Steven Michael Quezada called me out

APS School Board Member Steven Michael Quesada accused me of making false statements during the public forum Wednesday night.

You be the judge.

The following are the notes from which I spoke.  I have since, added a missing word and numbered them.

1. I am concerned that APS’ legislative goals will include an effort to gain departmental status for the APS Police force.
2. The main reason is to remove the leadership of the APS Police force from the oversight (of) the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department.
3. Without oversight, the APS police will once again, be allowed to investigate allegations of felony criminal misconduct by the people they work for.
4. It creates an appearance of conflicting interests that could not be, more egregious.
5. As long as the APS police force reports to administrators and board members, they cannot be part of self-investigations of allegations made against administrators or school board members.
6. You cannot in good conscience, reduce external oversight over the leadership of the APS Police force. In truth, oversight needs to be increased dramatically.
7. I urge you to soundly renounce any effort by any other board members to convince you take any steps to reduce much needed oversight.

I would argue; Steven Michael Quezada is in no position to label my concern, a false statement, #1.  Nor is he in a position to evaluate my opinion, #6, nor my petition, #7.

I will respond regarding numbers 2,  3, 4, and 5.

2. The main reason is to remove the leadership of the APS Police force from the oversight (of) the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department.

There are at least two other reasons to departmentalize;

as APS Supt Dr Brad Winter argued, there is a lot of money to be harvested from federal grants for police departments (and requires no further attention)

and

as Board Member Dr David Peercy argued; it's the only way to protect students who commit crimes from suffering the legal consequences of their criminal misconduct at school.* emphasis added

*There are two schools of thought on criminal misconduct by APS students.

The real world perspective is that if someone commits a crime, it is up to the justice system to decide whether they should be punished and how.

The APS school board and administrative position is that if a student commits a crime, it is up to an administrator to decide whether to report the crime to law enforcement** and justice.

**The APS Police force is "law enforcement" as far as school board policy and administration is concerned.  This though their brand of "law enforcement" is different that law enforcement as manifest by the APD, BCSD and NMSP, as Peercy points out.  APS' publicly funded private police force reports directly to, and only to, the leadership of the APS.  They will even after they are departmentalized.  The only difference will be no oversight at all.

School board members and administrators argue that they are only looking out for children who don't deserve criminal records (in the opinion of the school board and administration of the APS).

The school board members and administrators, who are deciding whether or not criminals deserve criminal records, benefit directly from keeping "crimes at schools" statistics low.  Not creating criminal records for criminals means lower "crimes at schools" statistics.

The question; which is their "main" reason? is not settled.  But, perhaps it doesn't make any difference.  Perhaps evading oversight is not an acceptable reason anywhere on the list.

I stand by my statement.

3. Without oversight, the APS police will once again, be allowed to investigate allegations of felony criminal misconduct by the people they work for.

Steven Michael Quezada might have two issues with my statement.  He might disagree with my use of the word "again" because, he might argue; it is not in evidence that APS ever self-investigated before.

I submit as evidence that it has happened before; that it has happened before.

All Steven Michael Quezada has to do is open his eyes and look at the evidence.  (He played a cop on TV; he knows at least, what pretend evidence looks like)

With respect to the 2007 scandal, link, there is not one shred of evidence that anyone other than APS and its "praetorian guard" ever investigated allegations of felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS administrators.  The APS Police self-Investigative Report is being hidden from public knowledge and from the District Attorney.

If there were one shred of evidence; an investigative report from any other agency of law enforcement, Steven Michael Quesada and APS' lawyers would produce it.  It would be in the Journal.

Steven Michael Quezada thinks I spoke falsely that APS was prevented by the BCSD/APS  MOU, link; from self-investigation of felonies.  Here it is, quoted in significant part;

Any report of a crime which may be determined to be a felony offense, excluding property crimes, shall be promptly reported to and investigated by BCSD or APD

Without the MOU, the Sheriff's Department is not going to keep APS from self-investigating felonies.  Hell, they're not even going to know the crimes have been committed.

Steven Michael Quezada might believe it won't happen again.
I stand by my belief that it never stopped;
that it never even broke speed.

I stand by my statement.

4. It creates an appearance of conflicting interests that could not be, more egregious.

I would argue APS self-investigation is self-evidently a conflict of interests.  I stand by my statement; it is not false.

5. As long as the APS police force reports to administrators and board members, they cannot be part of self-investigations of allegations made against administrators or school board members.

This seems self evident.

Steven Michael Quezada, about two hours and four minutes into the meeting, link, tried to explain how, exactly, an APS Police Department would be accountable under what he imagines is an existing hierarchy;

• APS Police overseen by 
• the Albuquerque Police overseen 
• by the county sheriff's office 
• overseen by the state police.  

No such oversight exists.

If it did, the Albuquerque Police Department, Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department and the New Mexico State Police would not have allowed APS to self-investigate allegations of felony criminal misconduct involving APS senior administrators.

I stand by the statement.


Steven Michael Quezada slandered me last night when he accused me of making false statements.

He didn't slander me by name; he called me "a speaker".
He knows my name but won't use it.

Funny, from a guy who expects everyone else
to use all three of his names.
Funny odd, and funny ha ha.




photo Mark Bralley