A Denver deputy sheriff involved with a 2015 incident that led to the jailhouse death of a man in a mental health crisis was fired in October for an incident earlier this year in which he tackled a man while trying to take him from a courtroom to jail.

Deputy Bret Garegnani, who is 6 feet, 8 inches tall and weighs 350 pounds, took a much smaller handcuffed man to the ground when he resisted being taken to jail following a March 8 court appearance in Denver’s Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse, according to the discipline letter firing him. The man he tackled was about 5 feet, 8 inches and weighed about 130 pounds.

The man tried to escape when Garegnani and other deputies came to the courtroom to take him to jail on a mandatory hold because of a failure-to-appear warrant. Garegnani pushed him against a wall before taking him to the ground, according to the letter. He then put his knee on the man’s behind and his hand on his arm.

During a contemplation of discipline hearing in the summer, Garegnani was asked why he didn’t try to reapply control holds to the man after he broke away or keep him against the wall. Garegnani said his earlier holds on the man had been ineffective since he had been able to break loose and turn “aggressively,” in Garegnani’s words, toward him, another deputy and the courtroom’s judge.

He judged the inmate’s “determination to not be remanded” as “extremely high,” Garegnani said.

“After getting out of my initial control hold, once I did get him to the wall, for everyone’s safety involved, I felt it was best and matched my training to take him to the ground to better control the situation.”

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Garegnani also was involved in the 2015 death of Michael Marshall, who died several days after sheriff’s deputies forcefully subdued him during a mental health crisis in jail. He had been arrested on suspicion of trespassing and couldn’t afford to post a $100 bond.

A report by the Office of the Independent Monitor found Garegnani’s application of pressure to Marshall’s vital areas over about 11 minutes was an inappropriate use of force, Denverite reported. During that time, Marshall went limp and vomited, then started moving again.

The Department of Safety recommended a 16-day suspension for Garegnani in 2017, but the Career Service Hearing Office overturned the discipline.

Citizen Oversight Board chairwoman Julia Richman told The Denver Gazette the board has concerns about the ability of other agencies, such as the city attorney’s office and the Department of Safety, to override actions taken against officers.

“Why didn’t we fire him the first time? He had displayed this behavior and this set of tactics, and so let’s believe him on his actions,” she said.

Suggestions by the Citizen Oversight Board and Office of the Independent Monitor on how to improve discipline policies often go ignored, Richman added.

Sheriff Elias Diggins acknowledged during Friday morning’s oversight board meeting that the board has concerns about the incident that led to Garegnani’s firing given his involvement in Marshall’s death. But he declined to comment on the incident, saying Garegnani’s firing is on appeal.

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Mari Newman, who represented Marshall’s family in negotiating a $4.6 million civil settlement with the city, said she believes the safety department did the right thing in firing Garegnani, but agreed he should have been fired for his involvement in Marshall’s death.

“If he had been fired then, he wouldn’t have (been able) to abuse this inmate most recently, and the countless inmates that we don’t even know about in the intervening years,” she said.

Newman helped write Senate Bill 217, the sweeping law enforcement accountability bill passed in June 2020, which requires permanent revocation of a peace officer’s Peace Officer Standards and Training certification if they are found guilty of a crime involving excessive force.

“This is exactly why officers who engage in excessive force and other constitutional violations should be fired immediately, and should lose their POST certification so they can no longer serve in a law enforcement capacity,” she said. 

Garegnani maintained during his contemplation of discipline hearing he handled the situation in a way that was within his training.

“If this is the way that things don’t want to be handled in the future, that’s fine, but then, obviously, we need to change things — and train differently, because this is exactly how I was trained from the beginning up ‘til 13 years later.”

The man during interviews for the department’s investigative process acknowledged he made a “shrugging motion” against Garegnani, but said he didn’t believe it was threatening. He said one of the deputies squeezed his arm painfully while handcuffing him even after the man said it hurt, and then the deputies picked him up and slammed him.

After the incident, the man said his “whole body” was sore and he had some trouble breathing.

Garegnani should have understood the likelihood of serious injury to the man from being taken to the ground face-first by a 350-pound deputy, says the discipline letter from deputy safety director Mary Dulacki.

“The failure of Deputy Garegnani to reflect on this incident and learn that he should have acted differently, coupled with his apparent lack of remorse, is profound,” says the letter, which calls the fact that the man was not seriously injured from the incident “miraculous.”

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