ALBUQUERQUE — Filing charges is supposed to be a serious business, and the Albuquerque Police Department isn't laughing about the gag of an officer who altered a template for criminal complaints.

The form is supposed to read "State of New Mexico versus." Instead, the altered template reads "State of Your Momma versus."

The gag template was used to file charges against a man accused of punching his girlfriend, police said. The officer filling out the complaint apparently did not notice the alteration, investigators said.

"Unbeknownst to him, that prank kind of escalated to actually being filed as a formal document," said department Commander Conrad Candelaria. Now the department is conducting an internal investigation into the changed template.

The officer who was responsible remains on the job.



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