Colorado officer accused of assaulting woman with dementia thought arrest went 'great,' new video sh [View all]
Source: NBC News
The video showed Karen Garner being booked on June 26, 2020, inside the Loveland Police Department.
April 26, 2021, 9:17 PM CDT
By Tim Stelloh
Colorado police officers accused of assaulting a 73-year-old woman with dementia last year are seen in a video released Monday appearing to laugh about the arrest and commenting on the moment when an officer apparently dislocated her shoulder.
The video, which was released by Karen Garner’s lawyer, came from a camera inside the Loveland Police Department and showed her being booked on June 26, 2020.
Lawyer Sarah Schielke said she obtained the video after Garner was charged in the incident with theft, resisting arrest and obstruction.
Those charges were later dismissed, Schielke said, and county authorities launched an independent investigation into allegations of excessive force raised in a federal lawsuit filed by Schielke this month.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/colorado-officer-accused-assaulting-woman-dementia-thought-arrest-went-great-n1265428
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Video: Loveland Cops' Rough Bust of Elderly Woman With Dementia
MICHAEL ROBERTS | APRIL 16, 2021 | 7:46AM
It's been a tough week for Loveland. First came the controversy over a photo of city council member Don Overcash and other white officials wearing Afro wigs while costumed as members of a monkey band. And now, the city and three members of the Loveland Police Department are being sued over the extremely aggressive, injury-inducing arrest last year of Karen Garner, a 73-year-old suffering from dementia who's only five feet tall and weighs eighty pounds.
Accompanying the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court by Loveland-based The Life & Liberty Law Firm on April 14, is surveillance and body-camera footage from the Garner bust. The officers named as defendants are Austin Hopp, Daria Jalali and Philip Metzler.
The suit notes that Garner "suffers from dementia and sensory aphasia, which impairs her ability to communicate and understand." Her condition is emphasized in connection with the reason she originally came to the LPD's attention: On June 26, 2020, she allegedly left a Loveland Walmart without ponying up for a Pepsi, a candy bar, a T-shirt and some Shout Wipe refills cumulatively valued at $13.88. "Forgetting to pay for items at a store is one of the most common and well-known symptoms witnessed in elderly persons suffering from dementia," the document states.
Garner was confronted by an employee as she left the store, then escorted back inside, where the items were confiscated. At that point, Garner tried handing the staffer a credit card, but her offer was rejected — so she exited the store and began walking to her nearby home. En route, she was intercepted by Officer Hopp in a field alongside Mountain Lion Road; she was picking wildflowers, the suit says.
When Garner didn't immediately comply with instructions to stop, for reasons the complaint ascribes to her condition, Hopp is quoted as saying, "I don’t think you want to play it this way. Ma’am, police, stop," before asking, "Do you need to be arrested right now?" Shortly thereafter, the suit states, Hopp "leapt out and physically grabbed Ms. Garner’s left arm, and violently twisted it behind her back. Then he threw her 80-pound body to the ground and climbed on top of her, still inflicting upon her the painful rear wristlock maneuver he was employing to put her in handcuffs."
More:
https://www.westword.com/news/karen-garner-loveland-police-dementia-patient-arrest-video-11946248
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