{"id":51885,"date":"2020-08-26T17:19:49","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T23:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-farmington-officer-charged-after-altercation-with-student\/"},"modified":"2020-08-26T23:19:49","modified_gmt":"2020-08-26T23:19:49","slug":"former-farmington-officer-charged-after-altercation-with-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-farmington-officer-charged-after-altercation-with-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Farmington officer charged after altercation with student"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=48670ee2-0594-4725-a978-3f6cfb41e836&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1163\" alt=\"Zach Christensen, a school resource officer at Mesa View Middle School in Farmington, wrestles with an 11-year-old girl Aug. 27, 2019. Christensen, who resigned in 2019, has been charged with multiple counts of battery and one count of felony child abuse stemming from his use of force.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Zach Christensen, a school resource officer at Mesa View Middle School in Farmington, wrestles with an 11-year-old girl Aug. 27, 2019. Christensen, who resigned in 2019, has been charged with multiple counts of battery and one count of felony child abuse stemming from his use of force.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Courtesy of Farmington Police Department<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>A former Farmington Police Department officer has been charged with multiple counts of battery and one count of felony child abuse stemming from his use of force on an 11-year-old girl at Mesa View Middle School.<\/p>\n<p>Zachary Christensen was called Aug. 27, 2019, to the school to assist with a student who was reported to have been \u201cdisruptive,\u201d according to Farmington Police Department\u2019s official statement at the time.<\/p>\n<p>An internal affairs investigation was opened Aug. 28, 2019, independent of a complaint filed by the mother of the student the same day with the police department.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe must uphold the law and ensure that New Mexico\u2019s schoolchildren are protected, particularly those who are most vulnerable\u201d said Attorney General Hector Balderas in a news release announcing the charges against Christensen. \u201cI will hold any individual accountable when they harm a child.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a video taken from Christensen\u2019s lapel camera, the former officer can be seen interacting with the girl before finally engaging in a physical altercation with her in front of school administrators, who are heard verbally disapproving of the encounter.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yYWZyBu-7_Y\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Christensen submitted his resignation with the department Sept. 24, 2019, which took effect Oct. 1.<\/p>\n<p>Farmington Police Department Chief Steve Hebbe told <em>The Durango Herald<\/em> in August 2019 that police officials showed the mother video footage of the incident, provided her a copy of the video and placed the officer on administrative leave.<\/p>\n<p>The police department released the video to the public.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLike many of you, I was shocked and angry when I watched this video. We value our relationship with our community and will continue to work hard to maintain the public\u2019s confidence in our department,\u201d Hebbe said when Farmington Police Department released the video.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1o_5-u3nfKA\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>At the time, Christensen said he believed the student had elbowed a school administrator and shoved a principal, according to the release. But when the officer reviewed his own lapel footage of the incident, he \u201csaw he had made some errors in what he believed had happened,\u201d Hebbe said.<\/p>\n<p>The video shows the officer attempt to place the student in handcuffs, and when she resisted, the two ended up screaming until the student is ultimately wrestled to the ground despite repeatedly crying \u201cstop, get off of me\u201d and \u201cstop touching me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>School administrators tried to intervene multiple times, and one protested the use of force.<\/p>\n<p>The department referred the case to the New Mexico State Police at the end of August 2019 for a criminal investigation, but the State Police did not recommend criminal charges against Christensen, Hebbe said.<\/p>\n<p>Although the student\u2019s mother initially did not want the incident to go public, Farmington Police Department decided to release details of the report after the involvement of the State Police, Hebbe said.<\/p>\n<p>Farmington Municipal School District issued a statement saying it would not discuss details about the incident, out of \u201crespect for student privacy, and to comply with student privacy laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the school administration\u2019s statement said it was \u201creviewing this incident with the intent of putting into place procedures and practices to prevent another instance like this. The safety of all students entrusted in our care is among our highest priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In August 2019, Hebbe said the department was reviewing its use-of-force policies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs there an age (of a child) when we know we\u2019re not going to go hands-on unless there are extreme circumstances?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the department will continue to offer training and has shown the video to all of its officers to discuss mistakes made in the incident.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:parmijo@durangoherald.com\">parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ffLL4--xOq8\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>11-year-old girl wrestled to ground, accused of resisting arrest<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[585,168,799,28,52,29,443],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-51885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-assault-general","tag-crime","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement","tag-newsletter","tag-san-juan-county-new-mexico"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51885"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=51885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}