An immigration officer charged in Colorado after a protest outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility faces third-degree assault and criminal mischief counts tied to an incident captured in videos by bystanders, according to court documents and a district attorney statement.
Prosecutors said Nicholas Rice was charged after an investigation into how he treated Franci Stagi during a demonstration in October in Durango, a college town popular for outdoor recreation. Stagi said the officer grabbed and pulled her across the street while she was filming outside the facility, and she told authorities he put her in a chokehold and threw her down an embankment next to the road.
Stagi, a retired hypnotherapist, told investigators that the officer hit her hand hard, causing her to lose her cellphone. She said she then reached for the officer’s shoulder to get his attention, after which, she said, he put her in a chokehold. In describing her injuries, Stagi said she still feels pain in her arm during normal everyday activities such as putting on her jacket.
According to the court documents, prosecutors allege Rice committed third-degree assault by causing bodily injury to Stagi. The filings also allege Rice committed criminal mischief for damaging Stagi’s cellphone, though the documents, as described in the reporting, did not spell out how Stagi was injured or specifically mention a chokehold. Court documents did not list an attorney representing Rice.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation opened its inquiry into the officer’s actions at the request of Durango Police Department Chief Brice Current, who raised concerns about possible violations of state law. The request was described as unusual, if not unprecedented, in part because it came from local law enforcement officials seeking action under state law involving a federal officer.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border Protection, criticized the prosecution. In a statement, DHS called the case “unlawful” and a “political stunt,” and said states have no authority to investigate such cases involving federal officers acting in the course of their duties.
DHS said “Federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other Federal agencies.” The department also said it was still investigating what happened during the incident.
Stagi said Wednesday she was disappointed Rice was charged with less serious crimes. She described the assault charge, a misdemeanor, as carrying a maximum sentence of just under a year in jail, and she said she hopes the prosecution sends a message that immigration officers cannot tackle people indiscriminately or use excessive force.
“It did open my eyes to how quickly I can be under someone else’s control, and it’s frightening,” Stagi said, using her legal name Anne Francesca Stagi. Her comments reflected a sense that the charges might offer some accountability even as she viewed the legal outcome as falling short of what she wanted.
The case comes amid continuing public debate over chokeholds and neck restraints. Since George Floyd’s death in 2020, states including Colorado have prohibited or severely limited police use of chokeholds and neck restraints, and the issue has remained central in discussions that also trace back to earlier high-profile incidents such as Eric Garner’s death in New York in 2014, after he was put in a chokehold.
At the federal level, the Justice Department has argued in recent months that arrests of federal officers performing their duties would be “illegal and futile,” according to remarks by U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that cited the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and federal law. Legal experts said such protections can be significant but are not absolute, and that the Supremacy Clause does not provide blanket immunity.
In its dispute with the state prosecution, DHS also said states lack authority to investigate the incident, framing the criminal case against Rice as part of a broader fight over the boundary between federal enforcement power and state oversight.
While the incident occurred during a protest against the detention of three Colombian asylum-seekers in Durango, the criminal case centers on how a confrontation between Stagi and an ICE agent played out on the street outside the facility and what the criminal allegations in court documents describe—or omit—about the officer’s specific actions.