ESPAÑOLA, N.M. (AP) - A former deputy of the troubled Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Office has been charged with battery and false imprisonment in connection with an episode at a Family Dollar store.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Joseph Aquino recently was charged after New Mexico State Police say he pushed and fought with a store employee before arresting him on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in March 2019. Police say Aquino had no lawful authority to do so.
According to the complaint, the 44-year-old Aquino told an investigator he felt threatened by the employee because of the way the worker looked at him in Chimayó, New Mexico.
Betsy Salcedo, Aquino’s attorney, said in an interview that Rio Arriba County Sheriff James Lujan had fired Aquino in June because of the episode, several months after Aquino had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Lujan also is facing charges after police say he showed up drunk to a SWAT standoff, tried to order officers away, then ignored commands to leave the “kill zone.”
According to another complaint, an armed Lujan, in plain clothes, attempted to take over the scene involving a barricaded man in Española last month.
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