Today at 10 am, a letter was released by Mesa County District Attorney, Dan Rubinstein, declining to criminally prosecute deputies Michael Hand and Philip Peterson. This decision comes after over a month of investigation. “I believe there is not a clear charge to prosecute,” said Rubinstein, adding “I do not believe that I have a reasonable likelihood of conviction at any trial in this matter.”
Rubenstein further notes that even if he did prosecute, deferred judgement or diversion, were the most likely outcome. “Thus, whatever the response that we would offer, is not likely to satisfy the community’s need for a response,” said Rubenstein in the letter.
The decision not to prosecute largely rested with Peterson’s beliefs. He believed that the students words constituted Disorderly Conduct, though that likely isn’t the case, his mere belief was enough to justify the detention and therefore the use of force. Similarly, Peterson’s mere belief that there was a chance that the student had a weapon in his pockets, was justification for the use of force. The student never even faced the deputy. There was no evidence indicating that the student had a weapon. After getting patted down no weapons were found. The fact that no weapons were found did not make it into the DA’s 19-page letter.
Minutes after the DA released their letter, Mesa County Sheriff Todd Rowell, released a statement detailing the consequences for the deputies and the future education and additional trainings for future SRO’s. Rowell’s letter states: “On April 24, 2024, two deputies with the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office School Resource Unit responded to an altercation at Central High School. As a result of that incident, the Professional Standards Unit of the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office immediately engaged in a comprehensive internal investigation of the incident. Several days later, the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) was activated to investigate a use of force complaint. Upon completion of the CIRT investigation, the findings were forwarded to the 21st Judicial District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney Rubinstein announced his findings and decision regarding any charges on June 22, 2024. Due to the public interest in this case and the completion of both investigations, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office is releasing the entirety of the Internal Investigation. The investigative documents can be located on the Mesa County Sheriff’s Website. Created Jun 21st, 2024 @ 6:51 PM | Updated Jun 22nd, 2024 @ 10:07 AM”
Deputy Hand will be suspended for 5 days, without pay, and is also being transferred from “Patrol School Resource Officer” to “Patrol Deputy.” He has also been ordered to attend two trainings: De-escalation, and Constitutional use of Force.
Sourced via CRIMEWATCH®: CRIMEWATCH and Mesa County
On April 30, an investigation was launched by the 21st Judicial Districts Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) into a use of force incident involving two School Resource Officers at Central High School.
CIRT is usually employed in cases of officer involved shootings, traffic incidents involving on-duty police officers resulting in death or serious injury, in-custody deaths and use of force that results in serious injury, or when requested by the chief of any partner agency. The CIRT team is comprised of investigators from the MCSO, Colorado Bureau of Investigations, Highway Patrol, Colorado Department of Corrections, the District Attorney’s Office, and area Police Departments.
The CIRT investigation was specifically requested by Sheriff Todd Rowell because of the public attention and outcry after videos of the incident made their way around social media. The MCSO’s Professional Standards Unit had been investigating the incident since April 24. The Grand Junction Police Department lead the CIRT investigation and per CIRT standards Deputies Peterson and Hand have been on paid administrative leave since April 30.
It’s noteworthy that the DA’s letter to the CIRT team doesn’t include any stills taken from the numerous videos of the incident, to back up their narrative. Other CIRT letters usually include images. It is almost as if the video and images don’t match the official narrative.
On April 24th, Mesa County Sheriff Deputies and School Resource Officers, Michael Hand and Philip Peterson, responded to a verbal altercation between two groups of students in the parking lot of Central High School in Clifton, Colorado.
One student, as teenagers are prone to do, talked back to Deputy Peterson. Peterson turns angerly and takes twelve steps towards the student to reengage and roughly grabs him to take him to the office.
The student complies, walking with Peterson to the office. The student’s hands are in his pockets and Peterson’s hand is on the student’s back. When the student shrugs his shoulders and tries to step away from Petersons’ un-needed and unwanted touch, Peterson squares up and shoves the student from behind, whose hands are still in his pockets.
The student doesn’t react to being shoved, except to steady himself. Then Peterson reaches around the student’s neck with his right hand pulling the student backwards by the neck. At that same moment the student finally takes his hands out of his pockets, reaching up to protect his neck. Peterson then bodily slams the student to the ground by the neck, placing him briefly into a chokehold on the ground before quickly forcing the student into a prone position and kneeling on his back.
The whole scuffle lasted about one minute and fifteen seconds.
“You don’t have to grab me like that,” said the victim after he was cuffed and being walked to the office. “Don’t pull away from me then,” Peterson replied. Giving the scene a real [Cartman from South Park voice] ‘respect my authorita,’ vibe.
With the victim cuffed, Hand charged out into the parking lot to detain another student that has had issues with Deputy Hand in the past. A white student in a red shirt is seen in the video actively attempting to interfere with the officers and dozens of students are yelling, shocked at the sudden display of violence in their school. Yet, it is not clear why Deputy Hand singled-out this one student for yelling/obstructing during this incident.
On April 29, the MCSO released the bodycam footage from both deputies involved in the incident and footage from a school security camera. The release had all the hallmarks of a PR campaign attempting to poison the well of public opinion against the students. But the post incident bodycam footage shows instead the deputies early attempts to craft and spin a narrative simply not borne out by the video evidence. Much like the DA’s letter there was a lot of information included that have zero bearing on the legal issues at hand and are instead included only to discredit the students.
At one point Peterson checks in with Hand, “The moment he did it, grabbed him, let’s go. You don’t fucking pull away from me, bud, sorry,” said Peterson. Which really makes it seem personal and not like he rationally decided the fine legalities of a Disorderly Conduct charge.
The decision to release these findings on a Saturday, let alone Saturday on Country Jam weekend, speaks to their efforts to bury this story. Country Jam in the Grand Valley’s largest most well attended event of the year.
It doesn’t appear that either of the investigations got into the systemic discrimination that Chicanx students experience at Central High School every day. Did nobody wonder why so many students were filming before the excessive force incident even began?
An anonymous mother of a student at Central High School voiced the concerns held by many in the community. “We are holding children who do not yet have fully developed brains more accountable for their actions than we do adults who are fully capable of making good decisions,” she said. The lack of criminal charges against the deputies “leaves me feeling bitter and resentful of those in authority.”
The Revolutionist 