Art Ortiz says he spent four frustrating years as director of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy trying to get Attorney General Gary King to hold up his end of the process for taking administrative action against police officers' certifications statewide.
Officers who had been disciplined or even fired from their jobs at departments around New Mexico -- sometimes for actions that resulted in criminal charges -- were being issued badges and guns in other jurisdictions because disorganized prosecutors from King's office weren't able to secure sanctions against those officers' certifications, Ortiz said.
"My personal opinion is that this should be one of the attorney general's top priorities as the state's top law enforcement official," he said. "If there are questions about an officer's character, these cases should be handled as quickly and effectively as possible. They are not, and this has been ongoing."
But Chief Deputy AG Al Lama said the AG's Office has had problems getting the academy's investigators to provide information to prosecutors for administrative hearings.
Ortiz said one example of a case that fell through the cracks was David Smoker, who was fired from the Santa Fe Police Department after a November 2007 incident in which he was caught on video pummeling a handcuffed teenager at the Santa Fe Police Station as two other officers looked on.
His case was sent to the law enforcement academy, where it sat for years, Ortiz said. Smoker was never charged with a crime in the incident.
Meanwhile, Smoker was hired at the Cuba, N.M., police department where he stayed until his retirement, Ortiz said.
Lama said he had n't reviewed the file on Smoker to see where the hang-up was.
But he said the "disorganization" among AG's prosecutors described by Ortiz, members of the academy board and academy hearing officers could be chalked up to the relative informality of the administrative hearings.
"For example, there is no subpoena power in these hearings," he said. "And absent subpoena power, these cases can be difficult to present. There are a lot of deficiencies in the process because of lack of subpoena power."
The board has called an emergency meeting Tuesday to discuss concerns with how cases against officers' certifications are being handled by the AG's attorneys, who present the state's argument for sanctions. Among the issues expected to come up at the meeting is a backlog of at least 60 pending cases at the academy. At least a half-dozen more cases are expected to enter the academy's pipeline this month.
King, as attorney general, is chairman of the academy board and is expected to attend Tuesday's meeting.
Lama said he doesn't know which part of the process the cases are stuck in.
All New Mexico law enforcement agencies are required to file reports with the academy after an officer has been convicted of a crime or disciplined for conduct "which indicates a lack of good moral character" or dishonesty.
From there, the academy's director has an informal meeting with the officer and tries to reach an agreement about what sanctions should be leveled against his or her certification -- anything from a short suspension to lifetime revocation.
If the two can't agree, a prosecutor from the AG's Office presents the state's case, the officer and a defense attorney give testimony, and one of the academy's hearing officers decides on sanctions.
"If I find six more administrative prosecutors, that won't fix a backlog at the academy," Lama said. "I'm not trying to say we have no role or involvement in trying to make this better. That would be foolish ... The way to resolve the problem, make positive changes and move forward is to understand that it's not just the prosecutor or the director, but it's a process designed to afford the individual officer due process."
Ortiz said that when he was director, he would send on cases that had been challenged by an officer to the AG's Office, where they would languish for months.
Bill Hubbard, the academy's acting director, declined to comment and referred the Journal to the AG's Office when asked whether he could provide a list of names on the backlog.
Lama said he would look into providing the list.
Ortiz said he inherited a backlog of more than 100 cases when he took the director's position in 2007. He said his pleas to King for help were unanswered.
"I had several meetings with Gary King to discuss my concerns and to tell him I wasn't too pleased with some of the cases," Ortiz, who retired from the academy in December 2010, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. "And I vented my frustrations at meetings (of the Law Enforcement Academy Board) about the assistance I wasn't getting from the AG."
Copyright 2011 - Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
