ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Two former Albuquerque police officers implicated in the federal DWI scheme investigation have copped a plea. 

Joshua Montaño and Honorio Alba, Jr. admit they took bribes for many years to make sure some drunk driving cases in the metro got tossed out. 

They claim they’re not even close to being the only law enforcement who should be held accountable. 

At this point, three people have taken deals in the yearlong federal investigation. Prosecutors say be prepared for more soon. 

There are a lot of disturbing ironies with the two officers. One was hurt in a DWI crash, and the other won an award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving for his work in the DWI unit. 

JOSHUA MONTAÑO 

In 2022, Montaño was severely injured when a drunk driver hit him. The community raised more than $17,000 for him through a GoFundMe effort. But by that time, Montaño now admits he was knee-deep in the DWI bribery scheme.

On Friday, he pleaded guilty to his role, admitting to taking bribes in exchange for letting suspected drunk drivers go free. The court documents reveal he had been doing this since 2017.

Montaño was the fifth officer to resign from APD in March 2024 after Internal Affairs tried to interview him multiple times.

KOB 4 reached out to Montaño’s lawyer, Lisa Rorraco. In a statement, she says in part, Montaño “deeply regrets his actions and is deeply remorseful, and he apologizes to the community and his friends and family.”

HONORIO ALBA, JR.  

The other former APD officer pleading guilty Friday is Honorio Alba, Jr. In 2023, New Mexico nonprofit Mothers Against Drunk Driving named Alba Jr. “Officer of the Year.” By this time, Alba Jr. was already heavily involved in the scandal as well. 

According to his plea agreement, he began taking bribes in 2018 to get DWI cases thrown out, including cash, jewelry, even tires.

Alba Jr. resigned from APD in February 2024 before his Internal affairs interview.

Montaño and Alba Jr. pleaded guilty to federal racketeering, bribery, extortion and conspiracy charges. They both admit they would arrest someone suspected of DWI but wouldn’t charge or book them. Instead, they would send them to Ricardo “Rick” Mendez, an Albuquerque paralegal who worked for attorney, Thomas Clear III. 

Montaño and Alba Jr. face up to 110 years in prison, but U.S. Attorney Alex Uballez says it’s not that simple.

“That’s where a judge’s discretion comes in, deciding what the appropriate sentence is for a person based on their specific conduct and not just on global charges,” said Uballez. 

Uballez also shared this scandal has been going on since 2007. So, more than 17 years. For that reason, we could expect more charges to come.

“This is clearly intergenerational within the DWI unit, and you can anticipate that we will keep pursuing that intergenerational conduct as far back as we can,” Uballez said. 

APD Chief Harold Medina says he hopes others who were involved in the scheme “pay close attention” to the prison sentences the officers agreed to serve in exchange for cooperation.

These officers make the second and third suspects to take a plea deal in this investigation. Two weeks ago, the first one came from Rick Mendez, a former paralegal for a local attorney implicated in the scheme as well. 

Mendez was the first domino to fall, and both former officers claim he was the middle man who kept the scheme going for all these years. 

Mendez laid out a lot of the details into how this all worked in his plea deal two weeks ago. 

In those plea deal documents, Mendez says he worked with officers and deputies from APD, BCSO and state police since 2008 on this DWI enterprise. 

Based on our reporting, it appears he did it on behalf of his former boss, local defense attorney Thomas Clear III.  

Mendez is facing up to 110 years in prison for all the charges he’s pleaded guilty to, but it’s likely he’ll get less. 

Since 2008, he says he and Clear III would reportedly charge DWI suspects – arrested by officers in the scheme – thousands of dollars to get the charges dismissed. Those officers would get gifts to not show up to court, so the cases would be thrown out. 

Former APD officer Joshua Montaño pulled over Carlos Sandoval Smith in 2023. Sandoval Smith is now suing over this investigation. He says instead of getting a speeding ticket, Montaño initiated a DWI stop, and ultimately took him to jail. 

Sandoval Smith claims Montaño told him he had an attorney friend who could make the charge go away. That turned out to be Rick Mendez, and Sandoval Smith recorded an interaction with him. 

All three plea deals strongly implicate Clear III’s alleged role in this scheme. He’s not facing any charges at this point, but he’s been a focal point of this investigation for a year. In fact, the FBI raided his home and local law office last year when these allegations went public. 

So far, none of the plea deals name Clear III, but our reporting indicates he’s at least one local attorney wrapped up in this investigation. 

Just recently, federal and state courts filed motions, asking Clear III to explain why he shouldn’t be punished as a member of the bar for the allegations he’s facing. 

This week he responded to the federal court saying he deactivated himself as an attorney last summer, so essentially the court can’t hold him accountable. 

It’s kind of like resigning before you get fired. He still has to respond to the state court for the same issue.

APD sent the following statement Friday:

“It has been exactly one year since the first officer resigned from APD as a result of this investigation,” Chief Medina said. “Shortly after that, Officers Alba and Montaño resigned, rather than being interviewed by our investigators. As I initially told the FBI and said when this investigation became public, a key turning point appears to be the procedural changes made by the Supreme Court in 2022. Mayor Keller and I advocated for those changes. Officers Alba and Montaño now admit they purposely missed pre-trial interviews in exchange for cash and gifts, and they had to modify the conspiracy after those procedural changes by the Supreme Court.

I had faith that the federal investigation would get to this point and hold these officers accountable for their criminal conduct. I appreciate the hard work of the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. I wish I could say this is the end point, but we continue to discover details of this conspiracy and those who participated in it. We will leave no stone unturned. I hope others who were part of this conspiracy pay close attention to the prison sentences these officers agreed to serve in exchange for their cooperation.”

Mayor Tim Keller also sent the following statement:

“The actions by those involved in this decades old scheme are a betrayal of public trust and law enforcement integrity. While we won’t realize full justice until everyone involved in this conspiracy is held accountable, all known participants at APD are no longer serving with the department, and today brings us closer to justice. I appreciate the thorough investigation by the FBI and the leadership at APD, who worked with the FBI since day one to get to the bottom of this corruption and make reforms to protect against future misconduct.”