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Levi Frasier was merely an innocent bystander when he saw something that caught his attention – another instance of police brutality occurring right in front of him. He then decided to take out his tablet and record their barbaric actions.

Frasier witnessed Officer Charles “Chris” Jones IV of the Denver Police Department punching an unarmed man in the face and head several times. That man, David Nelson Flores, was left bloodied and bruised.

If that wasn’t brutal enough, one of the officers decided to trip an obviously pregnant woman, causing her to fall to the ground on her stomach. The woman, Mayra Lazos-Guerrero, was 7 ½ months pregnant at the time.

Frasier felt he was doing his duty to record the brutality unfolding. However, what he didn’t consider as a possibility, was that the police would target him for exercising his 1st Amendment rights by recording them.

According to a Federal lawsuit filed by Frasier, Officer Christopher Evans, along with other officers, surrounded him and threatened him with arrest, unless he ‘voluntarily’ turned over the video evidence of the beatings. At first, Frasier told the officers that he didn’t record any video, fearing they would delete the evidence if he admitted to having it.

It was then that one of the officers told Frasier that he couldn’t leave until he ‘voluntarily’ gave a witness statement about what he witnessed, and that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way”. Fearing for his safety, Frasier gave a witness statement, in writing, stating that he did not witness the beating or any other inappropriate actions committed by the Denver police.

Shortly after providing the statement, the officers took Frasier’s tablet anyway, deleting the video. However, Frasier’s tablet automatically backed up all photos/videos to the cloud, so the officer’s illegal actions were fruitless. Frasier later gave the video to a local television station, Fox 31.

Denver police released a statement concerning their officers’ actions that day. But, to the surprise of many, the Police Department defended the illegal actions of their officers, and decided to go after the local Fox affiliate for airing the video footage and corresponding news story. Even more concerning, they publicly released Frasier’s criminal records, as if somehow that negated what the officers were caught doing on video.

The Denver Police Department believes that Chris Halsne and Fox 31 have acted intentionally and irresponsibly in reporting this incident. We are issuing this press release to clarify facts, which were minimized, omitted, or misconstrued. Transparency is critical to DPD’s Chief White, and it is essential to maintaining a positive and trusting relationship with our community.

It’s hard to understand how the Denver Police Department can state the ‘truth is distorted’ when the video evidence, along with Frasier’s statements, corroborated everything that was said. But, in true ‘police fashion’, the officer who brutalized two people that day was never disciplined. In fact, he was promoted one week later to Sergeant.

After the press release was issued, Denver’s Citizen Oversight Board sent the Police Chief a letter, criticizing the PD’s response.

We strongly believe that it was not appropriate for the DPD to make these statements. There is already significant community concern and distrust of the DPD and IAB. Instead of thanking the witness who came forward to share information, the DPD publicly attacked his character. It is very likely that the DPD’s attacks on this witness will only reinforce fears in the community, and inhibit other members of the public from cooperating with DPD or IAB if they witness possible officer misconduct in the future.

Due to the illegal actions committed by police, a bill was introduced in Colorado that would fine police officers $15,000 for deleting video evidence or interfering with a citizens 1st Amendment rights.

A person who lawfully records an incident involving a peace officer and a peace officer either intentionally interferes with the person’s ability to record the incident or retaliates against the person making the recording has a private civil right of action against the peace officer’s employing law enforcement agency. In the action, the person who recorded the peace officer incident is entitle to actual damages, a civil penalty of $15,000, and attorney fees and court costs.