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Alleged officer assault gets Alaska duo arrested

Rick CarrollAspen, CO Colorado
Stadman
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Two Alaskans were arrested Thursday night after allegedly assaulting an Aspen police officer who ordered them to leave a downtown bar because they were starting fights, police said.Tyrell Warren Stadman and Heath Jade Sutter, both 25, were advised Friday in Pitkin County District Court of the felony charges of second-degree assault on a peace officer. They were released from jail after posting $3,500 bond.Court papers accuse the tandem, in town for the Winter X Games, of wrestling officer Ian MacAyeal to the ground at Bar Aspen. MacAyeal and other officers had been called to the Galena Street nightspot because of reports of dance floor fights the pair had allegedly instigated.In an affidavit, MacAyeal reported that Stadman and Sutter had refused to take the bar owner’s orders to leave the nightclub because they were being unruly. When MacAyeal told Stadman to leave, Stadman got testy, telling the officer to leave him alone, according to the court document.

“Stadman then tried to push me away,” MacAyeal wrote in the affidavit. “I resisted Stadman’s efforts to push me away. Stadman then lowered his right shoulder, lunged toward me and tried to strike me with his right elbow. I felt his right elbow graze my lip.”

Things got really nasty, according to MacAyeal’s account, when he tried to perform an “inside takedown by pulling [Stadman] down with both hands around the back of his neck.”MacAyeal, however, lost control because Stadman’s sweatshirt hood got in the way, according the affidavit. As the struggle continued, Sutter allegedly grabbed MacAyeal’s feet from underneath him, sending the officer to the ground.



“I could feel several people on top of me fighting but I couldn’t see what was going on,” MacAyeal reported. MacAyeal then applied a “burst of pepper spray into Sutter’s eyes,” the affidavit says. Other officers then arrived at the packed bar, and handcuffed the suspects.

Hours after the confrontation, MacAyeal reported his upper lip was sore from Stadman’s elbow and his back muscles were sore. Stadman and Sutter also were charged with the misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Their next court appearance is scheduled Feb. 5.Rick Carroll can be reached at rcarroll@aspentimes.com.