Zak Wood / Colorado Daily

Co-Manager of Mamacitas, Bill Gonzalez, 59, points to where he witnessed the owner Harvey Epstein get into a taser exchange with an officer from Colorado Security Services in the alley behind the restaurant on Saturday night. Mamacitas is located at 1149 13th St. on the Hill.

Saturday, May 17, 7 p.m. -- a heated dispute over a parked mini-van behind Mamacita's Restaurante Y Cantina on the Hill led to a back-alley taser standoff between two security guards and part-owner of the restaurant Harvey Epstein.

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According to the Boulder Police Department's official report of the incident, what eventually resulted in Epstein's arrest under charges of felony menacing and use of a stun gun began with an argument over questionable parking enforcement behind the restaurant -- an issue that has grieved the owners and staff of Mamacita's in the past.

"The businesses on either side of Mamacita's have contracted with Colorado Security to handle parking issues behind those businesses," stated BPD Officer Schuler's report, which summarized the evening's events according to Carmen Epstein, owner of Mamacita's. "They continue to have issues with Colorado Security booting vehicles parked behind their restaurant belonging to her and her employees."

"I told the security guard that we are tired of this booting in our own property," claimed Ms. Epstein in a Voluntary Statement for the Boulder Police.

William High, the Mamacita's employee who parked the minivan "about one fourth over the property marker on (Epstein's) private property and about three fourths . . . in the alley" as observed by BPD Officer Logue, included the initial response of Harvey Epstein in a similar statement.

"I told the security guard that I was parked on our property and . . . that they had to remove the boot and he refused so Harvey brought bolt cutters to remove the boot," stated High.

After failing to successfully remove the boots from the minivan, the report states that Harvey continued to wield the bolt cutters as he disputed the parking issue with the security guard, Robert Streiff, who soon called for additional help in the situation.

"Threatening me as he was attempting to cut (the boots) off, I took photos and called my supervisor. When he arrived, the owner in an offensive manner raised the cutters at my supervisor . . . my supervisor in order to defend himself unholstered his taser," stated Streiff.

Streiff's supervisor, Casey Dane, outlined the electrifying sequence of events that followed in his own statement.

"I placed my hand on my taser and asked (Epstein) to drop the bolt cutters," he stated. "He began to approach me with them. I then removed my taser from the holster and placed the male at taser point and demanded that he drop them or he would be tased. He then reached in his pocket and removed a civilian taser and tased me from about six feet away. I then deployed my taser at center mass of the subject."

Harvey Epstein's voluntary statement of the incident for the Boulder Police cited a similar sequence of events, but a different motivation for the use of his taser -- as he described the guard was threatening him with "a Glock service pistol."

"(Dane) started to yell 'I am going to shoot you,' not 'I am going to taze you.' He never said this ever. He then drew his taser. At the same time, I drew mine. We shot each other. I set mine down as is proper . . . I never threatened anyone physically. I defended myself when aimed at with a deadly weapon."

In total, seven officers from BPD were involved in identifying, separating, and recording the accounts of the conflicting parties between Mamacita's and Colorado Security Services. The only arrest made was that of Harvey Epstein under felony menacing and use of stun gun charges.

Boulder Police have yet to be able to determine exactly who fired first. Disputes continue to linger over the legality of the initial parking enforcement, whether or not the security guards threatened the Epsteins with a gun, and whether or not Epstein threatened the guards with the bolt cutters.

Contact Lance Vaillancourt about this story at (303) 443-6272, ext. 125, or at vaillancourt@coloradodaily.com.