Episode 70: Terror Attack Coming? Also Scandal at APD

It's good to see you , brother , good to see you and so I kind of pick some stories . Sorry , scout Dogg is just letting us know what's going on .

We're going to kind of touch on here and there's a variety of different issues , but how are you doing ?

So let's lay out for people who don't know what's going on here . They're basically , at least . Right now it looks like five APD officers are being investigated by the FBI for potentially deciding not to show up when they ticket someone for a DWI .

They have to show up in court to continue to move the proceeding along , right , and I'll let you explain all this , I'll give a quick breakdown . But so they're supposed to show up . Give a quick idea . They show up and then they have the hearing or whatever , and go through the process there .

Well , apparently , according to what we've heard from the FBI , some of these guys were taking payments from a lawyer to basically be sick and not show up . Well , if the cops don't show up , right , they drop the charges . So when you hear about this and what's going on with it , what's your first reaction ?

Tell me , kind of , lay this out for where you think we're at on it .

Interestingly enough , right across the street from this officer , somebody from the news media actually lived , otherwise we probably wouldn't even know about this . He called his news station and said yeah , a guy across the street is a police officer and there's a bunch of people with FBI jackets and they're towing his car . Something's going on .

I think something might be going on . So then , quickly , sam Bregman , the district attorney , dismisses approximately 150 cases , and so we're starting to get some information about what may be going on . A lot of rumors , a lot of rumors , as you can imagine , and so what we basically know at this point there are as many as five officers .

There is one attorney there was a lot of conversation about there being another attorney and nobody's been able to verify that yet but there may be another person involved outside of the attorney .

But and I get to take Mark right away , having been around the police department since 1987 . And , as you said , as being a law enforcement administrator , it's not uncommon to have the bad apple , the rogue officer . And while it's it's very unfortunate , it's unsettling as an administrator . There's not much you can do about it .

You know , we look at Matt Griffin back in 1989 , former state police officer , transfers to APD , becomes a bank robber . In the process of robbing banks and stealing cars , he then becomes also a murderer Very bad .

Because we're at five now . I wouldn't be surprised if , as part of this investigation , there are other people that are uncovered that are involved in it . Look , say what you want about the FBI . I will tell you this this is how they butter their bread Right , these white collar kickback schemes , public corruption . They're very , very good at it .

And so a lot of the questions that we have right now they probably already have them answered . They've had been through the bank records , They've been through everything . This is potentially , Mark , the largest public corruption scandal in APD history .

Or is it , and could you make the case that when you've got someone like Medina , who has really proved to be quite a political animal , as well that he's gonna be protected by the mayor and this is something that they'll build a wall off , or do you think this is something that you could start , taking down APD brass ? Well , I think that .

You've got the crime problem and now a public corruption scandal , and while Keller is always trying to talk about how much he loves Medina , I think we're gonna get a statement , probably not too long from now , that Chief Medina , long before this was ever uncovered , had planned to retire .

Okay , and the journal learned this , and the journal had an article on it , and he was the 2023 officer of the year , as you can see here from this clip from the Alba-Kirky Journal , if you're watching us on YouTube , so this is somebody who has been involved in a lot of these cases and so , therefore , you look at this and go .

The guy who's supposed to be the stalwart against fighting drunk driving is the guy literally on the take . Yeah , according to the FBI .

I don't care about the 150 , you gotta remember and I worked DWI years and years ago . An APD officer on the DWI unit probably arrest 20 to 30 , maybe more , dwis a month . So there are a lot of cases out there that they have touched over the years . You're gonna see motions being filed for all of them if there were convictions to have those cases overturned .

And what if ?

And so Bregman put them on the giglio list , which means now they can't be trusted to tell the truth . And so you're . As I said , this is just . This is really just the beginning .

Again , he always had to be careful with the way you say it , because you never know what somebody's doing in secret , but just the times that I've talked to him in court for different things he's a very pleasant guy .

But now what I'm hearing is that these guys were very chummy with him and there's allegations going around that they were at his house and but again , rumors .

This is one of those things that keeps you up at night , because you hope that the protocols are in place , the policies are in place , that this would be uncovered , that you could early on if this was happening , it was detected , and that you could get ahead of it .

But I will tell you , you know , that if this happens , you're probably gonna pay with your job and you should , because somebody has to be held accountable , and the buck stops at the chief's office , the sheriff's office or , in the case , the secretary .

How many more cases am I gonna end up dropping on all this ?

I'm sure there's a stack of cases this is , five officers , DWI hundreds , if not thousands of cases that they have touched or been involved in that could potentially be poisoned because of what's going on .

Here we go , let's keep extending this thing because of this .

And instead of just vacating this and dismissing it , he could easily say , nah , I want more review , because , again , what we talked about mark just how widespread is this cancer ? Yeah , because , look , I will tell you this . When I , when I started , was a Houston cop 1986 , everybody looked up to LAPD . It was the premier law enforcement agency in the country .

When I came to Albuquerque Everybody always said look at , you know LAPD . In fact I knew a bunch of Albuquerque cops that went to LA After Rampard . Not so much . It really it put a stain on that agency that they couldn't just wash out . That's what you're potentially looking at here .

We have a very good relationship , the community with the Albuquerque Police Department . I think overall it supports them well , maybe not Medina in the administration , but the officers on the street . This could have long-term impact On the credibility and the trust that the public has with the agency .

But I think it's time that we change the leadership , that we bring in , have somebody with a fresh look and because , again , mark you and I know this ,

this isn't . This isn't about what the right thing to do is because of the circumstances , it's what's gonna be the political thing to do , because Keller is a beast . He wants to be reelected . When that poll came out that showed he only had a 33 percent Approval rating , I heard from a lot of people that he freaked out .

I've also heard he conducted another poll in this last election , in the city election , and it wasn't much better . Right , and so he knows that if he wants , because look , where does he go from here If you can't be the mayor ? You know all of his , all of his dreams are shattered ?

While it's tough if you're on the Republican side , it's even tougher on the Democratic side , in the respect that you got to climb over four or five other people to do it . He is not gonna be able to do that .

His political career is toast , especially given what's happened in this city in the past five years and mark I gotta take talking to a lot of Democrats .

And they go , yeah , right , well , I mean , it's because he doesn't do anything , because , you gotta remember , he's still part of their banner , he's part of the team and they know that what's happening in Albuquerque affects them all well , no , it's like being on a team , You're right .

It's unbelievable and I do wonder to let's one more question on this before we move on . But it's in my got .

So when you look at him and you look at Medina and here's one of the cases I always make , which is that when you put politics over leadership or you put politics over the people you represent , this is what you get . It's what you get you .

You get people underneath you that absolutely fail the , the people of this city and of this state , and I think , the results . In this case , I think we're just starting to feel with this APD scandal and taking money from a lawyer . I've heard from a lot of officers who've said just that mark .

Yeah , you have five officers , you may have the largest public corruption scandal in the history of the agency and you write a letter to the public defenders association and Blast them and criticize them .

And I thought the response by them was just fantastic when they're like hey , buddy , you really need to pay attention to yourself right now before you , but that's his MO . Yeah , and the problem with this ?

You have a lot of officers out there doing a great job , working on every day and all they see is this chief of police who is a miserable failure and there's a gun , is a gum shoe ?

That balance out their political responsibilities , but they , those political responsibilities , should fall below their law enforcement responsibilities . This guy's flipped it , yeah absolutely .

I'm not the people I just talked about . Those are people I admire , right , but we've had some pretty bad chiefs too , right , but nothing compared to what this guy said . Well , the rate of decline in the city of Albuquerque in the past six years mark Staggering , yeah , and all this guy does , it's COVID , it's this , it's a dude .

Stand up and take responsibility .

Yes , because then they get the opportunity to continually put either their friends in or people that are there to protect them in , and that ultimately leaves people in a scenario where you see murders go from 50 to 130 , you see violent crime skyrocket , you see people that aren't safe on their own streets and then , when it comes time to do a job , they turn

and blame someone else .

So I want to start with with a sound bite from Ted Cruz , who lays out something pretty stark and pretty scary in in what he says here . And what he talks about is the threat to the United States of America and and we'll get to the threat of of people overwhelming services and everything else , but this is a terrorist threat that he talks about .

Here's Ted Cruz , you .

How many Hezbollah terrorists are there , and what are we going to say when they carry out an attack here , like October 7th in Israel ? This bill is not designed to fix the problem .

So I want to tell you where I think Ted Cruz is getting this from , because there was a letter sent to the leaders in Congress and it was sent by Kevin Brock and Chris Schwecker , their retired directors of the FBI . And I want to read just one paragraph . Ava , let's go with clip 11 and focus in on that first paragraph there .

Just blow it up just a bit . Okay , it says , and a couple of things here it says first of all , the threat we call out today is new and unfamiliar In the modern history of the US . We have never suffered an invasion of the homeland , and yet one is unfolding now .

Military aged men from across the globe , many from countries or regions not friendly to the United States , are landing in waves on our soil by the thousands , not by splashing ashore from a ship or parachuting from a plane , but rather on foot across the border that has been accurately advertised around the world as largely unprotected , with ready access granted .

That is terrifying , and we've just begun to realize what's going on here Now . Now Biden is starting to scramble and he wants a . He wants a border deal done .

You don't need a border deal for you to be able to tell your especially border patrol that , hey , wait a minute when you encounter someone , send them back , like that doesn't take a border deal , by the way , and they're not doing it .

So it makes only makes sense that these terrorist organizations are going to look at our Southwest border and the 2000 miles of it and see that as a almost it's almost easy Mark . We saw that picture .

I remember recently there was a picture of all the Chinese men , and that's the one thing Chinese men Look at these individuals being in New York as and again , a lot of them ended up in New York and it is a mess there , but these are single , military aged men by themselves , by themselves , and so , look , it's something .

It's terrifying because you know , yeah , the majority of these people are coming because they want to provide a better way of life for their families . I get it .

I'd probably do the same thing if I was there , but and that doesn't excuse what they're doing but within that group of people that are coming across , because there's thousands now we know that , thousands every day , you have to think there are bad actors coming across .

So first of all , we don't have the services to care for them , and the women and children that are put at risk to be raped and to be trafficked in these situations is horrendous . So this is the most cruel policy you could ever enact if you're a president of the United States . It's a pure combination of complete incompetence and , I think , some malice .

The Biden administration has put this country and the people that it's drawing toward this country in a horrendous position , and so now what you're seeing out of this is effectively something that's untenable from both parties are saying this has to stop .

I think this is the single issue that I think could create the biggest problem for the Biden administration and the reason he won't be reelected .

And again , mark , it's sad that it takes an election to get people , but that is kind of what , and I'm talking about both sides of the aisle now , right , because it's all become about winning At any cost . We need to do whatever we can to win . We got to get past that .

And not only that , you don't need us , you can absolutely tell your people on the border , send them back . Like there is no additional law necessary to stop this problem . You have invited this problem . You can then stop it without any additional legislation , but he wants the legislation win . Why ?

Because he's ignored this issue for three years and , by the way , so is the media .

You know , we've seen a lot of big name Democrats recently come out and say , look , we've got to change this , and so my feeling is , because of the election , he will make the changes that he thinks are necessary to control it and then blame the Republicans . But I don't know if that's going to work .

These are Democrats , very , except for AOC . There are a lot of them who are going on TV every single night saying this has got to stop . Hey , the mayor's even done it . Oh , no , Mayor . Adams is he's kind of you know , yeah , but still he stood .

I would argue this is a fake controversy because I don't think , unless the feds , especially Biden or my orcas themselves , are going to go down there and tell their Border Patrol officers to start cutting down razor wire , it's not going to happen . They're not going to cut it down . Take a look right here . And again , here's the tweet right here .

This is from Griff Jenkins . It says from the senior CBP official . He says the relationship between Border Patrol and the Texas DPS and TMD remains strong , bottom line . Border Patrol has no plans to remove infrastructure and really , razor wire is what they're talking about here Placed along the Texas border . Our posture remains the same . Okay , and

then . So , as you look at that , I want to show you one other , one other tweet here from the actual Border Patrol Union . Now , these are the rank and file guys , right ? Okay , these are the guys who actually have to do the job and they put out a tweet With each other yeah , with each other .

And then the other side of the tweet and there's just one more little piece of this tweet and it says this rank and file BP agents meaning Border Patrol agents appreciate and respect what Texas has been doing to defend their state in the midst of this catastrophe that the Biden administration has unleashed on America . That is really strong .

We want to be perfectly clear . There is no fight between rank and file BP agents and Texas National Guard Governor Abbott or Texas DPS . It may make for flashy headlines , but it simply isn't true . You talk about the rank and file Border Patrol agents and how frustrated they are .

This is an incredible example of a group of people that is calling out the incompetence of their bosses right in broad daylight .

Their lives are , they literally put their lives in these hands of each other . And so those text messages are important because they're not just talking to us , mark , they're talking to those rank and file guys out there and gals and letting them know it's okay , we're not gonna start doing this . This is .

It could not get any more dumber than thinking that the BP we're gonna go in to start arresting these people . It's not gonna happen . I thought those were incredibly smart texts to send that message to do what you're doing and , most importantly , you're just trying to do your job , their job . What does it say ?

I think they did this so that they put the Biden administration in a box and they're not gonna be able to give them those orders of hey , go cut that razor wire in the park in Eagle Pass , because we told you to . Well , now , all of a sudden , you know they're gonna stand up and say we're not for this and they're forcing us to open the border again .

I do think they did this to paint Biden in a tight spot , absolutely 100% .

This is also people on the ground , these Border Patrol agents , these DPS agents , these National Guard agents . They're the ones who are seeing the people every day coming across and they're yelling out loud at the top of their lungs folks , you do not get this . This is a huge problem , and this is going to manifest itself into something unthinkable .

Here's what she said and this is the pull quote from the story from Hillary Clinton . And she says this she says we have to send a clear message Just because your child gets across the border doesn't mean your child gets to stay . Think about that . Think about what the Biden administration policy has done .

It is now taken all of the Republicans and a lot of Democrats , including Hillary Clinton , and made them say we are going to put migrants on buses and you're leaving the United States . Five years ago , no politician ever would have said that , thanks to the Biden administration and confidence .

Now it's gonna become the policy on both sides of the aisle and it sure as hell wasn't Hillary Clinton .

I've listened to Axelrod and when you know when they're saying that they're saying this publicly for a reason , Because they are putting Biden on notice . We are going to start doing this more if you don't take action . Because , Mark , it's not just the way politics works , you know . The concern is , If Biden is doing weak , then the whole ticket is doing weak .

They're gonna drag him down , and so they understand that ramifications up .

He can't get up and give a good speech on that . He can't do it anymore . He's done physically have the ability . So is it possible that this is one of those issues that continues to chip away at him and it's one of the things that leads the Democratic Party to find a way to find somebody else ?

Yes , it's to get his attention , to spur him on , but it's also , I think , to take the other power players across the country and say , guys , you realize we are not . We should be doing so much better in the polls against Donald Trump than we're doing . And the reason it is is because this man is a liability and don't think for a second .

That's what they care about . And so when I saw these comments from Hillary Clinton , I was shocked . Because , this was more than a message . This was a shot across the bow .

This all attaches together because , as this continues to expand , the priority for Iran to get someone in this country to commit a terrorist act obviously has never been higher . So you see that continuing to expand too . I mean , you've been in this area before .

We're going to have to have a more coordinated effort . We now have American troops who have paid with their lives , and so we again though I just don't know I again I understand the complexities of it we are doing .

We're trying in our best not to expand this conflict in the Middle East , but we must make sure that we protect our troops and then , if anybody , for any reason , think that they can kill American service members and not pay the consequences for it , well then .

I don't know how long they're going to talk about this , but this is where a compliant media continually stands up and says hey , we're going to keep things quiet for you , mr President , so you don't have to address these issues Meanwhile .

The reason that's so damaging is because what it effectively does is it leads us further into conflict and further into very dangerous situations that it's difficult to get out of . So if they did their job , we wouldn't be as far down the road on these dangerous situations , whether it be the border , whether it be what's happening with Israel in the Middle East .

But because they don't honestly and aren't honest brokers about reporting about it , we end up in catastrophe when we don't have to be yeah , and they also get the political ramifications .

I mean , I think that this is this inaction , this almost like well , let's just sit on our hands a little while and maybe it'll poke and hope is not a military strategy that is going to work in the Middle East Right .

And so I'm like you , mark , I hope that this goes , that this finally wakes this guy up and he realizes that , yes , you , you , we get what is happening , we get that this is particularly can be a very difficult . You just can't just start a Middle Eastern war , but these guys have to pay .

Five friends get together to watch Kansas City Chiefs football game . Yeah , okay , the game is over . And then three of them leave together . Yes , okay , the one who hosts the event falls asleep on his couch . Okay , he goes out for the better part of two days , apparently . Anyway , three of his friends never make it to their cars in the front of his house .

They end up dead in his backyard , which is unbelievable . So the man who has not been named . By the way , there's a fifth man that they think was was part of this . Okay , was just , was just watching the game At the party .

Yeah , Frozen to death , Yep , Okay , Dr Michael Badden told Fox News Digital that now the man , Jordan Willis , is the guy who owns the house .

Okay , he said that Willis's story of sleeping through almost for 48 hours makes him sense if he had taken a drug like fentanyl , If these four people all took it together , the guy on the couch sleeps it off for a long time , whereas the three who went outside become disoriented .

Maybe didn't have on their coats because of the freezing weather , and it could be a combination of drugs and hypothermia that caused their death . Yeah , I mean , this is unbelievable . So so originally , during , the cops go and say , okay , well , this is just a terrible accident , Okay , and then the families say wait a minute , there is no way .

So in later , this is in light , rather , this is just circumstances . This is some of the quotes from the families . They say the their son's death and Willis's background in science , and two of the three effective . Families have come forward and said this isn't right . So they say , seriously , these were responsible men .

How did they go in the backyard and freeze to death All three of them ? Chester Johnson , or Chester Johnson's mother , told Fox News Digital something that comes to my mind . This guy wants to brag about how smart he is meaning Willis , the guy who hosted his friends over for football . He's a scientist .

My thoughts are that he concocted something and gave it to all three men . I know I'm just thinking , but how could this have happened ? I think that that Jordan guy drugged them meaning Jordan Willis , because they were picking on him In a nice way , but I think what ? That's what happened .

And then there's another family member says that basically , Jordan Willis had to have played a role in it somehow . So in all your time in law enforcement first of all , have you ever heard of something like this and what are your thoughts ?

I got this guy saying that he has been basically unconscious for two days . When people are calling him , texting him , knocking on his door , it's just literally . It's a nightmare scenario . However , like Michael Bodden said , who I respect , actually assisted in a case that I asked him to help on years ago . He's absolutely right .

Toxicology reports probably take about two months to get back and that will be able to really explain what happened . The officers and the investigators came out right away and said we do not suspect foul play . What that means is foul play from the standpoint . There's no visible injuries on them . They probably did die from hypothermia .

It was brutally cold in Kansas City . But yeah , and again he is . He has a PhD in chemistry . But you also have to realize these are guys . We don't want to just say this guy drugged them and that this was , but he could have .

But I got to tell you , mark , it is just , you know , every once in a while these weird cases come along , and not only as a criminal investigator , but as a person who watches and consumes news , you go what in the hell is this case ? And and that's what's happened ? I mean , obviously it's gotten a lot of attention , but his behavior has as well .

In fact , we had a case up in Eagle Nest where that happened about two years ago , sure . However , three people all dying at the same time or within a few hours of each other , and who watches Jeopardy at midnight ? Oh my goodness , seriously , I mean , you're done with the game . Turn on the NFL network or something .

Yeah , but we'll know more . And even once the , the toxicology reports come back , that doesn't mean that that's going to really answer all the questions . Yeah , there are many cases . So the , the , the , when the medical examiner which is also kind of a strange there's a third party medical examiner there is also .

So you have , you know , natural causes , you have homicide . It very well could be where the , the medical examiner comes back and says undetermined . Yes , it was because you know you have manner and cause . The manner of this was , you know , the . The cause of this was drug overdose . The manner may be undetermined .

They don't know if it was a homicide , natural causes , accidental , and , and so one of the boxes could be undetermined .

Just say , okay , tell me what happened at eight o'clock in the morning and walk me through your day until you woke up and and found out that your , your friends , were all deceased in your backyard . Get him on the record and then start going back and seeing if there's this inconsistencies in that story . Um , you know , because again it's just bizarre .

It doesn't make any sense , even with fentanyl and I it's an incredibly powerful drug . Uh , if he uses fentanyl on that Sunday two days later and you're just , I don't know . As I said , there's so much of it that doesn't make sense . Um and and , and we may never have the answers . It does happen a lot in in these investigations , mark .

But you know , yeah , the bodies are found where he was fishing , but oh , my God , yeah , but it wasn't him she shot it . Oh , I'd love to . As I said I'm . There's so many of those cases that you just that , even as an investigator , you just you , just they , they , they captivate you .

But thanks for joining us , Darren , Thanks for watching . We'll see you back here on the no Doubt About it podcast .