The lawsuit states the “assaultive action was without any reasonable justification and was not in keeping with any use of force protocol adopted by the Adams County Sheriff’s Department or any other law enforcement agency in the United States.”

Guido said, according to the lawsuit, that he was on duty as a reserved deputy that morning and that he was acting on the direction of Patten, a claim Patten denies.

Disciplinary action

Patten said Guido’s actions were unjustified on that morning and that he stripped Guido of any reserve deputy duties as soon as he learned about it.

“It doesn’t matter who it is,” Patten said, “if it is against our policies and our rules and our procedures, discipline is going to be issued and once I was made aware of what happened with him down there that day, he was stripped immediately of everything indefinitely.”

Patten said that while he has stripped Guido of his reserve deputy status, he has retained Guido as the sheriff’s office’s helicopter pilot.

Guido has served as a reserve deputy for some 17 years and also is the pilot for the sheriff’s office’s helicopter, Patten said.

The lawsuit states that Guido donated the helicopter to the sheriff’s office and that Guido also operates drones for the department.

“What he (Guido) still has to do for us is we have a helicopter here, and I have to have maintenance on this thing every month,” Patten said. “So the only thing he still does for us as of right now is the helicopter and that is it.”