APS Police ignore MOU with the County Sheriff.

According to the Journal this morning, link, an investigation is being conducted by the APS Police force.  Allegedly, a principal bashed a student's head against a wall.  If true, it would seem that a felony "may have" been committed.  According to NM State Statutes;

Aggravated battery
30-3-5. Aggravated battery .
A. Aggravated battery consists of the unlawful touching or application of force to the person of another with intent to injure that person or another.
B. Whoever commits aggravated battery , inflicting an injury to the person which is not likely to cause death or great bodily harm, but does cause painful temporary disfigurement or temporary loss or impairment of the functions of any member or organ of the body, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
C. Whoever commits aggravated battery inflicting great bodily harm or does so with a deadly weapon or does so in any manner whereby great bodily harm or death can be inflicted is guilty of a third degree felony.(emphasis added)
History: 1953 Comp., § 40A-3-5, enacted by Laws 1963, ch. 303, § 3-5; 1969, ch. 137, § 1.

Any investigation by the APS Police force, of felony criminal misconduct, is specifically and explicitly prohibited by a Memorandum of Understanding between the APS and Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston.  The MOU, link, prohibits the APS Police force from investigating felonies.

h. 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. (emphasis added)

The ball is in Houston's court; will he enforce his MOU or let them slide?

APS is prohibited from investigating felonies because the last time they investigated their own felony criminal misconduct, they hid the findings from prosecutors.  They hide them still.

An additional wrinkle;

APS "spokeswoman" Monica Armenta spoke to the Journal on behalf of the APS.

The Journal for some reason calls her a "spokeswoman" as opposed to using her title; APS Executive Director of Communications.

Armenta shared from the records of an ongoing investigation;

"(APS) investigators who talked with the child at the hospital said there were no visible signs of injury to him."

She and the Journal shared that information in APS' interests.  Anyone else looking for public records and information would be told they are sealed because, there is an "ongoing investigation".

APS doesn't tell the truth; not about "ongoing" investigations and not about long closed investigations.

Ms Armenta,

Why will APS not produce ethically redacted public records and findings of investigations into public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS police force circa 2006-7, link?

Not "how" does APS hides those ethically redacted records (legal loopholes, technicalities and weaselry), but "why"?  Why will APS not tell the ethically redacted truth to stakeholders about public corruption and incompetence in the leadership of the APS police force?

Why do Kent Walz and the Journal aid and abet?




photos Mark Bralley