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Basalt man gets probation for impersonating a peace officer

John Gardner
Vail, CO, Colorado

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado – A Basalt man who pleaded guilty to impersonating a police officer last year was sentenced Tuesday to two years of probation in Garfield County District Court.

John E. Dalessandro, 51, also received a two-year probation sentence for pleading guilty to a separate count of misdemeanor menacing. That sentence is to run concurrently with the sentence for the felony impersonation charge.

Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Gail Nichols gave Dalessandro credit for 25 days he spent in Garfield County Jail after his July 26 arrest. Dalessandro will also have to write an apology letter to the victim in the case as part of his probation.



“I acted like a jerk, and I know what I did was wrong,” Dalessandro told Judge Nichols at his sentencing hearing.

He said also that there was no excuse for his actions and that medications he was on at the time may have caused his actions.

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Dalessandro was arrested in July 2009 in Glenwood Springs by Garfield County Sheriff’s deputies after the victim reported to authorities that they had been run off the road by a man in a green Subaru wagon, who identified himself as a “cop.”

According to the arrest report, Dalessandro approached the other vehicle on eastbound Highway 82 near the intersection of County Road 154, four days before his arrest. The report stated that Dalessandro flashed a badge at the driver of the other vehicle and yelled for them to pull over.

When the driver refused to pull over, the report stated that Dalessandro forced the vehicle off the road and blocked it from leaving.

Deputies found Dalessandro in possession of a fake badge and a black T-shirt with the Colorado State Patrol emblem on it at the time of his arrest.

Dalessandro’s attorney, John VanNess, requested that his client be allowed to serve his sentence in Florida, where he intended moving, to be closer to his parents. Nichols granted the request.

jgardner@postindependent.com


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