Fired officer reaches deal to retire from APD

Steve Hindi allegedly tried to intimidate a civilian investigator

A fired Albuquerque police officer accused of trying to intimidate a civilian police investigator struck a deal with the city that allowed him to retire from the department.

Steve Hindi, who was an Albuquerque officer for 33 years before being fired in December, reached the deal with the city on Monday just before the investigator from the Civilian Police Oversight Agency began to testify at Hindi’s appeal hearing.

City Attorney Jessica Hernandez said the deal was made to ensure Hindi will never again work for the city. She pointed out that in November, the board reversed Jeremy Dear’s termination and gave that officer his job back. The city is currently litigating Dear’s case in state District Court.

“We don’t know what the personnel board is going to do,” she said in an interview Wednesday. “We have to weigh that now very seriously.”

The agreement will allow Hindi to collect his unused sick leave, she said.

It’s unclear whether Hindi will seek employment elsewhere. His attorney, Frederick Mowrer, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Using the federal law enforcement database without authorization can lead to criminal charges. No charges were brought against Hindi.

Police Chief Gorden Eden fired Hindi in December. The chief said in a termination letter that Hindi used a confidential federal law enforcement database to gather private information on the woman assigned to investigate a civilian complaint against him. Eden also found that Hindi used his on-body camera to record the investigator during a meeting.

Another Albuquerque police officer, Regina Sanchez, was suspended for 40 hours last year for using the same database without authorization.

Hindi was midway through an appeal hearing in front of a hearing officer when the deal

was reached. Had the hearing been completed, the hearing officer would have made a report with a recommended sanction against Hindi and the personnel board would have later voted on the recommendation.

Albuquerque’s civilian oversight system was revamped last year after a Department of Justice investigation found that Albuquerque police had a pattern of excessive force and that weak civilian oversight contributed to that pattern.