A 22-year-old man arrested on assault and trespassing charges after a reported fight with bouncers at a Boulder bar on Saturday is believed to be a former member of the University of Colorado football team.
Kevin Dement, 22, was booked into the Boulder County jail Saturday on charges of second-degree assault and third-degree trespassing.
Officers arrested Dement after responding to Tahona Tequila Bistro, 1035 Pearl St., on reports of an altercation between a customer and bouncers about 12:30 a.m. Saturday, according to police Sgt. Melissa Carey.
“There was an incident with what I understand to be a CU football player and our staff,” Tahona manager John Ryan said Sunday.
Carey said the incident report gave no indication the man arrested was affiliated with the CU football team. But Dement, who remains at the Boulder jail with a court appearance scheduled for Monday, has the same name and birth date — Feb. 23, 1996 — as a man listed as a wide receiver with the team on CU’s athletics website.
Dement enrolled at CU in 2014, and joined the football team as a walk-on in 2016, the athletics page says. The 180-pound receiver dressed for a total of six games during the 2016 and 2017 seasons — his junior and senior years at the school — but did not record any statistics in those contests. Dement took part in senior day ceremonies with the team in November and is scheduled to graduate from the university in May, according to associate athletic director David Plati. The team roster for 2018 does not include Dement.
Ruben Llerena was one of the bouncers working at Tahona on Saturday. He said he dislocated his arm fighting off Dement, who said attacked Tahona’s staff three times before being arrested.
Llerena said he was first called to deal with Dement after Dement allegedly hit another bouncer several times while being ejected from the bar. After that clash, Dement refused to leave, Llerena said. That led the bar’s owner to come outside and threaten to call police for the first time. After the owner pulled his phone from his pocket, Dement approached the railing separating the bar’s patio from the street and slapped the owner, knocking his glasses off his face, Llerena said. Llerena said he then wrestled with Dement for a few minutes before Dement retreated.
Dement still would not leave the area in front of this bar, approaching the railing again to “talk a massive amount of junk,” Llerena said. At this point, Llerena said he punched Dement in the face, possibly dislocating his arm in the process. The two then wrestled for several more minutes before police arrived and eventually arrested Dement.
“At this point, he’s assaulted three people in the matter of 10 minutes, so I am not going to let you go now.” Llerema remembered thinking at the time.
Llerena said he found Dement’s name on a Boulder police webpage after the arrest and searched for him on Facebook. He said he found a picture of Dement in a CU football uniform.
“Honestly, I’ve been doing this for a while, and I know when people are drunk. But he didn’t seem like he was on alcohol. He seemed like he was on something else,” Llerena said. “This kid deserves whatever it is he has to deal with from here on out.”