New video footage shows a Fort Collins police officer slamming a Colorado State University student to the pavement outside of a bar in April last year — from the perspective of officer Klamser’s body cam obtained by CBS Denver.
Michelle Surat,22, was body slammed face face first to the pavement outside a bar in Fort Collins last year, causing an injury to her chin.
The story only went public after a bystander who recorded the incident on a smart phone and posted it to Snapchat.
After the story broke, Klamser accused Surat of digging her nails into his neck and choking him.
However, his body camera footage contradicts that claim.
Klamser arrived after someone called 911 to reporting a fight involving Surat’s boyfriend outside the Bondi Beach Bar.
Body cam footage shows Klamser telling Surat she is free to leave, but her boyfriend has to stay.
“He is not free to go, but you can keep walking,” he barks at Surat.
But she protests, telling officer Klamser she is staying.
Video shows Klamser then grabbing Surat.
“You don’t need to touch me,” she insists.
”I don’t want to throw you on the ground,” Klamser warns just before he slams her face first into the pavement.
By standers scream as Surat hits the floor.
“He doesn’t have the right to grab her. And she has a right to resist under Colorado law,” David Lane, Surat’s civil rights attorney, told CBS Denver.
“He has no legal right to use that force,” he said.
“And she has a legal right to resist that force.”
When the story emerged last year, the Fort Collins Police Department stood by Klamser’s treatment of Surat.
“She remained at the scene, at which time she physically obstructed and struck an officer,” a department spokesman told the Coloradoan just after the story broke.
Surat was charged with resisting a police officer and third degree assault.
The third degree assault charges have been dropped, but the resisting charge is still pending.
Video footage shows roughly four seconds of verbal confrontation between Klamser and Surat, during which she makes no physical contact with him, before he picks her up and slams her to the ground.
Surat is still out on bail and is set to stand trial for resisting arrest.