A Colorado prosecutor said Wednesday that an immigration officer has been charged with third-degree assault and criminal mischief following an investigation into the treatment of a protester seen being put into a chokehold.
Multiple videos show a masked federal agent placing Franci Stagi in what she described as a chokehold, and pulling her over to the other side of the street. Colorado is among several states to prohibit or severely limit the use of chokeholds and by police officers since George Floyd’s death in 2020.
The protests took place over the detention on Oct. 27 of three Colombian asylum-seekers — a man and two children — while on their way to and from school in the morning. In late October, protesters gathered outside an ICE facility in Durango — a college town and destination for outdoor recreation in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado.
The altercation started as Stagi filmed the agent, who was moving camping gear that was left near the gated entryway to the building. She told The Associated Press at the time that the agent hit her hand hard, either taking her phone or causing her to drop it.
Stagi, a retired hypnotherapist, said she touched the agent’s shoulder to get his attention and then he grabbed her by the hair, put her neck in the crook of his arm and carried her across the street by her head. She said he threw her down an embankment next to the street.
A spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection acknowledged a request seeking comment but didn’t immediately respond to questions about the charges. Court documents didn’t list any attorney as representing the officer, Nicholas Rice.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigations launched its own investigation at the request of Durango Police Department Chief Brice Current, who raised concerns about possible violations of state law — an unusual if not unprecedented request.
Chokeholds have been at the center of public discourse and state legislative initiatives about what constitutes an unreasonable use of force since Eric Garner died in New York in 2014 after he was put in a chokehold by a white police officer.
Garner’s dying words, became a rallying cry for the
While some states have banned chokeholds and other tactics, sweeping changes were met with resistance.
A federal package of reforms that would have banned chokeholds nationwide passed the U.S. House in 2021 but failed to reach then-President Joe Biden’s desk. The bill was named in honor of George Floyd, who died in Minneapolis in May 2020 after a white police officer pressed his knee to his neck.
Within a month of George Floyd’s death, Colorado lawmakers approved a ban on chokeholds as part of broader police reform legislation. The law overrode more limited chokehold restrictions that were put in place four years earlier.
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Slevin reported from Denver. Lee contributed to this report from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
