Former Tribal Police Officer Indicted for Using Excessive Force and Falsifying a Report
A former tribal police officer was indicted for punching a handcuffed arrestee, causing serious injury, and falsifying a report to obstruct an investigation.
Jacob Christopher Slawson, 29, a former officer with the San Carlos Apache Police Department, was indicted today on two federal charges. The indictment alleges that Slawson struck a handcuffed arrestee in the face, rendering him unconscious, and then pulled him from a police vehicle, causing a head injury when the arrestee struck concrete. The incident resulted in bodily harm to the arrestee, according to court documents.
The indictment further claims that Slawson falsified a fellow detective’s report by adding false and misleading information after learning he was under investigation for excessive force. The falsification was allegedly intended to obstruct the investigation into his conduct. If convicted on both counts, Slawson faces up to 30 years in federal prison.
The charges were announced by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Timothy Courchaine for the District of Arizona, and FBI Phoenix Field Office Special Agent in Charge Rebecca Day. The case was investigated by FBI agents from the Tuscan Resident Agency and Phoenix Field Office.
The announcement emphasized that an indictment is not a finding of guilt; Slawson is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Separately, the Justice Department also announced it is monitoring polling sites in South Carolina for the state’s primary runoff election to ensure federal law compliance.