‘I’m scared to death’: Defense attorney at center of DWI scheme reports burglary  

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – KRQE Investigates uncovered new details in the DWI corruption scandal. A year ago, the FBI raided the homes of Albuquerque police officers and the office of a prominent local defense attorney. Weeks later, that defense attorney reported a burglary, claiming someone broke into his office looking for something.

What were they looking for? Police lapel video from that day gives viewers a first-hand look at what Thomas Clear III told responding officers he was so afraid of.

“Hey, boss, how are you doing?” A responding APD officer approached Clear on a cold February morning in 2024. “Scared to death,” Clear replied.

Police officers were responding to Clear’s home office in northeast Albuquerque. “So the FBI raided my house three weeks ago yesterday,” Clear said.

The longtime defense attorney added, “This is a big deal that’s going on right now, and I’m scared to death.” The big deal he was referring to was just the beginning.

“They raided my paralegal’s house,” Clear said. “They raided his house hard, like, with tanks and everything.”

Clear had just called APD to report a burglary at his home office. But the police report and video show this was no ordinary break-in.

“I’m terrified they’re going to kill me,” Clear told responding officers. He showed police four different video angles from his home Ring surveillance system, capturing two masked suspects walking up to his property around 5 a.m.

One of the masked men enters the backyard and, makes his way around the empty swimming pool, rounding a corner through the yard toward a small gate housing the electrical box. The masked man lets himself through, easily opens the security cage, pulls out a knife, and cuts power to the home office.

“They were looking for something,” Clear said.

“Your office, does it have any weapons or anything inside of it?” The officer asked.

“I didn’t have any weapons in there, but my paralegal’s been with me for 17 years,” Clear responded.

Clear’s paralegal, Ricardo ‘Rick’ Mendez, who the feds were also investigating, would later be the first to face federal charges in what investigators are now calling a ‘DWI Enterprise.’ But here, a year before Mendez’s guilty plea, Clear told officers he’s been in contact with federal agents.

“Oh, and then to top it off, yesterday, the agents came and took my phone and my laptop to mirror ’em,” said Clear. “So I don’t have my phone right now.”

“If anybody is inside, you wish to press charges on them?” The officer asked. “Absolutely,” said Clear.

Six hours after the break-in, three officers went in first to ensure no one was still inside. “Attention to residents! This is the Albuquerque Police Department. Anybody inside, you are under arrest! Come to the front door, make your presence known now!” The first officer is heard shouting into the house before entering.

What kind of burglars dig through filing cabinets?

No one was still inside. However, officers found hidden storage doors open, papers strewn about everywhere, and filing cabinets open in the home office.

“For one it’s just a bench,” an officer pointed to a bench, with a hidden compartment slid open. “How would somebody know that?”

“Nobody would know that unless — but my paralegal,” said Clear. “They were looking for something.”

“Yeah, every cabinet has been opened, every drawer,” said the officer. Other valuables were left alone.

“In here, there’s like some old war rifles and stuff or just whatever, but they’re still here,” the officer told Clear. Lapel video shows Clear leading officers through back rooms filled with old case files. “That would’ve been closed,” Clear pointed to piles of banker boxes filled with old documents.

“So I’ve been practicing since 1982,” said Clear. “My dad started practicing in 1956. I have files from 1956 back there.”

“Wow,” the officer replied. Inside Clear’s own office, he noticed items removed from rows of shelves. “They took a ton of baseballs,” said Clear.

“Like, signed baseballs?” The officer asked. “Yeah,” Clear replied.

“Baseball memorabilia” were the only valuables in the officer’s report listed as stolen. “They threw something through,” the officer pointed to broken glass on the back door to Clear’s office, showing the suspected burglars appeared to have entered through there.

“But then they were looking for something in here, too,” Clear said, surveying the mess left behind in his home office. The officer noticed something the suspected burglars appeared to have left behind.

“I see there is a bullet on the ground here,” the officer pointed to an unspent bullet in the middle of the floor. “There should be no bullet here,” Clear said, looking down. “Wow.”

So what were those men looking for?

“I know your suspicion of everything that’s going on in your life right now,” the officer told Clear. “It could have been both. I mean, because how many baseballs were in here? How many, you know, things were in here?”

“Right, right,” Clear replied. “I don’t know, but I’m terrified.”

“Just because, you know, somebody came here for one thing doesn’t mean they’re going to not see something else that they want to take too,” the officer added.

To date, Albuquerque Police say they have not identified any suspects in the reported burglary. Neighbors down the street told police their cameras captured the two people wearing masks, on foot with backpacks, walking straight up to Clear’s property just before 5 a.m.

“It’s just been the worst week of my life,” Clear said that day in February. He repeatedly told the officers he was afraid, and he’d been in contact with the feds.

“I don’t know how long they’re going to have my phone,” he told the officers. Clear said he was borrowing his wife’s phone for the time being. “So I can call the U.S. Attorney, and I can call the people I need to call. My attorney,” Clear added.

At that, the officers called a crime scene investigator to take photos and dust for prints.

Eleven months later, Clear’s paralegal, Mendez pled guilty in federal court to RICO conspiracy, bribery, and extortion charges. Mendez admitted he conspired with officers from APD, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, New Mexico State Police, and attorney Clear, to take high-dollar cash amounts from DWI defendants in exchange for a guaranteed court dismissal.

“My life has gone so upside down,” said Clear. “And all I’ve ever done is love all my clients and help people, right? Especially police officers,” he added.

So far, Mendez along with former APD officers Honorio Alba and Joshua Montaño are criminally charged in the ‘DWI Enterprise.’ In Mendez’s plea deal, he told the feds, the ‘DWI Enterprise was structured to protect {his boss’} status and reputation as an attorney.’

Last week, Clear told a federal court judge he hasn’t practiced law since last summer. He asked to resign from the bar rather than give up his 5th Amendment right in order to try and defend himself against potential disbarment. Tuesday evening, the New Mexico Supreme Court issued an order suspending Clear’s license to practice law.