Now, at long last, Morrow has been sentenced for the crime, earning five years behind the sort of bars behind which he previously placed other alleged law breakers as part of a job he no longer has.
Photos, video and details below.
On June 12, 2011, as we've previously reported, Morrow and five other deputies from the Adams County Sheriff's Department responded to reports about a party out of bounds on Welby Road. There, a birthday bash for T.J. Arce, 21, was underway at an outdoor shed known as a hang-out spot for a group of young people who called themselves "the 88 block."
As soon as officers arrived, most of the revelers split, with the exception of Arce and a fifteen-year-old who the birthday boy admits was severely soused -- an opinion confirmed by a subsequent blood alcohol test that registered a .202, more than double the legal limit. The teen was soon taken into custody and placed in an ambulance on a gurney, and his feet and hands were restrained.His lips weren't, however, and when the teen reportedly mouthed off rather than answer questions, Morrow allegedly struck him with a closed fist on the left side of his jaw, breaking it on impact.
An instant later, Morrow looked at the faces around him and is said to have asked, "Nobody saw anything, right?"
Yes, they did. When one of the paramedics noted that the teen was bleeding, Morrow is quoted as saying, "I guess I'll have to figure that out."
The deputy subsequently admitted that "I just lost my temper" and maintained that "this has never happened before... it's never going to happen again."
He was right, in a sense: He never got a chance to do something similar as an Adams County deputy, because he was put on administrative leave without pay and later fired from a position he'd held since 2004 -- this despite claiming to CBS4 that "the rumors going around" about his actions were "completely false."
This past August, just over two years after the incident, Morrow was convicted of second-degree assault and third-degree assault and child assault. The 17th Judicial District DA's office notes that he faced a maximum sentence of sixteen years in jail, but in the end, he was sentenced to five.
Which should give Morrow plenty of time to "figure that out." Here's a look at his booking photo, followed by a 9News report from 2011.
More from our Colorado Crimes archive: "Anne Kelly, Denver Sheriff's deputy, charged with 3rd-degree assault for slapping DUI suspect."
