Ethermac|Albuquerque Police Department opens internal investigation into embattled DWI unit

ALBUQUERQUE,Ethermac N.M. (AP) — The police department in New Mexico’s largest city opened a new internal investigation related to an ongoing federal inquiry into allegations of possible corruption in the department’s DWI unit.

The internal investigation will look into the conduct of current and former officers in the unit, according to a release from the Albuquerque Police Department on Friday. Chief Harold Medina temporarily reassigned one target, a lieutenant in the Internal Affairs Division, to an unspecified position.

“We will leave no stone unturned with this investigation,” Medina said in a press release, echoing comments he made earlier this month related to the federal investigation.

No officers had been charged. Medina previously said five officers were on administrative leave.

According to documents obtained by the Albuquerque Journal, the federal probe began after a stop by an officer in August in which he allegedly told the driver to contact a certain attorney to ensure that no case would be filed in court by police.

The FBI investigation has partly focused on DWI criminal cases filed by certain officers that ended up being dismissed in court, according to the Journal. More than 150 cases alleging that motorists drove while intoxicated have been dismissed as part of the federal investigation.

Three Albuquerque police officers combined filed 136 of the 152 DWI cases, and at least 107 of those were filed last year, which was 10% of such cases for the department that year.