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Drinks, knives and Eagle County deputies don’t mix

Dustin Racioppi
dracioppi@vaildaily.com
Eagle County, CO Colorado

EL JEBEL, Colorado ” Here’s a New Year’s resolution that may have floated through one El Jebel man’s head not even minutes into 2009: Don’t drink and drive, and don’t point guns at cops. –

At midnight on New Year’s, an Eagle County deputy pulled the man over for driving his Nissan sedan erratically ” the 20-year-old varied between driving in the travel lane and the shoulder of the road, the report said. And when he was driving straight, the report said he had his left blinker on. The deputy was undoubtedly suspicious and pulled the man over.

He was having a difficult time understanding English and following directions, though. He hopped out of the car when he was pulled over, and said he had to because the window of his car was broken. The deputy said the man was swaying back and forth, had bloodshot eyes and reeked of booze.



Then the deputy noticed a knife in the man’s right pocket. It was his cell phone, the man said, but the deputy didn’t believe him and told him not to touch it. Having difficulties following directions at the time, the man then grabbed the knife from his pocket and pointed it at the deputy.

The deputy one-upped him and pulled out his gun and pointed it at the man, telling him to drop the knife, which the deputy said wasn’t open. He also said the man didn’t appear to be willing or able to cause any harm.

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Eventually the man got rid of the knife “-by hurling it at the deputy, who then took the man into custody for DUI and failure to drive in a single lane. The deputy was kind enough, though, to take the man to where he worked so he could pass out for a few hours.

EDWARDS ” Peeing on the carpet was the last straw for a 24-year-old man’s mother-in-law, who said in a sheriff’s report that the man is an abusive person.

When the mother-in-law came home to her Edwards apartment ” where the son-in-law, his wife and 4-year-old daughter also live ” she saw a spot on the carpet and asked her granddaughter if she spilled water. The little girl said no and that her dad used it as a toilet then left to pick up his wife from work.

The grandmother said in the sheriff’s report she felt afraid to confront the man because he has been verbally abusive to her and physically abusive to his wife in the past. Instead, she confronted the wife, who then relayed the information to the husband. The sheriff’s report said he got upset, then started berating the mother-in-law in front of everybody. Another woman who lives in the house tried getting him to stop, but he allegedly pushed her and left the house.

The woman called 911 to see if deputies could track him down, which they couldn’t initially. But later they got a tip he might be with some friends in Eagle River Village, and that’s where deputies found him ” drunk and unable to follow simple directions from deputies, the report said. He was handed a summons for harassment and told not to go home that night.

But the young man summonsed the karma department soon after. Deputies received a phone call from the mother-in-law saying he was at the house and she feared for her safety. Deputies showed up and arrested the man for DUI.

EAGLE COUNTY ” After just five months of marriage, an Eagle man wasn’t ready to sign the divorce papers his wife served him on Dec. 29.

He was unsuccessful at getting the phone away from his wife while she was calling police. She called 911 after the two got into an argument because the man didn’t want a divorce, he told deputies. Dispatchers said all they heard on the other end of the line was a man and woman fighting, then the phone hung up. A few minutes later, the wife was able to tell dispatchers she wanted a deputy to come over because she said her husband slapped her in the face.

Even though deputies couldn’t see any marks or bruises on the woman’s face, they arrested the husband for domestic violence, obstruction of a telephone service and harassment.

Dustin Racioppi can be reached at 970-748-2936 or dracioppi@vaildaily.com.


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