By Amanda Martinez
Special to the SUN

An Española Police officer alleged in a memo addressed to city Human Resources Director Sally Baxter, that he is being retaliated against by Police Chief Mizel Garcia for reporting misconduct within the department and reprimanding officers for policy violations.

The Jan. 20 memo was written by an Española Police officer and obtained by the Rio Grande SUN.

“For over one year, I have experienced retaliation by Chief Mizel Garcia, including removal of duties, undermining of authority, public reprimands, inconsistent enforcement of policy, and differential treatment following my reporting of misconduct and attempts to hold personnel accountable,” the officer wrote.

In the memo, he describes incidents dating back to April 2024, when he attempted to resign from his position as patrol lieutenant “due to stress caused by lack of support, unclear guidance, and unrealistic expectations.”

Garcia asked him not to resign and told him that he was doing a good job, the memo states.

“Despite these assurances, I frequently received unclear direction and unrealistic

expectations with little support for decisions I made regarding patrol operations or

departmental matters,” the officer wrote.

Garcia would instruct him to issue directives to patrol officers and sergeants, but when officers disagreed, they would complain directly to the chief, the memo said.

“He would then reverse or alter the directives and characterize them as personal,” he wrote about Garcia. “This undermined my authority, eroded respect for my position, and encouraged circumvention of supervisory structure. I repeatedly asked the Chief to enforce the chain of command; this did not occur.”

The officer also claims that after he disciplined other officers for policy violations — things like unauthorized police pursuits and insubordination — the chief would not address the situations or report them to the city’s Human Resources Department.

“He frequently stated that the department did not have ‘the cream of the crop,’ allowing misconduct to continue while undermining my authority,” he wrote in the memo.

The memo includes details about four other specific incidents involving Garcia.

The first was on April 23, 2024, when Garcia yelled at him to discipline a sergeant for an out-of-policy police pursuit.

“I drafted a written reprimand and recommended an internal affairs investigation due to prior similar violations,” the memo stated. “To my knowledge, no discipline occurred.”

In January 2025, the officer describes an incident during which Garcia yelled at him in front of subordinate staff and threatened to terminate him.

In April 2025, the officer claims he attended a supervisors’ meeting held by Garcia where he was confronted by several other employees.

“During the meeting, several subordinates verbally accosted me for approximately 30 minutes,” he wrote in the memo. “When I attempted to respond, I was cut off by the chief. The meeting was hostile, unprofessional, embarrassing, particularly because it included supervisors directly involved in patrol operations.”

The officer wrote that this meeting occurred shortly after he reprimanded a sergeant, and that all disciplinary actions had been discussed with, or approved by, Garcia prior to taking place.

“At the conclusion of the meeting, Chief Garcia removed me from the Patrol Lieutenant position and publicly stated I was no longer allowed to discipline officers, transferring that authority to Lt. (Craig) Yazzie,” the memo said.

According to the officer, Garcia reassigned him as a lieutenant in the Criminal Investigations Division.

Garcia has denied all allegations in the officer’s memo.

In a telephone interview, Garcia said that he is unaware of any retaliatory actions against the officer by himself or other officers, and that all policy violations result in an internal affairs investigation.

He declined to share the outcomes of any investigations.

The officer did not return an email seeking comment by press time.

Department of Justice

Allegations made against Garcia have been reported to the New Mexico Department of Justice (DOJ).

District 4 City Councilor Samuel LeDoux submitted complaints to the DOJ on Feb. 22 and March 13 regarding problems within the police department.

According to the March 13 submission report, LeDoux received two whistleblower complaints from officers alleging “intimidation and threats by police chief/city manager Mizel Garcia using his power to dismiss personal and time theft issues, as well as intimidating the police union to endorse current Mayor John Ramon Vigil.”

According to the National Whistleblower Center, a nonprofit that advocates for strengthening whistleblower protections, a whistleblower “is someone who reports waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, or dangers to public health and safety to someone who is in the position to rectify the wrongdoing.”

The Rio Grande SUN has reviewed both complaints submitted by LeDoux. In a telephone inter-view, he confirmed the veracity of both documents and that he submitted both complaints to the DOJ.

LeDoux said he felt it was his duty to file the reports.

“I received reports from employees who claimed to be whistleblowers within the department,” LeDoux said in the report. “As a governing body member, I cannot get involved in day-to-day accusations, I can only report them to authorities that can investigate this matter. I did what any-one in my position should do and gave this information over to the Department of Justice and will let them handle the investigation.”

Vigil named Garcia as the interim city manager after the city council terminated Lauren Reichelt’s contract in January. Since Jan. 12, Garcia has held the dual role of police chief and city manager.

During early voting in the recent municipal election, the Española Police Department Union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 923, endorsed Vigil for re-election.

Garcia denies any involvement in union activities or endorsements.

“I am not a member of the union,” he said. “I have no oversight of the union activities”

The officer submitted his memo to Baxter just eight days after Garcia became the interim city manager.

According to LeDoux’s March 13 complaint, the officer attempted to take action and resolve issues within the police department, but they were ignored in the lead-up to the March 3 Española Municipal Election.

LeDoux wrote in his complaint to the DOJ that Baxter told the officer to “wait until after the election.”

Baxter did not respond to an email by press time inquiring about her follow-up actions after receiving the officer’s memo.

Timecard Fraud

The officer also included details in the memo about alleged timecard fraud by two police department employees.

He wrote that he received information about the alleged fraud in November 2025 and reported the situation to Garcia but did not provide the names of the two individuals before verifying the accusations. The officer alleges that Garcia shared this information with someone else within the department, who then shared it with others, which led one of the accused employees to quit before a formal investigation would be conducted.

Prior to the memo addressed to Baxter, the officer submitted one directly to Garcia on Dec. 1, regarding the time theft of one of the employees. According to this memo, he found evidence by cross-referencing timesheets and radio logs, that the officer committed four instances of time-card fraud between September and December 2025.

The total amount of the fraud was $1,813.19, according to the officer’s calculations.

When asked about the timecard fraud allegations, Garcia repeated that all reports of policy violations result in an internal investigation and that he would not share any further information.