GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) – Surveillance videos in the lobby of the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department show visitors and employees having coughing fits after a pepper-sprayed fugitive was delivered by Duane “Dog” Chapman.
The videos back up claims by Mesa County Sheriff Stan Hilkey that Chapman excessively pepper-sprayed the fugitive during a scuffle on July 20 and then took him into the sheriff’s office without properly decontaminating him.
The videos were released Wednesday by the sheriff’s department after The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel requested them under the Colorado Open Records Act. Chapman and his wife said they didn’t understand why the sheriff was upset because the suspect, Andrew Distel, was cleaned and fed.
Distel was wanted on warrants for failure to appear in two felony cases involving possession of methamphetamine
