‘Pure vengeance’: ‘Disgruntled’ former DeForest police intern explains why he posted video of chief

Report: Police chief 'remorseful' over incident

Rose Schmidt by Rose Schmidt

The man who posted a controversial video of DeForest Chief Dan Furseth to YouTube in 2015 explained why he posted it to News 3.

“When I put it up there, I had every intent to end his career for betraying me,” said Alexei “Alex” Strelchenko, who goes by the name Defiant Drone Pilot on YouTube.

News 3’s attempts to contact Furseth have been unsuccessful.

The video in question shows Furseth making fun of a group of well-dressed black men walking into a Steak ‘n Shake restaurant. Furseth filmed the video using Strelchenko’s camera.

The video was filmed in 2007, but Strelchenko didn’t post it on the social media site until 2015. Village officials said Furseth found the video on YouTube in May 2018 and told village officials about it. At that time, village officials placed Furseth on administrative leave and opened an outside investigation into his conduct.

The results of the investigation, conducted by a former Boulder, Colorado police chief, were released this week.

“I could find nothing, other than the video in question, to suggest that Chief Dan Furseth is racist,” consultant Mark Beckner said in the report.

The consultant said in the report that the police chief filmed the video on his own time 11 years ago while attending a fire department extrication event with his wife. The report said Furseth could not explain why he filmed it, but he found the situation “humorous” at the time. Furseth told the consultant he was “remorseful” over the incident and has grown since that time.

The report called Strelchenko a “former disgruntled intern.” In 2007, the year the video was made, Strelchenko was a police intern, and Furseth was his mentor.

“At the time, he was a lieutenant — good friend of mine, father figure,” Strelchenko told News 3.

Strelchenko said Furseth borrowed his camera to “mess around with it.” He said it was a camera that could fit inside a pocket, and Furseth was always on the cutting edge of technology. Strelchenko said Furseth tried to delete the video before returning the camera.

“He formatted the SD card at least two times, but I have software that could defeat that up to five formats,” Strelchenko said.

Strelchenko kept the video under lock and key for eight years. In 2015, he was cited for unlawfully flying a drone through DeForest neighborhoods.

“It was my dad’s drone. I just wanted to practice flying it. I wasn’t trying to harass anyone,” Strelchenko explained. “But some people took it really personally like I was spying on them.”

Strelchenko said he went to Furseth’s house and asked him to tell his police force to let him fly his drone. He said Furseth did not do that.

“He had a choice to prevent it, but he chose not to, so I had to do what I had to do,” Strelchenko said. “I don’t handle betrayal very well at all.”

It was at that time that he posted the video to YouTube. He said he had every intention of ending Furseth’s career, saying his motives for posting the video were “pure vengeance.”

But after all this time, he said he still believes Furseth is an honorable man.

“Dan Furseth is actually the best lawman I’ve ever met — the best peace officer, most honest one, the least racist one, and I was very sad to see him go,” Strelchenko said.

The investigation into Furseth found no evidence of explicit racial bias within the police department. However, in the report, Beckner said he did find “potential red flags that could indicate some implicit racial bias in how the department operates.”

After Furseth was placed on administrative leave, he indicated to village officials that he wanted to resign, according to Village President Judd Blau. Blau said the village extended a severance offer to Furseth but he has yet to accept.

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