Drunk man who assaulted deputies sentenced

A Snowmass Village man who repeatedly assaulted police officers while intoxicated last summer will spend the next four years on probation.

Cody Morrison, 31, pleaded guilty Monday to felony second-degree assault on a police officer and misdemeanor third-degree assault in exchange for a plea deal that calls for the felony charge to be removed from his record if he completes the probationary period without getting into more trouble.

In addition to the four years of probation, Morrison will also have to serve 60 days in jail, complete 40 hours of community service and undergo both an alcohol and substance abuse evaluation and a mental health evaluation, according to the sentence handed down by District Judge Chris Seldin.

His lawyer, public defender Ashley Andrews, said Morrison was “extremely intoxicated” during the incident and doesn’t remember much of what happened. Morrison told Seldin he’s been sober ever since the August incident and was planning to continue his sobriety “throughout my life.”

Pitkin County sheriff’s deputies were called to the Intercept Lot at Highway 82 and Brush Creek Road on Aug. 13 after receiving a report of harassment on a Roaring Fork Transportation Authority bus, according to an affidavit filed in Pitkin County District Court. A 15-year-old girl on the bus told deputies that Morrison made derogatory comments about a 55-year-old woman on the bus.

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Morrison, who was slurring his words and drinking from a liquor bottle when interviewed, denied talking to anyone on the bus and said a group of women were bothering him, according to the affidavit. He was unable, however, to detail how he was being bothered.

Morrison later kicked a deputy in the side of the head as he was being arrested, then spit in another deputy’s face, the affidavit states. Later, at the Pitkin County Jail, Morrison head-butted another deputy while being placed in a restraint chair.

On Monday, prosecutor Don Nottingham said the plea deal was offered because of “law enforcement generosity” and that he initially thought Morrison “might be headed for prison.”