Aurora – A disabled woman and her 12-year-old daughter, facing charges of disobeying police orders, say they are the victims in a June 17 incident that started when an off-duty sergeant directed racial slurs at them.
Aurora police declined direct comment, citing the pending case.
Loree McCormick-Rice, 51, and her daughter Cassidy face misdemeanor charges of obstructing a peace officer, resisting arrest and failure to obey an order. McCormick-Rice also faces a disturbing-the-peace charge.
Aurora Police Sgt. Charles DeShazer wrote in his report that he told McCormick-Rice to leave a grocery- store parking lot and she instead hurled an expletive his way.
McCormick-Rice said the episode started when DeShazer, who was moonlighting at a security job, aimed a racial epithet at her and her daughter.
Both agree the incident ended in a physical confrontation.
McCormick-Rice said the city attorney’s office offered a plea agreement.
“We didn’t do anything wrong,” McCormick-Rice said Tuesday. “We aren’t going to plead guilty to anything.”
Aurora police spokesman Marcus Dudley said, “I think it’s unfair to ask us (to comment) at this point. Clearly, there is a criminal case that has yet to be resolved.”
An internal investigation into the case stalled because McCormick- Rice declined interviews with the department’s internal-affairs unit.
“I canceled the meeting,” said David Lane, her attorney. He said he fears information from his client could be used against her in the criminal case.
Both parties agree they crossed paths at about 10 p.m. June 17 at a King Soopers parking lot near East Mississippi Avenue and Chambers Road.
McCormick-Rice said she has severe asthma and has had a lung removed. She was parked in a handicapped space and putting groceries in her van when De Shazer approached on foot and asked to see her handicap placard.
From this point, their accounts differ.
DeShazer, in his reports, states that McCormick-Rice pointed out the placard, which he initially didn’t see.
DeShazer said he moved on.
McCormick-Rice said, however, that when DeShazer checked the placard he had to ask twice.
“I pointed to it, and he said ‘I don’t see it,”‘ she said. “I pointed again, and he said, ‘I still don’t see it.”‘
She pointed out the oxygen tank in the van and DeShazer moved on, she said.
She then began talking with a woman parked next to her, and they agreed De- Shazer was harassing her, she said.
That’s when DeShazer uttered a racial epithet, she said.
McCormick-Rice said she went inside to complain to a store manager. She was driving out of the parking lot with the windows down when she passed a car with its windows down.
The person in the car cursed at them.
The mother and daughter cursed back.
The car pulled behind them, and Cassidy said, ‘Mom, that’s the cop.”
DeShazer, in his report, agrees they cursed at him.
DeShazer yelled back, “Leave now.”
He pulled in behind to follow McCormick-Rice, and she tried to make a U-turn back into the parking lot, DeShazer said in the report. He blocked them.
DeShazer said Cassidy got out of the passenger side and yelled, “No one pulls up on my Mama like that!” according to the report. He twice ordered her to get back in the van. She refused twice.
DeShazer arrested Cassidy and ordered: “Put your hands behind your back.”
She refused, the report said.
“I grabbed her right arm,” at which time, McCormick-Rice got out of the van and “grabbed Cassidy around the neck, trying to pull her away from me.”
McCormick-Rice tells another story. She said that after they cursed at him, DeShazer yelled at her to pull over. She said she tried to turn into the lighted parking lot but that DeShazer blocked her entry.
McCormick-Rice got out of the car and told Cassidy to go for help, she said. De- Shazer told the girl to get back in. He grabbed her by the arm and jerked her, McCormick-Rice said.
As DeShazer tugged, Cassidy cried out, McCormick-Rice said. She rushed to pull her away, and DeShazer grabbed the girl by the throat, the mother said.
Details vary, but both agree mother and daughter were handcuffed.
McCormick-Rice was given a written summons and released. Cassidy was taken to the police department and was picked up by her mother and her ex-husband.
The girl complained of pain in her back and shoulder, McCormick said, so they took her to the hospital. She had a fractured shoulder.
A trial was set to start Tuesday, but De- Shazer was injured in a charity police boxing event Friday night, and the trial date was moved to October.
McCormick-Rice believes “DeShazer got mad” because they went in the store to complain, she said Tuesday. “Maybe he was just looking for trouble.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
