By Jeff Proctor
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A Metropolitan Detention Center lieutenant has been disciplined after an internal investigation revealed he had an “inappropriate relationship with a co-worker,” officials said.
Tom Swisstack, Bernalillo County’s public safety boss who oversees the jail, said Lt. Estevan Mora Jr. has received a disciplinary letter.
He agreed that the letter is a public record but declined to discuss what it says.
On Monday, Swisstack said in an e-mail that although he “has 15 days to get the information” to the Journal, he planned to provide a copy of the letter by today.
“Mora has appealed the discipline, and I will be hearing that appeal so I have to decline comment,” Swisstack said in an interview Friday.
He said jail director Ron Torres decided on the discipline for Mora, whose father was a longtime captain at the county’s massive West Side lockup. Torres did not return a telephone message.
The Journal reported last week that among the allegations surrounding Mora’s relationship with the woman was a claim that video existed of the two having sex in a county vehicle in the jail parking lot.
Jail spokeswoman Nataura Powdrell said investigators were unable to substantiate those claims.
Powdrell did confirm that the jail’s Internal Affairs division concluded that Mora and the female jail employee had an “inappropriate relationship dating back about nine months.”
The female jail employee resigned at the end of July, Swisstack said.
Another jail officer, Sgt. Jason Ellis, is scheduled to receive notice of discipline next week after the conclusion of a separate investigation into allegations of excessive force and falsifying police reports, Swisstack said.
And a third investigation into allegations of a jail officer-on-inmate sexual assault turned up nothing, he said.
The recent invest igations join a growing list of problems at the jail that includes violence and sexual misconduct.
In previous incidents, MDC Sgt. Eric Asbury, 32, resigned last month after he was charged with rape for allegedly having sex with a female inmate in his office.
In December, MDC officer Reyna Lujan, 29, was indicted on three counts of criminal sexual penetration for allegedly having sex with an inmate in November and December 2008, as well as in January 2009. The inmate later moved in with Lujan, who resigned from the jail after the allegations surfaced.
Jail officials say in both cases the sex was consensual, but it is illegal for jail officers to have sex with inmates because of the authority they hold over them. Also, Vince Peele, the county’s longtime house arrest liaison, was arrested on bribery and identity theft charges.
Copyright 2010 Albuquerque Journal