FORMER RUIDOSO, NEW MEXICO POLICE OFFICER INDICTED
ON CHARGES OF POLICE MISCONDUCT

WASHINGTON, D.C.– A former police officer with the New Mexico Ruidoso Police

Department was indicted today on charges of assaulting an individual in the custody of the Ruidoso Police Department, the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico announced today.

The three count indictment, returned in U.S. District Court in New Mexico today, charges that in November of 2001 defendant Alfred Clyde Stinnett slammed Susanne DiPaolo, an individual in police custody, to her cell floor while she was handcuffed. The indictment also alleges that former police officer Stinnett obstructed justice by submitting misleading information to investigators and tampering with a witness.

DiPaolo, a runaway teenager, was arrested by the defendant and was detained in a Ruidoso police cell pending transport to a juvenile facility.

The charges against Alfred Clyde Stinnett are the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of New Mexico. Prosecution of this case is being handled by trial attorney Allison Jernow of the Criminal Section of the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico, John Gallagher.

An indictment is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

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