Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Berry
Former Portales Deputy Police Chief Lonnie Berry pleaded no contest Thursday in district court to three charges of tampering with public records.
A plea agreement he signed Thursday placed him on 18 months of unsupervised probation. The agreement also required him to pay a $500 restitution fee — the amount of the citations he tampered with, to the state of New Mexico and relinquish his police officer certification from the New Mexico Police Academy.
Berry admitted to District Court Judge Drew Tatum he had tampered with the public records related to the charges.
"I'm ready to move forward at this point," Berry told Tatum.
Berry, who spent 26 years with the Portales Police Department, planned to retire at the end of the year.
He resigned from the department after his Dec. 8 arrest.
Defense attorney Randall Harris told the judge this was a sad day.
"(Berry) is one of the finest officers that I ever had the pleasure of working with," said Harris, a former district attorney.
Berry declined comment immediately after the court hearing.
Accusations against him were part of a 19-page affidavit filed in December in district court. The public records that Berry tampered with were that of Mary Romano, 36, of Portales, and her boyfriend who was identified as Danny Lucero.
According to the affidavit:
She said she had also purchased a Chevy Lumina from Berry for $300 and Berry had given her son and neighbor children unclaimed bicycles from the police evidence compound, saying "they could take any bike that did not have an evidence tag."
Romano called Berry on her cell phone during the stop. Berry showed up a few minutes later. "Marney asked Berry if Romano was a family member or friend and Berry advised Marney that Romano was his niece. At that time, Berry told Marney, go ahead and do what you have to do."
During his investigation Marney was told by a records clerk at the police department that "Lonnie Berry often tells the clerks to save certain citations and then he (Lonnie Berry) shreds the citations." Marney went to Deputy District Attorney Donna Mowrer, setting off the chain of events leading to the investigation.
Aguilar provided Blair with photo copies of four tickets issued — three to Romano and one to Lucero. The photo copies were made by a clerk who said she saw Berry remove the citations from files.
"Berry told Lem that Romano is trying to get a stolen police radio back. Lem told Berry that there were two warrants for the female (Romano) out of Clovis and they had state police coming to arrest her on (outstanding) ... warrants. Lem also told Berry she had a suspended license, no insurance or registration."
Lem said Berry asked him if he could just issue Romano one citation for a suspended license "and cut her loose on that."
Lem told Berry, "Whatever you want to do, Captain."
Lem said Berry did not specifically say not to arrest Romano, but Lem "took what the captain said as a recommendation" not to arrest Romano.
Two citations were written but one was voided after the conversation with Berry. Romano was allowed to leave. Neither ticket was ever found at the police department or in the courts.