Two guards injured in attack at jail

Two guards injured in attack at jail

September 6, 2001

By Aspen C. Emmett
Journal Staff Writer

Two Montezuma County Jail guards escaped serious injury in an attack by an inmate armed with a steel towel rack Monday evening, according to authorities.

Montezuma County Sheriff’s Detective Lt. Kalvin Boggs would not identify the deputies involved, but said one officer sustained trauma to the head requiring 10 suture staples and the second officer was struck in the face with the makeshift metal weapon.

The suspect, a convicted felon, is 48-year-old Dennis Michael Hicks of Hesperus, who now faces several possible charges for the alleged aggression, including felony counts of first-degree assault on a police officer and attempted escape. District Attorney Joe Olt has not made a final decision on what charges are to be brought.

The towel rack, Boggs said, was torn from the wall in the shower area of the cell block where Hicks is being held and was concealed by a towel the suspect had wrapped it in.

"It could have been a lot worse," Boggs commented. "The weapon that (Hicks) had fashioned from this towel rack is definitely considered a deadly weapon and we’re fortunate that the officers did not sustain more serious injuries."

Boggs said he believed the steel rod had been altered by grinding the tip, though not to a sharp point.

"It could have been used as a stabbing tool or a blunt-force instrument," Boggs said.

The deputies were moving Hicks and three other inmates from the felony jail cell block to the exercise yard when the attack took place.

One officer received blows to the head, back and shoulders, and the other guard was hit in the face.

The assault took place in the entrance to the yard and extended into the jail control room, he said.

"Basically, for a brief period of time, Hicks was pretty much in control of the jail for five or six seconds," Boggs said. "If he would have wanted to, or would have known how, he could have pushed a button or gotten some keys.

"Our guys never did give up the fight. It’s not like we relinquished control, but at the time he had the weapon and was assaulting the officers, the struggle was on."

Boggs said that somehow during the fight with the guards, Hicks lost his weapon and gave up peacefully. The other three inmates being escorted at the time did not join in in the attack.

Hicks is scheduled to appear in district court today for a disposition and sentencing hearing on a 2000 felony robbery case. He had not been arraigned on formal charges for Monday’s assault as of Wednesday afternoon.

According to court records, Hicks is already serving a 26-year prison sentence for the aggravated robbery of a Bayfield pharmacy in July 2000. The sentence was part of a plea agreement in which Hicks is supposed to enter a guilty plea for robbing a pharmacy in Cortez and subsequently serve another 26-years in prison concurrently with the first 26-year sentence.

Hicks had also reportedly admitted to an aggravated robbery at the Durango K-Mart, two armed robberies at Farmington Drug and an attempted armed robbery of Farmington Drug, all in 2000. However, as part of the plea agreement, charges resulting from the Durango and Farmington crimes were dismissed.