Bernalillo County deputy indicted in teen use-of-force case

A Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office deputy has been indicted after body-camera footage captured him shoving and slamming a 16-year-old girl outside the county youth center, turning a use-of-force review into a criminal case. The charges against Bryan Lassley put a spotlight on how deputies are trained and supervised when they encounter minors in one of the county’s most sensitive settings.

The incident happened Dec. 3, 2025, outside the Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention and Youth Services Center near Second Street and Griegos Road. Deputies had been called to a disturbance involving a teenage girl who had left the facility. Investigators said the teen had allegedly injured two sheriff’s deputies and a court security officer before Lassley arrived to photograph the juvenile, who was already detained. Lapel footage later showed Lassley shoving and slamming the girl into a patrol vehicle.

Lassley had already been on paid leave since the incident, and Sheriff John Allen said the department would fire him after an investigation led by New Mexico State Police and the Multi-Agency Task Force. Bernalillo County said the completed case was forwarded to the Second Judicial District Attorney’s Office for review before prosecutors presented it to a grand jury. The district attorney’s office announced on June 8, 2026, that Lassley had been indicted on child abuse and felony aggravated battery charges.

The indictment does not resolve the criminal case, but it gives prosecutors a formal path forward in court and adds a separate legal consequence to the internal discipline process already underway. For the sheriff’s office, the case raises immediate questions about whether current training, supervision and body-camera review are sufficient when deputies are dealing with juveniles, especially near a detention center where restraint and de-escalation should be paramount.

The broader setting matters. The Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention and Youth Services Center is the state’s largest juvenile detention facility, with 78 beds. Bernalillo County said 401 youth were booked there in fiscal year 2025, and about 20 percent came from other New Mexico counties. The county estimates it spends about $570 per youth each day to operate the facility, which has a fiscal year 2026 budget of $13.9 million.

The center has also faced continuing strain. In February 2025, it was reported at max capacity for juvenile males. With New Mexico now operating just four juvenile detention centers, down from 14 two decades ago, the Bernalillo County facility sits at the center of the state’s juvenile justice system, making accountability in cases like this all the more consequential.