche Journal 8/25/99)

When AG Udall won his bid for the US Senate seat, Mr. Perry was quick to campaign for the state’s Attorney General as the Republican candidate. Mr. Perry lost that bid to Patricia Madrid. Mr. Perry then went back to private practice focusing on employment and criminal defense cases. This is where Mr. Perry catches the Eye’s concern. As a private attorney BEFORE he was hired by Mayor Berry, Mr. Perry defended criminals, employers in EEOC suits, and police officers. Mr. Perry was most notably known for his defense of Capt. Marie Miranda when APD tried to blame the evidence room scandal on her and other officers in 2005. In dealing with the over 200 cases the scandal compromised Mr. Perry stated,

"The prevailing thought in the chief's office was what people don't know won't hurt them…when you lose evidence in 235 drug cases, you don't tell anybody that is really a problem. They are trying to make excuses to sell to the mayor.” (ABQ Journal 3/18/05)

"I think it is unfortunate this has to be done in a cloud of secrecy. That is what got them in trouble in the first place," Perry said. "The public, as well as Capt. Miranda, has the right to know who did what and what action was taken against the wrongdoers." (ABQ Journal 8/16/05)

As a private individual Mr. Perry continued playing politics behind the scene with his devoted support of Darren White in Mr. White’s failed bid for congress. Mr. Perry was a large financial supporter of Mr. White and contributed $2300 him on 12/17/07 and another $2300 on 7/17/08.

What concerns us at the Eye is that while Mr. Perry has waged a seemingly honorable battle against government inefficiency and abuse he appears to have put this commitment on the shelf as Mayor Berry’s city attorney and CAO. He has consented to abusive employment practices where if he were in private practice he would be representing the officers in their actions against the city. He remains a supporter of APD’s Chief Schultz whom he opposed in heated litigation over a scandal that should’ve subjected APD to the terms of a federal consent decree and continues with the very same “cloud of secrecy” practices Mr. Perry criticized the department of in 2005. When a city hearing officer asserted that the city failed to justify the termination of an officer in a controversial case, Mr. Perry did not order an inquiry into APD’s ineptitude but moved to have respected hearing officer T. Zane Reeves recused from future cases and questioned Mr. Reeves’ credibility. Instead of dealing with APD the same way he dealt with the state’s prison system, Mr. Perry appears to let Chief Schultz continue with his abysmal record of management. Is this the same Rob Perry that streamlined the state’s prisons and increased their efficiency? While APD’s budget continues to grow despite decreasing manpower, we wonder where the efficiency hawk Mr. Perry identifies himself as remains. Where's the advocate for doing what's right when there have been actions by "wrongdoers"?

From recent outbursts with the media, city council, and most notably in defense of Darren White during the WhiteGate scandal last summer, to his general unfit appearance, we wonder if Mr. Perry’s lack of alignment is starting to catch up to him. After all it must be very unsettling to see Chief Schultz, a former defendant, continue to call the shots….