May 30, 2018

BY: Dennis Domrzalski, ABQ Reports

(https://www.abqreport.com/single-post/2018/05/30/Keller-ART-Still-a-Mess-But-There-is-Hope)

The $135 million Albuquerque Rapid Transit remains a mess, but there is a chance that it could start offering limited service in the fall, Mayor Tim Keller said Wednesday.

Federal funding for the project has yet to be approved, and there is no guarantee that it will ever come through, Keller said during an in-depth briefing on ART foe members of the news media. The 60-foot-long articulated electric buses still have numerous problems, have yet to be certified for being durable enough, and the city has decided to go to bid to have other companies build ART buses, Keller said.

“We have our shoulder to the wheel ans [ART] will someday be up and running,” Keller said.

Keller broke down ART’s problems and challenges into four areas: Construction, funding, buses and an implementation plan. Here’s how those four areas look right now:

– Construction. Major construction along ART’s nine-mile route on Central Avenue is finished. But lane striping, installing surveillance cameras on the ART platforms and the installation of better signage for motorists and pedestrians and the synchronization of traffic signals along the route continues.

– Funding. The Federal Transit Administration has yet to approve the $75 million grant for ART that former Mayor Richard Berry’s administration repeatedly said was a done deal. The good news, Keller said, is that Congress has appropriated money for ART and that the decision on whether to fund the project – which with the exception of the buses has already been built and paid for by the city – now rests with FTA officials in Washington, D.C., and the political whims of the nation’s capital.

“It is truly up to the FTA, they can always say no,” Keller said. “This truly is a choice by the FTA.”

Here’s what that means. If the FTA decides against funding the project, the city is out that money because it has already paid for its construction with its own money. That money came from capital projects that are funded by general obligation bonds and include things like street repairs and libraries and parks and stop signs and traffic lights. If the city doesn’t get the $75 million from the FTA, it will have to divert money from future capital projects for streets and parks to fund the capital projects that were raided to pay for ART.

– The buses. The 60-foot, articulated electric buses built by the Chinese company, BYD, continue to be a sort of mechanical and engineering disaster. The city specified in its contract with BYD for 18 ART buses that they needed to get 275 miles per charge. The buses are only getting 180 miles per charge, said Lawrence Rael, the city’s Chief Operating Officer. That means the city would have to order more buses or have a lot more charging stations so the buses can juice up along their routes.

So, BYD has agreed to build three more charging stations, one each at Uptown, Central and Tramway and Central and Unser.

“This is not an ideal situation,” Rael said.

There are more problems with BYD’s buses; they won’t be certified for use until at least early 2019. That’s both good and bad. It’s good because the city isn’t contractually obligated to pay for the buses until they are certified by an independent reviewer. It’s bad because the city can’t get any federal grant money for the buses until they are certified.

But Keller said the city is looking to “divorce” itself from BYD and is in the process of renegotiating its contract with the firm. That could mean that the city keeps only some of the 15 buses that BYD has delivered to the city so far.

– Implementation. Keller said the city explored three options about what to do about ART: Junk it, stick forever with BYD, or divorce BYD and try to take possession of some of its buses.

Junking ART and putting Central back to what it was before construction began would cost $200 million, Keller said.

Sticking with BYD until its buses are certified would mean that the system would not be operational until the winter of 2019, Keller said.

DINELLI COMMENTARY ON ARTICLE

A full six months into his term, and Keller is still dealing with the Albatross Rapid Transit (ART) project.

Keller is hoping ART will be up and running by the end of the year and thinking the city will be getting $75 million from the Feds.

Keller has found former Mayor Berry’s rose colored glasses when he sees the city getting anything from the feds.

If a “divorce” is what Keller really wants, he needs to hire a good lawyer now, file suit and seek damages for breach of contract for all the delays and breach of warranties relating to the buses.

Litigation is why we have a city attorney’s office as well a risk management department that both have had no problem dishing out $62 million dollars in police misconduct and deadly use of force cases.

Deciding to litigate for damages and delays would mean showing a little political backbone.

The May 30, 2018 Albuquerque Journal’s front-page story and especially the accompanying photo, was very problematic calling into question who is really in charge of APD.

The story headlines were “A line in the sand; APD, mayor promise review, changes after child abuse case”.

The entire article can be read here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1177857/apd-launches-internal-affairs-probe-of-child-sex-trafficking-case.html

The 4 and a half inch by 7 inch accompanying front page color photo of Mayor Tim Keller and Chief Michael Geier sitting attentively at a table in the APD conference room and listening and looking up at APD spokesman Simon Drobik as he talked behind a podium with an APD logo on the front and American flag behind him spoke volumes.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.

The front-page story was about Mayor Tim Keller and Chief Geier’s press conference announcing an APD Internal Affairs Investigation to investigate if policy and procedures were violated by APD’s encounters with relatives and teachers of a 7-year-old girl.

The child’s blood-stained underwear was collected by a teacher and APD refused to tag it into evidence and just threw it away.

The APD officer had just met with the parents and the child on a welfare check before going to see the child’s teacher at the elementary school.

Just days before the press conference, both Mayor Keller and Interim Chief Geier repeatedly bent over backwards to defend the actions of APD saying no policies or procedures were violated.

During the press conference, Mayor Keller made the stunning admission that he and Chief Geier were not initially given the full story of the police department’s handling of the case.

At the beginning of the press conference, both Keller and Geier spoke for about 5 minutes and then sat down.

After speaking, Keller and Geier turned the entire press conference over to APD Spokesman Simon Drobik who spoke an responded to questions for about 45 minutes.

Drobik contradicted the Mayor and Chief for the need for the IA investigation when he said:

“We can’t just generate complaints based on speculation. … Somebody has to say something happened.”

The fact that the child was reported by the teacher to have been unkept, dirty and smelling of urine time and again and had blood stained underwear was sure the hell not “speculation” of child neglect and screamed out something was happening to the child.

No doubt Drobik thinks that a 7 year old child is capable of knowing when she is being neglected or abused so she can say something happened.

What is pathetic is that the investigating officer on his lapel camera video released showing him talking to the child’s teacher did not show the slightest sign of curiosity, concern nor desire to take the child’s underwear and go back and talk to the child to find out if something was wrong like he had done just hours earlier.

After six months in office, what happened at this press conference is yet another prime example that the Keller Administration is slowly developing the reputation that it and their public information officers (PIOs) do not know exactly what they are doing nor when nor how to stay on message.

Even worse, Albuquerque may have a Mayor whose PIOs have no idea or understanding what his directives are, what he wants said to the media nor what he wants his top executives to be saying.

Until Keller gets a handle on his PIOs we can expect the “amatuer hour” to continue on the eleventh floor of city hall and the 5th floor of APD main.

It’s called getting your story straight so as to avoid looking incompetent with your decisions and the messaging you want to convey.

APD Spokesman Simon Drobik needs to learn when to shut up so as not undercut his superiors, especially a Mayor who is giving direct orders.

Mayor Tim Keller and Interim Chief Geier announced at a press conference that they have ordered a formal internal affairs investigation into the Albuquerque Police Department’s encounters with relatives and teachers of a 7-year-old girl who prosecutors say was abused and trafficked.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1177857/apd-launches-internal-affairs-probe-of-child-sex-trafficking-case.html

The press conference was also used to announce a review of policies and procedures of APD when dealing with child sexual and physical abuse victims.

Keller’s appointed Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair said at the press conference:

“We have sort of two different issues going on in this case. … One is whether specific people followed specific policies. And then the other is whether those policies are in fact designed to move investigations the way that they should be moved. And if those policies are too broad or too narrow to really accomplish the goal of protecting kids.”

During the press conference, Mayor Tim Keller made the stunning admission that he and Chief Geier were not initially given the full story of the police department’s handling of the case when he said:

“This administration will admit to mistakes that it makes. … We will admit we must improve, and we are now drawing a line in the sand and saying that the weaknesses in the system that let our kids down are not acceptable anymore” and said the Internal Affairs investigation will produce a report detailing “the handling or mishandling of this case.”

Elaborating on Mayor Keller’s comments, Interim Chief Geier said “things just didn’t sit right” and so “we started digging.”

For his part, Chief Geier said “This is not the old APD, we are not going to sweep this under the rug. We’re gonna embrace change.”

Mayor Tim Kellers’ bold pronouncement of “drawing a line in the sand” and Chief Geier saying “we started digging” was a stunning admission that both Mayor Keller he and Interim Chief Geier had their heads in the sand for the past few weeks defending the actions of APD.

The Internal Affairs investigation is to provide Mayor Keller and Chief Geier with the complete details and the steps taken or missed by officers and detectives during interviews with family and school personnel.

The Internal Affairs investigation will also explore any other actions by APD personnel who had a role, or should have had a role, before a determination was made about allegations of child neglect or abuse.

A 180 DEGREE REVERSAL BY MAYOR AND CHIEF

The truth is a major management mistake by Mayor Tim Keller and Interim Chief Michael Geier occurred when they both defended APD in the evidence gathering in a child abuse case where the blood-stained underwear of a seven-year-old child was collected by the child’s teacher.

The scrutiny of the case and the defense of APD by the Mayor Keller and Chief Geier came after a three-day detention hearing of the child’s parents.

Apparently, Mayor Keller and Chief Geier do not watch or listen to the news because the detention hearing of the parents was covered intensely by the media.

The boyfriend of the child’s mother is charged with human trafficking, promoting prostitution, criminal sexual contact of a minor and other crimes.

The mother is charged with child abuse and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

A teacher testified in court under oath that she attempted to give the underwear to an APD officer who then refused to take the underwear and tag it into evidence for forensic evaluation and tossed the evidence in the trash.

What is regrettable is that this should not have happened given that the events occurred last year before Keller and Gier both assumed office, yet they both defended APD’s actions.

Both Mayor Keller and the Interim Chief Geier initially said no one with APD violated any policies or procedures even when an APD officer tossed out the evidence.

Both Keller and Geier then doubled down and said that officers and detectives did everything they could with the information they had at the time, which again was last year before they were in charge.

After Keller and Geier doubled down, it was reported that when two APD officers and two detectives with APD’s Crimes Against Children Unit looked into an allegation that the 7 year old child had blood on her underwear someone from APD in fact accessed the states Children Youth and Families law enforcement portal.

(May 29, 2018 Albuquerque Journal, front page, “APD likely aware of CYFD contacts with girl; Chief earlier said officers might have acted differently if they’d known the history)

It turns out that the past director of the Real Time Crime Center last year issued a directive to APD staff operators to look at a child’s contacts with CYFD sending out a procedural order laying out the center’s access to the CYFD’s law enforcement portal.

According to the city interoffice memorandum, APD Real Time Center operators were ordered to use the portal in all cases in which a juvenile has been injured or neglected, there is a history of violence and in “all cases where a juvenile call originated from a school.”

In other words, APD was aware or should have been aware of the family’s lengthy history with the Children, Youth and Families Department when and APD officer and a CYFD investigator met with the child’s teacher at the girl’s school.

On Friday, May 25, 2018, and only after intense media coverage, Mayor Keller and Interim Chief Geier ordered the Internal Affairs investigation to provide a more complete accounting of the department’s interactions related to a November 2017 incident involving the parents of the child.

INEPT MANAGERMENT REVEALED

It was inept management and a failed oversight mistake for the Chief and the Mayor not order the Internal Affairs Investigation in the first place seeing as the events occurred last year, before they took office and something they could not do anything about other than get to the truth about what actually happened.

Mayor Keller and Chief Geier defending the actions of APD they knew absolutely nothing about, even after courtroom testimony of the teacher, speaks volumes of their management ineptness and worse their reluctance to hold APD accountable.

Keller’s mistake in this case can be understood given his lack of understanding of law enforcement procedures and ignorance of the law of evidence.

However, Interim Chief Geier should have known better given his 40+ years as a cop and given his reluctance to act.

What happened is evidence that nothing has changed with APD management practices of the past despite Geier’s denial to the contrary and his pronouncement.

CONCLUSION

Mayor Tim Keller should have learned a valuable lesson the hard way from this mishap: not to presume and believe everything you are told to be true by law enforcement, a lesson many juries learn quickly only after all the evidence is gather and presented to them in a trial and court of law.

Hopefully Keller and Geier can learn from their mistakes in handling a public relations nightmare of their own creation.

In the meantime, both Mayor Keller and Chief Geier need to wash the sand out of their hair.

In withdrawing from the First Congressional District race and endorsing Debra Haaland in the Democratic primary, City Councilor Pat Davis said:

“Out-of-state SuperPACs have already spent a half-million dollars to attack and divide progressives and help a conservative Democrat like Damon Martinez win on Election Day. I respect Damon Martinez’s service, and I’ve known him for years — but his failure to listen to our residents and hold police accountable, and his selective targeting and prosecution of poor, addicted black and brown residents of my own city council district should give us all pause.”

What should give voters pause in his city council district is what a hypocrite Pat Davis is with his words and actions.

No one should respect Pat Davis, especially when he calls Damon Martinez a “conservative Democrat” accusing Martinez of dividing progressives and saying Martinez has failed to listen to “our residents and hold police accountable”.

Pat Davis is an opportunist with his words and his actions.

DAVIS DIVIDED PROGRESSIVES

Lest anyone forget, Pat Davis was the Executive Director of “Progress Now” since its inception before he decided to run for City Council and then Congress.

As Director of Progress Now, Pat Davis was known to support and promote the candidacies of progressive Democrats of his own choosing, at the expense of and to the detriment of other progressive Democrats or Democrats he did not feel were “progressive enough”.

Pat Davis is cut out of the same mold as Bernie Sanders supporters who could not support Hillary Clinton after she won the nomination saying she was not a “progressive” or “progressive enough”.

Pat Davis has always made sure he has done everything he could behind the scenes to help his chosen progressive candidate such as Bernalillo County District Attorney Raul Torrez and Mayor Tim Keller when they were running for office.

DAVIS ACTED AND VOTED LIKE A REPUBLICAN

During his tenure on the Albuquerque City Council, Davis has voted, acted and has sounded like a Republican, which makes him a hypocrite.

It is Davis who refused to listen to his own constituents.

Davis voted repeatedly for and supported Republican Mayor Berry’s ART Bus project and funding.

Davis refused to advocate to put ART on the ballot for public approval, telling his constituents at a forum that there was nothing he could do and it was the Mayor’s project.

The ART Bus project has been a total disaster resulting the destruction of the character of Route 66 and having a negative impact and resulting in several businesses going out of business.

A few Nob Hill businesses, including many progressives, at one time advocated a recall of his election because of his support for ART.

DAVIS REFUSED TO HOLD APD ACCOUNTABLE

The biggest hypocrisy Davis committed with his endorsement of Debora Haaland was when he said Martinez failed to hold police accountable.

It was Pat Davis for the past two years that failed to hold APD accountable.

The Albuquerque City Council plays a crucial oversight role of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) including controlling its budget.

Davis did nothing regarding Albuquerque Police Department (APD) reforms and never challenged the APD command staff in any meaningful way demanding compliance with the Department of Justice (DOJ) consent decree reforms.

Each time the Federal Monitor has presented his critical reports of APD to the City Council, Davis kept his mouth shut and declined to demand accountability from the Republican Mayor and hold the APD command staff responsible for dragging their feet on the reforms.

Davis failed to attend any of the federal court hearings on the consent decree.

It was Damon Martinez who was United State Attorney for New Mexico when the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA) was negotiated after a culture of aggression was found within APD.

Damon Martinez was at the forefront in negotiating and changing APD policies on “use of force” and “deadly force” policies of APD.

The accusation that Damon Martinez engaged in “selective targeting and prosecution of poor, addicted black and brown residents of my own city council district” is nothing more than a lie by Pat Davis.

Davis made the accusation of “selective targeting” during a recent congressional debate.

Davis, as a former cop and former spokesman for the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office, knows full well the power to prosecute the overwhelming number of crimes in the city is the almost exclusive authority of the District Attorney.

Davis use of the words “prosecution of poor, addicted black and brown residents” is nothing more than accusing someone of racism.

CONCLUSION

Pat Davis has now ended his long shot candidacy for Congress.

True to his nature, Pat Davis endorsement of Debra Haaland is opportunistic thinking it will have some effect on voters.

This is one endorsement Debra Haaland would have been better off declining.

Pat Davis is up for re election next year to the Albuquerque City Council and it will be interesting to see if he runs again after this disastrous showing in the Congressional race.

City Council is non partisan, so Pat Davis does not have to say if he is a Democrat or Republican.

It is being reported that when two APD officers and two detectives with APD’s Crimes Against Children Unit looked into an allegation that a 7 year old child had blood on her underwear someone from APD in fact accessed the states Children Youth and Families law enforcement portal.

(May 29, 2018 Albuquerque Journal, front page, “APD likely aware of CYFD contacts with girl; Chief earlier said officers might have acted differently if they’d known the history)

The entire Albuquerque Journal report can be read here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1177634/apd-was-likely-aware-of-cyfd-contacts-in-case.html

According to the Journal report, last year on May 16, 2017, the then-director of the Real Time Crime Center issued a directive to APD staff operators to look at a child’s contacts with CYFD sending out a procedural order laying out the center’s access to the CYFD’s law enforcement portal.

According to the city interoffice memorandum, APD Real Time Center operators were ordered to use the portal in all cases in which a juvenile has been injured or neglected, there is a history of violence and in “all cases where a juvenile call originated from a school.”

In other words, APD was aware or should have been aware of the family’s lengthy history with the Children, Youth and Families Department when an APD officer and a CYFD investigator met with the child’s teacher at the girl’s school.

TESTIMONY OF FAILURE BY APD

During a three-day detention hearing for the child’s parents being held in custody on charges of sex trafficking, the child’s teacher testified under oath that she told an APD officer and the CYFD Investigator the child went to school unkempt and smelling of urine, evidence of child neglect.

When the teacher testified she helped the child change into clean clothes, the teacher saw the child had blood on the crotch of her underwear.

The teacher removed the underwear from the 7-year-old student and saved it for investigators.

The teacher testified when a police officer went to the school the following day, the APD officer said they could not use the underwear as evidence and threw the clothing in the dumpster.

The teacher testified she was told by the officer that the underwear had not been kept in a secure location and that the police office said “they’re going to have a field day if this ever went to court.”

A PUBLIC RELATIONS NIGHTMARE DEFENSE

Mayor Keller and Interim Chief Geier both bent over backwards to repeatedly say to news media outlets that no one with APD violated any policies or procedures investigating the case.

Both Mayor Keller and the Interim Chief Geier also said that no one violated any policies or procedures, including when an APD officer tossed out the blood-stained underwear of an innocent 7-year-old child rather than tagging it into evidence.

Geier repeatedly said that the blood-stained underwear by itself was not a strong enough reason to cause further investigation beyond what the officer did that day.

Mayor Tim Keller said “Based on information they had at the time we have no reason to believe protocol wasn’t followed and procedure wasn’t followed.”

https://www.abqjournal.com/1172987/mayor-apd-defend-officer-say-underwear-not-enough-to-warrant-crime-investigation.html

https://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/albuquerque-police-apd-child-abuse-case-james-stewart-teri-sanchez/4911125/?cat=500

Mayor Keller even went so far as to say that he was not going to discipline someone just because everyone is mad about what happened in the case.

APD Interim Chief Michael Geier has also told media outlets that officers and detectives did everything they could with the information they had at the time and if they knew more, they would have done things differently.

The report APD in fact accessed the states Children Youth and Families law enforcement portal is evidence that APD did not do everything they could have with the information they had at the time.

INTERNAL AFFAIRS INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED

It was learned that on Friday, May 25, 2018, after continued media coverage and inquiries, APD launched an Internal Affairs investigation to provide a more complete accounting of the department’s interactions related to the November 2017 incident involving the parents of the child.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1177857/apd-launches-internal-affairs-probe-of-child-sex-trafficking-case.html

The Internal Affairs Investigation was not announced until Tuesday, May 25, 2018 with a follow up press conference.

The Internal Affairs investigation is to provide Mayor Keller and Chief Geier with the complete details and the steps taken or missed by officers and detectives during interviews with family and school personnel.

The Internal Affairs investigation will also explore any other actions by APD personnel who had a role, or should have had a role, before a determination was made about allegations of child neglect or abuse.

The big question is, why did the Chief nor the Mayor nor order the Internal Affairs Investigation in the first place seeing is that the events occurred last year and before they took office on December 1, 2018?

REPEAT OF HISTORY

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” to quote George Santayana.

In response to the controversy, the original response was for Mayor Tim Keller to issue directives to APD to undertake steps to review child abuse cases for patterns that raise red flags, reach out to other law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, the courts, CYFD and child advocates to coordinate crimes against children cases and evaluate policies on evidence collection.

Keller’s defense of APD and Chief Geier is identical to what former Mayor Berry did with former APD Chief Gorden Eden and APD.

Why does Mayor Keller’s directives also sound all too familiar?

The blunt truth is that Mayor Tim Keller took the typical public relations approach by demanding a review of policies and procedures and vowing to hold people accountable for their inaction or incompetence if that is what happened in this case.

All too often after horrific crimes against a child happen, elected officials express outrage and quickly announce proposed changes in the law, increasing penalties, often including reinstating the death penalty for heinous crimes against children, or order review of policies and procedures, which is exactly what happened in the Victoria Martens case and Maree Varela case.

In 2014, 9-year-old Omaree Varela was found beaten to death months after placing a desperate 911 call to APD.

The autopsy report said Omaree had lost about 25 percent of his blood volume through internal bleeding.

On August 24, 2016, in one of the most brutal murders seen in Albuquerque’s history, APD found the dead body of ten-year-old Victoria Martens in an Albuquerque apartment.

Victoria Martens had been beaten, drug, raped, dismembered and then burned.

It was later reported that APD had received prior referrals from CYFD to investigate.

APD spokesperson said that APD had interviewed Victoria Martens and her mother had been conducted which was a lie in that APD never interviewed of the 10 year old nor her mother.

COMMENTARY

This city has seen and heard all this before from elected officials, mayors included, yet the heinous crimes continue.

All too often people do not hear, or for that matter do not want to hear or even care about the horrific details of crimes against children.

Ultimately, nothing happens and no one is held accountable.

APD, all police officers and the command staff need to fully commit without any reservation whatsoever to fulfill their motto of “to serve and protect”, especially when it comes to our children, otherwise the motto is meaningless.

Every effort must be made by APD to protect our children.

Law enforcement must ensure swift justice is bought upon those who do harm to our innocent children.

There must be severe ramifications and people must be held accountable, including APD personnel and CYFD personnel, for the shoddy investigation such as what happened with a child and the denial by an APD officer to accept evidence and tag it and ask for a forensic evaluation.

Our children’s lives depend upon it.

On this Memorial Day, I am compelled to pay tribute to members of my family who have given so much and sacrificed so much to protect our freedoms and to protect this great country of ours.

All were born and lived in New Mexico, two were born in Chacon, New Mexico and the rest raised and educated in Albuquerque.

One gave the ultimate sacrifice during time of war.

My father Paul Dinelli and my Uncle Pete Dinelli, for whom I was named after, both served in the US Army during World War II when the United States went to war with Italy, Germany and Japan.

I am compelled to point out that the United State was at war with Italy during World War II.

My father and uncle were first generation born Americans and the sons of Italian immigrants who settled in Albuquerque in the year 1900 to live the American dream.

My Uncle Pete Dinelli was killed in action when he stepped on a land mine.

My father Paul Dinelli was a disabled American Veteran when he returned to Albuquerque after World War II.

My uncles Fred Fresques and Alex Fresques, my mother’s two brothers, also saw extensive combat in World War II.

My Uncle Alex Freques served in England and was in the Air Force.

My uncle Fred Freques saw extensive action in the US Army infantry to the point that he refused to talk about what he saw to to anyone. After the war, my Uncle Fred returned to Albuquerque and raised a family in Barelas where over the years he was active in the “Golden Gloves” and the Barelas Community Center.

My father in law, George W. Case, who passed away just 3 years ago at age 93, served in the United States Navy during World War II and saw action while serving on a destroyer.

My father in law George Case was so proud of his service that he wore a World War II Veterans cap every day the last few years of his life.

After the war, my father in law George Case returned to Albuquerque was married to my mother in law for 50 years, raised a family of 4 girls.

George eventually owed a liquor store for a few years and then went on to build, own and operate the Old Town Car wash and was in the car wash industry for a number of years.

My nephew Dante Dinelli, was born and raised in Albuquerque and joined the service a few years after graduating from Cibola High School.

Dante served 20 + years in the US Navy, retired as a Chief Petty Officer and to this day still works in a civilian capacity for the Navy.

My two nephews, Matthew Barnes and Brandon Barnes, the sons of my younger sister, were born and raised in Albuquerque and went to Bosque Prep.

Both Mathew and Brandon are currently Captains in the United States Marine Corps and are climbing the promotion ladder in the Marine Corps.

My nephew Captain Brandon Barnes is a graduate of the US Naval Academy.

My nephew Captain Matthew Barnes graduated from UNM with honors and served a tour in Afghanistan.

To all the wonderful and courageous men and women who have served and continue to serve our country to protect and secure the promise of freedom and the ideals upon which the United States was founded upon, and to those who made the ultimate sacrifice, I thank you for your service to our Country.

Your service and sacrifices will never be forgotten.

God bless you all and God Bless this great country of ours!