On February 14, 2023, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, with the support of the El Paso County Commissioners presented a media-only press conference to address community concerns of an ongoing neighbor dispute in the Yoder community.  

The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office became aware of an on-line article alleging racial discrimination on the part of our Office and some of its employees. The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office vehemently denies these allegations and the press conference was an opportunity to share factual information. 

The article’s author did not seek comment from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office before publishing it and the article has garnered negative attention from within and outside of our community. The spreading of inaccurate information has created irresponsible conclusions and resulted in threats toward Sheriff’s Office facilities, staff, and some family members of staff. 

During the press conference, Lieutenant Chris Gonzalez provided snippets of body-worn camera footage along with explanations for each video. We used these series of videos as it was the first case and the first interaction between the Sheriff’s Office and Nicole Mallery and also disputed some allegations Mrs. Mallery has made against EPSO employees. 

It is Sheriff Roybal’s intention to release body-worn videos, in their entirety, of non-active cases in the spirit of transparency and full disclosure in the coming days. The videos will only be redacted to the extent required by law to ensure victim rights and medical information are protected. 

As mentioned in the press conference, the releasable case reports are now available to the public at no cost due to public interest, those are located here: https://www.epcsheriffsoffice.com/sites/default/files/resources/Mallery…

To clear up any confusion, the released case reports are not the complaints. Within the last two years, the El Paso County Sheriff’s has investigated 19 different complaints filed by Nicole and Courtney Mallery in the article against members of the Sheriff’s Office. Each of these complaints were individually and thoroughly investigated and resulted in an unfounded and/or exonerated disposition. Each complaint summary is now being redacted for public release; again the only information redacted is victim privacy information.

Sheriff Roybal believes this information will demonstrate his employees acted appropriately, professionally, and objectively during their interactions with the individuals who are the subject of the article.