Week of August 17, 2026: Corrections Officer Arrested for Sexual Exploitation of a Child and State Trooper Arrested for Domestic Violence
Welcome to our weekly sum-up. Every Monday we send out a short summary of the last week’s officers that have landed on Colorado’s Peace Officer Standards and Training public database of law enforcement misconduct and actions. These actions from POST are not necessarily only those that have happened in the last week, but those that have been added, and consist of any other context I could find. Additionally are officers with otherwise obvious misconduct from around the same time.
This week POST did not upload any actions, but there were multiple officers around the state that were fired or arrested.
David Smith (CO-325-231)
- Charged by the Colorado Springs Police Department with driving under the influence, careless driving, accident driving under the influence and prohibited use of weapons in late July as a detention deputy with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office
- Terminated by El Paso County SO on Aug. 14
Sources:
Peter Elliott (CO-139322)
- Terminated as a patrol sergeant with Custer County Sheriff’s Office earlier this month
- Custer County SO did not respond to a request for relevant documents before publishing
Sources:
Rodrigo Basurto (CO-013-836)
- Suspended without pay as an officer of Sheridan Police Department earlier this month
- Previously terminated for cause from Denver Police Department for replying in a group chat, regarding where to go for shooting practice, that they “should go to the migrant hotel on 6th and Federal and shoot them there lol plenty of targets in there.”
- Hired by Sheridan PD in May 2025
- Neither Sheridan nor Sheridan PD responded to a request for relevant documents before publishing.
Sources:
- Sheridan Police Department
- 9News
Gage Vidal Montoya
- Arrested by Colorado Bureau of Investigation as a corrections officer with the Colorado Department of Corrections on August 13 for multiple sexual exploitation of a child charges
- Charges include:
- two counts of sexual exploitation of a child with intent to deal in, sell, or distribute sexually exploitative material
- two counts of sexual exploitation of a child through accessing with intent to view, viewing, possessing, or controlling sexually exploitative video
- four counts of sexual exploitation of a child through accessing with intent to view, viewing, possessing, or controlling sexually exploitative material
- According to CBI, the arrest came after a year-long investigation and there is no evidence the alleged criminal misconduct happened on-duty
- Ran for Las Animas County sheriff in 2025 as a Republican
- Las Animas County Court did not respond to a request for an arrest affidavit before publishing
Sources:
Ryan Holmes (CO-125446)
- Colorado State trooper arrested for domestic violence-related second-degree aggravated assault through strangulation Thursday afternoon.
- According to the arrest affidavit, the charge stems from December 2024 where the wife states that Holmes became agitated that morning, started an argument, and he "grabbed her throat with one hand and lifted her off her feet."
- Previously reported on here.
- Additional charge of witness/victim intimidating was added to the case Thursday
- The Longmont Times-Call reported the Weld County Deputy District Attorney Carolyn O’Hara said during a Friday afternoon bond hearing that Holmes called his wife after learning of the warrant for his arrest on Thursday and said, “I’m gonna (expletive) up your life if you don’t recant.”
Sources:
- Weld County Court
- Longmont Times-Call
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