AURORA | A Denver police officer has been charged with harassment after allegedly punching a child who was arrested near Colfax Avenue and Interstate 225 in Aurora last year.
After the Nov. 3 incident, Dat Truong, 32, was investigated by the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which announced the misdemeanor charge in a news release Jan. 31.
The release did not include information about why the youth was arrested or what transpired before Truong allegedly threw the punch. DA’s office spokesman Chris Hopper said he was unable to share information beyond the contents of the release.
In a statement, the Denver Police Department reported Truong joined the agency in 2014 and was most recently assigned to the Special Operations Division. He was moved to a non-patrol assignment on Nov. 6 when the investigation into the incident began and will remain in the assignment “while the case makes its way through the judicial process,” the statement said.
The department’s administrative review process — which will involve the Denver Department of Safety and the Office of the Independent Monitor, a civilian oversight entity — will begin once the case is adjudicated. The department did not respond to questions about Truong’s disciplinary history and about the incident itself.
Aurora Police Department spokeswoman Sydney Edwards wrote in an email that the department had responded to the scene to assist Denver but that Aurora officers did not arrest the juvenile allegedly punched by Truong.
“Our involvement was minimal,” Edwards wrote in an email. “We assisted in getting one juvenile, out of multiple that were involved, into custody.”
She did not respond to the questions of whether Aurora officers were present for or subsequently reported the harassment incident, referring further questions to Denver police.
Truong’s next court hearing is scheduled to take place March 5.