Archuleta County’s community newspaper, the Pagosa Springs SUN, posted a story last Thursday, with a link to several clips of body cam footage documenting the arrest of 68-year-old Gerald Manzanares by Archuleta County Sheriff’s deputies, during a response to an alleged parking violation.
The incident reportedly resulted in an internal investigation.
The various video clips are posted at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUc04A2Z5w_hPp3lS9RepZg
Below is one of the clips, approximately 22 minutes long. The arrest, by Sgt. Brian Reis, begins at about 4:30 minutes.
According to the SUN story by reporter Randi Pierce, “Manzanares’ family released a video showing a portion of the incident and voiced complaints over the arrest and how it was carried out, as well as claiming Manzanares was unlawfully arrested.”
According to Ms. Pierce, the Sixth Judicial District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case against Mr. Manzanares, with District Attorney Christian Champagne explaining in an email that his office “felt that the original infraction did not justify an arrest, and that it was in the interests of justice to dismiss the case.”
From that article:
Both deputies involved in the incident were placed on paid administrative leave during the investigation, which looked into possible violations relating to abuse of force, failure to intervene or other ACSO policy violations.
“Over the course of the investigation, our office conducted an internal investigation, which was also reviewed by outside use-of-force experts to give a outside review,” Archuleta County Sheriff Rich Valdez said on March 1…
Ms. Pierce reported that the internal investigation concluded on February 28, and that the Sheriff’s Office determined that there were no policy violations for use of force or failure to intervene by Deputy Cody Civiletto. She quoted Sheriff Rich Valdez as stating: “The investigation determined there were no policy violations relating to use of force by Sgt. Reis, but there were additional sheriff’s office … policies that violations … were sustained…”
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.