submitted by fakeplasticm-e

A lawsuit filed by the women alleged MDC Sgt. Torry Chambers and inmate Anthony Townes, a former corrections officer at another facility, had become friends. It claimed Chambers and Townes helped each other commit the sexual assaults between 2008 and 2010.

Townes was a pre-trial detainee at the time of the events described in the complaint. He is now serving a 16-year state sentence for rapes committed in 2007 while he was a guard at Camino Nuevo Women’s Correctional Facility, a contract prison in Albuquerque. The women in that case won a $3 million lawsuit at trial in federal district court earlier this year.

Chambers was charged with criminal sexual contact and criminal sexual penetration but bonded out of jail while the case was being investigated and was never indicted. He remains a corrections officer at MDC, but without access to female inmates.

Chambers was on administrative leave from December 2010 to August 2011, according to jail spokeswoman Nataura Powdrell.

“We leave the criminal investigation to law enforcement, and without any criminal conviction, there’s nothing we could do. We did place him on modified duty,” she said.

District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Kayla Anderson said the case against Chambers was scheduled for presentation to a grand jury a year ago, but never got there.

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Submitted by fakeplasticm-e

ALBUQUERQUE — Grand juries reviewing police shootings in Bernalillo County and Albuquerque operate under a highly unusual process where they don’t have the power to indict an officer even in the most egregious cases, only determine if the shooting was justified.

Police officials for years have countered criticism of dozens of officer-involved shootings by noting that every case has a grand jury review.

But an analysis of the proceedings by the Albuquerque Journal shows the panels are not only toothless but aren’t even instructed on possible criminal violations. All they hear is the law on justifiable shootings like self-defense.

Prosecutors defend the process, saying the reviews should inspire public trust.

But Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said it may be time for the district attorney to consider other options in order to ensure the public has faith in the process.

“It is incumbent, in order to gain the public trust, that each case be reviewed independently based on the comprehensive investigation that’s presented to them,” he said. “A one-size-fits-all approach may not be in the best interest of the community.”

No one involved in the process can recall a single “unjustified” finding since the process was put in place in the late 1980s following criticism of police shootings at the time — even in a case in which the officer was fired and the city paid nearly $1 million to settle a civil lawsuit.

Critics say that’s by design.

“It looks to me like a device that’s designed to give police a pass on shootings,” said Ray Twohig, a longtime civil rights attorney. “The public should have no confidence whatsoever in this process — there’s no independent investigation. The goal is: ‘Let’s not indict any cops.’ “

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