School board member charged with petty misdemeanor

CLOVIS — A member of the Clovis Municipal Schools Board of Education was charged last week with two counts of petty misdemeanor battery, accused of inappropriate contact with a concession stand employee over two months ago.

Kyle Snider, 46, faces a June 18 arraignment following a criminal complaint and summons filed Friday in magistrate court, according to District Attorney Andrea Reeb.

Snider is the school board’s secretary and has represented District 1 since 2013, according to the CMS website.

He could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. Telephone messages were left at his home and business.

The alleged incident occurred March 24 at Guy Leeder softball complex, when Snider is accused of slapping a woman on the behind while on scene addressing electrical issues at the concession stand.

The woman was an employee of a local restaurant, which had a contract to dispense concessions there. She told investigating Clovis Police Officer Trevor Thron this month that “the event has affected her, and (her employer) to the point where they no longer run the concession stand,” according to the criminal complaint.

Snider was the “point of contact for any electrical issue,” and was charged on the strength of video and witness statements for two incidents that afternoon, Thron wrote.

In the first incident, occurring shortly after 1:30 p.m., Snider entered the concession stand and positioned himself behind the woman.

She told police “she was making a burrito when she felt a hand grab her left arm and then a hard slap to her buttocks,” records show. “She stated she laughed out of embarrassment...”

Snider was called back to the stand around 3 p.m. as the employees were still having electrical issues. It was then, the woman later said, that “Kyle came up beside her and placed his hand on her back and rubbed his hand down her back and over her buttocks,” according to the complaint.

Later that evening, the woman contacted her employer, who “made contact with Kyle and confronted him about slapping (the woman) from behind, violating and humiliating her,” records show.

According to the criminal complaint, Snider allegedly stated "I only did it one time" and went on to say he "is married and that he loves his wife.” Snider said he "didn’t mean anything sexual when it occurred.”

The case was forwarded May 17 to Thron for further investigation. Police did not respond Wednesday afternoon to a question about the two-month gap between the incident and charges being filed.

Reeb said Wednesday she was not aware of the pending case until notified by The News.

“For whatever reason, the investigating officer did not request a warrant on him and instead requested that he just be summoned into court, which means he won’t be arrested and have to sit in jail until that arraignment,” she said. “I don’t know why. It’s not very common on a battery with a victim to do a summons. ... 95 percent if not more of the time, this would come through our office as an arrest warrant.”

According to the complaint, Snider told Thron on May 23 that he retained Tye Harmon as an attorney and wanted to consult with him before speaking about the case.

A representative of Harmon’s office said he was out of town Wednesday, and Harmon did not respond to a request for comment.