A former sheriff’s deputy is defending his career this week in an Augusta court.
Allen Crispin Fuentes, identified in previous reports as Allen Crispin, is charged with disorderly conduct after a 2023 encounter with Richmond County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ty Hester during the Latin Spring Fest at the Augusta Common.
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Hester, a 27-year veteran deputy, testified Wednesday that his body camera was turned on during the March 25, 2023, incident, but did not record the encounter.
The testimony undercuts the response of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office to The Augusta Press’ April 2023 request for body cam video from the incident.
In ongoing litigation with The Augusta Press, the sheriff has repeatedly claimed any video is exempt from disclosure due to an ongoing investigation.
Hester testified Wednesday that he retrieved and activated a body camera after Crispin approached him at the festival.
He and others testified that Crispin, a former Richmond County deputy but then a Burke County sheriff’s investigator, informed him about an adult male festival visitor slapping an infant.
Hester testified that Crispin verbally challenged him about his lack of response.
Crispin wagged a finger in his face and used expletives, he said.
Hester testified he warned Crispin “10 or 15 times” that he needed to leave the festival.
But he discovered soon after the incident the Axon body camera he was wearing did not support the 64-gigabyte SD card he put in it, Hester testified.
A colleague of Hester’s on the sheriff’s gangs unit, Inv. Omar Aljabari, testified he told Hester to grab a card from the department safe, unaware a 64 GB card would cause the Axon unit to malfunction.
Hester would later obtain a search warrant for Crispin’s wife’s phone, prompting an emergency injunction against taking its entire contents.
According to trial testimony, the phone contained the only video from the incident. But the video, shown at trial, does not start until after Crispin’s arrest.
After initially declining to testify on his own behalf, Crispin took the stand late Wednesday.
Crispin, who had been working on crimes against children in Burke County, said after informing Hester of the child abuse incident, he realized Hester intended to do nothing about it.
When Hester extended his hand to meet Crispin for the first time, Crispin refused to shake it and said, “you’re sorry as (expletive),” he testified.
Rather than continue to engage with Hester, as the Richmond County deputy testified, Crispin said his wife and five children had already packed up and were leaving the festival.
“At no point did he ask me to leave,” Crispin said. “I was already leaving.”
Three-quarters of the way across Reynolds Street at the crosswalk behind the common, Hester pursued and arrested him, Crispin testified.
