Feb. 1—The early morning of Aug. 24, Albuquerque police officer Honorio Alba Jr. spotted a black Toyota speeding south on Interstate 25 without its headlights on. The sedan was switching lanes and nearly struck another car, Alba later reported.

By the time Alba pulled over the car, which had exited the freeway, its 24-year-old driver had driven up over a sidewalk. Before that, Alba clocked him as speeding 83 mph in a 55 mph zone. He noted the suspect had bloodshot eyes and an odor of alcohol “emanating from his face.”

But instead of booking Antonio Barron into jail that morning, Alba put him in contact with an Albuquerque attorney, “possibly named Rick,” who if hired, “would ensure that no court case would be filed in court by the (Albuquerque Police Department),” according to allegations in an internal complaint obtained by the Journal.

Court records show Barron was never arrested that morning, but it’s unclear how he got home, what happened to his car, or whether he ever contacted the attorney.

It turns out that Barron had been an employee of the 2nd Judicial District Court. And months later, the report of his alleged encounter with the APD officer, made via a top court official, helped fuel an ongoing FBI investigation into a group of DWI officers, prominent Albuquerque defense attorney Thomas Clear III and his paralegal, Ricardo “Rick” Mendez.

The Albuquerque Police Department has placed officers Alba, Harvey Johnson Jr., Joshua Montaño, Nelson Ortiz and Lt. Justin Hunt on paid administrative leave as the department does an internal probe into the allegations.

The officers were all on the DWI unit in the past decade.

No charges have been filed as the investigation continues. Multiple federal search warrants executed in connection with the inquiry remain sealed.

The FBI’s investigation has focused in part on DWI criminal cases filed by certain APD officers that ended up being dismissed in Metro Court, but Barron’s case took a different route.

Records show Alba didn’t file charges against Barron until 10 weeks after pulling him over on the interstate. A DWI citation was filed in Metro Court eight days after a letter about Barron’s experience with Alba was sent to the Civilian Police Oversight Agency. That led to the opening of an internal Albuquerque Police Department investigation.

The complaint from the top court official went to the Civilian Police Oversight Agency, which has 15 days to notify an officer of a misconduct complaint. But it isn’t clear that Alba was made aware of the allegations.

Court records show the drunken driving case against Barron was filed in an unorthodox way, via a one-page DWI citation with the word “summons” at the bottom. It showed he refused to take a breath alcohol test.

Arresting officers typically file criminal complaints and a citation within a day of making a DUI arrest, a review of court records show. There’s also an offender booking sheet filed. Neither document appears on the docket sheet in Barron’s case.

Ultimately, his DWI case was dismissed without prejudice by the Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office on Jan. 18, along with more than 150 other pending DWI cases involving Alba, Johnson Jr., Montaño and Ortiz.

Barron couldn’t be reached by the Journal. Neither Alba nor Mendez could be reached for comment.

In the Nov. 3 letter to the CPOA, 2nd Judicial District Court Executive Officer Katina Watson, wrote, “On behalf of the Second Judicial District Court, I am reaching out to you regarding an APD DWI citation that was issued to Antonio Barron, a former employee…”

The letter stated that Barron notified court officials that he had been charged with driving under the influence around Aug. 24 or 25.

“We did not question or conduct any sort of internal investigation however, we have been alerted that there may be questionable conduct by the arresting/citation officer.

“More specifically, that the arresting/citation officer put Mr. Barron in contact with a specific attorney, possibly named ‘Rick,’ who if hired, would ensure that no court case would be filed in court by APD,” Watson’s letter stated.

Watson added, “While we do not have first-hand knowledge of what communications and actions have taken place, we are reporting this out of concern.”

The letter, which was obtained by the Journal through a public records request, was also sent to the Disciplinary Board of the New Mexico Supreme Court, which oversees attorneys’ conduct.

It is unclear when Barron made the allegations against Alba and why it took more than two months after the incident for court personnel to file a complaint with the CPOA.

A spokesperson for the 2nd Judicial District Court did not respond to questions about Barron or the letter on Thursday.

Once the first-offense DWI citation was filed against Barron, he sought representation from the Law Offices of the Public Defender, but the agency’s Metro Managing Attorney Kate Thompson said through a spokeswoman on Thursday, “We didn’t have the case long enough to begin our investigation. We had it for a week, which was not even long enough for the DAs to provide discovery.”

Diane McDermott, CPOA interim executive director, said her agency had started gathering information and doing “preliminary work” on the complaint. She said she then received a call from someone at the top level of the Albuquerque Police Department.

“We were told, right away, ‘Stop, we have another case affecting that,'” McDermott said. She would not give further details on the conversation or timeline of how the complaint and response unfolded.

APD Chief Harold Medina said his staff had heard “vague” allegations against DWI officers in 2022 but didn’t connect the dots at the time. He said new allegations came out last fall — around the time of Barron’s complaint — that painted a clearer picture.

Medina said, at that time, he learned the FBI was investigating the officers and a local attorney. Both agencies have said they worked together as they ran separate inquiries into the allegations.