Klein: Cover-Up In Jennifer Garcia IA Case

Mayor Tim Keller are you out there? Is this your idea of transparency?

The City Attorney is refusing to release any part of the Internal Affairs investigation on Jennifer Garcia to the Civilian Police Oversight Agency saying it's attorney work product. Well, just who is the city attorney protecting and who owns the "work product?" Last I checked the city attorney represented … the city and it's citizens!

We paid for this work, we deserve to see what we bought. Therefore, I formally release the city attorney from their attorney client privilege with me and I demand that they release the entire Jennifer Garcia investigation to the CPOA.

(Photo: Dan Klein)

It won't happen. Police Chief Mike Geier and Keller are protecting someone regarding this investigation.

I remember the city attorney last year couldn't release an IA investigation into the commander of the Airport police, Marshall Katz, fast enough. Even if you hadn't asked for a copy, city employees would have driven by your house and lobbed a copy out the car door window onto your driveway. That's how badly they wanted Katz out.

This the same old APD, and Gordo and R.J. might as well still be in command. Always the same. When something makes them look good, or when they want to get someone they don't like, boom! The files, audios and videos are out there almost immediately. And they're made public whether anyone asked for them or not.

But if there are files and investigations that make them, or one of their favorites look bad, they refuse to release it until they're dragged into court and ordered to by a judge. And guess what? That costs you and me money because the fines the city winds up paying come from our wallets.

Now they are stonewalling again on the Garcia case. So what happens next?

A waste of taxpayer money as the CPOA sues the City Attorney / APD to force them to release the IA investigation. Who pays? Us.

We'll be paying for the CPOA, a public agency, to sue the city, and we'll be paying for the city to defend itself against the CPOA. That's insanity. That's immoral, and that makes me sick.

The city attorney who authorized this crap should be fired immediately. Or is transparency another promise that Keller never planned to keep? Come on Mayor, fix this before you lose all credibility. There is a cover-up going on at APD and the City Attorney is up to their necks in it. Something stinks. If you care about transparency and our city please share this.

The city attorney denies the CPOA access to the Jennifer Garcia IA investigation citing attorney work product. Who paid for this work product? You and me folks. The Albuquerque taxpayer paid for it, but the city attorney doesn't think we deserve to know what it says.

Mayor Keller, hello? Please fix this before my tax dollars get spent for the CPOA to sue and the city attorney to defend. Maybe make Assistant City Attorney Samantha Holtz pay for the defense out of her own pocket. That might make people in City Hall remember who their bosses are. They work for us. We paid for this investigation. Make it public!

What are they afraid of?