Jury acquits ex-deputy of child abuse

CLOVIS — A 9th Judicial District Court jury last week found former Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Deputy Christopher McCasland not guilty of felony child abuse.

The jury handed down the verdict on the second day of a two-day trial in Portales before Judge Drew Tatum.

McCasland, 37, a Tucumcari High School graduate, was charged on March 1, 2022, with child abuse not causing great bodily injury, a third-degree felony, in Roosevelt County Magistrate Court.

New Mexico State Police Agent Justin Tiemann charged in an arrest affidavit that McCasland abused his 7-year-old son repeatedly while McCasland was driving a motor vehicle.

McCasland told law officers at the time of his arrest he struck the boy as discipline after the boy had taken a toy from his 4-year-old sister.

The jury’s decision seems to have ended about three years of various criminal allegations aimed at McCasland.

Brian Stover, deputy district attorney for the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s office, said on Aug. 3 he was “very disappointed” in the verdict acquitting McCasland of child abuse.

“The bruising on the boy’s chest clearly indicated abuse,” he said, but the jury decided it was not “cruel punishment.”

He added, however, that he respects the jury’s opinion.

McCasland was served notice of termination from the Roosevelt County Sheriff’s Department in 2020 after criminal allegations first surfaced, records show.