Court Upholds Former Albuquerque Police Officer’s Conviction for Obstruction of Justice
| U.S. Attorney’s Office November 14, 2012 |
ALBUQUERQUE—The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has affirmed the conviction and sentence of former Albuquerque Police Officer Brad Ahrensfield, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales.
Ahrensfield, 47, was indicted on December 3, 2009, and charged with obstruction of justice and making false statements to the FBI.
The charges were based on allegations that Ahrensfield had tipped off a friend, who was a target of an ongoing federal narcotics and stolen merchandise investigation, and lied to FBI agents about disclosing the investigation.
In April 2010, a jury acquitted Ahrensfield on the false statements charge but failed to reach a verdict on the obstruction of justice charge. The case was retried, and the jury returned a guilty verdict on the obstruction of justice charge on December 16, 2010.
On September 19, 2011, Ahrensfield was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of six months and one day, followed by six months of home confinement with GPS monitoring, and three years of supervised release.
Ahrensfield has been on conditions of release pending a ruling on his appeal.
Ahrensfield appealed his conviction and sentence based on various claims of error by the trial court. Today, the Court of Appeals rejected all of Ahrensfield’s arguments and affirmed his conviction and sentence in a 29-page published opinion.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tara C. Neda and Gregory J. Fouratt and was investigated by the FBI, with assistance from the Albuquerque Police Department.