El Paso County Sheriff Asserts No Wrongdoing, Disputes Black Farmers’ Claims

In a lengthy press conference involving body camera footage, El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal and other county officials spoke Tuesday to dispute allegations of wrongdoing and racism.

Courtney and Nicole Mallery, a Black farming couple who have accused deputies and neighbors of repeated harassment and stalking, were arrested earlier this month on felony stalking charges.

The case has garnered substantial attention on social media after a publication called the Ark Republic shared the Mallerys’ claims that racist neighbors have been constantly attacking their farm through vandalism and animal mutilations for the past two years.

The article included claims that deputies failed to investigate the Mallerys’ claims.

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Roybal and Lieutenant Christopher Gonzalez said the office has responded to 170 calls for service involving the Mallerys and their neighbors and that 19 complaints against deputies have been investigated and deemed “unfounded.”

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Body camera clips were played during the press conference to show a contrast between Nicole Mallery’s claims and what was captured on video.

In one video, a process server records his point-of-view shot crossing the Mallerys’ gate to serve legal documents. The server knocks on several doors before Nicole Mallery can be heard screaming at the server before she fires a gun.

Body camera footage by responding deputies shows Mallery claiming she asked for the process server’s ID and that she feared he was going to “rape” her while accusing him of looking through windows.

The video does not show the server looking through windows and does not show Mallery asking for an ID before she fired a gun.

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Gonzalez said Mallery filed a complaint after the arrest, claiming she never received medical care. The footage showed paramedics attending to Mallery before she was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.

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