Brief by Central Staff
Law Enforcement – March 2004 – Colorado Central Magazine
Practice may make perfect, but this wasn’t a perfect way to practice. Scott Glenn, a jailer for the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Department in Salida, was put on paid administrative leave after an inmate said Glenn used a Taser stun-gun on him during a jailer training session last fall.
The inmate, 42-year-old Thomas Montoya of Cañon City, said it happened on Oct. 17, 2003. Half a dozen sheriff’s employees were practicing the use of the stun gun. It’s a generally non-lethal weapon which sends a jolt of electricity to incapacitate a person on the business end.
According to a Taser dealer, the stun-gun produces 50,000 volts, which “causes an instant loss of … neuromuscular control and any ability to perform coordinated action,” while producing “no long-term effects.”
The Chaffee sheriff’s department has two Tasers, both used in the jail, according to Sheriff Tim Walker, a Republican elected in 2002. Part of the jailers’ training was to learn how the Taser feels, so a deputy would kneel on an air mattress and get zapped — if he fell, he wouldn’t fall far, and he would fall onto a soft mattress.
Montoya said he was watching the class through a window when they called him in and zapped him. Other witnesses, according to Walker, “said he volunteered.” But either way, “it’s a violation of our policy to let any inmate participate in training.”
Montoya made the accusation in a letter sent to the Denver Post in February; the call from the Post was the first that Sheriff Walker heard of it.
Montoya said he feared retribution or a cover-up if he had reported it locally. As soon as the accusations were made public, he was transferred to the Park County Jail near Fairplay to serve out the remainder of his sentence for parole violation.
As we went to press, the district attorney’s office was investigating to see whether charges should be filed against Glenn. Investigator Leonard Post said that if there were charges, they would likely be misdemeanors like third-degree assault and official misconduct.
