DALTON, Ga. — The officer who pulled over and arrested Georgia college student Ximena Arias-Cristobal, 19, has resigned from the department.
City officials confirmed that Office Leslie O’Neal resigned from his position as a Dalton Police Department officer.
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Arias-Cristobal, who is undocumented, was arrested earlier this month after police say she made an illegal right turn and was driving without a valid license.
She spent more than two weeks in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody before being granted a $1,500 bond earlier this week.
After her arrest, Dalton police said that she was mistakenly pulled over. They say the officer involved intended to pull over another vehicle who had made an illegal right turn.
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Arias-Cristobal was reunited with her family in north Georgia late Thursday night.
She spoke with Channel 2’s Audrey Washington over the phone on Friday.
“Even with all the bad and a situation that no one wants to be in, I’m super grateful to have experienced what I’ve experienced,” she said.
She has lived in the United States since her parents brought her from Mexico at just 4 years old.
“We’re going to keep working on her case to try to keep her here permanently,” Arias-Cristobal’s attorney, Dustin Baxter, said. “She doesn’t have a permanent relative or citizen, spouse, parent or child. But if Dad wins his case, then she would have that qualifying relative.”
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