Thermopolis release bodycam of an officer using force to arrest an intoxicated woman
By: A Jan. 12, 2021, incident in which Mascorro arrested a Thermopolis woman on probation whom he believed to be intoxicated, and who refused to give Mascorro a portable breath analysis.
The woman, Rebecca Nelson, was later convicted for being a pedestrian under the influence of alcohol and for breach of peace.
In the video, she curses and yells at Mascorro and says she wandered into the roadway because the people of Thermopolis do not clear their sidewalks and the walkway was icy. She says she had two shots of alcohol.
Mascorro reaches for her hand and puts one handcuff on it.
The video blurs to pure audio, as Mascorro’s body camera abuts or draws close to the woman’s jacket in the dark.
“Stop resisting” Mascorro calls out repeatedly.
“Keep pushing me,” she yells back.
A caption displayed over the paused video says Nelson “slid herself off the front of Officer Mascorro’s patrol vehicle and fell towards the ground,” and that Mascorro “was able to catch Ms. Nelson’s full body weight before she hit the ground.”
“Police abuse right here!” yells Nelson.
The caption says Nelson had one handcuff on her right wrist, which posed a safety hazard because the other loose cuff could be used as a weapon. Nelson slid off the car again and toward the ground, and Mascorro “placed Ms. Nelson (sic) face down on the (sic) and she was successfully taken into custody.”
Nelson’s face was cut during the audible fall, and blood pools onto the asphalt, in the video.
“You’re f***in done,” says Nelson. “Your license is done.”
Mascorro calls for an ambulance.
Nelson accuses Mascorro of ripping her wrist open, and says she’s had nine past concussions.
“You’ve got a cut on your head,” says Mascorro. “Because you’re resisting.”
“No it wasn’t because I was resisting, it’s because you’re a dick,” says Nelson.
“We’re gonna get you up,” says Mascorro. “This way. This way. Put your knees up.”
A man named Ron emerges and asks what’s going on.
“Back up Ron! Get your hands out of your pockets,” says Mascorro, shining a flashlight at Ron.
“We’re watching,” says a woman.
Mascorro tried to pick Nelson off the ground several times, says the caption, adding that she refused to get up and he allowed her to stay on the ground because she wasn’t in “imminent danger.”
Nelson repeatedly asks Mascorro to get off her. She says she’d rather stay on the ground with her head bleeding than be near Mascorro.
“You’re f***ing hurting me,” she says.
Nelson admits that she started fighting Mascorro during the handcuffing. “After you wouldn’t tell me my options,” she says.
She bemoans a “$5,000 bill” from the coming ambulance. “All because I was walking on the ice.”
“You are just f***ing dying for a civil suit,” says Nelson to Mascorro.
A female agent arrives and tries to soothe Nelson.
Nelson tells the female agent that the female agent hasn’t done anything wrong, but that “Mike” needs to stay away from her.
The ambulance took Nelson to the hospital and she was released two hours later, says the caption over the video.