Deputy recovering after falling 40ft attempting to rescue teens in a rollover crash

OTERO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - An Otero County Sheriff's Office reserve deputy is just beginning the long road to recovery after falling nearly 40 feet down a canal embankment while responding to a vehicle crash, involving four teenagers on March 20.

"When I landed in the canal, it was very clear. I heard a pop," said Deputy Joe Pentlicki, a member of the agency's Reserve Posse.

Dep. Pentlicki shattered his pelvis during a rescue effort near Otero County Road 805. Since that night, he's had two surgeries and is facing a lengthy recovery.

After he and fellow deputies arrived at the scene, Pentlicki says he was looking for the least steep way down into the canal, while Detective Sergeant Tyson Duran was grabbing his medical kit from the car. Pentlicki says his plan was to slide down the canal to get to the injured occupants out of the car.

But that's not what happened.

"I think my foot hung up on something, and next thing I knew, I was upright. And then, I actually remember doing at least two somersaults before landing in the canal," Pentlicki said.

Pentlicki has been with the Otero County Sheriff's Office for years, but not as a full-time deputy. Rather, he's been a member of the sheriff's posse since 2021, which is a volunteer position.

That means he rides along to support the other deputies and works security. He says it's another way to give back to the community.

And he's already excited to get back to it.

"I won't stop. Honestly, when you're - when you're with that group of people, you are making a difference for others, and that has really always been my motivation in life is making a difference for others," Pentlicki said.

But now it's the community's turn to give back to this officer.

"When I got discharged from the hospital, when they were letting me out on Thursday, I had a walker, but there's stairs up into my house. The Rocky Ford Police Chief met me at my house to help carry me up the stairs into the house to make sure I could get home. Those things mean a lot," Pentlicki recalled.

Pentlicki's family has started a GoFundMe to help supplement the loss of income from being out of work at his day job.

As for the teenagers in the car, Colorado State Patrol, who are investigating the crash, tells KRDO13 three of them sustained moderate injuries, and one sustained serious injuries and needed to be flown to the hospital that night.

Nobody in the vehicle was wearing a seatbelt.