ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – He made our roads dangerous for thirty years as the mastermind behind a criminal conspiracy that involved bribing officers to get his drunk driving clients off the hook. Now, when he’s caught violating a traffic law, the city is letting Thomas Clear III off the hook.
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On the Albuquerque police officer’s lapel camera video, you can see him use his radar gun and then frantically move his hands, telling the approaching driver to slow down. He just caught that driver speeding 14 miles per hour over the speed limit, in a construction zone. The officer approached the vehicle and found longtime criminal defense Attorney Thomas Clear III in the driver’s seat. Clear was told that he was driving 39 miles per hour in a 25 miles per hour zone.
The traffic stop happened on February 11. At that point, it was known that federal agents had raided Clear’s law office a year earlier, suspecting he had been paying off officers to get his drunk driving clients’ cases dismissed. As the officer walked away to write up the speeding ticket, it was evident he recognized who he had just pulled over. What he didn’t know was that the very next day, Clear would accept a plea deal in federal court, admitting to the suspected scheme. The longtime attorney pleaded guilty to bribing police officers over the past 30 years, in what has come to be known as the “DWI Enterprise.”…