A Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s deputy issued a summons to a Velarde man on two counts of felony child abuse, without providing any evidence in the court record that children were present at the scene.
Deputy Joey Graves issued a summons to Bryan Salazar, 36, who also has an address in Albuquerque listed, on two counts of child abuse, a third degree felony, and one count each of negligent use of a deadly weapon and resisting arrest.
Graves’s criminal complaint against Salazar also contains no narrative, mention or evidence of a deadly weapon.
Graves issued a summons for Salazar to appear for an arraignment on Jan. 26, after he was not cleared to be incarcerated by staff at the Española Hospital “due to his on-going illness.” The illness is unlisted. Graves contacted Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid, who told Graves to release Salazar.
In the four-paragraph criminal complaint Graves submitted for the summons, he wrote that he was sent to a house on Private Drive 1088 on Dec. 24 for a domestic violence incident and a father said his son was armed and did not know where he was.
“Please read victim’s statement,” he wrote.
The victim’s statement is not in the court record.
Deputies then spotted someone moving the blinds of the house and the victim said it was probably his son. Deputies yelled for Salazar to come out and eventually he opened the door, yelled at them, crouched behind a bar on the patio, jumped over it and started running around the house, Graves wrote.
Deputies chased him but lost him, as it was dark. As they headed back to the house, Graves saw a foot sticking out between two trash cans. After ordering Salazar to show deputies his hands, Graves shot him with his stun gun, then handcuffed, arrested him on the charges and took him to the hospital, where he was not cleared for incarceration, he wrote.
Any evidence or mention of children is missing from the criminal complaint to issue the summons and to substantiate charges of child abuse. Also missing is any mention of a weapon, to substantiate the misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.
While Graves tried to arrest Salazar on Dec. 24, his criminal complaint was not time stamped as received by the court until Jan. 6 and he did not add a date to his signature on the criminal complaint.