A woman who used to work for the National Rifle Association's Whittington Center has dropped a battery charge she filed in March against the center's executive director Mike Ballew, the Raton Range reported.

On May 8, just four days before the case was scheduled to go to trial, former employee Susan Valdez dropped the petty misdemeanor charge against Ballew, but couldn't be reached for comment on why she dismissed the case, the Range reported.

Valdez has previously declined to comment on why she brought the charges in the first place, and court documents do not spell out any details of the allegation, the paper said.

Ballew, the longtime head of Whittington Center, has been on leave from the nationally known shooting facility southwest of Raton since the charge was filed this spring, according to the Range.

NRA and local officials at the Whittington Center also have declined to discuss the case, saying it was a personnel matter, the Range reported. 

7:20am 4/8/08 -- NRA Shooting Center Head Charged: Employee of Whittington Center near Raton accuses executive director of battery.

Mike Ballew, the longtime executive director of the National Rifle Association's Whittington Center southwest of Raton, is being accused of misdemeanor battery against an employee at the center, the Raton Range reported.

Center employee Susan Valdez of Raton brought the case in Raton Magistrate Court on March 6, and on March 20 Ballew pleaded not guilty and waived his right to a jury trial, asking instead that a judge decide the case, the Range reported.

While court documents don't spell out the details of the alleged battery, state statutes define battery as "the unlawful, intentional touching or application of force to the person of another, when done in a rude, insolent or angry manner," the paper said.

Valdez, who is prosecuting the case herself, declined to comment on the case, while Ballew did not return the Range's phone calls and his Taos attorney, Carol Neelley, declined to comment.

Neither Valdez nor Ballew have been on the job at the center in recent weeks, and officials at both the Whittington Center and at the Fairfax, Va.-based NRA would not discuss Ballew's status, calling it a personnel matter, the Range reported. 

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