Like many other police officers in New Mexico, Paul Jessen Jr., a Bernalillo County sheriff’s deputy, was willing to accept bribes from Albuquerque defense attorney Thomas J. Clear III in exchange for compromising DWI cases against Clear’s clients. But according to a federal indictment filed this week, Jessen was leery of taking cash. After talking it over with a supervisor who was in on the long-running bribery scheme, the indictment says, Jessen agreed to accept other forms of compensation, including a big-screen TV, a cabinet of Craftsman tools, a generator, gift cards, hotel rooms, and “free legal services.”
Jessen is accused of conspiring to interfere with commerce by extortion, a federal felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison under 18 USC 1951. The indictment is the latest development in the biggest law enforcement scandal that New Mexico has ever seen, involving an arrangement that began three decades ago: Clear would promise DWI arrestees that if they hired him, he could make their cases disappear, which he was able to do by paying cops to absent themselves from administrative and criminal proceedings where their testimony was crucial.
So far, 13 people, including Clear, his paralegal, and a bunch of former officers, have pleaded guilty to participating in that lucrative conspiracy. But Jessen’s case is also interesting for another reason. The “free legal services” he received from Clear in 2022, according to the indictment, involved an investigation that resulted in “criminal charges unrelated to the conspiracy described herein.” Those charges, which stemmed from animosity between local and federal narcotics investigators, provide a window on the petty infighting and dubious tactics fostered by the war on drugs…