APS Police Chief blames predecessor for records snafu

photo cmacq

APS Police Chief Steve Gallegos says
the current snafu over public records
of an investigation into felony criminal
misconduct involving senior APS
administrators is, Bill Reed's fault.

Bill Reed became APS Chief of Police
when former Chief Gil Lovato was
sent packing after the Journal, link,
exposed the public corruption and
incompetence in the leadership of APS' publicly funded private police force.

Felonies had been committed.  Cash was taken from evidence and spent without record; a felony under state law.  Several whistleblowers and a deputy supt.'s girl friend had NCIC criminal background checks done on on them for no good reason; a felony under federal law.

Nobody has denied that felonies were committed; no one, ever.

Investigations were done.  They were all done internally or through APS' lawyers in order to keep the findings inaccessible to public knowledge.

One investigation in particular was most unseemly;
the APS police force did the only criminal investigation of its own corruption.  No other agency of law enforcement ever investigated, no evidence was ever turned over to the DA for her consideration.

The investigation was done under the command of an interim chief Steve Tellez.  Tellez was second in command during times relevant and either witnessed the criminal misconduct going on around him and did nothing to expose it (corruption) or he had his head so far up his ass he couldn't see what was going on (incompetence).

Tellez appointed a loyal subordinate, one Steve Gallegos (APS' current chief), to investigate the mis, mal and non-misfeasance of his superordinates including Steve Tellez.  The investigator went on to become deputy chief and finally chief.  Coincidentally, every single copy of his findings (were) disappeared on his way to chief.

When I began asking Tellez and APS for the results of their criminal self-investigation, Tellez told me the investigation was not yet complete.  It went on for years.  It went on while statutes of limitation expired on felony criminal misconduct.  At one point, the delay became denial and they began denying that there was any investigation ongoing or otherwise.

In the meantime, in 2010, fully three years and more after the investigation was begun and long after the statutes of limitation expired, their criminal self-investigation was finally "finished".  From email archives;

Sent : Friday, June 18, 2010 5:26 PM
To: Reed, Bill W
Subject:Investigation update

I am wondering if the investigation related to Gil Lovato is complete. grateful for your time and attention.

From: Reed, Bill W
Monday,June 21,2010
RE: Investigation update

Investigation is completed. Report is being finalized and will go to the DA's office shortly. Once it goes to the DA's office it will be available for public inspection.

Chief Reed "inaccurate".

Upon Reed's departure, Tellez was put back in charge and the report (detailing Tellez corruption and or incompetence) is not available for public inspection still.  APS has been denying, even in response to requests for public records, that any self-investigation was ever done.

"There is no APS Police report of an investigation into alleged misconduct in 2007. "

Gallegos now claiming;

… Bill Reed did not accurately
explain what had transpired.

This after finally Gallegos finally admitted, link, after all these years; oh yes, I remember now, I did do an investigation but I handed everything I had over to Steve Tellez.  And, now there are no copies of it anywhere.

There was felony criminal misconduct committed.
That felony criminal misconduct was either;

1. covered up or
2. not covered up

There isn't a third possibility.

Evidence of a cover up is hard to come by.  The very nature of cover ups is to destroy evidence or hide it; in this case behind litigation and legal weaselry.

Evidence of a "not covered up" on the other hand should be easy to come by.  "Not covering up" by its very nature creates and exposes evidence.

APS cannot produce a shred of evidence of "not covering up"; there isn't a single sheet of paper that proves they ever didn't cover up felony criminal misconduct involving senior APS Administrators.

There is evidence of a cover up.  The evidence is being hidden from public knowledge by trading teacher salaries for legal bills for litigation and legal weaselry in an effort to hide ethically redacted records from public knowledge.

Blame the Journal.  Blame Journal Editor in Chief Kent Walz and the like who decide what and what not the people should know and who have decided that the best interests of students are not served by the people learning of an ethics, standards and accountability crisis in the leadership of the APS.

Not really.   Walz and the rest couldn't possibly believe it's in the best interests of students.  Whose then; their cronies in the leadership of the APS?

Bingo.




photos except as noted, Mark Bralley