From [HERE] A racist suspect trial judge in New Mexico on Thursday cleared a former police officer who was accused of killing a man by using a chokehold technique, a practice that has come under intense scrutiny in recent years amid calls for police reform.

The former officer, Christopher Smelser of the Las Cruces Police Department, had faced a charge of second-degree murder in the death of Antonio Valenzuela, 40, after the father of four fled from officers in February 2020 during a traffic stop in Las Cruces, a city about 45 miles west of El Paso.

Officers gave chase and fired their stun guns twice. However, the tasers did not connect. Smelser deployed it again, and misses again, in the early part of the chase.

Valenzuela runs to a chain-link fence and climbs over it. Smelser tries to grab Valenzuela on the fence but is unable to pull him down. Smelser, who loses his Taser at this point, also climbs over the fence.

On the other side of the fence, about 24 seconds after the chase began, Valenzuela begins fighting with Smelser and Tuton. The fight goes to the ground.

About a minute into the fight, Smelser gets control and tries to apply a vascular neck restraint and says: "Alright, you know what? I'm going to f***ing choke you out, bro." 

About 35 seconds later, Smelser seems to get a better hold. Forty seconds after that, Valenzuela can be heard snoring. Another 40 seconds elapse before Smelser lets go.

Valenzuela never regains consciousness. Valenzuela’s Adam's apple was crushed, he had swelling in the brain, fractured ribs and damaged blood vessels in his eyes consistent with strangulation. [MORE]

After hearing arguments from the defense and prosecutors on Thursday in a trial that began on Monday, Judge Douglas Driggers of Third Judicial District Court dismissed the charge against Mr. Smelser, 29, who could have faced up to 15 years in prison had he been convicted.

“The issue before the court is whether or not substantial evidence has been presented to this jury to show that this defendant intended to commit a crime,” Judge Driggers said in court after hearing arguments, according to The Las Cruces Sun News. “That intent was to cause the death or great bodily injury of the victim.”

Judge Driggers said there was insufficient evidence and dismissed the case, the newspaper reported.

Hector Balderas, New Mexico’s attorney general, whose office prosecuted the case, said in a statement that Judge Driggers “got it wrong by not allowing the jury to rule on the evidence of the illegal chokehold.”

“The judge’s decision today essentially acquits Smelser without the opportunity for the empaneled jury of Smelser’s peers to consider the evidence against him,” he said.

The Las Cruces Police Department declined to comment on Mr. Smelser’s acquittal, but said previously in a statement that the neck restraint used on Mr. Valenzuela was prohibited immediately after the episode.

At Smelser's preliminary hearing convenes with nearly four hours of testimony, including from one of LCPD's defensive tactics trainers, who claims the circumstances regarding Smelser's run-in with Valenzuela did not warrant him being placed in a vascular neck restraint and that Smelser placed him in the chokehold incorrectly. [MORE]

The City of Las Cruces settled with Mr. Valenzuela’s family in late 2020, agreeing to pay $6.5 million and make numerous policy changes for the Police Department, including banning chokeholds and immediately firing any officer who violates the policy.

Mr. Smelser, who was with the department for four years, was fired from the force in June 2020 after Mr. Valenzuela’s autopsy report was released, the department said. Fuck the police.