A Santa Fe Police officer was arrested in Rio Rancho earlier this month for battery against a household member.
Rio Rancho Police were called to a home on 4th Ave. NE on April 9 to investigate a 911 hangup. According to a criminal complaint, a woman at the residence said that she called 911 after she and her boyfriend, 37-year-old Christopher Lamoreux, got into a verbal argument that turned physical. She told police that Lamoreux grabbed her arm, struck himself repeatedly in the face with her fists and shoved her chest while she was on the ground. The complaint says that the woman had finger marks on her arm that were “consistent with someone else applying force.”
According to the complaint, the woman told police that she hung up immediately after the 911 call because Lamoreux was a police officer and she thought that the responding officers would not believe her version of the events.
According to police, Lamoreux said that the only force he may have applied to his girlfriend was when he slid past her after she scratched him in the face. He denied putting his hands on her or applying any intentional force. Lamoreux told police he did not know how she got the marks on her arm, and that she may have gotten bruises from falling over the weekend. The police report says Lamoreux had red marks and a scratch on the side of his face.
According to court records, this isn’t the first time the couple has been involved in a domestic dispute. Last April, Lamoreux’s girlfriend was arrested and charged with abuse of a child, criminal damage to property, assault and battery against a household member, and interference with communications during another alleged domestic incident. Those charges were dismissed.
Lamoreux was booked into the Sandoval County Detention Center on one count of battery against a household member.
The Signpost reached out to Santa Fe Police for a response but did not hear back as of press time.