4 Investigates received multiple tips regarding an Albuquerque Fire Rescue captain crashing his car into a daycare on New Year’s Day. After a series of public records requests and interviews, our reporting led AFR Chief Emily Jaramillo to reopen the personnel investigation into the crash involving Capt. Orlando Baca. 

TIMELINE

12:37 p.m. – On New Year’s Day, the first 911 call is made to dispatch regarding a black Cadillac Escalade crashing into The Learning Experience Daycare on Coors in northwest Albuquerque. The call is categorized as a low priority. A Police Service Aide is sent to the scene. 

1:03 p.m. – Police Service Aide Richard Baca first arrives on the scene. According to Albuquerque police, he is not related to Capt. Baca, the driver of the black Escalade. The first thing PSA Baca asks two witnesses is, “Where is the driver of the vehicle?” The witnesses tell him the driver is an AFR captain, and his daughter took him to Presbyterian. PSA Baca does not ask how they know that. 

1:04 p.m. – PSA Baca tells dispatch the driver was taken to PresNow and requests AFR to respond because the black Escalade took out a gas line. 

1:09 p.m. – AFR arrives from station 17 to the scene, the same station where Capt. Baca finished his shift at 8 a.m. Ultimately, two AFR engines, two AFR ambulances, and one Albuquerque Ambulance arrive to the scene. 

1:11 p.m. – An AFR lieutenant approaches PSA Baca and asks, “Did anybody see anybody?” PSA Baca tells him a witness said the daughter took the driver to the PresNow. The lieutenant appears to not recognize his boss’s car, saying: “That’s a firefighter license plate, we’re just not sure who it is.” 

Google Street View shows a similar black Escalade with yellow plates parked at AFR Station 17 back in January 2022. 

3:26 p.m. – PSA Baca enters The Learning Experience with the owners to survey the damage. He tells them he tried to get a police officer to respond, but none were available. 

Jan. 9 – AFR wraps up its personnel investigation with a Stipulation Agreement. AFR Chief Emily Jaramillo and Capt. Baca sign the agreement for a 24-day unpaid suspension for “allegations of leaving the scene of an accident which caused major property damage.” 

Jan. 14 – PSA Baca contacts Capt. Baca for the first time. The police crash report described a conversation between the two but when 4 Investigates requested the video of the interaction it was not included in a public records request. A city records custodian said PSA Baca “must not have had his lapel recording.” 4 Investigates asked APD spokesman Gilbert Gallegos about this violation of department policy. Gallegos was able to locate the video, noting that it was not in the case file with the other videos from the day of the crash. 

TWO SEPARATE INVESTIGATIONS

The crash started an APD criminal investigation and an AFR personnel investigation. Each operated independently, to a large extent.  

AFR’s personnel investigation ended in a lengthy suspension based on Capt. Baca’s admission that he left the scene of the crash. 

PSA Baca’s criminal investigation report said Capt. Baca did not leave the scene of the crash. The report also said Capt. Baca “thinks he had lost conscientious (sic) and collided” with the daycare. It said Capt. Baca’s sobriety was unknown. 

APD dispatch categorized the call as a crash without injuries.  

APD Chief Harold Medina has expanded the use of PSAs in Albuquerque. APD spokesman Gallegos declined a request by 4 Investigates to speak with the chief about this case and the larger decision to have PSAs respond to non-emergency calls. 

AFR Chief Emily Jaramillo acknowledged how quickly the personnel investigation wrapped up. 

“I can understand why that would seem odd that it was so quick,” Jaramillo said. She said the reason the personnel investigation was over in nine days was “His (Capt. Baca’s) willingness to admit that he did make some mistakes here.” 

Jaramillo noted a 24-day unpaid suspension is a relatively severe punishment. 

“We take the conduct of our firefighters very serious, and I think they do too,” she said. 

WITNESS 01

The lone witness listed in the crash report is Philip Lopez. In the PSA body camera recordings, he describes the crash and why he ran up to the black Escalade after the crash. 

4 Investigates called Lopez. 

“After I seen him swerving, he had went into the wall,” Lopez said. “I witnessed everything.” 

He described his encounter with Capt. Baca. 

Lopez: “He was slurring his words, and, like, you couldn’t understand him. I had asked him, ‘Are you ok? Do you need help?’… You could smell the alcohol on him. He came out stumbling too, all wobbly.”  

Laughlin: “Did you tell police you smelled alcohol? Because when I watched the video of the police, I didn’t see that you told them that.”

Lopez: “Well, yeah, I told them that he was drunk, and I had smelled the alcohol on him.”

Laughlin: “You told police that?”

Lopez: “Yeah, because I was sitting in the parking lot of Blake’s Lotaburger and they had come up to me.”

There is no mention of alcohol in the police video recordings or the crash report. 

4 Investigates spoke with employees at the Blake’s Lotaburger near the crash scene. They said there is surveillance video of the crash. APD did not include any surveillance video from Blake’s Lotaburger in the city’s response to our records request. 

“I had zero evidence that Capt. Baca was impaired, and I can only operate off of what I have,” Chief Jaramillo said during her initial interview with 4 Investigates. After speaking with KOB 4, the chief said she opened a new personnel investigation. This investigation will require 21 firefighters from Station 17 to be interviewed. 

“We’re going to hold them accountable for what we have,” Jaramillo said. 

In the course of reporting this piece, 4 Investigates made multiple attempts to speak with Capt. Baca. He did not respond.