A Denver officer is facing criminal charges after police say he and a friend punched two men in the face at the Colorado National Golf Club in Erie following a dispute over which baseball game to watch on TV.
Kevin Carlile, a five-year veteran of the Denver Police Department, has been taken off patrol duty and put on “non-line” assignment pending the outcome of an investigation into the late- June incident, Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said Thursday.
Carlile, a 37-year-old Broomfield resident who was assigned to the patrol division in Denver, and Christopher Doug las, a 39-year-old resident of Thornton, were issued summonses on suspicion of misdemeanor charges of assault and disorderly conduct.
They are scheduled to appear in Erie Municipal Court on Sept. 12.
Erie police Lt. Lee Mathis said officers from his department were called to the golf-course clubhouse around 9:30 p.m. June 28 on reports of a fight in progress.
According to witnesses, Mathis said, Carlile and Douglas were watching the Rockies game in the clubhouse bar when two other men picked up the remote and changed the channel to the final College World Series championship game between the South Carolina Gamecocks and the Florida Gators.
Mathis said words were exchanged about the channel switch, and the dispute escalated to a physical confrontation, with Carlile and Douglas each punching a man in the face and causing minor injuries. Neither man went to the hospital, he said.
Carlile and Douglas were stopped by Erie police in the clubhouse parking lot and issued summonses. Mathis said all four men had been drinking.
When asked why Carlile and Douglas weren’t arrested, Mathis said the injuries to the alleged victims constituted a misdemeanor offense.
“If it’s a misdemeanor, we’ll often just issue a summons,” he said. “(Carlile’s) profession did not factor into the investigation of this.”
