An immigration officer has been charged with third-degree assault and criminal mischief following an investigation into how he treated a protester who said the officer put her in a chokehold.
Multiple videos from bystanders show a masked agent grabbing and pulling Franci Stagi across the street during a protest in October against the detention of three Colombian asylum-seekers in Durango, Colorado. She said he grabbed her by the hair and put her in a chokehold. The state is among several that prohibited or severely limited police officers from using chokeholds and neck restraints since George Floyd’s death in 2020.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigations launched an investigation into the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer’s actions against Stagi at the request of Durango Police Department Chief Brice Current, who raised concerns about possible violations of state law — an unusual if not unprecedented request.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border Protection, called the prosecution “unlawful” and a “political stunt.” It said states have no authority to investigate such cases.
“Federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other Federal agencies,” DHS said in a statement.
The department said it was still investigating what happened in the incident.
Court documents didn’t list any attorney as representing the officer, Nicholas Rice.
Stagi said she was standing close to the officer and filming him outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Durango, a college town popular for outdoor recreation, when he hit her hand hard, causing her to lose her cellphone. Stagi, a retired hypnotherapist, said she then reached for the officer’s shoulder to get his attention. After she said he put her in a chokehold, she said he threw her down an embankment next to the street. She said she still experiences pain in her arm doing normal everyday activities, like putting on her jacket.
Court documents allege that Rice committed third-degree assault by causing bodily injury to Stagi, but the documents don’t describe how she was injured or make mention of a chokehold. Rice also is charged with criminal mischief for allegedly damaging Stagi’s cellphone.
Stagi said Wednesday she was disappointed Rice was charged with less serious crimes. The assault charge, a misdemeanor, carries a maximum sentence of just under a year in jail. But she hopes the prosecution sends a message that immigration officers can’t tackle people indiscriminately and use excessive force.
“It did open my eyes to how quickly I can be under someone else’s control, and it’s frightening,” said Stagi, whose legal name is Anne Francesca Stagi.
Federal law enforcement officers have broad legal protections when acting in the course of their official duties, and the Justice Department has in recent months taken a hard line against state efforts to arrest or prosecute federal agents. Late last year, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said arrests of federal officers performing their duties would be “illegal and futile,” citing the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and federal law. Legal experts say those protections are significant but not absolute and the Supremacy Clause does not provide blanket immunity.
Chokeholds have been at the center of public discourse and state legislative initiatives about what constitutes an unreasonable use of force since Eric Garner died in New York in 2014 after he was put in a chokehold by a white police officer.
Garner’s dying words, “ I can’t breathe ” became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.
While some states have banned chokeholds and other tactics, sweeping changes were met with resistance.
A federal package of reforms that would have banned chokeholds nationwide passed the U.S. House in 2021 but failed to reach then-President Joe Biden’s desk. The bill was named in honor of Floyd, who died in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed his knee to his neck.
Within a month of Floyd’s death, Colorado lawmakers approved a ban on chokeholds as part of broader police reform legislation. The law overrode more limited chokehold restrictions that were put in place four years earlier.
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Slevin reported from Denver, and Lee from Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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