Video: Matt Hefferon, alleged police brutality victim, convicted of resisting arrest

Matt Hefferon.

In the end, Hefferon, Gullatt, and Cullip were busted -- and their case began to receive widespread attention once the video started circulating. The publicity didn't dissuade the city from going after Hefferon, though. After Cullip was acquitted of interfering with the officers during a July jury trial, and charges were dropped against Gullatt, prosecutors actually added charges against Hefferon. Attorney Hall says two weeks before a trial originally scheduled for late August, and shortly after a request for an internal-affairs investigation into actions by the officers, new accusations of resisting arrest and criminal tampering were put in place -- a move she likens to "malicious prosecution."

The jury didn't agree. After several delays, the trial finally got underway on January 9, and the next day, as reported this morning by the Fort Collins Coloradoan, Hefferon (who referred questions to his attorney) was found not guilty of tampering and criminal mischief but convicted for obstruction and resisting arrest and sentenced to one year of probation.

The original version of the Coloradoan article claims Hefferon's attorney plans to file a civil rights lawsuit in the matter, but Hall says no decision about that has been made. After all, she's still considering whether or not to appeal the case.

Hall sees no shortage of reasons why such an appeal might be justified. She maintains that the resisting arrest claim is based on Hefferon slightly moving his arm and/or moving his eyebrows rather than any truly aggressive action. She's also frustrated by prosecution claims that the video shown to jurors had been edited or manipulated in some way -- she insists otherwise -- and suggests that statements by the officers involved changed from the time of the arrest to Hefferon's trial.

"This is the kind of stuff the police do all the time and get away with," she maintains. "We're taught we should abide by the police -- that they're our friends and they're there to serve justice. We assume they do what they're supposed to do and don't lie. And that's not always the case."

Continue to read our previous coverage of the Matt Hefferon case.