Court claim ties cop, prostitution ring

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Documents filed recently in court detail how involved a former Albuquerque police officer may have been in a prostitution ring broken up more than three years ago.

Former Officer Matt Kindle is accused of having sex with prostitutes while on the job and of being a key player in a local prostitution ring.

Kindle was in court Tuesday on a series of motions filed by his attorney.  One asked the judge to split into separate trials charges connecting him to the “Private Ice” prostitution ring from a 2011 case where undercover video allegedly shows him trying to bribe a decoy posing as a prostitute.

District Court Judge Brianna Zamora agreed to hold separate trials but did not rule immediately on a handful of defense motions to have charges connected to the prostitution ring dismissed.

Paperwork filed by prosecutors in response to the motions alleges Bobbie McMullin, owner of the Ice House strip club, paid Kindle to provide security for the club and for the prostitution ring connected to it.

Prosecutors say Kindle was “used to identify undercover officers who may be investigating the business,” that he was aware sex was being sold at the club and that he visited the club in uniform.

Also among the allegations: that Kindle had sex with one of the club’s prostitutes after a strip club manager told her to “take care of” Kindle.

In 2009 McMullin was sentenced to 13 years in prison after being convicted of multiple prostitution-related charges.  In 2010 he pleaded no-contest to nine additional charges .

Kindle’s attorney is trying to get the charges surrounding the prostitution ring dismissed for reasons ranging from misconduct by the grand jury to questions over the statute of limitations.

The judge will not decide on those issues until the 2011 bribery case is complete. Kindle is scheduled to go on trial in that case in June.