Law enforcement officers should be held to a higher standard. Especially the men and women who are hired to protect our children.

4 Investigates uncovered evidence that the state’s largest school district is lowering the bar, welcoming officers not only once accused of serious crimes but at least one who is being investigated by the state for misconduct right now.

There are officers around New Mexico who get attention for the wrong reason. From Farmington, to Belen, over the years, KOB 4 has exposed a trend of officers accused of misconduct who find a way to stay one step ahead of accountability.

“What we want to avoid is police officers who are being investigated for misconduct skipping from one agency to the next,” said Sonya Chavez, director of New Mexico’s Law Enforcement Academy.

The Law Enforcement Academy’s Law Enforcement Certification Board is the only agency that can strip a police officer of their certification.

“Despite the fact that a majority of our police officers are amazing and abide by the rules every day, there’s a small percentage who choose unwisely. Unfortunately, those are the ones who garner all the attention and by nature of that, the public loses trust in all the others,” said Chavez.

Some of those officers have found a new home in schools.

Brittany: “Do you think these questionable hires send a message that this agency welcomes troubled officers?”

APS Police Chief Steve Gallegos: “Not at all. No. That is not correct. These are good officers. They work, they do the right thing. Things have happened, I’m not denying that. But there’s two sides and there’s facts to these cases.”

Gallegos knows some cases well. Take officer Isaac Martinez. He was on duty with APS in 2019 when the department called APD to investigate a domestic violence claim.

Prosecutors dismissed that case. He left APD for Cuba police. Within two years, the chief there filed an LEA-90, saying Martinez didn’t disclose all of his criminal history. That includes a DWI conviction and a DWI arrest when he was a Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputy. 

His breathalyzer test came back at three times the legal limit. There are also two dismissed charges of battery. APS hired him back.

Brittany Costello: “Were you aware that he had a pending LEA-90 when he was hired?” 

Steve Gallegos: “He was working here when that LEA-90 occurred.”

But according to records, he was hired with APS two weeks after the Cuba misconduct report.

Those allegations were enough for the state board to suspend Martinez’s certification for six months. But APS police kept him on the job.

Brittany Costello: “What was he doing during that time?”

Steve Gallegos: “He did a whole lot of things. He literally sat at the front desk and checked people in. He helped the officers with running reports down to the DA’s office. He guided people for badges. He actually even did this, made badges.”

Brittany Costello: “Do you think that is a valuable use of taxpayers’ dollars, to fund his suspension?”

Steve Gallegos: “If it were a revocation where he was not going to get his certification back, by all means he would not have continued employment. But the fact that he was going, and we were guaranteed he was going to get his certification back after the 180-day suspension, yes, it is a good value. It is a good way to spend taxpayer dollars.”

It may well happen again. Right now, another APS police officer is awaiting the outcome of a state investigation into his conduct.

When Las Vegas police charged former New Mexico State Police Sgt. Kevin Keiner with rape while on the clock. 

State Police submitted a misconduct report. Prosecutors dismissed the criminal case, for now.

Brittany Costello: “The LEA-90 though is still being investigated. That investigation is not closed.”

Steve Gallegos: “Yes, his certification is still good, by the way.”

Keiner is still an APS police officer.

When the state wraps its investigation, the report will finally be easy to find. This year, the state law enforcement academy released its new misconduct database. 

“It’s also reassurance to the public that we’re going everything we can to ensure that we’re properly investigating police misconduct, that they have the opportunity to see themselves, who’s being investigated and all of those are positive steps to tighten the system,” said Chavez.

Gallegos stands by his officers. While he admits, APS police often operate out of the public eye, he said it’s not without appropriate supervision.

“We monitor our officers very closely, for the same reason you just gave. We monitor our officers closely. We have supervisors over every single officer. Nobody acts independently without us knowing about it,” said Gallegos.

Now, so can parents, teachers and even students themselves.