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Mesa County Sheriff Disciplines Deputies, Urges AG to Drop Lawsuit

Sheriff Todd Rowell took action after an internal review found deputies violated Colorado’s ban on sharing personal data with ICE to resolve the fallout of a student’s two-week detention

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Albert Stoynov
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Overview

  • Deputy Alexander Zwinck was placed on three weeks of unpaid leave and removed from the Western Colorado Task Force after relaying 19-year-old Caroline Dias-Goncalves’s identifying information in a multiagency Signal chat
  • Deputy Erik Olson received two weeks of unpaid leave and was reassigned to patrol duties for his role in sharing data that led to Dias-Goncalves’s ICE arrest
  • Sgt. Joe LeMoine was suspended without pay for two days, Lt. David Holdren was reprimanded and Capt. Curtis Brammer received documented counseling following the administrative review
  • Sheriff Rowell apologized to Dias-Goncalves, acknowledged his office’s part in her 15-day federal detention and asked Attorney General Phil Weiser to withdraw the lawsuit against Deputy Zwinck
  • On July 28, the Department of Justice amended its federal challenge to Colorado’s SB25-276 to include the AG’s suit against Zwinck and launched a patterns-and-practices probe into local immigration-enforcement cooperation