Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include details recently obtained from Joshua Montaño’s resignation letter.

When officer Joshua Montaño was put on administrative leave after the news broke on Jan. 18 that the FBI was investigating him, his colleagues in the DWI unit and a local defense attorney, he said he thought he’d be able to tell his department what he knew.

“I thought there would be a time where I could disclose what I knew from within (the Albuquerque Police Department) and how the issues I let myself get caught up in within the DWI Unit were generational,” Montaño wrote, in a resignation letter. “I thought there would be a time where I could talk about all the other people who should be on administrative leave as well, but aren’t.”

He added that the opportunity was denied because “in order for me to talk to the City about what I knew, I needed to not be the City’s scapegoat for its own failures.” The letter, which is also a written statement in response to a pre-determination hearing notice, was provided to City Desk ABQ by APD after an Inspection of Public Records Act request was filed. Following publication of this story Montaño’s attorney provided a copy that included a cover letter.

Montaño — who had been with APD since 2005 — resigned Wednesday after missing multiple scheduled interviews with investigators, said Gilbert Gallegos, an APD spokesman. He had been scheduled to attend a pre-disciplinary hearing with Superintendent of Police Reform Eric Garcia to “talk about the department’s proposed disciplinary action which spanned a spectrum,” according to his attorney.

“Chief (Harold) Medina has made it seem like there are just a few bad officers acting on their own,” Montaño wrote. “This is far from the truth. None of the allegations against myself or others in the DWI Unit happened without supervisory knowledge. And they didn’t just happen over a few years ago. From my time as a P2/C, officers all know that our attendance, or non-attendance, at Court is watched over and monitored.”

Medina has said that the alleged misconduct could go back “for a decade or longer.” He has also said that an internal investigation — led by Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock of the Criminal Investigations Division —  is “looking at everyone in the department who may have had a role in the alleged scheme among DWI officers.” Seven officers are being investigated and Gallegos said Thursday that the investigation is continuing.

A City Desk ABQ analysis of the cases that involved one of the four officers — Montaño, Honorio Alba, Harvey Johnson and Nelson Ortiz — and attorney Thomas Clear — whose office was raided by the FBI — found that about 14% ended in convictions. That’s much lower than the county’s average. The remainder were dismissed, mostly because the officer didn’t show up to court hearings or pretrial interviews. 

No one has been charged but allegations have surfaced that the officers were working with Clear’s paralegal Ricardo “Rick” Mendez to make DWI cases go away — either through getting them dismissed or ensuring they were not filed in the first place.

More recently, the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office has unveiled a new system to notify law enforcement when an officer fails to attend a hearing or interview.

DWI cop struck by drunk driver

In June of 2022, Montaño — who had served in the Albuquerque Police Department’s DWI unit since 2015 — was struck by a drunk driver after ending his shift. He was severely injured. 

He cited this crash, and its aftermath, in his resignation letter, saying he was “all but abandoned by the department.”

“I say ‘all but’ because I did find comfort and support from my colleagues in APD’s DWI Unit,” Montaño wrote. “They were my family because they cared for me when others didn’t and they supported me when others wouldn’t. However, that support came with a high price and on January 18, 2024, I found out what the cost of that support really meant.”

Montaño’s attorney, Thomas Grover, told City Desk ABQ that after the crash “all these promises were made to him and various supervisors promised he’d be taken care of.”

“But once the spotlight was off him everybody disappeared,” he added. “Couldn’t be reached. Didn’t return calls.”

A Go Fund Me organized for Montaño, his wife and his two young sons raised $17,596, far exceeding its $5,000 goal. 

“He is an APD DWI officer and was recently in a horrible accident heading home after his shift Friday morning,” the Go Fund Me page states. “Sadly he was hit by a drunk driver only one minute away from being safely home. He is currently severely injured and will be in the hospital and a rehabilitation hospital to follow, so it will be a long journey. Not only for him but his wife and family as well.” 

Fifth officer to resign

Montaño is the fifth officer under investigation to resign and the last of the cohort who had initially been put on administrative leave shortly after the FBI raided the homes of some officers and Clear’s office.

Alba resigned on Feb. 29, Johnson resigned on March 13, and Ortiz resigned on March 14. 

Lt. Justin Hunt — who had been put on administrative leave shortly after the federal investigation came to light — resigned on Feb. 7. Hunt had served on the DWI unit from August 2011 to May 2014 and was last serving as a lieutenant in the Southeast Area Command. Two other officers in the Internal Affairs Division are also being investigated, with Cmdr. Mark Landavazo being put on leave and a lieutenant — whose name has not been publicly released — being transferred to another division in the department. 

Internal investigation criticized

Meanwhile, Grover said the internal investigation so far has been “inept at best and unlawful at worst.” He said he believes there are a whole lot more people in the department who were involved in the scheme either “implicitly and explicitly.”

“There is a much bigger story here,” Grover said. “If Officer Montaño is a cinder block in this saga, there’s a whole wall to address. It goes outward and upward.”

Grover said he has had an ongoing dialogue with the city over the past couple of months about the investigation into his client and that there were numerous defects with the way it was being carried out. He said he is representing Montaño in the administrative case, but Montaño has also hired a criminal defense attorney.

“They failed to follow state law when it comes to the investigation of police officers by identifying the factual basis for the investigation, by failing to disclose the complainant — or complainants — to the officer…,” he said. “There are the public statements by Tim Keller and Harold Medina that mean the outcome of these investigations is predetermined. I’m all for a good fight, but the idea of something being futile isn’t anything that I want my client, or any officer who I represent to experience.”

(Gallegos told City Desk ABQ: “if the investigation is inept, why have five officers resigned?”)

Furthermore, Grover said, in his view, “timeline issues” could mean Montaño will not be able to be disciplined even if the investigation sustains an allegation because of the deadlines laid out in the city’s contract with the police union. 

“This is a matter of great public importance,” Grover said. “The public has expectations of police officers. But those expectations continue on and frankly are even greater when it comes to the agencies and departments that employ those officers. They have obligations to their employees and their officers. Here, the city, and frankly, APD’s command staff failed my client with those obligations.”