All other pertinent information will remain secret.
KRQE reported yesterday, link, that the Robert Caswell Investigations investigation into allegations of employee misconduct concerning APS Police Chief Steve Tellez is complete. They reported on "new details" released Wednesday. Apparently, they were "released" only to KRQE. Either that or everyone got them and nobody else thought it was news.
APS School Board President Marty Esquivel sits at the table where decisions are made, at KRQE.
According to KRQE, APS is not releasing the report, the details of that report, or its findings.
That shouldn't come as a surprise, since APS still hasn't released the report, the details of the report, or the findings in the report of the last investigation of allegations of misconduct that were leveled against the leadership of APS' Police force.
KRQE and I are under the impression that Tellez' problems have to do with some missing ammo. Ammo, I'm told, was ordered for APS' publicly funded private police force, but does not fit any weapons carried by APS police officers.
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| Former Chief Bill Reed |
Two cases of very expensive ammo is probably a felony theft.
APS is not supposed to be investigating it's own felonies anymore. After they self investigated the corruption in 2007 and then hid the findings, Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston made APS sign and MOU, link, in which they agreed to hand off felony criminal investigations to either the Sheriff's Department or the Albuquerque Police Department.
There is a loophole in the MOU allowing them investigation felony property crimes but that doesn't mitigate in the slightest, the conflict of interests manifest in APS investigating itself. |
| APS PIO Monica Armenta |
When don't they, when isn't it?
There is really only one reason to not tell the truth, and that is to avoid the consequences of telling the truth.
The truth about the wielding of public power and the spending of public resources belongs to the people whose power and resources are being spent. Even if the truth makes the people holding our trust and treasure look very, very bad.
Both Caswell reports hold the truth about incompetence and corruption in the leadership of the APS. Both investigations were conducted in a way that allows the leadership of the APS to continue to hide the truth. The investigations that Caswell does for the leadership of the APS are substituted for criminal investigations. Evidence of criminal misconduct is being deliberately hidden from the District Attorney.
Who is going to investigate APS' use of Caswell to obfuscate criminal prosecutions? How many times has Caswell investigated criminal misconduct involving administrators and school board members and then turned the findings over to the leadership of the APS to hide from public knowledge and criminal prosecution?
Are Caswell investigations used to quietly fire people so nobody finds out about the inadequate oversight that led them to believe they could get away with whatever it was they were doing?
Where is the oversight?
Ultimately of course, oversight is the responsibility of the school board. The people have no authority over the administration of the APS, but they do have authority over the school board, albeit it limited to only a poorly attended school board election once every four years.
The people expect the board to look after their interests. The board has been lax of late, in meeting that expectation. Take for example, the litigation that APS Supt Winston Brooks and Marty Esquivel are currently engaged in. They've already saddled taxpayers with a half million dollars in debt trying litigate an escape for themselves from the consequences of their several violations of my constitutional rights.
The only oversight over their spending comes from subordinates like APS Director of Risk Management Mike Wilson and a subordinate of his. The school board has never fulfilled their obligation to meet in closed session to hear case analyses from Esquivel's and Brooks' lawyers, about how they are wasting operational dollars to defend Esquivel's and Brooks' ego at the expense of the public interests.
Is it really up to the leadership of the APS to decide whether one of them gets prosecuted criminally?
This current and many other of APS' problems are created by a lack of objective oversight.
The lack of oversight exists because there is the opportunity to fail to oversee, without consequence. The consequences the leadership of the APS' failure to oversee can be dodged.
Consequences can be avoided by hiding the truth. The truth can be hidden if you do your own investigations.
Coupled with
- literally all of the lawyers, guns and money they could ever want, and
- a complicit or complacent media and press.
photos Mark Bralley
4 comments:
Very well written Ched! You are on point with everything said on this issue! You should work for the Journal! Oh wait sorry that wont work because then you wouldn't be a reporter anymore!
Not a surprise. The APS police force is filled with "has beens" and "flunkees" from other departments. APS police dispatchers are told NEVER to question the officers and ESPECIALLY not to question DC Gallegos or Chief Tellez ... what ever they say goes ... right or wrong ... to speak up and question them will cost you your job. A quick look in to the backgrounds of most of their officers would uncover affairs, drug abuse, domestic violence and a slew of other unsavory tidbits (I know ... I used to be a part of the inner circle) The only decent officer on the force is Officer Pittel and he gets in trouble all the time for trying to speak up and do what's right. That entire force needs to be dissolved. APD is perfectly capable (actually MORE capable) of protecting our schools. APS officer are being paid for mostly driving around town (on gas the taxpayers pay for) all their shift and maybe checking an occasional alarm or filing a report for a fight.
Ched,
Did your lawyers request a copy of the Coswell Report during the discovery stage of your latest lawsuit against APS?
We're actually suing them for it.
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