Jury hangs for a second time in trial of former Albuquerque officer

For the second time in less than a year, jurors failed to reach a verdict Wednesday in the trial of a former Albuquerque police officer charged with illegally arresting a mentally disabled man trying to buy a bicycle at a Target store in 2022.

Kenneth Skeens, 30, walked out of the 2nd Judicial District Courthouse after jurors hung on all three criminal charges he faced, including felony charges of false imprisonment and perjury and one misdemeanor count of filing a false police report.

Judge Britt Baca declared a mistrial after jurors confirmed that no amount of deliberation would resolve the deadlock. Jurors began deliberating late Tuesday afternoon and concluded about 1 p.m. Wednesday.

The result was identical to that of Skeens’ first trial in April 2024, when jurors also failed to reach verdicts on the same charges.

Prosecutors with the New Mexico Department of Justice declined to immediately say whether they plan to try Skeens for a third time. Prosecutors have two weeks to decide whether to retry him.

In her closing arguments on Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General Johnna Walker said that Skeens had no authority to forcibly remove 53-year-old Matthew McManus from the store as he struggled to purchase a bicycle at a self-checkout register on Aug. 19, 2022.

“Kenneth Skeens abused the power vested with him as a law enforcement officer and he wrongfully arrested Matthew McManus that day,” Walker told jurors.

Skeens was looking for an excuse to arrest McManus and pressured the store’s loss-prevention officer for permission to cite McManus for criminal trespass, Walker argued.

“Kenneth Skeens should have gotten a clear and unequivocal answer from Target before he decided to detain Mr. McManus,” she said. Skeens called in the incident by radio as a shoplifting call, she said.

“It’s a lie to cover up that he fully intends to arrest Mr. McManus,” Walker told jurors. “There was no shoplifting. Mr. McManus is attempting to pay. He clearly has money.”

Throughout the six-day trial, jurors repeatedly watched Target security video that showed McManus handling wads of cash on the self-checkout register as he tried to buy a blue Huffy bicycle at his side.

Jurors also viewed police lapel-camera video showing Skeens and a second officer confront McManus at the register, then pull him from the store as McManus resisted. When McManus refused to provide identification, officers cuffed him and put him in the back of Skeens’ patrol car.

Skeens’ attorney, John D’Amato, said the officer acted at the request of Target’s loss-prevention officer’s request to remove McManus for criminal trespassing.

“You don’t need a crime to criminally trespass somebody,” D’Amato told jurors.

“McManus did not commit a crime,” D’Amato said. “No one is saying he did. All we’re saying is that the proprietor wanted him out. What was Skeens to do?”

Target managers wanted McManus removed because he had remained at a self-checkout register for at least 15 minutes, D’Amato told jurors.

“If you are blocking a point of sale, that’s blocking income to the store,” he said. “This unfolded, just as you saw, as a simple criminal trespass case, not shoplifting.”

Skeens was fired from the Albuquerque Police Department in February 2023 following an investigation into the incident at the Target at Coors and Paseo del Norte NW.

Jurors last week heard testimony from Ty Hunt, who worked as Target’s asset protection specialist the night of McManus’ arrest. Hunt said he gave Skeens permission to “make contact” with McManus, but not to cite him for criminal trespass.

Testifying in his own defense on Monday, Skeens acknowledged that he repeatedly asked Target’s loss-prevention officer for permission to “stop” McManus and issue the disabled man a citation for criminal trespass.