APD announced four top commanders are either leaving the department, getting transferred or getting demoted.

Full news accounts can be reviewed here:

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/apd-announces-leadership-changes/5015547/#.W2O_u0wYqIA.facebook

https://www.abqjournal.com/1204341/apd-announces-changes-in-leadership-positions.html

Changes were announced to the Valley Area Command and the Southwest Area Command.

The Valley Area Command is getting a new commander because it’s previous commander retired.

The Southwest Area Command is also getting a new commander because its previous commander is going to APD’s Compliance Bureau.

Normally, such changes would go totally unnoticed, but one demotion and one forced retirement are raising more than a few eyebrows and smacking of politics and that nothing has changed at APD when it comes to holding people truly accountable for their actions.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS COMMANDER JENNIFER GARCIA

Internal Affairs Commander Jennifer Garcia has been demoted to Lieutenant and now assigned to the Field Services Bureau.

What the press does not report and what the general public is probably is not fully aware of is that Jennifer Bell Garcia is not only a high ranking cop but is also the wife APD Deputy Chief Eric Garcia.

Deputy Chief Garcia is a holdover from the previous administration and is now in charge of implementation of the DOJ mandated reforms.

In 2015, Jennifer Bell Garcia became the Lieutenant in charge of Internal Affairs and then her position was upgraded to Commander of Internal Affairs by Chief Michael Geier.

Internal Affairs is responsible for providing fair, thorough, and comprehensive administrative investigations of claims relating to police misconduct and evaluation of department policies, practices, procedures, and training.

All sworn police officers assigned to the Internal Affairs Unit are supposed to be held to a higher standard in order to have any credibility investigating police misconduct cases.

A few months ago, the City of Albuquerque hired a private agency to investigate allegations of wrongdoing against APD Internal Affairs Commander Jennifer Bell Garcia.

Because of the conflict, the city was forced to hire an outside private investigation agency to do the investigation no doubt costing upwards of $5,000 if not more.

APD is refusing to release the private investigation report to news agencies, even though it is considered a public record.

It was found that Jennifer Bell Garcia altered documents during the course of an internal affairs investigation to comply with a deadline spelled out in the APD union agreement.

Under New Mexico law, it is a fourth-degree felony for any public officer or public employee to knowingly tamper with or falsify any record or file. (30-26-1. Tampering with public records.)

Normally, altering public documents is considered a very serious felony offense for any police officer to do and would be grounds for termination and revocation of a police officer’s law enforcement certification.

An APD internal memo said APD Chief Mike Geier sustained the findings of the private investigation agency.

Initially, confidential sources said that Chief Geier was going to suspend Garcia for 15 days and allow her to keep her job as head of Internal Affairs and keep her $95,000 a year salary.

In announcing his decsion, Chief Geier said that aside from altering documents, Garcia has had a clean 15-year career with APD.

Instead of a 15-day suspension, Chief Geier decided to demote Jennifer Garcia to the position of Lieutenant in the Field Services Bureau.

The Field Services Bureau oversees the job performance of patrol officers and includes making sure that police offense reports are prepared in a timely manner, are complete and adhere to standard operating procedures and would include making sure the reports do not contain any falsehoods or alterations.

APD ACADEMY COMMANDER SULLIVAN FORCED TO RESIGN

APD also announced that APD Training Academy Commander John Sullivan has retired.

Sullivan was replaced by Commander Angela Byrd, the former Chief of the Bosque Farms Police Department.

Byrd had been the Chief of the Bosque Farms Police Department for a mere 8 months.

There was no national search conducted for a new director of the APD academy which is normally done.

The Bosque Farms Police Department is one of the smallest law enforcement departments in New Mexico employing less than 20 officers.

According to Byrd, APD reached out and recruited her because of her experience in law enforcement training.

http://www.news-bulletin.com/news/chief-byrd-resigns-to-work-at-apd/article_425c98f2-8aac-11e8-9cc2-ef4f85681f40.html

Byrd has been a certified law enforcement officer since 1994, with her job experience being mostly teaching.

Byrd was the Deputy Director of the Southeastern New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy in Hobbs, New Mexico from 2008 to 2016.

APD revealed the reason behind the leadership shakeup at the Albuquerque Police Academy.

Geier was going to demote John Sullivan for “failing to meet performance standards” that were connected to implementing DOJ reforms and changing the culture at APD.

The problem is that Sullivan had only been on the job as Academy Director for a few months.

APD gave no specifics on Sullivan’s failures to meet his job performance standards.

Instead of accepting the demotion, Sullivan chose to retire.

On July 12, 2018, Commander John Sullivan submitted a two-sentence retirement letter to Geier that said:

“Per your directive, I am involuntarily retiring from the City of Albuquerque without waiving rights to any legal action I may pursue in the future. I will be moved to early retirement status effective July 21, 2018.”

It is clear from the resignation letter that Sullivan was forced to retire by Police Chief Michael Geier.

The forced resignation of Sullivan came just one month after Sullivan testified before U.S. District Court Judge Robert Brack presiding over the DOJ consent decree reforms that he had ended what he called a “good-ol’-boy” testing practice at the academy where cadets were told what questions would be on the tests.

Sullivan told the Court APD Academy cadets were allowed to take tests in a group and pretty much every cadet passed with a 95%.

During the June 12, 2018 status conference, Sullivan told Brack that Court Appointed Independent James Ginger found an unusually high rate pf passing grades for the academy’s cadets.

Sullivan testified:

“We were doing the good-ol’-boy testing. The instructor would say, ‘This could be something you might see later,’ and everybody was allowed to kind of sit there and do the testing with each other and a group test environment took place.”

…

“They [Ginger’s team] found it interesting that everybody received a 95 percent or higher. … And when I looked at that, I found it kind of interesting, too. And being a police officer now for almost 20 years with the Albuquerque Police Department, I knew in my mind exactly why it was happening; however, I chose to create a completed staff work to address that issue. I did some research, looked at some of the best practices nation-wide and found out what I think we all knew already, but the Academy wasn’t doing testing correctly.”

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/2018/07/26/Ex-APD-Training-Director-Says-Geier-Forced-him-to-Retire

COMMENTARY

By virtue of the high-ranking positions held by Deputy Chief Eric Garcia and his wife now Lieutenant Jennifer Bell Garcia, it is difficult to comprehend how APD Chief Michael Geier does not understand nor appreciate the appearance of a decision that smacks of politics and the way things have been done in the past at APD.

Geier must now deal with the ramifications of taking disciplinary action that normally would be a lot more severe than a demotion against one of his appointed Commanders that is the wife of one of his appointed Deputy Chief’s in charge of implementing the Department of Justice mandated reforms.

Based on Jennifer Bells Garcia’s conduct of altering documents which resulted in her demotion, you would think the Field Services Bureau, which is in charge of reviewing police offense reports for accuracy, would be one of the last places she would be reassigned.

Chief Geier’s argument that Jennifer Bell Garcia has a clean 15-year career with APD may be true, but it rings very hollow.

There is no guarantee that this was the first and only time it happened, especially when it comes to Internal Affairs investigations which are done in secrecy, but that it was the first time she got caught.

The reasons for Commander John Sullivan being forced out a mere month after reporting to the Federal Court irregularities at the APD Academy reflects on Chief Geier’s true motivations and his reasons for asking Sullivan to retire are difficult to accept.

Sullivan had only been on the job as Academy Director for a few months and nothing specific was given regarding his failures to meet performance standards.

The way Sullivan was forced out raises serious concerns that he was not terminated for job performance deficiencies but rather for his testimony regarding irregularities in APD academy testing.

Commander Angela Byrd was Chief of the Bosque Farms Police Department for only 8 months and she claims APD recruited her.

Arguably, Geier recruited Byrd so he could replace Sullivan quickly with someone he could control.

Ultimately, it will be Mayor Tim Keller who promised reform and change at APD who will be held accountable for not exercising more management and control over his appointed Chief and allowing APD to be mismanaged once again with reliance on a “good ol boy” system of discipline.

In characteristic style, Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez is once again picking a fight with the 2nd Judicial District Court by going to the New Mexico Supreme Court.

The 2nd Judicial District Court told Torrez that effective October 1, 2018, the 2nd Judicial District Court will be reducing the number of grand jury panel days from 20 days a month to six days a month.

Instead of using grand juries, the District Court is requesting the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office start using preliminary hearings before the District Judges instead of grand juries to determine probable cause and to charge defendants with felonies.

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/da-wants-nm-supreme-court-to-review-grand-jury-changes/5012558/?cat=500

The District Court claims it will save between $75,000 to $150,000 a year in grand jury costs and the “preliminary hearings” are a best practices approach.

The grand jury system and preliminary hearings both have advantages and disadvantages.

A “grand jury” hearing is a probable cause hearing, done in secret, that decides to charge a defendant when 8 out of 12 jurors find probable cause to charge.

The grand jury is viewed by many as pawn of the District Attorney, it is conducted in secrecy and the prosecution can present evidence and hearsay without objection or knowledge of the defendant to be charged.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/07/30/easy-for-district-attorney-to-indict-a-ham-sandwich-for-murder/

A “preliminary hearing” is a probable cause hearing, conducted in open court, and it is a District Court Judge, not a grand jury, that decides whether there is probable cause to support formal felony charges against a defendant.

On July 19, 2018, the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee (LFC), released a report entitled “Program Evaluation: Review of the Criminal Justice System in Bernalillo County.”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/07/24/bernalillo-county-criminal-justice-system-evaluation/

The LFC report was a detailed review of Bernalillo County’s criminal justice system and cites the National Center for State Courts’ recommendation that the District Attorney’s Office should consider prosecuting more felony cases using preliminary hearings as opposed to grand juries.

DEFENSE BAR POSITION

The New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association as well as the State Public Defender’s Office are voicing support for the change from a grand jury system to a preliminary hearing system.

Jonathan Ibarra of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association had this to say supporting the change:

“It’s easier in grand jury because they can rely on hearsay for things, so in a grand jury, they can have one officer speak for five minutes instead of actually calling witnesses in the case”.

According to Ibarra preliminary hearings are a better way to vet a case before formal charges are filed when he said:

“There’s still a much better idea of making sure we know exactly what evidence the state does or doesn’t have right away. … We want to know if alleged victims are going to be cooperative, if people are actually going to show up for court, instead of letting a case linger for months just to find out they can’t prove it after all.”

The States Chief Public Defender Bennet Baur also strongly supports the move towards more preliminary hearings and believes it will lead to earlier resolution of cases sending fewer cases on a path to trial and a way to “clear the underbrush. … It allows us to, I think, spend more time looking at the serious cases later on.”

NOT FIRST TIME FOR TORREZ

DA Torrez has ordered his office to prepare a challenge to the District Courts plans for the grand jury and appeal to the New Mexico Supreme Court.

The New Mexico Supreme Court has administrative authority over the District Court and can order a halt to the plan, but that is not likely going to happen.

DA Raul Torrez should not expect any sympathy from the New Mexico Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court tends to allow the District Courts to manage their own caseloads without micromanaging them to the point of allowing the District Court to adopt their own “local rules” applicable to their districts only and not all the others.

A little over a year ago, Torrez accused the District Court and the Supreme Court’s case management order (CMO) for being the root cause for the dramatic increase in crime and the dismissal of cases.

Torrez challenge the case management order before the New Mexico Supreme Court and also took action against an individual judge claiming the judge was requiring too much evidence to prove that a defendant was too violent to be released with bond.

Torrez had his office prepare a damaging report showing it was the District Court dismissing cases and contributing to high crime rates.

Torrez’s claim was later discredited by a District Court report reviewing all dismissals and it showed it was the DA’s office that was dismissing the majority of cases on its own.

Torrez also accused criminal defense attorneys of “gaming the system” to avoid trials and get cases dismissed.

COMMENTARY

By objecting to a preliminary hearing system, District Attorney Raul Torrez is leaving himself open to the charge that he is the one who is actually gaming the system with use of grand juries and resisting preliminary hearings.

When Torrez ran, he proclaimed the judicial system was broken in Bernalillo County and he was the guy who could fix it and he demanded more resources.

Torrez to his credit was able to secure another $4.5 million from the legislature to hire more prosecutors and he now has a $21.5 million dollar budget and more resources he could dedicate to preliminary hearings.

Now that the District Court wants to do more preliminary hearings, Torrez objects to it saying it will be too labor intensive for his office and crime rates will go up.

Going from grand jury time scheduled 20 or more times in a month to only 6 days a month in a two month period is probably way too drastic and it should be phased in over a years’ time.

The District Court is being somewhat penny wise and pound foolish by trying to save $75,000 to $150,00 a year in grand jury costs to gut a system that is proven to be effective to dispose of lower priority crimes.

Complicating things is that APD has a shameful record with homicide investigations such as the murder of 9-year-old Victoria Martins who was raped, murdered, dismembered and burned.

Torrez was forced to dismiss a number of charges in the Martens case, with another unidentified defendant at large, and a lot of mistakes in the investigation could have been avoided had the scientific evidence been tested sooner, but there was a rush to indict.

Preliminary hearings should be the mandatory approach to charge all homicide cases by the District Attorney and APD.

On the morning of July 27, 2016, Donald Trump encouraged Russian hackers to find emails that had been deleted from Hillary Clinton’s private server that she used while serving as secretary of state.

“I will tell you this, Russia: If you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing … “I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” Trump said at a press conference in Florida.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-russia-clinton-hack_us_5b48d9d0e4b0e7c958faf810

Putin and Russian intelligence were listening and heeded Trump’s request for help to get elected President.

According to the federal indictment of the 12 Russian intelligence officers charge for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election, the Russian hacking occurred on July 27, 2016 and hours after Trump gave his press conference encouraging Russian hackers to find Clinton’s emails.

The indictment states that on July 27, 2016, the same day as Trump’s press conference, Russian hackers, “for the first time,” attempted to break into email accounts, including those used by Clinton’s personal office.

Notably, the indictment is very specific that the hack happened in the evening, meaning the Russian officials did it all after Trump’s press conference.

TRUMP’S REPEATED DENIALS OF NO COLLUSION

Despite his very public requst to Russia to interfere with the election, Donald Trump has repeatedly asserted that there was “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

In 2016 when federal investigators started to look into the Russian meddling in the 2016 election, including any role the Trump Campaign might have played, candidate Trump strenuously argued that there was no evidence of collusion.

Trump then falsely claimed that the evidence proved there was no collusion.

Finally, without evidence, Trump stated that the real collusion was with the Clinton campaign.

Since March of 2017, Trump has tweeted that there was “no collusion” no less than 90 times!

Trump has also claimed that “the real Russian collusion has occurred on the Democrats side”.

http://time.com/5352628/donald-trump-rudy-giuliani-collusion-crime/

President Donald Trump has made at least 207 separate arguments about the Russia investigation.

Since the first questions were raised about the Russian influence operation in 2016, Trump has put forward defenses, raised doubts and thrown out attacks and counter-claims at a rate that could make any one’s head spin like Beetlejuice.

Trump has also waged a very public war against his detractors to try and undermine the investigation and discredit people.

Trump has called former FBI Director James Comey “incompetent,” “shady,” “slippery,” “corrupt,” “sanctimonious,” “showboating” and “grandstanding” “slimeball,” who is “either very sick or very dumb” an he has branded Comey and others as “liars.”

http://time.com/5290531/donald-trump-robert-mueller-russia-investigation-arguments/

Trump also likes to use buzz words like Witch hunt!, No collusion!, Fake news!

As recently as July 20, 2018, President Trump took to Twitter to repeat the claim of no collusion.

CHANGE IN CRIMINAL DEFENSE

After over two years of saying that there was no collusion with the Russian intelligence operatives by him or his campaign, Trump and his criminal defense lawyer are now saying that even if there was collusion with Russia, it was not a crime.

President Donald Trump’s criminal defense lawyer Rudy Giuliani is now saying that “collusion is not a crime” when he said in an interview on “Fox & Friends”:

“I have been sitting here looking in the federal [criminal] code trying to find collusion as a crime. Collusion is not a crime.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/30/trump-lawyer-rudy-giuliani-collusion-is-not-a-crime.html

https://www.msnbc.com/brian-williams/watch/giuliani-says-collusion-s-not-a-crime-but-that-might-not-matter-1288822851876

Giuliani expanded on his remarks in an interview with CNN when he said:

“The hacking is the crime. … The president didn’t hack.”

Following the interview on CNN, Giuliani responded to a post on Twitter that suggested the media was “nitpicking and twisting” his comments.

Giuliani said the post an “excellent observation” and went on to tweet:

“You can investigate an innocent person forever and forever and find nothing. When do we say enough is enough … No collusion, no obstruction. President Trump did nothing wrong.”

TRUMP TOWER MEETING DENIALS

Trump has always maintained he knew nothing about the June, 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives with his son Don. Jr. and others until he was approached about it by The New York Times in July, 2017.

The obvious reason for the change in criminal defense from “No collusion, BUT IF THERE WAS, no crime” by Trump is what Trump’s former personal attorney, referred to as Trump’s “fixer”, Michael Cohen is now claiming.

Cohen is claiming candidate Trump knew in advance about the June 2016 meeting in Trump Tower in which Russians were expected to offer his campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Sources with knowledge are now telling CNN that Cohen is willing to make the assertion to special counsel Robert Mueller.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/26/politics/michael-cohen-donald-trump-june-2016-meeting-knowledge/index.html

Cohen’s claim contradicts the repeated denials by Trump, Donald Trump Jr., son in law Jared Kushner and their criminal defense lawyers and other administration officials who have said that the President knew nothing about the Trump Tower meeting.

PENDING TRIALS AND CHARGES

A few months ago, Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced that 20 people and three companies had been charged in his investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election to help Trump get elected.

The charges included four former Trump campaign and White House aides.

On Friday, July 13, 2018, the Justice Department announced charges against 12 Russian intelligence officers for hacking offenses during the 2016 presidential election.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1196225/12-russians-accused-of-hacking-democrats-in-2016-us-election.html

The Russians are accused of hacking into the computer networks of the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton.

Stolen emails were then released on the internet in the months before the election.

Our U.S. intelligence community has developed substantial evidence that state websites or voter registration systems in seven states were compromised by Russian-backed covert operatives prior to the 2016 election, but the intelligence agencies never told the states involved.

Three senior intelligence officials said the intelligence community has found clear evidence that Russia did indeed compromise or interfere with voter registries in the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin, and there are probably more.

(February 28, 2018 NBC News report: “U.S. intel: Russia compromised seven states prior to 2016 election”.)

COMMENTARY

On July 24, 2018, Trump made one of the most astounding comments that will go down as an absolute classic when he said at the Veterans of Foreign Wars National Convention in Kansas City, the following:

“This country is doing better than it’s ever done before, economically. … But it’s all working out. Just remember: What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

Trump also added in his speech that voters should “just stick with us” and said:

“Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news” as he pointed to where members of the press were gathered.”

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/398606-trump-what-youre-seeing-in-the-news-is-not-whats-happening-inbox-x

His words to his followers remind me of one of the classic ending scenes in the Wizard of Oz.

When Toto pulls the curtain to the side, the Wizard of Oz realizes he’s been found out, and tries to cover it up by shouting over the loudspeaker:

“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!”

The Wizard of Oz was just a fraud operating a bunch of controls behind a green curtain controlling smoke, fire and false images.

With his words, denials and actions, Trump no doubt wants to hide as much as he can about the Russian investigation.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is no fiction, no fraud and neither are the 2O indictments of Russian intelligence operatives.

One question that prosecutors always like to ask people like Trump who commit perjury:

“Were you lying then, are you lying now or do you just lie all the time?”

On July 28, 2018, U.S. District Judge James Browning’s filed his expected and highly anticipated ruling relating to the city’s 26-year-old DWI vehicle forfeiture ordinance where the city seizes vehicles used in DWI incidents.

The ruling should have come as no surprise to anyone given a prior ruling.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1202685/federal-judge-abqs-dwi-seizure-program-unconstitutional.html

The Judge found unconstitutional the city’s policy of making vehicle owners prove their innocence when their car was seized after being driven by someone else.

The court wrote: “The forfeiture program … violates procedural due process, because owners have to prove that their cars are not subject to civil forfeiture.”

The Court further ruled that it was improper that the money the city collected from the program was used to pay the salaries of employees who work in the program.

The federal lawsuit was brought by a woman whose car was seized by the city after her son was arrested for driving it while intoxicated.

On March 31, 2018, the same federal judge in the case found that the city’s 26-year-old civil vehicle forfeiture ordinance violated the woman’s right to due process of law and the state’s property forfeiture law requiring a criminal conviction before government seizure.

The federal court found the state’s 2015 amended forfeiture law “was strong evidence of the New Mexico Legislature’s intent to preclude municipalities from creating a civil forfeiture scheme.”

The Keller Administration issued the following press release in response to the recent court ruling:

“This ruling confirms our concerns with the past approach and the need to protect the constitutional rights of people in our community. … At the Mayor’s direction, the City’s Legal department has been working to update the program, including limiting it to cases where there has been a conviction based on the new state law. … The City’s legal team will analyze the impact the ruling will have … Meanwhile, APD is focusing efforts on effectively combating drunk driving by doubling the number of traffic stops and increasing DWI checkpoints and saturation patrols.”

POLICY CHANGES TO CITY’S VEHICLE FORFEITURE PROTOCOL

It is clear from the ruling that the city DWI vehicle forfeiture ordinance needs to be updated and modified to provide innocent owners a quick way to get their vehicles back if they were seized when being driven by somebody else and with no costs to the innocent owner.

On April 16, 2018, city attorney’s office temporarily suspended vehicle seizure program while it started to craft a new policy for dealing with people who have had their cars seized.

The Keller administration originally announced policy changes to the City’s DWI vehicle forfeiture program but changes to the ordinance have yet to be approved by the Albuquerque City Council.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1159270/cases-in-limbo-as-city-changes-auto-confiscation-policy.html

Under the new policy, more protections will be given those who were not driving when their vehicle was seized after a DWI incident.

The new policy is proposing to shift the burden of proof to the city to prove an owner knew the driver was going to break the law while driving the vehicle.

What the changes in the new policy means is that unless the actual owner is sitting in the front seat of their car drunk, the city will probably not be initiating vehicle forfeiture proceeding nor seeking boot agreements from the car owner.

A major change in policy is that the city will not seek to take ownership of the vehicle and sell it at auction unless the suspect is convicted.

NEW MEXICO NUISANCE ABATEMENT STATUTES

The New Mexico legislature has granted municipalities with broad powers including “the power to sue or be sued, protect generally the property of its municipality and it inhabitants and to preserve peace and order within the municipality.” (3-18-1, NMSA, 1978, General Powers of Municipality)

New Mexico statute defines a “public nuisance” as consisting “of knowingly creating, performing or maintaining anything affecting any number of citizens without lawful authority which is either:

A. Injurious to public health, safety and welfare; or
B. Interferes with the exercise and enjoyment of public rights, including the right to use public property. (30-8-1, NMSA 1978, Public Nuisance defined).”

New Mexico statutory law provides that any action for the abatement of a public nuisance shall be governed by the general rules of Civil Procedure. (30-8-8, NMSA 1978 Abatement of a public nuisance.)

Under New Mexico law, “a civil action to abate a public nuisance may be brought, by verified complaint by any public officer or private citizen, in state district court of the county where the public nuisance exists, against any person, corporation or association of persons who shall create, perform or maintain a public nuisance.” (30-8-8, B, NMSA 1978, Abatement of a public nuisance, emphasis added)

Assistant City Attorneys are public officials and are assigned to initiate administrative actions and enter into settlements agreements and boot agreements or file civil court actions in state district court.

A drunk driver behind the wheel of a car is clearly a threat to the public health, safety and welfare.

A drunk driver behind the wheel of a car interferes with the general public’s right to use public city streets free from any threat of great bodily harm or lethal bodily injury caused by a drunk driver.

CITY DEFINES DWI VEHICLES AS A NUISANCE

Under the city ordinance, a vehicle is subject to immediate seizure and forfeiture by the city if the vehicle is operated by a person in the commission of a DWI offense and has, on at least one prior occasion, been arrested or convicted of a previous DWI, or has a suspended or revoked driver’s license for DWI.

The “one prior conviction rule before seizure” will probably have to be changed to require a DWI conviction after the most recent arrest.

The New Mexico legislature has specifically empowered municipalities with broad authority when it comes to “nuisance abatement”.

Under New Mexico statutory law, a municipality may by ordinance “define a nuisance, abate a nuisance and impose penalties upon a person who creates or allows a nuisance to exist.” (3-18-17, NMSA, 1978, Nuisances and Offenses; Regulation or prohibition)

In 1993, the city council exercised its authority granted to it by the New Mexico legislature to define and abate a nuisance and impose penalties to abate a nuisance by declaring any motor vehicle to be a nuisance and subject to immediate seizure and forfeiture when an arrest is made for driving while intoxicated (DWI). (Article 6: Motor Vehicle Seizure; Forfeiture, section 7-6-1 City of Albuquerque Ordinances, 1992)

Under the existing ordinance, the city specifically defines vehicles used by arrested drunk drivers with prior convictions a nuisance endangering public health, safety and welfare and interfering with the public’s right to public rights of way. (Article 6: Motor Vehicle Seizure; Forfeiture, section 7-6-1 City of Albuquerque Ordinances, 1992)

The city has also enacted a nuisance abatement ordinance that allows civil actions to be filed for injunctive relief against owners of real property which is used to commit, conduct, promote, facilitate, or aide in the commission of crime. (City Nuisance Abatement Ordinance, Section 11-1-1-1 et seq.)

An option the city should consider is to amend the city’s existing nuisance abatement ordinance to add civil nuisance abatement actions against vehicles and owners who have a history of prior DWI convictions without relying on the conviction of a pending DWI charge.

The forfeiture of an asset by court order is a penalty when dealing with the abatement of a nuisance that is affecting public health, safety and welfare.

Penalties to abate a nuisance include the inherent authority to exercise civil forfeiture authority with court orders to eliminate a nuisance.

COMMENTARY

Robert Frommer an attorney for the Institute for Justice that brought the lawsuit said in a statement:

“Civil forfeiture is one of the most serious assaults on private property rights in the nation today. … For decades, civil forfeiture has lured officials away from impartial enforcement of the law and toward policing for profit. Today’s ruling striking down Albuquerque’s forfeiture program is a major step towards ending forfeiture across not only New Mexico, but throughout the United States.”

Fair enough in light of the court ruling

A much bigger and far more serious assault occurs when a person who is seriously injured or killed by a drunk driver who is a danger to public safety.

The victim of any DWI is deprived of ultimate rights that overshadow property rights.

The media regularly reports about drunk drivers with 9, 10, 11 and 12 convictions who are still driving and then arrested again for DWI after killing someone and at times having killed entire families.

Albuquerque and New Mexico have some of the highest DWI rates and alcohol-related crash fatalities in the country.

In 2016, there were 171 alcohol-related crash fatalities in this state due to crashes involving alcohol with 51 of the fatalities occurring in Bernalillo County.

In 2017, there were 146 alcohol-related crash fatalities in New Mexico with 37 of the fatalities occurring in Bernalillo County.

Its painfully obvious that our DWI criminal penalties are having little effect.

Too many drunk drivers are not being held criminally or for that matter civilly responsible for their actions and all too often are cut free to offend or even kill.

The city needs to request the federal court to reconsider or appeal the ruling on the grounds that the court is denying the city of its authority given to it by the New Mexico legislature to define, abate, and impose penalties for nuisance abatement.

Another option is to work with the Plaintiffs attorneys and rewrite the ordinance subject to the Federal Court’s final approval.

The Albuquerque City Council should approve the proposed changes being made by the Keller Administration to the vehicle forfeiture ordinance.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1159353/theres-a-middle-ground-to-booting-dwi-seizures.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/1203343/for-safetys-sake-abq-must-revamp-dwi-seizures.html

The city needs to amend the city’s existing nuisance abatement ordinance to add civil nuisance abatement actions against vehicles and owners who have a history of prior DWI convictions without relying on the conviction of a pending DWI charge.

The New Mexico legislature should grant statutory authority to District Courts, Metro Courts, magistrate courts and municipalities to take away from DWI defendants the very instrument they have used to violate the law and perhaps injure or even kill someone.

The message now is you drink, you drive, you walk away from being held accountable.

The message needs to be you drink, you drive, you lose your vehicle.

For more information on the ruling and DWI statistics see:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/04/12/citys-dwi-vehicle-forfeiture-program-disarms-drunks-of-weapons/

On July 10, 2018 Presiding District Court Judge Nan Nash sent a letter to Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez notifying Torrez that the 2nd Judicial District Court would be reducing dramatically the number of days the grand juries will meet each month.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1202062/court-plans-major-cuts-to-grand-jury-system.html

Judge Nash notified Torrez that beginning October 21, 2018, a grand jury panel will be available only 6 days a month down from 5 days a week every week or down from 20 or more times a month.

Instead of using the grand jury, the District Court is requesting the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office to initiate new cases using preliminary hearings instead of grand juries to determine probable cause and to charge defendants with felonies.

Judge Nash said that it is an effort to save money and move toward criminal justice best practices.

According to Judge Nash, the District Court spent about $75,000 for a period of six months between July 1 and December 31, 2017 to conduct grand juries.

The $75,000 is only what the court spent and does not include lost wages, lost productivity and time and inconvenience to those who are selected to serve as grand jurors for 3 or 6 months at a time.

According to Judge Nash, the use of preliminary hearings will mean a case is vetted at the front end, and a defendant will face only charges that a judge deems appropriate, which creates a more efficient system.

Five of New Mexico’s 13 judicial districts have already done away with grand juries altogether and rely on preliminary hearings.

Two states have done away with reliance on grand juries and have gone to a preliminary hearing system.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY TORREZ OBJECTS

District Attorney Raul Torrez is strongly opposed to reducing the grand jury time available saying it will make launching new criminal cases far more challenging and far more resource intensive.

According to Second Judicial District Court data, in 2017 there were 2,551 cases indicted by the DA’s office and there were 650 preliminary hearings held by the court’s criminal division.

From January 1, 2018 to June 30, 2018 there were 418 preliminary hearing with 1,688 cases indicted.

According to Torrez, preliminary hearings are more financially and administratively burdensome for the District Attorney’s office.

Torrez argues that coordinating the appearance of a defendant, victims and multiple witnesses to the crime as well as law enforcement is complicated, and if one person doesn’t show up, the entire preliminary hearing must be rescheduled.

Currently, the cases that are routed through preliminary hearings are those involving lower-level charges and lower-risk defendants in cases with few witnesses.

According to Torrez far more procedural hurdles are associated with preliminary hearings, and the system doesn’t have the resources or personnel to channel more cases through the process.

Torrez worries the shift toward more preliminary hearings will mean more police officers will be waiting in courtroom hallways to testify in hearings that could ultimately be rescheduled

Torrez erroneously argues the shift toward more preliminary hearings will have an impact on APD when he says:

“This is going to have a dramatic impact on (the Albuquerque Police Department) specifically and their ability to engage in community policing. … You have to take multiple officers off the street for hours at a time to attend a full evidentiary hearing, when they could be out in the community answering calls for service and responding to public safety needs.”

The truth is that it is field service officers in patrol cars who respond to calls for service and involved with community-based policing, not non-uniformed detectives who investigate serious felonies.

It is non-uniform detectives that investigate major violent felonies such as homicides and rapes and they do not respond to standard calls for service.

Torrez has gone as far as to threaten to take the District Court to the Supreme Court to required the District Court to schedule more grand jury time.

PUBLIC DEFENDER CONCURS

No at all surprising, the States Chief Public Defender Bennet Baur strongly supports the move towards more preliminary hearings and believes it will lead to earlier resolution of cases.

According to Baur, although it’s more work up front for the prosecution and defense, it will lead to earlier dismissals and guilty pleas when appropriate, sending fewer cases on a path to trial and a way to “clear the underbrush. … It allows us to, I think, spend more time looking at the serious cases later on.”

On July 19, 2018, the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee (LFC), released a 117 page “Program Evaluation: Review of the Criminal Justice System in Bernalillo County.”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/07/24/bernalillo-county-criminal-justice-system-evaluation/

The LFC report was a detailed review of Bernalillo County’s criminal justice system and cites the National Center for State Courts’ recommendation that the District Attorney’s Office should consider prosecuting more felony cases using preliminary hearings as opposed to grand juries.

The LFC reported that 310 of the 504 felony preliminary hearings that took place in 2017 resulted in a plea during the hearing, meaning the case was concluded without a costly trial.

GRAND JURY AND PRELIINARY HEARINGS BOTH “PROBABLE CAUSE” HEARINGS

The bedrock of our criminal justice system as guaranteed by the United States Constitution is that all are presumed innocent until proven guilty and are entitled to due process of law, no matter how horrendous the crime.

There are major differences between a grand jury and preliminary hearing but both are “probable cause” hearings.

In layman’s terms, probable cause is where the evidence presented shows that is it more likely than not that a crime was committed by the defendant charged.

A “grand jury” hearing is a probable cause hearing that decides to charge a defendant when 8 out of 12 jurors find probable cause to charge.

A “preliminary hearing” is a probable cause hearing and it is a District Judge, not a grand jury, who decides whether there is probable cause to support formal charges against a defendant.

A grand jury is a secret proceeding, defendants are not allowed to see and hear the evidence presented and a grand jury proceeding is not open to the public.

Preliminary hearings are “abbreviated trials” or “mini trials” which are open to the public and held before a judge and not in secrecy as is a grand jury.

The biggest advantage that a grand jury proceeding offers is that it is a usually a very short proceeding that is totally controlled by the prosecutor as to what is presented.

The biggest disadvantage of a grand jury is to the defendant who can not object to evidence presented and must waive all right of self-incrimination if they choose to testify.

Usually, at a minimum, investigating officers and the crime victim testify at both preliminary hearing or grand jury proceedings.

Unlike in a grand jury, in a preliminary hearing, a defendant must be present and represented by an attorney who is allowed to question witnesses and present evidence.

DA TORREZ NOW HAS RESOURCES TO DO MORE PRELIMINARY HEARINGS

In January 2018, the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office was funded for and employed approximately 300 full time personnel which included 118 full time attorney positions.

During the 2018 legislative session, Torrez was able to secure a substantial increase in his budget to hire an additional attorneys and staff.

Torrez told the legislature a lack of resources was the reason his office could not even come close to prosecuting all the pending felony cases in his office.

According to Torrez, there were simply too many criminals and not enough staff.

DA Torrez during the 2018 legislative session had 45 vacant positions which included 18 vacant attorney positions that he was not able to fill during his first year in office.

During the 2018 legislative session, Torrez was able to secure a $4.2 million increase in the office budget.

Effective July 1, 2018, DA Torrez has a $21.5 million-dollar budget to run the Bernalillo County District Attorney Office, which should be more than enough to do more preliminary hearings.

Torrez indicated he wanted to hire upwards of 50 more prosecutors with the additional funding.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2018/02/11/senator-smith-tells-da-torrez-he-now-has-enough-rope-to-hang-himself/

APD’S MURDER CLEARANCE RATE

On April 18, 2018, APD released the city’s crime statistics for the first quarter of 2018 (January to March) comparing them to the first quarter of 2017, (January to March) and the statistics revealed that the property crime rates are down, but the homicide rate increased by an alarming 50%.

There were 6 more murders in the first quarter of 2018 compared with 2017, which is a 50% increase.

In March of this year, 5 homicides were reported in six days.

Albuquerque has had twenty (21) homicides reported in the first 4 months of this year.

There are 36 murder cases from last year that have yet to be cleared with upwards of 40 murders committed this year thus far.

APD’s “clearance rate” is currently in the mid 50%, if not lower.

According to the proposed 2018-2019 APD City Budget, in 2016 the APD homicide clearance rate was 80%, in 2017 the clearance rate was 70% and the projected clearance rate is 46% for mid-year.

Albuquerque is on track to exceeding the all-time number of 70 homicides in one year.

APD HOMICIDE UNIT’S LEAGACY OF SHAME

On July 2, 2018, ABQ Reports published a scathing article about the APD Homicide Unit.

Relevant portions of the article include:

“Over the past 13 years the [homicide] unit has amassed a legacy of shame that should shock, disgust and outrage everyone – liberals, conservatives, just everybody – who believes in one of the most basic tenets of human liberty: that innocent people should not be charged with crimes they didn’t commit and that they shouldn’t sit in jail for crimes they didn’t commit.

In those 13 years APD’s homicide unit has compiled a shameful legacy of not doing complete investigations, misleading the public, feeding confessions to people with low IQs, getting investigations dead wrong and letting innocent people rot in jail.

The latest bombshell … [reported was] Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez said he was dropping murder charges against Fabian Gonzales and Michelle Martens in the horrific 2016 killing and dismemberment of 10-year-old Victoria Martens.
…
… Torrez dropped an absolute nuke on the community and on APD: There is DNA from another person at the murder scene. DNA that does not match anyone in custody. …
Two years and just days before trial, before the DA thought to tell the citizens that APD Homicide had gone the wrong direction. Down a rabbit hole of their own making. Management of the APD Homicide Unit was completely absent.
…

APD has a history of ignoring basic human rights. Here are a few cases from not-so-distant past:

– 2005 to 2008 Robert Gonzales, a mentally retarded young man was arrested by APD and charged with the rape / murder of an 11 year old neighbor. Weeks after the arrest DNA evidence confirmed Gonzales was not the offender. Yet APD Homicide and the Bernalillo County DA never turned this evidence over to the court and defense attorneys. Only after Gonzales spent 965 days in jail for a crime he didn’t commit and only after he was released by the judge was the DNA evidence was exposed. Along with this came the announcement that Gonzales confession was simply him repeating facts that the APD homicide detectives had fed him during the interview. The NM State Supreme court fined the DA $45,000 and in a civil case Gonzales won over a million dollars from Albuquerque taxpayers.

– 2007 to 2011, Michael Lee and Travis Rowley, young men in Albuquerque working as a group of salesmen, were arrested and charged with the murders and rape of an elderly Korean couple. Both Lee and Rowley had below normal IQs. Lee confessed to the murders, Rowley did not. Shortly after the arrests, DNA evidence excluded both men and confirmed that Albuquerque serial killer, Clifton Bloomfield was the offender. Bloomfield subsequently confessed. Yet APD and the DA kept both men locked up for over a year, convinced that they had something to do with the murders even though DNA excluded them and even though the confession was once again found that Lee was just repeating what APD Homicide detectives were telling him. Yes, the city paid out $950,000 to settle with Lee.

– 2015 o 2016, Christopher Cruz and Donovan Maes are wrongly arrested for the murder of Jaydon Chavez Silver. They spent10 months in jail before the Bernalillo County DA reviewed the entire case sent to them by APD Homicide, finding that there was not evidence that Cruz and Maez were involved. APD Homicide is alleged to have fed witnesses information for them to repeat in interviews, threaten witnesses to provide false information.

– 2016 to 2018 Victoria Martens, APD Chief Gorden Eden, his PIO Celina Espinoza and APD Officer Fred Duran, knowingly lied to the public regarding a CYFD call five months before Victoria was murdered. The lies go so far as to put words in Victoria’s dead mouth, words she never spoke, simply to protect people at APD.
…
– 2017 to 2018. This on the heels of APD, at first defending, destruction of DNA-soaked underwear of a 7-year-old girl who was being used as a prostitute by her parents! Wouldn’t we have liked to have that DNA to compare to this unknown DNA from Victoria! But APD tossed it out and a ridiculous bullshit reason. Now Geier and Keller have said they were misled, but were they? We know the outcome of CYFD investigation into this event, but so far APD has only reluctantly started an investigation.
…
When DA Raul Torrez announced to Albuquerque citizens that “much of what has been reported about the brutal rape and murder of 10 year old Victoria Martens is simply not true!” he handed the defense attorney for Jessica Kelly their game plan.

… [T]he Martens case … slapped the citizens in the face with something those in local law enforcement have known for over ten years: The APD Homicide unit is ill-trained, too young, and poorly led.”

You can read the full ABQ Reports article here:

https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/2018/07/02/Injustice-For-All-APD-Homicide-Units-Legacy-of-Shame

COMMENTARY

There’s a saying in legal community about how easy it is for any prosecutor to secure indictments from a grand jury:

“You can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.”

It was back in January, 1985, in an interview with the New York Daily News’, that Chief Judge Sol Wachtler coined the phrase that it is easy to indict a ham sandwich.

A the time, Chief Judge Sol Wachtler was proposing that the New York scrap the grand jury system of bringing criminal indictments.

Judge Wachtler, believed that district attorneys had so much influence on grand juries that “by and large” they could get them to “indict a ham sandwich.”

The New York Time reported that Wachtler believed grand juries “operate more often as the prosecutor’s pawn than the citizen’s shield.”

Based on review of the APD’s homicide record of botched cases, it becomes clear the District Attorney’s office has also engaged in a pattern of a “rush to indict” cases where investigations were inadequate and not complete with the District Attorneys office forced to do follow up work to complete the investigations.

The grand jury being a pawn of the District Attorney appears to be the case in Bernalillo County when it comes to murder cases and violent crimes.

A little over a year ago, District Attorney Raul Torrez accused the District Court for being the root cause for the dramatic increase in crime.

Torrez also accused criminal defense attorney’s of “gaming the system” to avoid trials and get cases dismissed.

Make no mistake, both the grand jury system and preliminary hearings do have their advantages and disadvantages.

Now that the District Court has stepped upped to the plate wanting to do more preliminary hearings, Torrez objects.

I suspect going from grand jury time scheduled 20 or more times in a month to only 6 days a month is probably way too drastic and should be phased in over a years’ time.

The District Court is being somewhat penny wise and pound foolish trying to save $75,000 to $150,00 a year in grand jury costs to gut a system that is proven to be effective to dispose of lower priority property crimes, drug cases and white collar crimes.

Notwithstanding, given APD’s shameful record with homicide investigations, preliminary hearings should be the mandatory approach to all homicide cases by the District Attorney and APD.

APD is more of the problem than the solution to getting convictions in homicide cases.

Preliminary hearings in all violent crime cases will require and insure that APD will complete investigations, gather evidence, do reports, do witness interviews and complete scientific evidence testing in order for the District Attorney to secure convictions.

A 20-acre complex on the far west side, way beyond city limits, to provide feeding, housing, health care, treatment for mental illnesses and drug and alcohol addictions, social services, medical care and job training, and job placement to Albuquerque’s homeless community is being proposed by a newly formed business coalition called the Greater Albuquerque Business Alliance (GABA).

Media coverage can be reviewed here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1200884/business-alliance-proposes-solution-to-citys-growing-homeless-problem.html

https://www.koat.com/article/downtown-abq-business-owners-propose-plan-to-address-homeless-population/22555568

The coalition so far consists of 30 Downtown business owners in areas where homeless service providers are located.

The ultimate goal is to create a single large “campus” or a complex for the homeless thereby eliminating the need for homeless providers concentrated in the downtown area or scattered throughout the city next to businesses or residential areas.

Sylvia Ortiz Spence, who operates Silverado Apparel and Home at 1318 Fourth NW, said businesses in the neighborhoods where the homeless service providers are located are negatively affected.

According to Spence: “What we want to create is one centralized facility in a safe place, somewhere that all the services can be located … so we can get these people introduced back into society.”

A suggested location for the campus is the far West Side near where the Metropolitan Detention Center is currently located.

The project is being called “Homeless Vision 2018”.

Connie Vigil, the President of GABA, is quoted as saying:

“The homeless [in Albuquerque] have not been seriously cared for the way they need to be. … There is homelessness and mental illness everywhere you look and crime is skyrocketing. The Downtown and surrounding areas are being seriously hurt. We need a real solution.”

Private attorney and member of the business coalition Gerald E. Bischoff said the current services provided to the homeless in the north Downtown area are inadequate.

According to Bischoff, a proposal by HopeWorks, formerly St. Martin’s, to build a 42-unit permanent housing site on its own campus as part of a multi-phase redesign project is a “band-aid” approach to solving Albuquerque’s homeless problem.

Bischoff gave the opinion that the 42-unit housing facility does not come close to addressing the housing needs for the estimated 1,400 to 2,000 homeless that can be found just in the Downtown neighborhoods alone.

The coalition is asking the city to slowdown the HopeWorks 42 unit project and analyze it along with the “Homeless Vision 2018” campus proposal.

The Greater Albuquerque Business Alliance (GABA) envisions that homeless service providers such as HopeWorks, Steelbridge, The Rock at Noon Day, Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless, as well as the City and County would become and be part of “Vision 2018” and all would be invited to enter into leases at the new campus facility.

GABA is asking the city to buy into the concept and assist with funding and identifying a location.

Ideally, the city or county would contribute land for the campus while the GABA business alliance would spearhead an initiative to find donors.

“Homeless Vision 2018” single-sight approach to provide services to the homeless is modeled after similar campuses in much larger cities such as San Antonio, Texas and as such are cost prohibitive for exclusive taxpayer city funding.

The GABA business coalition’s announced goal is to secure funding from large organizations such as Sandia National Laboratories, Intel and Kirtland Air Force Base, who might be inclined to provide funding, along with smaller businesses and individual donors.

ALBUQUERQUE HOMELESS COUNT

The City of Albuquerque ranks 32 in the country in population with a population of 545,852.

On January 23, 2017, the “Point in Time” (PIT) survey was conducted to determine how many people experience homelessness on a given night in Albuquerque, and to learn more about their specific needs.

The 2017 survey found that 1,318 people reported experiencing homelessness on the night of the count, which was an increase of 31 people over the 2015 PIT Count.

The 2015 survey count found 1, 287 people reported experiencing homelessness on the night of the count.

For 2017, 379 people self-reported as chronically homeless, which is an increase of 119 people over the 2015 PIT Count.

PIT counted 39 more people that self-reported as chronically homeless who were sheltered and 80 more people that self-report as chronically homeless who were unsheltered in 2017.

The full PIT report for Albuquerque can be read here:

http://www.nmceh.org/pages/reports/2017%20ABQ/2017%20PIT%20Count%20Report.pdf

“HAVEN FOR HOPE”

The City of San Antonio ranks 7th in the country in population with a population of 1,382,852 people.

On March 27, 2017, the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Homeless conducted a yearly “Point In Time” survey to track San Antonio’s homeless population.

The San Antonio, Texas survey found that at least 2,700 displaced persons living in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas.

The “Haven For Hope” located in San Antonio, Texas is a “one-stop shop” campus that’s dedicated to helping a county’s homeless population.

There are 30 agencies on the Haven For Hope 22-acre campus and it can house upwards of 4,000.

The services include housing, food, job training, child care and even kennels for pets, among other services.

Mental health and addiction treatment is done across the street from the campus.

It cost $101 million to build the campus complex and 60% of that came from private donations.

The campus has an operating budget of nearly $20 million a year.

According to annual statistics, the number of the unsheltered homeless population has decreased about 15% since Haven for Hope started in 2010.

Haven for Hope reports it has had about 2,700 graduates move to permanent housing.

About 4,600 others have moved into temporary housing such as in-housing treatment programs.

The campus has not solved San Antonio’s homeless issue.

The last homeless count showed about 2,800 people who are still unsheltered and considered homeless in the greater San Antonio area.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/homeless/san-antonios-homeless-solution-used-as-national-model/281-197477103

A PROJECT ALREADY IN THE WORKS

In 2014, Albuquerque and Bernalillo County voters overwhelmingly voted to approve and impose a one-eighth percent gross receipts tax to improve access to mental and behavioral health care services in the county and it was called the Mental Health Service Tax.

On May 24, 2018, it was announced that Albuquerque and Bernalillo County will be spending millions from the mental health service tax fund on a state-of-the-art project they hope will get the most chronically homeless people off the streets of Albuquerque for good.

The development is basically identical to GABA’s proposal, but obvioulsy on a smaller scale.

The idea is to build an all-in-one, 24-7 campus-like housing complex where people can live and get medical and social services on site.

A “request for proposal” (RFP) for the joint city and county homeless housing project was issued and if built, it would be a first of its kind in New Mexico.

According to the project RFP, the “priority population” will include individuals in four criteria including homelessness or severe housing instability, frequent admission to MDC’s psychiatric unit, frequent utilization of detox services, and frequent use of emergency medical service for behavioral health needs.

The project calls for developers to come up with a plan to build a 40-unit, apartment-style complex in Albuquerque that offers permanent housing alongside on-site professional medical and social help for its tenants.

According to one news report, the expectation is that the facility will be home for those who are chronically homeless and may deal with mental illness or substance abuse.

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/city-county-partner-for-state-of-the-art-homeless-housing-treatment-complex/1197739863

Bernalillo County is also spending $1.3 million to develop and fully fund a Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) Transition Planning and Re-entry Resource Center using funds from the Bernalillo County behavioral health tax fund.

The Re-entry Resource Center is designed to reach individuals who may have behavioral health challenges and a high need for resources, such as temporary shelter, food, and re-connecting with family members or community providers who can help former inmates gain footing after leaving jail.

CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE SERVICES TO THE HOMELESS

It is estimated that the City of Albuquerque has between 1,300 to 1,500 chronic homeless people.

The Family and Community Services Department is a key player in the City’s effort to end homelessness.

The Departments services include prevention, outreach, shelter and housing programs and supportive services.

The City of Albuquerque has at least 10 separate homeless service provider locations throughout the city.

The entire general fund budget for the Department of Family and Community Services is $39.9 million.

The $39.9 million is not just exclusive funding for services to the homeless.

The service offered by the Family and Community Services Department are directly provided by the city or by contract with nonprofit providers.

The services include social services, mental/behavioral health, homeless services, health care for the homeless, substance abuse treatment and prevention, multi-service centers, public housing, rent assistance, affordable housing development, and fair housing, just to mention a few.

The following homeless services are funded by the City of Albuquerque, HUD’s Continuum of Care grants, Emergency Shelter Grants, and other grants administered by the City of Albuquerque:

1. Emergency Shelters for short-term, immediate assistance for the homeless for men, women, families, emergency winter shelter and after hours shelter.

2. Transitional Housing assistance designed to transition from homelessness to permanent housing.

3. Permanent Supportive Housing for homeless individuals dealing with chronic mental illness or substance abuse issues

4. Childcare services for homeless families

5. Employment Services and job placement for homeless persons

6. Eviction Prevention or rental assistance and case management to prevent eviction and homelessness

7. Health Care services for homeless individuals and families

8. Meal program providing for homeless individuals and families in need

9. Motel Vouchers or temporary vouchers for homeless individuals with immediate medical issues and families with children, where emergency shelters cannot accommodate them.

10. The Albuquerque Heading Home program initiative which moves the most medically fragile and chronically homeless people off the streets and into permanent housing. Since its inception in 2011 to January, 2017, it has placed 650 people into housing that assists with housing and providing jobs.

COMMENTARY

As noble a goal as it is, the Greater Albuquerque Business Alliance (GABA) should not hold their breath that the city or county will endorse or fund a project that creates a 20-acre homeless “campus” in a remote and desolete section on the far west-side of the city to provide housing, drug treatment and social services to the city’s 1,500 plus homeless.

The immediate perception of the “Vision 2018” 20-acre complex on the far west side in the middle of nowhere is that it is an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to the homeless issue for removal of the homeless from downtown area.

Based on the Haven For Hope model of San Antonio, Texas, the Albuquerque’s homeless issue will not be completely solved even with such a campus.

All too often, we tend to forget our humanity and resent or even condemn the homeless for what we think they represent.

We fear and even condemn the homeless whenever they interfere with our lives at whatever level such as pandering for money on street medians, begging for food, acting erratic, acting emotionally unstable, and yes even when they are found sleeping in doorways and defecating in public.

We easily forget that the homeless are indeed human beings who may have lost all hope and all respect for themselves and are imprisoned for life in their own minds condemn to fight their demons until the very day they die.

One thing we should never forget is that the homeless do indeed have human rights to live as they choose, not as any one says, and they cannot just be arrested and housed like criminals or animals.

The homeless cannot be forced or ever required to do anything for their own benefit, or against their own free will or change their life unless they want to do it themselves.

Many homeless do not want to ever be reintroduced into society.

Many homeless have committed no crimes and all to often are the victims of crimes themselves, even being bludgeoned to death for fun and pleasure as Albuquerque has seen in the past few years when teenagers killed two Native Americans sleeping in a vacant lot .

Charitable organizations such as Joy Junction, HopeWorks, Steelbridge, The Rock at Noon Day, Albuquerque Healthcare for the Homeless, all provide services to the homeless and do so by being where the homeless can be found and where the homeless can reach and seek out and have easy access to their services.

One argument GABA will be confronted with is that the City, the County and charitable organizations are already doing all they can with the programs they have to assist the homeless.

Further, many of the existing charitable organizations such as Joy Junction will not want to enter into any kind of lease arrangement or relocate to remote areas when they already own city facilities out right in Albuquerque or Bernalillo County.

A problem that can easily be identified is that it will not be self-sustaining in the long run with private donations and that it will eventually have to be fully funded and operated by a government entity such as the city or county.

Albuquerque and New Mexico are a very poor city and state not known for huge corporate or private donations with few wealthy citizens.

Intel for example will in all probably be gone within a few years.

Our business community as represented by the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Forum and the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAIOP) have never been known to be big time supporters to find solutions to the homelessness in Albuquerque and are far more interested in their organization membership profit margins.

A legitimate concern is that such a facility will run the risk of Albuquerque becoming a destination city for the homeless and increasing the city’s homeless population.

From a strictly cynical standpoint, such an ambitious project will require considerable courage and commitment seldom seen from elected officials to help those in serious need and in crisis who do not or will not ever vote.

In the long term, GABA fund raising efforts would probably be better served helping the various existing charitable organization that assist the homeless and work on projects with the city targeting and tackling the homeless in the downtown area.

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POST SCRIPT

JOY JUNCTION AND DR. JEREMY REYNOLDS REMEMBERED

On July 11th, 2018 Dr. Jeremy Reynolds, the founder of Joy Junction passed away passed away from cancer.

Dr. Reynolds was an exceptional individual who for 30 years went above and beyond the call of duty in helping Albuquerque’s homeless and relying on private fundraising.

On February 2, 1017, Dr. Reynolds wrote:

“The mindset of wanting to do something myself instead of waiting for someone else to do it, was in part, what moved me to create a different type of homeless shelter in our community – one for the entire family — where, notwithstanding space limitations, no one is turned away, no matter the time of day or situation.

This means that when a family of four comes through the door, we take them all in, regardless of gender, age, race, sexual orientation or religion.

Over the past 30-plus years, Joy Junction has grown to serve more than 10,000 meals each month, not including the more than 6,000 meals served by our mobile feeding unit called The Lifeline of Hope.

This service was started in 2009 to provide food, beverages and hygiene products to those who have shelter but very little else, and to individuals who for a variety of reasons live on the streets, where their “pillow” is often a concrete sidewalk.

In addition, recognizing that overnights are some of the most need-saturated times of the day, Joy Junction staff drive a van through the streets of Albuquerque between about 1 and 5 a.m. in search of anyone who might need assistance with food, water and when available, a blanket or sleeping bag.

Those small acts of kindness do make a difference, as some have showed.

At Joy Junction, we’ve made it our mission to not only provide basic needs like food and shelter, but also emotional and spiritual assistance so individuals can get back on their feet. In addition, guests at Joy Junction are welcome to stay as long as they need, so they can become “whole” again.”

Dr. Reynolds entire guest commentary on my blog entitled “It Takes A Village To Help The Homeless” can be read here:

It Takes A Village to Help the Homeless