A witness who recorded the August arrest on his Samsung Tablet tells Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne police not only seized the videotape over his objections, but when they returned it to him, the file was missing.

With the help of an electronic cloud, the witness recovered the 55 second video clip and provided a limited-use copy to FOX31 Denver for its investigation.

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The videotape shows Evans holding down the suspect’s legs. A burly undercover officer can be seen bear-hugging Flores, lying on his side on the asphalt parking lot. Flores has his hands pinned behind his back.

Officer Jones can be heard yelling at Flores to “Spit the drugs out! Spit the drugs out!”

When Flores fails to open his mouth, Jones punches him with a closed fist six times in the face.

The videotape shows the suspect’s head bouncing off the pavement as a result of the force. FOX31 Denver also obtained exclusive pictures of Flores inside an ambulance a short time later, which show obvious trauma to his head and face.

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While Officer Jones is punching Flores, the videotape captures the loud sounds of a woman screaming in Spanish for police to stop. A few seconds later, a visibly pregnant woman approaches the area where the officers are on top of Flores. Officer Jones reaches out and sweeps her feet out from under her. It appears on video, the woman, 25-year-old Mayra Lazos-Guerrero, falls hard on her stomach and face.

Officer Jones reported to a superior he thought the woman was going to kick him.


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t is apparent from the videotape at least one of the officers sees Frasier. The word “camera!” can be heard on tape shortly after Jones punches Flores.

Frasier tells FOX31 Denver, officers on scene threatened him with arrest — demanded he turn over all photos and videotape to them, then seized his tablet over his objections.

“When he took it, I said ‘Hey! You can’t do that. You need a warrant for that!’ and he said ‘What program did you take the video with? Where is that?’” Frasier told Halsne in a recorded interview.

Frasier says police ignored his objections and dug through his personal photos without obtaining a court order.

Frasier: “The first officer that comes up to ask me about my witness statement brings me to the police car and says we could do this the easy way or we could do this the hard way.”

Halsne: When they said we can do this the easy way or the hard way, how did you take that?

Frasier: “It was taken as ‘you can either cooperate and give us what we want or we’re going to incarcerate you.’”

Although official police reports mention an officer thought Frasier took video, there is nothing written about taking, searching, or possessing his tablet. That’s something Frasier swears occurred.

By the time the officer returned his tablet, Frasier tells Halsne, the video file was gone.

“I couldn’t believe it. My heart dropped. I know I just shot that video, like it’s not on there now?”

After Frasier got home, he tells FOX31 Denver he synched his tablet with his electronic cloud. Within a few moments, the video file reappeared. Frasier says it’s “possible” both he and the police officer who looked through his tablet “missed seeing” the clip inside his Tablet files. However, Frasier suspects, in reality, the clip was deleted either with intention or by mistake.

TO ALL PITT BULL AND ROTTWEILER OWNERS:

PLEASE BE INFORMED THAT THE VILLAGE OF MOREAUVILLE IS ENFORCING THE ORDINANCE THAT WAS PASSED ON OCTOBER 13TH, 2014 THAT BANS PITT BULLS AND ROTTWEILERS WITHIN THE CORPORATE LIMITS OF MOREAUVILLE, LA.

YOU ARE HEREBY GIVEN NOTICE THAT YOU HAVE UNTIL DECEMBER 1, 2014 TO REMOVE YOUR PITT BULLS OR ROTTWEILERS FROM YOUR PREMISES. IF YOUR PITT BULLS OR ROTTWEILERS ARE NOT REMOVED BY THIS DATE, YOUR ANIMALS WILL BE IMPOUNDED AND TRANSPORTED TO A VETERINARY CLINIC FOR FURTHER DISPOSITION. YOU WILL ALSO BE FINED FOR VIOLATING THE ORDINANCE.

A man is facing a felony menacing charge after two western Colorado sheriff's deputies say he pointed a banana at them and they thought it was a gun.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports 27-year-old Nathan Rolf Channing, of Fruitvale, was arrested Sunday.

According to an arrest affidavit, Mesa County deputies Joshua Bunch and Donald Love said they feared for their lives even though they saw that the object was yellow. Bunch wrote in the affidavit that he has seen handguns in many shapes and colors.

He wrote that Love was drawing his service weapon when Channing yelled, "It's a banana!"

The deputies say Channing told them he was doing a trial run for a planned YouTube video and he thought it would "lighten the holiday spirit."

According to a 2006 report by USA Today, “In an analysis of disciplinary cases against Florida cops from 1997 to 2002, the International Association of Chiefs of Police found that officers with only high school educations were the subjects of 75% of all disciplinary actions. Officers with four-year degrees accounted for 11% of such actions.”

A Buffalo cop facing two years in prison for kicking a man in handcuffs in an incident captured on video was handed probation today on the condition that he will serve as a role model for other officers inclined to beat citizens.

John Cirulli also threatened to arrest the man who had video recorded the incident if he did not delete the footage, but that tidbit apparently wasn't part of the charges the 31-year-old was facing.

Cirulli, who resigned from the force shortly after video of the April incident went viral, admitted he took the man's phone, checked it for a recording and handed it back when he found nothing.

But that was only because the man who recorded the incident handed the cop a different phone that did not contain the recording, fooling the cop into thinking nothing had been recorded.

Thanks to that experience, Cirulli is now an authority on the "dangers of civil rights violations" and is working with the FBI in providing training sessions to other cops on what not to do.

Evidently, this is something that is not addressed in the police academy.