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DWI cases filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court reached a multiyear high in 2025 and APD arrests are on the rise following a decades-long corruption scandal that has decimated its specialized DWI unit, a City Desk investigation found.
The court recorded 2,404 total DWI filings in 2025, consisting of 2,360 misdemeanor and 44 felony cases, according to court data examined by City Desk ABQ. This represents a 8.04% jump from 2024, when the court handled 2,225 misdemeanor and 32 felony filings.
Metropolitan Court data shows a steady rise in cases since 2022, when filings hit a six-year low of 1,812 total cases.
APD arrests drive increase
City Desk initially sought data from APD whose online crime reports stopped reporting DWI arrests in 2024. After APD failed to respond to requests for those records, we sought them from local courts.
New data from the Metropolitan Court shows APD filed 936 misdemeanor and 23 felony DWI cases in 2025, up from 886 misdemeanor and 18 felony cases in 2024. APD’s filings have fluctuated in recent years: 1,123 misdemeanor and 17 felony cases in 2021; 1,027 misdemeanor and 28 felony cases in 2022; and 1,042 misdemeanor and 26 felony cases in 2023.
City Desk obtained DWI case data from APD that shows its rebuilt DWI unit made more arrests in 2025 following the 2024 charges against members of the DWI unit and a local defense attorney for allegedly fixing DWI cases.
APD data obtained by City Desk shows arrests made by its DWI unit were 395 in 2025, up from 362 in 2024. The 2025 total included 59 arrests from 17 checkpoints, compared to 55 arrests from 20 checkpoints in 2024.
KOAT reported in 2024 that officials in the criminal justice system were concerned the scandal would have a “chilling effect” on DWI arrests by officers.
But the analysis of court data by City Desk shows that DWI arrests by APD are on the rise after the DWI unit was mostly sidelined by the scandal in early 2024, though court data does not distinguish between arrests made by DWI unit officers and other sworn officers.
In 2024, APD told City Desk that DWI officers not accused in the scandal would be reassigned to area commands where they could handle DWI and other calls. The enforcement gap follows a sprawling federal corruption investigation that exposed a bribery and racketeering scheme involving nearly the entire APD DWI unit dating back to the 1990s.
Attorney Thomas Clear, 67, pleaded guilty in February to charges including bribery, racketeering conspiracy and interference with commerce by extortion. According to federal prosecutors, Clear ran a “DWI Enterprise” in which he paid APD officers bribes — ranging from cash and gifts to hotel stays — in exchange for either failing to file charges or intentionally missing court dates to ensure dismissals for his clients.
Former officer Honorio Alba Jr. and several other officers allegedly directed individuals falsely arrested for DWI to Clear, who would then arrange for their charges to be dismissed. Clear’s assistant, Ricardo Mendez, and a paralegal accomplice pleaded guilty Jan. 24.
In early 2024, four members of the DWI unit were added to the District Attorney’s “Brady list” of untrustworthy officers, effectively barring them from testifying in court, according to reporting by City Desk ABQ. By August, one officer was fired and another resigned. The internal affairs commander overseeing the probe was also terminated for being untruthful.
The scandal forced prosecutors to dismiss nearly 200 cases in February 2024 due to the compromised credibility of the arresting officers. An additional 144 pending cases were dropped after the attorney general informed the district attorney about the corrupt officers in January 2024.
“It makes me sick to my stomach, but I have no choice,” Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman said at the time. “My prosecutorial ethics require me to dismiss these cases.”
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