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Report exposes Snowmass councilman’s conduct in jail

Jill Beathard
The Aspen Times
Chris Jacobson

Snowmass Village Town Councilman Chris Jacobson peed on the floor, pulled a restraining chair out of the ground and damaged the cell he was being held in early Friday morning, all while yelling obscenities at police officers, according to a report filed Monday.

Jacobson was arrested shortly after midnight on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol after being pulled over on Brush Creek Road. After he was transported to Pitkin County Jail, deputies requested assistance in placing him into a restraint chair, to which Aspen Police Officer Ritchie Zah and two other Aspen officers responded.

“Deputy (Jason) Kasper said that he had requested our assistance because Jacobson had been uncooperative, had damaged some lights in the isolation cell so that there were now exposed electrical wiring, had punched the cell wall multiple times with his bare fist, had peed on the floor, and had called him a ‘c— ass’ multiple times whilst en route to the Pitkin County Jail,” Zah wrote.



Jacobson was told he could get into the restraint chair on his own or with the officers’ assistance. He was eventually convinced to sit in the chair on his own but “was verbally belligerent, swearing and yelling at officers and deputies throughout our interaction with him,” Zah wrote.

Once the detainee was secured in the chair, he “looked up at me and commented that I was a ‘master violin,’” Zah wrote. “I told Jacobson that I did not know what he meant, and he said that I was a ‘Suzuki.’”




Officers wheeled Jacobson into another cell due to the exposed wires in the isolation cell. After some time, Jacobson began to rock the restraint chair, removing it from metal clasps bolted into the ground.

The officers returned the chair to the clasps, and “Jacobson responded by calling us ‘c— asses’ and specifically called Deputy (Debbie) Kendrick a ‘c— bitch,’” Zah wrote.

Jacobson left the jail on a personal-recognizance bond after a hearing with Pitkin County District Court Judge Gail Nichols on Friday. Attorney Arnold Mordkin, also a former Snowmass town councilman, appeared with him in court. Another former councilman, Jason Haber, who with Jacobson often took the minority side during debates on the board, appeared at the hearing to take Jacobson.

The councilman declined to comment on the case during a phone interview Saturday, other than to express gratitude for “the actions and the efforts of the local police officers and the work that they do to keep the community safe.”

Jacobson is due back in court July 28. Conditions of his bond require that he not consume alcohol or illegal drugs while the case is pending and that he participate in a program that monitors his system for mind-altering substances.

jill@snowmasssun.com

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