{"id":15120,"date":"2025-12-23T12:31:40","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T19:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fpd-cracks-down-on-street-racers-with-grappler\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:45:13","slug":"fpd-cracks-down-on-street-racers-with-grappler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/fpd-cracks-down-on-street-racers-with-grappler\/","title":{"rendered":"FPD cracks down on street racers with grappler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=db0550d1-82d3-5d1a-ae47-19c92decb6c7&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1500\" alt=\"A Farmington Police K-9 unit demonstrates the use of a grappler to stop a speeding driver on Oct. 31 at Safety City.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">A Farmington Police K-9 unit demonstrates the use of a grappler to stop a speeding driver on Oct. 31 at Safety City.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>An Aztec man allegedly involved in a Sept. 26 street racing incident that caused a car to explode on 20th Street was arraigned Dec. 18 before 11th Judicial District Judge Stephen Wayne.<\/p>\n<p>Reese Berthold, 27, pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated fleeing a law enforcement officer causing injury, a third-degree felony; racing on highways, a petty misdemeanor; and driving without headlights, a petty misdemeanor.<\/p>\n<p>Farmington police continue cracking down on racing. The department recently installed two grapplers on K-9 trucks.<\/p>\n<p>Police Chief Steve Hebbe said the grapplers were used four times as of Oct. 31.<\/p>\n<p>Two uses occurred during operations with the Region 2 Narcotics Task Force, \u201cwhen we knew we were going to make a takedown,\u201d Hebbe said. \u201cWe\u2019ve deployed it early, when it\u2019s likely someone is going to run, to prevent a pursuit.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video wp-block-embed-youtube naviga-video-embed\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tt5aYCt37wc\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>The grappler can also stop street racers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we can deploy it, it\u2019s a good tool to keep the public safe,\u201d Hebbe said. \u201cPursuits in the city are dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Farmington police officers Miles Mead and Justin Ahlgrim gave an Oct. 31 demonstration of the grappler at Safety City for the Tri-City Record.<\/p>\n<p>During the demonstration, Mead shot the device at a vehicle driven by Ahlgrim. It wrapped around the tires and stopped the speeding car.<\/p>\n<p>Ahlgrim later described the feeling as \u201cvery subtle,\u201d making one \u201cwonder what\u2019s wrong with your car, because all of a sudden you\u2019re stopping.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During the demonstration, Hebbe confirmed that the woman allegedly involved in the same racing incident as Berthold had been caught racing a second time in less than a month.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=81b5da87-afa7-509c-b282-885bfbbe3098&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1338\" alt=\"Kalynn Kenworthy, 22, of Farmington being questioned by police after a Sept. 26, 2025 street racing crash.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Kalynn Kenworthy, 22, of Farmington being questioned by police after a Sept. 26, 2025 street racing crash.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Kalynn Kenworthy, 22, of Farmington, \u201cgot another citation, and she was going pretty high over the speed limit,\u201d Hebbe said.<\/p>\n<p>Kenworthy and Berthold allegedly were racing at 11:40 p.m. Sept. 26 on East 20th Street when the car Berthold was in crashed and burst into flames in the Smith\u2019s Grocery Store parking lot.<\/p>\n<p>Berthold reportedly left the car and his passenger, Cole Medina, inside, according to the affidavit supporting his arrest warrant.<\/p>\n<p>Farmington police officer Miles Mead pulled Medina from the burning car, saving his life. Medina suffered a fractured skull and burns to his arms and hands, the affidavit states.<\/p>\n<p>Berthold was found later in the Smith\u2019s parking lot with burns to his arms, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=cbe4758d-4ea4-58ec-b55e-557c305ffad6&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1200\" height=\"793\" alt=\"Kalynn Kenworthy\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Kalynn Kenworthy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Kenworthy initially denied involvement in the incident but was arrested after video footage was reviewed.<\/p>\n<p>City Attorney Jennifer Breakell is prosecuting both cases.<\/p>\n<p>Kenworthy\u2019s trials are set for Jan. 27 and Feb. 24 in Farmington Municipal Court for her two racing citations, Breakell said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do have other individuals charged with racing,\u201d Breakell said, adding there are at least four others she knows of \u201cfacing racing charges.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Berthold\u2019s jury trial is set for 8 a.m. April 14 in Wayne\u2019s courtroom in Aztec.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>for racers involved in Smith\u2019s crash <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15121,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15120"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19490,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15120\/revisions\/19490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15120"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}