A Denver process server has been charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief after he was run over and badly injured by a woman he was trying to serve with divorce papers.
Richard Bellizzi, a private investigator and process server told CBS4, "I was in somewhat of a state of shock," after Denver police arrested him and not the driver of the car that hit him following the June 24 incident.
"And I said, 'Process server divorce papers," and she tried to kill me."
Bellizzi was trying to serve divorce papers to Dr. Oksana Bantley, an area anesthesiologist.
Bellizzi said Bantley had avoided another process server and appeared to be trying to avoid him. He spotted her June 24 driving a friend's car. Bellizzi followed her and when she got caught in traffic on Colorado Boulevard Bellizzi jumped out of his car and approached Bantley's car. He held the divorce papers in one hand and a camera in the other hand which recorded what happened next.
The videotape shows Bantley behind the wheel of her car. As Bellizzi stands near the front of her car, he can be heard saying, "Oksana Bantley ... Superior Court …" Bantley shields her face with her hands. But before Bellizzi finishes speaking, she can be seen apparently turning the wheel of her car toward Bellizzi and the car accelerates. The video shows Bellizzi on the hood of the speeding car for a few seconds before the tape cuts off.
"She turned the wheel and gunned the engine, effectively cutting my legs out and forcing me on to the hood of the car," Bellizzi said.
Bellizzi said he hung on for about 260 feet at an estimated 30 to 40 miles per hour before he said Bantley turned sharply, ejecting him from the hood of the car.
"This is not going to end well," Bellizzi remembered thinking as he held on to one of the car's windshield wipers. The incident left him with a broken left ankle and deep bruises and cuts. He hobbled back to his car and drove to the Denver Police Department's District 3 station to report what happened.
"I fully expected to sign a complaint and go to St. Joseph's Hospital and have my injuries attended to," he said.
But Bellizzi said he was immediately met with sarcasm, hostility and aggression by an officer manning the station's front desk. Frustrated by the officer's attitude, Bellizzi asked to speak to a supervisor. He provided Denver police with his videotape of what happened and information on how to track down Bantley, which police did, summoning her to the District 3 station. After several hours he said the same officer who greeted him with hostility and aggression handcuffed him and told him he was being arrested for harassment and criminal mischief.
"I knew I was in the right and not guilty of what they were saying. I knew I was a victim," Bellizzi said. "And I don't often feel I am a victim."
Bellizzi was transported by ambulance to Denver Health Medical Center for treatment and then on to the Denver Jail. He was released 24 hours later. The following day Bellizzi's lawyer, Jennifer Henslee, said she spoke to a sergeant from the Denver Police Department who "apologized for the treatment Mr. Bellizzi received, stated Mr. Bellizzi should never have been charged with a crime."
Henslee has sent a four-page letter to Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman outlining what happened arguing that Bellizzi spent a night in jail "for no justifiable reason whatsoever." She complained of police conduct and wrote, "Given the facts of this incident, the overwhelming amount of evidence establishing at the very least probable cause that Mrs. Bantley committed several felony crimes, it is unbelievable that she has not been charged. The fact that your officers treated Mr. Bellizzi unfairly with hostility and disrespect is outrageous."
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