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SANTA FE – Sam Sena, a candidate for Santa Fe County magistrate judge and a retired New Mexico State Police officer, last year had his police certification suspended, after the state Law Enforcement Academy Board found him guilty of “dishonesty” and displaying “a lack of good moral character.”

He retired from the State Police when a board investigation into his alleged “untruthfulness and unprofessional conduct” began to unfold. Sena said in a statement Wednesday that he’s learned from his mistake and the experience “will make me a more effective judge.”

Sena, who says on his campaign website that he now serves as community liaison for the Santa Fe County Magistrate Court DWI Drug Court, faces attorney John A. Ryansek in the June 5 Democratic primary for the court’s Division 3 judgeship. He was a 15-year veteran of the State Police when he retired in July 2016.

According to documents obtained from the Department of Public Safety under a records request, Sena’s retirement came two days after he received notice of possible termination from the State Police over alleged falsification of firearms qualification scores for other officers in his role as an instructor at the Law Enforcement Academy.

The misconduct investigation continued following Sena’s retirement. A Sept. 9, 2016 letter from Law Enforcement Academy Director Stephan Marshall states that Sena, a lead “range master” who was tasked with managing officers’ firearms qualifications and reporting their shooting scores, had provided false scores in 2015 on multiple occasions.

Upon questioning, he told officials that he had recorded the scores on his phone, but it malfunctioned and deleted the data, the letter says. Sena “reluctantly” admitted that score reports he provided in late 2015 were “fabricated” and that he “made them up.” Sena said he was not a liar, the letter states.

The board approved Marshall’s recommendation for a one-year suspension of Sena’s law enforcement certification in June 2017 with a recommendation that Marshall also review Sena’s certification as a firearms instructor. DPS spokesperson Herman Lovato confirmed Wednesday that Sena’s firearms instructor certification was also pulled.

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Sena declined a phone interview but provided the Journal with a statement that said he’d been recording officers’ firearms scores on a personal device and they were accidentally erased.

“At the time I hoped to recover the information and did not immediately report the lost data to my supervisors,” the statement reads. He said he later submitted figures based on his “recollection” of what had been on his phone.

Sena said that when told he could lose his law enforcement certification, he retired because he was unable to hire an attorney to mount a defense.

“The experience I have gathered during my time with the New Mexico State Police is not diminished because of a single event; in fact, I believe that it will make me a more effective judge,” the statement reads. “I believe this from the perspective of having made a mistake and learning from the consequences.”

According to a KRQE report, Sena was fired from the Pueblo of Pojoaque tribal police — where he started working following his State police retirement — shortly after he lost his certification. Pojoaque Police Chief Frank Rael confirmed in a voicemail that Sena worked there from Oct. 7, 2016 to June 20, 2017, but Rael could not be reached again to clarify why Sena left the force.