Complaint says police chief lied
Attorney accuses Gorden Eden of perjury in Jeremy Dear case
An Albuquerque police officer fired for not using his onbody camera fired back at his former chief Wednesday.
Albuquerque attorney Thomas Grover filed a citizen complaint on behalf of former officer Jeremy Dear against Police Chief Gorden Eden. The complaint accused the chief of lying when answering questions under oath about the internal affairs investigation into Dear’s shooting of Mary Hawkes, a 19-year-old suspected car thief who Dear said pointed a gun at him during a foot chase.
“We can confront Chief Eden for the liar that he is; he absolutely perjured himself in testimony,” Grover said.
Police officials said Eden didn’t lie and was only testifying about what he remembered at the time.
“Chief Eden has the utmost integrity, and respect for the position as Chief of Police,” said Celina Espinoza, a police spokeswoman. “It is inaccurate to accuse Chief Eden of lying in his deposition as he was testifying based upon his recollection.”
The complaint filed Wednesday said that during a hearing over Dear’s termination and in a sworn deposition taken by attorney Shannon Kennedy, who is representing Hawkes’ family, Eden said that he hadn’t reviewed an internal affairs investigation into Dear’s shooting of Hawkes.
But Grover provided the Journal with a document that appears to show Eden acknowledge that he had reviewed that internal affairs investigation.
“Mr. Dear would like the
Civilian Police Oversight Agency to investigate Chief Eden for violations of numerous standard operating procedures which govern truthfulness,” Dear’s complaint states.
Grover announced that he had made the citizen complaint on Dear’s behalf after a hearing Dear had before the city’s personnel board Wednesday afternoon.
After Eden fired Dear in late 2014, Dear appealed his termination to the board, which voted in November 2015 to give Dear his job back.
The city appealed the board’s decision to district court, where late last year 2nd Judicial District Judge Clay Campbell asked the board to provide him with documentation about why they voted to give Dear his job back.
At the hearing on Wednesday, board members asked city attorneys to ask Campbell for a 90-day extension for providing him with the explanation.