Henry Trujillo: Tasing, Guilty Plea, and $1.5M Settlement

Henry Trujillo is a former lieutenant with the Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office in southern Colorado who was fired in August 2023 and later pleaded guilty to official misconduct after he and another deputy tased a handcuffed, unarmed man roughly 35 times during a 2022 traffic stop near Trinidad. The case cost Las Animas County a $1.5 million civil settlement and exposed that Trujillo had been hired, rehired, and promoted despite decades of criminal convictions, restraining orders, and prior force complaints.

What Happened During the November 2022 Traffic Stop

On November 29, 2022, Kenneth Espinoza was driving in a two-car caravan with his son Nathaniel outside Trinidad when Deputy Mikhail Noel pulled Nathaniel over for following too closely. Espinoza parked behind the stop to wait. Trujillo arrived, ordered Espinoza to leave, and threatened him with charges if he stayed.¹

The deputies then reversed themselves. As Espinoza began pulling away, they ordered him out of the vehicle, drew their weapons, removed him from his truck, and handcuffed him.² Body camera footage captured Espinoza saying, “Hold on, okay guys… I’m going peacefully,” as they cuffed him.³

According to Espinoza’s attorney, Kevin Mehr, the deputies tased him approximately 35 times, including strikes to his face and chest, while he was handcuffed. Noel repeatedly jabbed Espinoza with a stun gun in drive-stun mode. Trujillo fired a Taser whose prong lodged roughly three centimeters into Espinoza’s gum.⁴ The sheriff’s office initially claimed its Taser data showed only a single deployment.⁵ An independent investigation later sided with the higher count and found the deputies had used force on a man who was not resisting and had broken no laws.⁶

Espinoza, a grandfather and Trinidad resident, sustained burns on his body and a wound inside his mouth where the Taser barb struck. He spent a day in jail after the arrest.⁷

False Reports and the Collapse of Charges Against the Victim

Trujillo and Noel wrote reports claiming Espinoza had tried to strike a deputy with his truck and had kicked officers to resist arrest. The Las Animas County District Attorney’s Office initially charged Espinoza with resisting arrest and assaulting a peace officer based on those reports.¹

The charges collapsed when body camera video was reviewed. Undersheriff Reynaldo Santistevan concluded the footage showed Espinoza had not tried to strike anyone and had not used force against the officers.⁸ Santistevan also admitted he had signed off on the deputies’ original use-of-force report without watching the video, calling that decision “wrong.”¹ The body camera recordings were released publicly on April 24, 2023.³

Firing, Criminal Charges, and Guilty Plea

The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office ran an independent investigation and concluded that Trujillo and Noel had tased a non-resisting man who had committed no crime, had misused Tasers on a handcuffed person, and had submitted false information about the encounter. The report recommended a criminal investigation.⁹ Both deputies were terminated on August 25, 2023.⁸

In April 2024, the 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office filed five misdemeanor counts against each former deputy: third-degree assault, peace officer failure to intervene, official misconduct, official oppression, and menacing.¹ Mehr criticized the decision to charge only misdemeanors, saying the facts “clearly support numerous felony charges.”¹⁰

Both cases ended in pleas. Noel pleaded guilty on December 16, 2024, to a tampering charge, with all other counts dismissed. Trujillo pleaded guilty on December 19, 2024, to a single count of official misconduct; the remaining charges were dropped. Mehr called the outcome “a true miscarriage of justice.”¹¹

The $1.5 Million Civil Settlement

Espinoza filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on April 2, 2023, naming Trujillo, Noel, Undersheriff Santistevan, Sheriff Derek Navarette, the sheriff’s office, and the Board of County Commissioners. The complaint alleged excessive force and a failure to train and discipline employees.⁹ In March 2024, Las Animas County settled for $1.5 million, a substantial payout for a small rural county.¹²

Trujillo’s Long Record Before the Tasing

Court records released by Espinoza’s attorneys documented decades of prior incidents that the sheriff’s office had either overlooked or worked around:

1997: charged with felony menacing with a weapon, pleaded down to misdemeanor disorderly conduct for displaying a weapon.¹³
1998: convicted of misdemeanor harassment in Las Animas County. Espinoza’s attorneys argued the conviction should have disqualified him from Peace Officer Standards and Training certification, but the Colorado Department of Law noted that disqualifying misdemeanors only bar certification if committed on or after July 1, 2001.¹⁴
2006 and 2009: additional Las Animas County convictions for fighting in public and disorderly conduct.¹³
Five restraining orders, at least two involving allegations of domestic abuse. In a 2006 case a court found Trujillo “constitutes a credible threat” and posed “imminent danger,” a finding that under the federal Brady Handgun Protection Act would have prohibited him from possessing a firearm.¹³
2009: forced to resign from the Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office after a sealed criminal conviction.¹³
2014: assaulted his brother, Richard Trujillo; the district attorney dismissed the charges.¹³
2017: involved in a fatal officer-involved shooting that killed Kristian Martinez. No internal investigation was conducted.¹³

After the 2009 forced resignation, Trujillo was rehired, promoted to lieutenant, and became the agency’s third-in-command. His employment file recorded no disciplinary actions. Twelve days before the Espinoza tasing, the county had settled a separate federal excessive force lawsuit involving Trujillo and Noel, stemming from an incident in which they allegedly used excessive force against a deaf woman at a hospital.¹⁵

The Road Rage Fight With a Teenager

While on administrative leave over the Espinoza investigation, Trujillo was involved in another violent encounter. On June 18, 2023, off duty and in plain clothes, he got into a road rage altercation with a 16-year-old, David Romero Jr., on a residential street in Trinidad. Home surveillance video showed Trujillo cursing at the teenager and punching him, with both exchanging kicks and blows.¹⁶ The 3rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office charged both Trujillo and the teenager with fighting in public.¹⁷ The sheriff’s office moved Trujillo from paid to unpaid leave after that incident.

As of available reporting, Sheriff Derek Navarette has not faced formal disciplinary action, resignation calls, or an electoral challenge tied to the scandal, and the sheriff’s office has declined to comment publicly.⁹

1
KOAA. Two Former Las Animas County Deputies Facing Criminal Charges Over 2022 Tasing Incident
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CPR News. Ex-Las Animas County Deputies Charged With Misdemeanors for Tasing Man
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CPR News. Las Animas County Reaches Million Dollar Settlement With Man Tased in Face by Deputies
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Sentinel Colorado. Las Animas Man Stunned 35 Times While Handcuffed Sues Sheriff’s Office
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FOX21 News. Man Tased in the Face by Deputies Suing Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office
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KOLD. Deputies Fired for Using Stun Gun on Grandfather 35 Times
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ABC News. Colorado Man Shocked by Taser Files Federal Lawsuit
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NBC News. 2 Colorado Deputies Who Tased Man Multiple Times Fired After Probe
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Colorado Sun. Las Animas County Sheriff’s Office Kenneth Espinoza Settlement
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KKTV. Criminal Charges Filed Against Deputies Accused of Tasing Colorado Grandfather Dozens of Times
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FOX21 News. Court Documents: Former Deputy Involved in Tasing Incident Pleads Guilty to Misdemeanor
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CBS News Colorado. Las Animas Colorado Sheriff’s Office Settles Tasing Lawsuit
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KKTV. Colorado Lawyers Reveal Criminal Background of Las Animas Sheriff’s Deputy
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KOAA. 3rd Party Investigation Results in the Firing of Las Animas County Deputies
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Denver Post. Tased in Face Lawsuit Settlement Las Animas County Sheriff Henry Trujillo
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CPR News. Las Animas Sheriff Suspends Lieutenant Over Tasing and Road Rage Fights
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Denver7. Las Animas County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Charged With Fighting Teen While Off Duty