Santa Fe New Mexican
SANTA FE, N.M. — A Santa Fe police detective fed information to a drug dealer and agreed to provide the man with a gun he knew would be used to commit murder, according to law enforcement documents.
Detective Jose Valencia -- the immediate past president of the Santa Fe police officers union -- was caught providing the information nearly two years ago on an FBI wiretap, sources said Thursday. Valencia and the drug dealer allegedly grew up together in Pecos.
The director of the state Law Enforcement Academy Board, Art Ortiz, determined in October that evidence supported the allegations against Valencia and that his certification as a police officer should be revoked, according to a notice written by Ortiz. Board members will make the final determination after a formal hearing with Valencia is held next month, Ortiz said Thursday.
As of Thursday, Valencia -- a detective in the crimes against children unit -- remained on paid administrative leave from the Santa Fe Police Department, said Police Chief Aric Wheeler. Valencia was placed on modified duty in July and put on administrative leave Oct. 15. Wheeler declined to comment further, citing rules that forbid releasing details about personnel issues.
Valencia didn’t respond to a phone message Thursday.
However, his attorney said Valencia’s comments on the FBI tapes were taken out of context and that his client denies offering to supply the drug dealer with a weapon or betraying fellow officers.
“There are explanations for what may have been said,” David Foster said. “But I can’t go into it because action is still pending against the detective. He’s a dedicated police officer and would never give information adverse to police officers.”
The allegations against Valencia stem from “two telephone conversations on February 22 and 26, 2008" in which he “agreed to provide a known criminal and drug dealer with a firearm after the criminal clearly conveyed his intent to commit murder É” according to Ortiz’s recommendation.
Valencia also “provided the criminal with a description of an undercover officer who was possibly investigating the criminal, and provided the criminal with information and advice adverse to law enforcement,” Ortiz wrote.
Another document from Ortiz -- this one dated Aug. 5 -- says Valencia also degraded “law enforcement by speaking negatively about his fellow officers to a known criminal.” Later, during an investigation by the Santa Fe Police Department into the allegations, Valencia “was untruthful with investigating officers,” according to Ortiz’s recommendation.
Ortiz said Thursday that the FBI taped Valencia’s conversations but Ortiz declined to comment further, citing pending action against Valencia by the Law Enforcement Academy Board. He also declined to specify exactly what “adverse advice” the officer gave the drug dealer.
FBI spokesman Darrin Jones said FBI agents encountered information about Valencia during a separate, unrelated investigation and passed that information to Santa Fe police. That was the end of the FBI’s involvement in the allegations against Valencia, he said.
During an informal hearing held Sept. 30, Valencia “took no responsibility for his actions saying it was a misunderstanding because he was conducting a ruse on the informant to obtain information from him,” Ortiz’s recommendation says.
Foster said Valencia was trying to sign up the drug dealer as a confidential informant and would have then passed him off to other officers who handle such informants. Foster denied all the allegations against Valencia and said the city and the Police Department have refused to release the FBI tapes to him and won’t explain why.
“That’s a violation of due process,” he said. “If they’re so confident in what they have to say, why won’t they give us the tapes?”
Further, he said Valencia’s comments on the tapes have been “selectively picked to put him in the worst possible light” and that “he didn’t lie to anybody.”
Foster said Valencia and the drug dealer know each from Pecos. Ortiz said Valencia and the drug dealer grew up together in Pecos.
Allegations that Valencia told the drug dealer where the Region III Narcotics Task Force office was located and supplied the drug dealer with a Taser stun gun and a bulletproof vest were found to be untrue, according to a notice written by Ortiz in August.
Valencia is scheduled for a formal hearing in front of a hearing officer Feb. 4, Ortiz said. Afterward, the hearing officer will write a report detailing his findings and send it to the Law Enforcement Academy Board, which will meet in closed session, probably during its regular quarterly meeting March 25, and decide whether to revoke Valencia’s certification, he said.
Copyright 2010 Santa Fe New Mexican