Deputy cops plea in on-video beating

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A former San Juan County deputy caught on video using his metal flashlight to beat a man he was questioning took a plea deal from federal prosecutors on Wednesday.

R. Dale Frazier, 57, of Flora Vista pleaded guilty to a civil rights charge from the beating of Donovan Tanner on March 17, 2011.

Frazier was investigating a bar fight on the night of St. Patrick's Day and was questioning Tanner when the assault occurred, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the case.

Tanner, 23, was hit twice as Frazier held him against the hood of a patrol car and three more times on the ground.

The dash camera in the patrol car recorded the assault.

“This guilty plea is an acknowledgment of the fact that the defendant in this case abused his law enforcement powers when he unnecessarily assaulted a person in his custody,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division said in a statement released after the plea hearing. “While law enforcement officers are always permitted to take reasonable steps to defend themselves and others from harm, our Constitution prohibits gratuitous assaults by officers."

Frazier was fired soon after the beating and later charged with unlawful assault with a dangerous weapon. A federal grand jury indicted him on the civil rights charge in June.

It is not clear what penalty Frazier faces when he is sentenced.