This report is the second of a two-part series by City Desk’s Elise Kaplan and Bethany Raja. To read more about the court hearing and Apodaca’s plea, find part one here. (c) City Desk ABQ. Republish our stories with permission from editor@abq.news One night in 1988, 13-year-old Stella Gonzales—a bubbly 5th grader at Washington Middle […]
Category: Courts, Justice & Safety
APD brings in civilian investigators to solve orphaned homicides
Help for several cold cases is on the horizon for the Albuquerque Police Department. In a press conference on Jan. 25, APD brass updated the department’s progress with orphaned and departed homicide cases due to bringing in civilian investigators and a new homicide digital library. “I think that we found a formula for going forward […]
Four members of APD DWI unit added to DA’s list of untrustworthy officers
Four names were just added to the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office list of officers who have credibility issues—colloquially referred to as a Giglio disclosure. They are Honorio Alba, Joshua Montano, Nelson Ortiz and Harvey Johnson and their names appear over and over as the arresting officers in the list of more than 150 DWI […]
APD Chief addresses federal investigation into DWI officers
Five days after federal authorities searched the homes of Albuquerque Police Department officers and the office of a local defense attorney, department leadership provided additional details about the case and announced that it has launched an administrative investigation into the officers. None of the officers have been charged with a crime “at this point in […]
Two elderly people and multiple animals removed from uninhabitable Cedar Crest home
Two elderly individuals were recently removed from a home in Cedar Crest, after a welfare check request revealed unsanitary living conditions and animal hoarding. The welfare check spurred an investigation by BSCO’s Special Victims Unit and Animal Cruelty Task force, and on Jan. 10 a search warrant was issued for the property. During the search, […]
How a cry for food sparked Christmas Day trouble in New Mexico’s largest jail for kids
By Joshua Bowling/Searchlight New Mexico The sun was setting as parents waited for the Christmas Day call from their incarcerated children, unaware of the fraught situation that had broken out hours earlier: a so-called “riot” at New Mexico’s largest jail for kids. The news media were depicting a violent uprising inside the Bernalillo County Youth […]
BREAKING: Police search for Corrales homicide suspect
Corrales Police and law enforcement agencies in New Mexico and Arizona are on the lookout for the suspect in the shooting of a 29-year-old Albuquerque woman that occurred at a southside Corrales home on Monday (Jan. 22) afternoon. Corrales Police identified Charles “Chuck” Kauffmann, 55, as a suspect in the killing and are seeking an […]
Ten percent of DWI cases filed by APD in 2023 have been dropped in fallout from FBI investigation
The Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office has now dismissed four felony DWI cases, in addition to 152 misdemeanor DWI cases, following a federal investigation into Albuquerque Police Department officers. This means that just over 10% of the 1,026 DWI cases submitted by APD officers in 2023 have now been dismissed. In addition to 106 cases […]
The feds are investigating APD officers. What are some of the department’s other notable scandals?
Late Thursday, after months of investigation, federal authorities conducted “law enforcement activity,” at several homes of Albuquerque Police Department officers. At the same time, a local defense attorney’s office was also raided by the FBI. Then the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office dismissed 152 misdemeanor DWI cases, with DA Sam Bregman saying his “prosecutorial ethics” […]
ABQ’s crime briefs
Within the last seven days, there have been two homicides in the city—one in front of a notorious convenience store on east Central and one in a neighborhood near San Mateo and Gibson SE. There have now been five homicides within city limits so far this year. The Albuquerque Police Department also arrested the man […]