ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – One of the men at the center of the DWI scandal involving alleged kickbacks to officers – who didn’t show up for court – pleaded guilty Friday to a slew of federal charges in the case. 

Ricardo “Rick” Mendez worked as a paralegal for defense attorney Thomas Clear III, an attorney whose office was raided by the feds and is at the center of this investigation. 

On Friday, newly-filed federal documents blew the alleged DWI scheme wide open and confirm what KOB 4 gathered about the operation.  

The plea agreement goes into great detail about how the scandal worked, including how it allegedly went on for more than 16 years. 

In the documents, Mendez says since 2008, he worked with officers and deputies from Albuquerque police, New Mexico State Police and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office on this scheme but claims APD were most involved. 

Those officers would allegedly arrest someone suspected of DWI and work with Mendez to get them represented by the attorney he worked for, which was Thomas Clear III. Clear III isn’t named in the plea agreement, but through KOB 4’s investigation, we have determined he is the “co-conspirator 1” named in the document. 

The feds describe this operation as a “DWI Enterprise.”  

Mendez would reportedly charge those suspects thousands of dollars as a fee to get those cases dismissed. Then, those officers are accused of getting a piece of the pie. In some cases money, free or discounted legal services, gift cards, hotel rooms. In exchange, officers wouldn’t show up for suspect hearings, letting Mendez and Clear III push for the cases to be dismissed.  

Mendez alleges officers would recruit other officers in the operation and even tell him and Clear III who to stay away from so they wouldn’t get reported. Mendez also admits to asking more senior APD officers to use their position and influence to make sure DWI officers weren’t investigated or disciplined. 

In the plea agreement, Mendez is facing up to 110 years in jail, but he will likely get less because he took this plea deal. 

As of Friday, three more local law enforcement officers are on leave.  

In a statement Friday, BCSO says deputy Jeff Hammerel was placed on leave Thursday night. Sheriff John Allen said he has been in direct contact with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. attorney’s office regarding the involvement of a BCSO deputy in the ongoing federal investigation into DWI case manipulations. 

He says, “Corruption has no place in law enforcement, and BCSO will fully cooperate with its federal partners.”

A spokesperson with APD told us, as part of its own investigation, they placed Lt. Matthew Chavez and Lt. Kyle Curtis on administrative leave Friday. They’ve been in the department since 2008 and 2000, respectively.

We asked New Mexico State Police about these new developments. Officer Ray Wilson sent us this statement: 

“At this time, we do not have information to believe any of our officers were involved in this criminal conduct. The New Mexico State Police has been and will continue to cooperate with investigators.”

A year ago, District Attorney Sam Bregman tossed out more than 200 pending DWI cases because of credibility questions raised by the scandal. 

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the office says attorneys are busy reviewing even more cases that could potentially be dismissed, letting accused drunk drivers go free.