Former Las Animas deputies charged for 2022 incident

LAS ANIMAS COUNTY, Colo. ( KXRM ) — Two former Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office deputies have been charged with misdemeanors after tasing a man in the face in 2022.

On the day of the incident in November 2022, Espinoza and his son were driving separate cars. When his son got pulled over by Henry Trujillo and Mikhail Noel for a traffic citation, Espinoza also pulled over behind them to wait for his son.

While waiting, he was approached by Trujillo and Noel who told Espinoza to “get out of here” multiple times, according to Kevin Mehr, Espinoza’s attorney. After some back and forth, Espinoza pulled away to leave, but Noel changed his mind and began screaming at him to stay then both deputies handcuffed Espinoza.

In the body camera released in April 2023, Espinoza can be seen being handcuffed, hit with a Taser and jabbed with a stun gun. The incident gained local, state and national media coverage.

In July 2024, Trujillo and Noel were both charged with the same five misdemeanors:

• Third-degree assault
• Peace officer failure to intervene
• Official misconduct
• Official oppression
• Menacing

Both men were Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office deputies until late August 2023 when they were terminated after a third-party investigation by the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office determined they had violated Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office policy.

The 65-page report revealed there was no justifiable reason for Espinoza’s detainment and condemned the actions of Noel and Trujillo. Deputies interviewed during the investigation expressed their astonishment at the aggressive behavior displayed by the former deputies.

“We’ve all seen the body camera. It speaks for itself. This was just totally unjustified. It was brutal. And that’s what this report says that Ken had committed no law violation. That he had done absolutely nothing wrong,” said Mehr in a previous report.

Trujillo and Noel will both appear in court on Wednesday, July 24.

FOX21 reached out to the Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office for comment and has yet to receive a response.

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