Denver officer suspended two days for implying domestic violence in text to woman: report

A Denver Police Department officer will be suspended for two days after telling a woman who declined to go on a second date with him that she would be interested if he “beat [her] ass on the regular,” The Denver Post reported Tuesday. 

The woman reached out to the police department’s internal affairs unit in May regarding the text messages in question, according to a disciplinary letter obtained by the Post. 

The woman informed investigators that she met Officer Christopher Cochran through a dating app in March, and they went on one date on April 1. Cochran, who had been with the department since 2017, was reportedly in his uniform and on duty during the date. 

The department noted he received a written reprimand for attending the date while on duty, the Post reported. 

Cochran and the woman did not communicate after the date until he texted her a few weeks later, prompting her to say she was not interested. 

The officer texted in response: “I’ll bet if I beat your ass on the regular, you’d be incapable of staying away from me.”

Cochran told the internal affairs office that the woman informed him she had been in unhealthy relationships in the past and he was attempting to “indicate he was better than the previous men she had dated,” according to the letter. He admitted the text was poorly written. 

Deputy Director of Public Safety Mary Dulacki said in the letter, “Though Officer Cochran indicated that he meant to suggest he was better than the men [the woman] had previously dated, the words he used proposed committing an assault and were unbecoming [of] an officer.”

The Denver Police Department declined to comment on the incident and discipline. The department receives tens of thousands of calls related to domestic violence each year, according to data reviewed by the Post. In 2019, 10 people died in domestic violence homicides. 

The report on Cochran’s suspension comes as public scrutiny of the police has grown after high-profile incidents of police brutality, specifically against Black people. The police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the police shooting of Jacob Blake have sparked international protests against police treatment of minorities.

Updated 2:30 p.m.