It’s been a year since the public learned of the massive corruption scandal involving a scheme to make DWI cases disappear. Federal documents last week, shed more light on the conspiracy involving police officers and attorneys that dates back more than two decades.

An Albuquerque police lieutenant placed on leave in a sprawling DWI corruption probe decided to retire before meeting with detectives on the matter.

The scandal, referred to by prosecutors as the "DWI enterprise," implicates Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies and New Mexico State Police officers as well as Albuquerque police. Prosecutors allege certain law enforcement officers participated in a yearslong scheme to arrange for drunken-driving cases to be dismissed in exchange for cash.

KRQE News 13 has learned one of the officers who resigned last year connected to the federal investigation into the DWI Unit scandal now works for the New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department.

From 2008 through 2023, federal prosecutors in New Mexico say, Albuquerque police officers conspired with a local defense attorney, Thomas Clear, and his investigator, Ricardo Mendez, to make DWI cases disappear in exchange for bribes.

KRQE Investigates Reporter Ann Pierret sat down with Albuquerque Police Department Chief Harold Medina to discuss how officers were able to get away with their scheme in the DWI Unit scandal. “I look at what I know and how it was generational,