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Copyright © 2015 Albuquerque Journal

The New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy Board is expected to take up the case of one of its hearing officers who submitted a false statement when applying for state law enforcement money for Jemez Pueblo police earlier this year.

State Department of Public Safety officials and Attorney General Hector Balderas confirmed that the board will consider at its next meeting, on Oct. 21, whether action should be taken against hearing officer Peter Camacho.

As reported by the Journal last month, Camacho was chief of the Jemez Pueblo Police Department when he signed an application form in February of this year attesting that tribal police weren’t sending traffic citations involving non-Indians to tribal court.

Based on the application, the state Department of Finance and Administration approved Jemez Pueblo to receive $6,000 from the state’s Law Enforcement Protection Fund for the 2015-2016 fiscal year.

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But nearly a year earlier, in April 2014, Jemez police under Camacho stopped sending such non-Indian traffic tickets into the state court system for prosecution.

Instead, officers began filing civil traffic citations in tribal court – a process that allows the pueblo to keep the fines. The practice continues to this day and was expected to bring in nearly a half a million dollars a year to the pueblo. The change in policy was announced in the pueblo’s Red Rocks newsletter last year.

Under state law, tribal law enforcement agencies can’t receive funding from the state Law Enforcement Protection Fund if they process non-Indian traffic citations in tribal court.

Camacho told the Journal in August that his signature on the DFA form was an “oversight.”

“I’ll take full responsibility. There was absolutely no intent to defraud or be deceptive in any way,” Camacho said.

Meanwhile, State Police Chief Pete Kassetas said he has formally revoked State Police commissions issued to members of the Jemez Police Department – although tribal officers can still issue citations under commissions issued by Sandoval County.

Attorney General Balderas said in an email to the Journal that he called for a review of Camacho matter at the next board meeting.

“As Attorney General and Chairman of the the Law Enforcement Academy Board, I take matters of public safety and accountability very seriously,” Balderas said in an e-mail to the Journal .

Camacho is one of five appointed hearing officers who preside over hearings and issue recommendations in cases of alleged police misconduct brought before the board. The board manages and directs the state’s law enforcement academy.

State Department of Public Safety spokesman H.L. Lovato told the Journal that “all matters” relating to Comacho’s position as a hearing officer are being addressed.

“Upon completion of that process, all appropriate actions will be pursued, which may include termination of his status as a hearing officer,” he said.

Camacho told the Journal last week that he was the one who asked to address the board about the issue.

“There was never any question. … I’m handling cases right now,” Camacho said. “I want them to understand that I did not do anything unethical. It was an error on my part. That’s all the comment I’d like to give you.”

Since his hiring in August 2013, Camacho has been paid more than $22,530 to preside over 14 hearings into misconduct cases involving police and other law enforcement dispatchers certified by the board.

He is also approved to teach New Mexico law enforcement agencies educational courses that include ethics.

Camacho served about 18 months as chief of the Jemez Pueblo Police Department before resigning in March. He told the Journal he left the tribal Police Department because “I just wanted to get out of law enforcement altogether.”

Camacho is also an 18-year veteran of the Rio Rancho Police Department and has served with the U.S. Coast Guard.

In recent months as a state hearing officer, Camacho issued rulings determining that a former San Juan County Sheriff’s Office captain lied in investigations of his alleged use of department-issued ammunition in a trade for an off-road motorcycle.

In April, he found that a former Albuquerque Police officer, now with the Bosque Farms Police Department, was untruthful in an interview with the city of Albuquerque Independent Review Office.

The revocations of state commissions to Jemez police came after Kassetas researched whether there was a valid agreement between the State Police and the pueblo that would allow the commissions. He couldn’t find any such document, even though Jemez police officers for years have carried State Police commission cards.

“I’ve told them that whatever is out there is revoked and we’re not getting involved in any other commissions because of the system you have for court,” Kassetas said recently. Jemez tribal officials haven’t responded to Journal requests for comment on the matter.

Although Jemez police still have legal authority through commissions granted by the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office, those commissions are now under review because of a recent state Supreme Court ruling that holds New Mexico county sheriffs liable for the actions of law enforcement officers they commission.