Occupy Denver: Corey Donahue, Sean Driggers & Brandon Sexton's felony charges -- cops' side
The Denver District Attorney's Office has formally announced felony counts against a trio of Occupy Denver protesters: Corey Donahue, Sean Driggers and Brandon Sexton.
Big pics below.
What led to these charges? Denver Police statements of probable cause on view below offer the cops' side of the story.
On November 13, according to the PC for Donahue, who's identified by his given first name, Michael, a female officer was attempting to leave Civic Center Park when a group of protesters surrounded her police car. Then, Donahue allegedly stood in front of the vehicle and shouted, "Let's block these motherfuckers in!!!" (The three exclamation points are in the report.)
Shortly thereafter, the various protesters began to rock the police car back and forth with the officer inside. At that point, another officer ordered Donahue to move -- and after he failed to do so, the cop physically pushed him out of the way. But when the female officer tried to drive, Donahue jumped back in front of the vehicle. The narrative says that after Donahue ignored several more orders to step aside, the officer put him under arrest -- an action sparking a "riot" in which "two state patrol officers were seriously injured." The report adds that as Donahue was being led to a police car in handcuffs, he continued to yell at and incite the crowd.
The Driggers statement is more complicated. The document maintains that on October 29, a lieutenant wound up in a tug-of-war over a tent with a woman named Lesley Johnson. As he was about to take her into custody, he was knocked to the ground by a man ID'd as John Sexton, who then allegedly tried to "un-arrest" Johnson.
As you'll recall, John Sexton claimed that he was falsely accused of assault on a peace officer -- and the DA's office ultimately chose not to file a felony against him.
To confuse matters further, several cops fell on top of Johnson, Sexton and the lieutenant around the time the officer saw a large stick break against the ground. (It didn't actually strike him, but it came close.) And while the stick wielder managed to get away, a detective discovered that the incident had been captured in a video posted on YouTube. Then, he eyeballed a second clip -- this one featuring a 9News report in which Driggers was interviewed -- and determined that the person being quizzed and the guy with the stick were one and the same.
In regard to Brandon Sexton (a different person than John Sexton), he's accused of responding to the arrest of an unnamed woman on November 13 by grabbing an officer from behind and attempting to wrestle him to the ground and strike him at the same time.
Donahue has been charged with two felony counts of inciting a riot and a misdemeanor obstruction beef for the November 13 incident; other Occupy Denver-related charges are pending, too. Driggers is looking at a second-degree assault on a police officer allegation. And Sexton faces a felony charge of second-degree assault on a peace officer, plus misdemeanors for obstruction, resisting arrest and engaging in a riot.
Look below to see the booking photos for Donahue, Driggers and Sexton, followed by their respective probable cause statements.
Corey Donahue.
Sean Driggers.
Brandon Sexton.
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More from our Occupy Denver archive: "Occupy Denver: DA drops felony assault on police officer charge that got John Sexton fired."
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