No reason was given why Officer O'Neal resigned, but I'd like to think that guilt played a role. But of course that wasn't it at all. (Scroll down.) His actions set off a series of events that left Ximena Arias-Cristobal in prison for two weeks for allegedly making an improper traffic turn.
Source: Atlanta News First/WNAF
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A Dalton police officer who wrongfully pulled over an undocumented teenager, later leading to her stay at an ICE detention center, has resigned from his job.
A spokesperson with the City of Dalton confirmed on Saturday that Leslie Allen O’Neal stepped down.
On May 5, Ximena Arias-Cristobal was stopped by police for allegedly making an improper turn and arrested for driving without a valid license. When officials discovered she was undocumented, the 19-year-old was taken to ICE’s Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.
But the next week, police said dashcam video showed O’Neal pulled the wrong car over. Arias-Cristobal’s charges were dropped afterward.
Despite the exoneration, Arias-Cristobal remained at the detention center for about two weeks before an immigration judge granted her a $1,500 bond. The teen returned home early Friday morning, met with tearful hugs and kisses from her family.
Arias-Cristobal told Atlanta News First she wouldn’t wish what she went through on her worst enemy.
“It’s not knowing what’s going to happen to me,” she said. “Knowing that I could be sent back to a country that I don’t know. Having to be torn apart from my family.”
Despite being undocumented, Arias-Cristobal has been in the United States since she was 4 years old. Her situation has caught national attention, further fueling the conversation about the Trump administration’s immigration restrictions and deportation efforts.
More on Ximena Arias-Cristobal. She came to the United States at age 4.
This is when Ximena Arias Cristobal the teenage student who was arrested by ICE by mistake was released from Detention! She had been locked up for over two weeks all for a mistake by the Police Department’s fault. This was a travesty and she should sue them! 😡 pic.twitter.com/C2EN81piqL
— Suzie rizzio (@Suzierizzo1) May 25, 2025
A Dalton college student released after more than 2 weeks in ICE custody says "people should fear being deported."
Watch the full clip of Ximena Arias-Cristobal here: https://t.co/irCUeucAM6 pic.twitter.com/g7GyazxYa0— WTVC NewsChannel 9 (@newschannelnine) May 23, 2025
And I was wrong, as usual. It wasn't guilt over his actions, but the "Dalton Police Department’s "inadequate response” to public accusations of false arrest and the ensuing community backlash as key reasons for his resignation." He was wronged, in other words. Not the teenager he handed over to the nazi agents from ICE.
Asshole.
