Three former Albuquerque police detectives are suing the city after claiming that they were pushed out for speaking up about serial rapists getting away with crimes due to a lack of action from police department leadership.
Teresa Romero, Sally Dyer and Mandi Abernathy are pointing their fingers at a sergeant who they claim caused many of the problems in the sex crimes unit when she took over.
"She (Sgt. Amanda Wild) would give orders or directives, you know, not to talk to the district attorneys or we would have disciplinary team meetings where DAs would be present, sexual assault examiners would be present, victim advocates would be present, and she would order us not to talk during those meetings," Romero said, as reported by KOB4. "She was hindering our jobs."
One of the first mandates from after taking over the sex crimes unit was to stop communication with the district attorney's office and other law enforcement, the detectives claim, according to KOB4.
"We're a team, right?" Dyer told KOB4. " We both have the same goal, which is to put the bad guy away and for some reason, the relationship with the district attorney's office and the sex crimes deteriorated. Sgt. Wild wouldn't share information with them, so that they could work what they needed to do on their end."
According to KOB 4, Romero and Dyer both said that Sgt. Wild also refused to allow the detectives to enter the information obtained from the rape kits into the databases, and Dyer said she had to end up creating her own spreadsheet to track serial rapists.
Romero ended up being placed on administrative leave after raising concerns with the protocol of the sex crime unit, and the lawsuit against the city shows that they "were pushed out."
"The biggest losers are the citizens of Albuquerque and the biggest winners are the serial rapists because this is a place where they can come and do it again and again and again," Dyer and Romero's Attorney Shannon Kennedy said.