The Big Bend Sentinel previously reported on Publisher David Flash — who runs the Big Bend Times and Texas Reporter sites and social media — being detained at a Jeff Davis County Commissioners Court meeting on June 27.
Jeff Davis County officials alleged that Flash was being disruptive in his movements to take photos for a story he said he was working on — as well as with requests to take photos of Sheriff Lopez and Chief Deputy Adriana Ruiloba in the courtroom — while the meeting was in progress. Ruiloba — at the direction of County Judge Curtis Evans — eventually went to remove Flash from the meeting, said he was resisting and then took him down to the ground by his arms, as bodycam video shows. Flash said he was “tackled.”
Flash was cuffed and taken to the justice of the peace’s office, where Lopez and Ruiloba questioned him for more than 45 minutes. The judge then directed the officers to cite Flash for disorderly conduct and release him. (The Sentinel learned after deadline that the county dismissed the charge on Tuesday, but officials have stated previously that they were considering filing a different charge.)
While Flash’s video camera caught much of the incident, the moment he went to the ground was out of frame. The Sentinel filed an open records request with Jeff Davis County to obtain bodycam videos from Lopez, Ruiloba and Deputy Joe Griesbrecht, who also was in the courtroom.
While the county likely could have withheld the videos as part of an active investigation, Jeff Davis officials decided to release them to The Sentinel to give the public a better view of what happened. The videos are posted at youtube.com/@TheBigBendSentinel.
This story was updated on Thursday, July 24, to reflect that the disorderly conduct charge had been dismissed.