Colorado prosecutors upgrade assault charge against CIA contractor

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A CIA contractor accused of getting into a fight over a parking space in Colorado months after he fatally shot two men in Pakistan will face a felony assault charge in addition to a count of disorderly conduct.

Raymond Davis, 37, of Highlands Ranch, Colo., was arrested Saturday on suspicion of third-degree assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.

After Davis appeared Monday in Douglas County District Court in Castle Rock, about 25 miles south of Denver, prosecutors upgraded the assault charge to second-degree assault, a felony, said Casimir Spencer, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Davis is scheduled to appear in the same court Tuesday on the new charge, Spencer said.

Davis’ Denver-based defense attorney, William Frankfurt, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.

The fight was reported Saturday outside Einstein Bros. Bagels in Highlands Ranch. Authorities have released few details about the fight and did not identify the other person involved, and a Douglas County sheriff’s spokesman did not return calls or email late Monday.

But KUSA-TV in Denver reported that Jeff Maes was the man allegedly assaulted by Davis. Maes told KUSA-TV that the fight began over a parking space in the crowded lot about 9 a.m.

‘Instead of going by and saying, ‘Hey that was my spot,’ he goes behind me, rolls his window down and starts cussing me out,’ Maes said.

He added that the altercation quickly escalated as his wife and two young daughters watched.

‘I said, ‘You need to relax,’ ‘ Maes said. ‘I said, ‘This is stupid,’ I turned, and he hit me.’

Maes was treated at a nearby hospital for several injuries, including a scrape on his head.

‘In a million years I would never expect him to cold-cock me like that,’ Maes said.

In January, Davis admitted to fatally shooting two Pakistani men in Lahore, saying that they had tried to rob him. The case sparked widespread outrage across the country. U.S. officials contended that Davis should have diplomatic immunity from prosecution. Pakistani officials refused to release him until March, after the U.S. government agreed to pay the victims’ families $2.34 million in compensation for the killings, in accordance with Muslim tradition.

Davis remained free late Monday on $1,750 bond.

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--Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Houston