In September 2021, Albuquerque police officer Timothy McCarson arrested an intoxicated driver who had been hospitalized after he was injured in a crash. But McCarson never filed charges against the driver, and he explained why in a federal plea agreement last week: A local defense attorney, Thomas Clear, paid him $5,000 to make the case go away.
McCarson's guilty plea is the latest example of the corruption revealed by a federal investigation of a long-running scheme in which Clear bribed police to ensure that his clients would not be convicted of DWI charges. Two dozen people, including defense attorneys, Albuquerque police officers, and Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies, have been implicated so far, and a dozen have pleaded guilty. This "DWI Enterprise," as federal prosecutors call it, is the biggest law enforcement scandal in New Mexico's history. It goes back 30 years—a period during which Clear handled about 2,500 DWI cases.
