Records: Former sheriff's deputy facing felony child abuse charges

PORTALES — A former Roosevelt County Sheriff’s deputy convicted last year of receiving stolen property is now facing felony child abuse charges, records show.

The former deputy, Chris McCasland, was charged Tuesday with child abuse not causing great bodily injury, a third-degree felony, in Roosevelt County Magistrate Court.

In an affidavit for McCasland’s arrest, New Mexico State Police Agent Justin Tiemann charged that on Feb. 14, McCasland had struck his 7-year-old son repeatedly while McCasland was driving a motor vehicle.

According to the affidavit:

• Portales police were called to investigate on Feb. 16 after the boy’s mother called about possible child abuse. Portales Police Officer Johann Jiminez reported he saw bruising on the child’s chest.

• In interviews, McCasland said he had struck the boy as discipline after the boy had taken a toy from his 4-year-old sister, who was also in the vehicle.

• McCasland told police he had probably gone too far, but said the boy had smiled at him when he told him to give the toy back to his sister and had been defiant all day. In addition, McCasland noted, his mother had passed away recently.

• The boy and his sister were interviewed about the incident in the presence of Children Youth and Families Department employees.

A warrant was issued Monday for McCasland’s arrest. As of Friday, jail records from the Roosevelt County Detention Center indicate McCasland had not been arrested. Ninth Judicial District Attorney Brian Stover said he did not believe McCasland’s arrest warrant had been served.

An attempt to reach McCasland on Friday was unsuccessful.

In April, McCasland was sentenced to 182 days in the Roosevelt County Detention Center after a bench trial in which he was convicted of receiving a stolen television worth less than $250, making the charge a misdemeanor.

In passing the sentence, Judge Drew Tatum said he made McCasland’s sentence strong because McCasland had broken the law while he was a law enforcement officer.

McCasland has since appealed the sentence, and was released on $1,000 bond based on that appeal. The appeal, filed June 14, is based on a contention that a person cannot be convicted for possession of stolen property that he stole himself, according to a statement filed in the appeal by McCasland’s attorney, Dean Border.

McCasland was accused of stealing the television in a burglary he committed in 2014 when he was a police officer in Angel Fire. Charges related to that burglary were dismissed in Colfax County because the statute of limitations had run out, according to Stover.

New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas has filed a memorandum in opposition in the case of McCasland’s appeal in which he argues that a person who steals an item can indeed be charged with possession of that same item.

“He can’t be convicted of both,” Stover said.