An immigration officer in southwest Colorado who was caught on video grabbing a protester by the hair and hurling her down an embankment last October was charged with assault and criminal mischief on Tuesday, the local district attorney said.
The case against the officer, Nicholas Rice, is one of a handful in which local prosecutors have filed criminal charges against federal agents carrying out President Trump’s immigration crackdown. It comes five days after local prosecutors in Minneapolis charged an immigration agent with assault after motorists said he had brandished a gun at them.
Sean Murray, the district attorney in the mountain town of Durango, Colo., said he had charged Mr. Rice with third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, and criminal mischief. He said Mr. Rice was charged through a summons, not an arrest warrant.
The officer’s agency, Customs and Border Protection, did not immediately reply to a request for comment about whether it would defend him, or whether Mr. Rice was still on duty. Last fall, the agency said that it was investigating the episode and that its agents were “held to the highest professional standard and guided by the highest ethical and moral principles.”
Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement erupted in Durango in late October after agents arrested a Colombian asylum seeker, as he drove his two children to school. The man later agreed to voluntarily return to Colombia with his children.
The arrests infuriated many in Durango, a liberal city that is home to Fort Lewis College. Dozens of protesters converged on a small ICE office on the edge of town, demanding that agents free the family.
One of the protesters, Franci Stagi, a 57-year-old retiree and avid camper and hiker, approached Mr. Rice, recording him with her phone and needling him for wearing a face covering. “You won’t even show your face?” she asked him.
Mr. Rice hit Ms. Stagi’s hand, knocking her phone away. When Ms. Stagi ran after the officer and touched his back to get his attention, he grabbed her by the hair, put her into a chokehold and threw her down an embankment.
The police chief in Durango was disturbed by the altercation, and asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to look into the federal agent’s conduct.
On Tuesday, Ms. Stagi said she was gratified to hear about the charges, but felt they were too lenient and said she was still shaken.
“I pretty much tried to hide after the assault,” she said in a text message. “I have become more paranoid. I try to keep it to myself, but my eyes are always scanning the area.”
Jack Healy is based in Colorado and covers the west and southwest.
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