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SALT LAKE CITY — The retired police officer depicted in a controversial video arresting an intoxicated woman in 2014 says he never punched the woman, a police union president said Friday.
On Tuesday, a video was posted on YouTube by the family of Michelle Siguenza Anderson, 43, of Salt Lake City, showing Anderson's arrest on Oct. 13, 2014. The arrest was recorded on the body camera worn by Salt Lake police officer Tyler Reinwand, who served 20 years before retiring last fall.
As Reinwand and his partner were removing Anderson's young daughter from the house because of allegations of abuse and intoxication, Anderson — already in handcuffs — appears to spit on the face of Reinwand. The video shows Reinwand reacting and Anderson appears to be knocked to the ground.
Both current and former top brass of Salt Lake City reacted with outrage after seeing the video for the first time this week. Anderson's family believes she was punched to the ground and then kicked while she was being held.
But Michael Millard, the president of the Salt Lake Police Association, said he talked to Reinwand after the video surfaced. According to Reinwand, he did not punch or kick the woman.
The former officer told him that he was trying to show compassion to the young girl in a difficult situation, and admits he became "frustrated" when he was spit on. That's when "he took (Anderson) to the ground" and held her in a face-down position, as per police training, until a mesh hood could be placed on her head, commonly used to prevent arrested people from spitting on officers, Millard said.
By "took to the ground," Millard believed, based on his conversation with Reinwand, that he tried to grab hold of Anderson, and they "kind of both fell to the ground."
Current and former officers have noted to KSL that if Reinwand, described as a physically big man, had full-on punched Anderson, she would have likely had much more visible injuries.
While waiting for the hood to be placed on Anderson's head, Reinwand swore at the woman and used several vulgar terms. Millard said the former officer went home and watched the video that night.
"He instantly felt terrible for the language that he used," he said.
Reinwand spent most of his career as a motorcycle officer, meaning he dealt with people who were unhappy with him almost daily for being pulled over, Millard said. He said Reinwand's reaction in the video was out of character.
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'Disturbing' police video: Top city brass want to know why systems failed
Some prosecutors apparently knew about a body-camera video that appears to show a former Salt Lake police officer punching a woman who spit on him.Anderson was charged with propelling a substance at an officer, a class A misdemeanor, and intoxication, a class C misdemeanor. But on March 17, 2015, the case was dismissed at the request of city prosecutors, allegedly because of the body-camera footage.
Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown and Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill this week both promised investigations into the incident itself, in addition to why most people claimed they only first heard about the video this week after KSL first reported it.
Until the investigation is complete, Millard hopes the public will reserve judgment.
"I just wish people would hold comments until they hear the facts, administration included," he said.
