A Denver deputy was fired after a video of officers forced an inmate to walk through the hospital handcuffed and naked surfaced
A Denver internal affairs investigator was fired for doing exactly what he was hired to do but he’s not going away quietly. Brent Miller has been fired from the Denver Sherriff Department after refusing to destroy a videotape that contained evidence of police abuse and misconduct.
Miller had dedicated more than 26 years to the Adams County Sheriff department before going to work for the Denver Sheriff Department as an Internal Affairs Investigator. The Denver Sheriff department had a backlog of cases and Miller thought he could help make a difference.
“It was a huge challenge I loved it and looked forward to going to work every day,” said Miller in a CBS interview. Miller’s was assigned to investigate several complaints by jail inmate Christopher Colbruno. This month he was assigned another complaint made by Colbruno.
Sheriff’s deputies were transporting Colbruno to Denver Health Medical Center for medical attention, but at some point Colbruno defecated on himself. Before entering the hospital, deputies removed Colbruno’s clothing and walked him through hospital hallways naked, wearing only handcuffs. The staff at the Denver Health Medical Center were shocked and felt that Colbruno was being degraded and humiliated. The medical center filed a complaint against the Denver Sherriff Department. Miller was able to obtain a video of the incident from the Medical Center. Miller says after obtaining the video, Captain Paul Ortega approached him to get rid of it.
“He told me don’t upload it they’re making it go away. The Sherriff then told me to get rid of the video and I immediately told him that’s not ethical to get rid of evidence in a case.” Miller refused to get rid of the tape and passed it on to another investigator. The next day Miller was fired.
-Abesi Manyando(@abesipr)
