South Burlington and Vermont State Police officers did not use excessive force or violate a state policy that limits their collaboration with immigration officials during a March 11 raid in South Burlington, according to internal reviews of the incident released by the departments this week. The la w enforcement agencies also released about 120 hours of bodycam footage from the incident, which Seven Days has not yet reviewed in its entirety. The reports come more than a month after the federal immigration enforcement action on a Dorset Street home erupted into a violent confrontation involving protesters and law enforcement, sparking heated debate and criticism over the role local police played on the scene. The two departments defended their officers’ conduct while placing blame on federal authorities for needlessly escalating the tensions.  In an introduction to the state police report released on Friday, Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison wrote that Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s “disregard for collaboration and community safety” represents “not only a deviation from accepted norms, but an unprecedented challenge to the integrity of law enforcement as a whole.”  She noted that she will be sending the report to senior leadership at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, and is requesting a meeting with them to discuss her concerns. The report says state police received 25 complaints related to the incident, three of which were specific enough to investigate. After reviewing the relevant bodycam footage, investigators determined that the officers had not used excessive force, Morrison wrote. The South Burlington Police Department’s findings were detailed in a 100-page report compiled by Police Chief Bill Breault, along with more than 51 videos containing about 60 hours of bodycam footage that the department uploaded to YouTube.  The department received 27 citizen complaints about the incident through its complaint portal, as well as emails and voicemails. None were “determined to be actionable,” the report says, “meaning no complaint identified a specific victim or person impacted by alleged misconduct by a South Burlington Police officer.” The Burlington Police Department, which also sent officers to Dorset Street, has not yet released bodycam footage or final reports. At least one officer there has been accused of excessive force, and the city reported the department received 121 complaints about its actions that day. Several protesters were cited or arrested at the scene, but Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George said on Friday that she will not be bringing charges against three people who were cited by Burlington police. Two individuals had been cited for hindering arrest, one for resisting arrest, and another for assault on a law enforcement officer. Instead, George referred the three cases to the Burlington Community Justice Center for a “restorative process” between the protesters and law enforcement. Her office is still working to make a determination about the three cases referred by Vermont State Police. Those arraignments are scheduled for April 23. In a series of public hearings before state legislators and Burlington and South Burlington city leaders in the weeks after the raid, dozens of community members strongly condemned local police officers’ actions on Dorset Street. Some testified that they had been assaulted by officers, and many argued that police clearly violated the state’s Fair and Impartial Policing Policy, which prohibits collaboration between local officers and federal immigration agents in most cases. State police in particular were criticized for bringing in a specialized team that helped clear protesters away from the house so federal agents could enter. Morrison said their actions were justified because they were preserving public safety by creating a buffer between protesters and federal agents.  The bodycam footage shines a new light on local officers’ interactions with ICE agents and protesters throughout the day, which began with a car chase that resulted in multiple crashes on Dorset Street. In the early morning hours of March 11, ICE agents had been staking out a house in search of a Mexican man named Deyvi Daniel Corona Sanchez, who was allegedly in the country illegally and had recently been charged with drunk driving in Middlebury. When two men emerged from the house and got into a car, the agents pursued, attempting to box them in at a nearby apartment complex. The driver sped away, crashing into several parked cars, an agent’s car, and then into an oncoming minivan on Dorset Street, before the two occupants ditched the car in the middle of the street and fled into the house they had just left.  It has since emerged that neither of the car’s occupants were Corona Sanchez, and ICE admitted in a court filing that the pursuit began with a case of mistaken identity.  Footage from South Burlington Officer Justin Maki’s bodycam captures the aftermath of the car chase, which brought local police to the scene. Maki can be heard questioning ICE agents about what happened. They repeatedly say that the crash amounted to an assault on them by the fleeing suspect.  But ICE agent Colton Riley appears to admit at 7:53 a.m. that he wasn’t sure of the driver’s identity — which contradicts what he later put in writing to get a warrant to search the house. “What’s the male’s name?” Maki asks Riley and another unidentified agent, who shows Maki something on his phone. “Assuming that’s him,” Riley says. “Doesn’t matter at this point, but.” Soon after, another ICE agent who says he’s a supervisor, David Johnston, arrives on scene and tells Maki they plan to get a warrant to prosecute the driver for assault on a federal officer. By afternoon, a large crowd of protesters had gathered outside the Dorset Street home. At about 12:30p.m., as tensions escalated, South Burlington Deputy Chief Sean Briscoe asked to have a private conversation with Johnston and another ICE agent. “What is the plan?” Briscoe says.  “We’re getting a warrant and we’re gonna fucking enforce the warrant,” Johnston replies. “We’re gonna fucking take those dudes.” “At what point does it become not worth it for one person?” Briscoe asked. “When my management says it’s not,” Johnston replied.  Another agent accused Briscoe of taking the protesters’ side, but Briscoe said he was just trying to keep things from escalating.  “Then you guys make sure it doesn’t escalate,” the unnamed agent said. “We are getting that guy today because he attacked one of our agents. That’s an assault.” When ICE finally returned with a criminal warrant and a search warrant signed by a Vermont federal judge, the documents were unrelated to the car crashes or the alleged assault on the federal officers. The charge was illegal reentry into the U.S. after being deported, and the name on the warrant was Corona Sanchez. He was not found inside the home — or at the scene at all.  Instead, when federal agents broke down the door, they detained two sisters from Ecuador and one man from Honduras — Christian Jerez Andrade — who was later identified as the car’s driver. His nephew, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen who was also inside the house, had been the car’s passenger. He was not detained. Neither has been charged with a crime, though the FBI is investigating. The report also reveals that at 6:14 p.m., about 45 minutes after federal agents raided the home, a man who said he was Corona Sanchez called South Burlington Police to say he saw on the news that a car registered to him had been involved in an accident. He told police he had given the vehicle to a friend to sell, and claimed “not to be in the area or involved in the accident.” The following day, federal prosecutors publicly acknowledged they had not found Corona Sanchez in the home. The three people who were detained were all later released by federal district judges and an immigration judge. The South Burlington City Council plans to discuss its report’s findings at its meeting on Monday evening.  The post Bodycam Review Absolves Officers at ICE Raid, Police Say appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less