Man records confrontation with El Paso County Judge and campaign manager at voting site
EL PASO, Texas -- El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego and his campaign manager were walking in the parking lot of an early voting site Friday when a man confronted them, leading to a heated exchange of words.
The man, Sammy Carrejo, recorded the confrontation and posted the video on Facebook.
You can watch the clip by clicking here or watching the video above.
In a news release, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office didn't name Samaniego, his campaign manager or Carrejo.
Investigators referred to Carrejo as a citizen. They said he was accused of knocking a cell phone from a campaign worker's hand, causing minor damage to the device.
In the video, you can hear Carrejo accusing Samaniego of not reporting his bankruptcy and an arrest.
We spoke with Samaniego live on ABC-7 at 10 Friday night. You can see what he said about the confrontation on the video player at the top of the article.
"We tried to calm the situation down. My campaign manager got between us. She got concerned about what he was trying to accomplish," Samaniego said. "He shoved my campaign manager, knocked her phone twice."
Samaniego also said the accusations were false.
"He entered into our space, continued to be aggressive," Samaniego said.
ABC-7 also talked with Carrejo via Facebook Messenger.
"Everything was fine until the campaign worker with him started to block my phone with a campaign sign," Carrejo said. "She got aggressive and cut me off from walking towards the county judge and knocked my phone over with the sign."
The confrontation happened at the Marty Robbins Recreation Center just before 4 p.m.
Investigators said an employee of the El Paso County Elections Department notified the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office and several deputies arrived.
The Sheriff's Office said they're looking into the confrontation and will determine what charges, if any, are appropriate.