A Colorado police officer who put a handcuffed woman in a parked police vehicle that was hit by a freight train was found guilty of reckless endangerment and assault but was acquitted of a third charge of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter during a trial Friday.
Jordan Steinke was the first of two officers to go to trial over the 16 September 2022 crash that left Yareni Rios-Gonzalez seriously injured.
There was no jury in Steinke’s trial, which started Monday. Instead, judge Timothy Kerns listened to the evidence and issued the verdict.
“There’s no reasonable doubt that placing a handcuffed person in the back of a patrol car, parked on railroad tracks, creates a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm by the train,” Kerns said.
But the evidence did not convince Kerns that Steinke “knowingly intended to harm Ms Rios-Gonzalez,” and he added that Stienke had shown “shock and remorse”.
Steinke testified that she did not know that the patrol car of another officer she was helping was parked on the tracks even though they can be seen on her body camera footage along with two railroad crossing signs. Steinke said she was focused on the threat that could come from Rios-Gonzalez and her pickup truck, not the ground.
Steinke said she put Rios-Gonzalez in the other officer’s vehicle because it was the nearest spot to temporarily hold her. She said she didn’t know the train was coming until just before it hit.
The judge found that Steinke observed the tracks, but failed to “appreciate the risk”.
Mallory Revel, Steinke’s attorney, did not immediately respond to requests by phone and email for comment.
Steinke, who was working for the Fort Lupton police department at the time of the crash, was charged with criminal attempt to commit manslaughter, a felony; and reckless endangerment and third-degree assault, both misdemeanors.
The other officer, Pablo Vazquez, who worked for the police department in nearby Platteville, is being prosecuted for misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment and traffic offenses. He has not entered a plea yet.
Vazquez’s lawyer, Reid Elkus, did not immediately respond to a request by phone for comment.
#officer #put #handcuffed #woman #car #hit #freight #train #guilty #Colorado
