Policer arrested for not making child support payments

A Bosque Farms Police Officer has been arrested on a warrant for past-due child support, making him the second officer from the department arrested in as many weeks.

Bosque Farms Police Chief Joe Stidham said Officer John Valdez was arrested on a warrant for past due child support, and taken into custody in Albuquerque.

"He is on leave at this time," Stidham said.

He said the department is waiting to hear back from the village attorney on the case, and Valdez will remain on leave until they decide what the proper course of action is.

Stidham said no determination has been made on whether Valdez will be terminated from the department.

Valdez was stabbed earlier this summer as he was jogging on a Peralta ditchbank by an unknown assailant.

Another Bosque Farms Police officer also remained on leave Tuesday after an arrest last week. Paul Gomez was arrested earlier this month in Los Lunas and subsequently charged with DWI.

A criminal complaint filed in Los Lunas Magistrate Court states that a witness saw Gomez swerving across traffic lanes in the moments prior to the accident and that after Gomez exited his vehicle he "was shaking and acting weird."

The criminal complaint states witnesses said Gomez attempted to drive away from the crash but was stopped by bystanders, who placed themselves around his vehicle.

Gomez, a former Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy and former Los Lunas police officer, was also pulled over Sept. 22, 2008, after police received a call about a sheriff's department car driving erratically, Los Lunas police spokesman Charles Nuanes said.

Gomez was pulled over, but was not cited or charged, and his supervisors from the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department came to Los Lunas to pick him up and have him drug-tested, said Bernalillo County Undersheriff Sam Baragiola said.

Stidham said Gomez was also on leave paid administrative leave.