A man listed as a witness to a road-rage incident involving a Denver police detective says sloppy investigative work, including placing him in the wrong location during the incident, is the basis for charging an innocent man.
“I would say there’s a vendetta somewhere,” said Frank Shelley, 49.
Jefferson County investigators say that shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 29, Denver Detective Michael Ryan threatened a family in a Volkswagen with a handgun while driving west on U.S. 285 after work. Ryan, an eight-year veteran with more than 50 commendations, was charged with felony menacing.
Shelley, a former Marine, said he was behind both vehicles during the incident, not in front, as the report said, and that Ryan never pointed a gun at anyone.
After he read in the newspaper that Ryan had been charged, Shelley said, he called a deputy, who argued with him.
“It appeared to me his intention was to intimidate me into disappearing,” Shelley said.
Jefferson County sheriff’s spokeswoman Jacki Tallman said they will not redo the report. As a witness, Shelley will get a chance to testify.
The sheriff’s investigator, Jose Aceves, told Shelley that he does not believe Shelley witnessed the entire event.
According to the report, Ryan told deputies the Volkswagen cut him off and one of its passengers threw a drink at his windshield.
Because he had received several death threats in relation to his police work in the past, he said, he unsnapped his duty gun from its holster and laid it and then the holster on the seat next to him. He did not point his gun at the Volkswagen, he said.
Ryan’s attorney told investigators that the occupants of the Volkswagen had lied about who was driving. After a second investigation, that fact was confirmed, according to a police report.
From that, 56-year-old Christine Neona Smedley, the driver of the Volkswagen, was charged with driving with a revoked license, a misdemeanor. One of her passengers, her daughter, Christine Joann Frappied, 34, was charged with throwing an object at Ryan’s vehicle.
A second passenger, Frappied’s son, Devin Urioste, 11, told sheriff’s deputies that Ryan pointed his gun at their car for “one to two seconds” during the incident, the report said.
Shelley questions the validity of it all.
“So they’re going to take their word to prosecute a police officer who has a spotless record?” he said.
Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey refused to comment.
The family lied about who was driving because Frappied’s mother did not have a license at the time, Frappied said. They were afraid she would go to jail.
“Other than us saying who was driving, everything else is true,” she said.
Staff writer Amy Herdy can be reached at 303-820-1752 or aherdy@denverpost.com.
