Yareni Rios-Gonzalez was detained in this stationary police vehicle when a truck struck her on Sept. 16, 2022. (Screenshot: Law&Crime Network)
A cop maintained she did not mean to hurt a detained woman who was in a patrol vehicle that got totaled by a train. Her testimony, however, was damning when it came to her misdemeanor charges.
Jordan Steinke, a police officer for the Fort Lupton Police Department in Colorado, was convicted on Friday of reckless endangerment and assault, according to The Associated Press. Judge Timothy Kerns, who presided over the bench trial, acquitted her of a felony charge of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter.
Sgt. Pablo Vazquez of the Platteville Police Department pulled over Yareni Rios-Gonzalez on the night of Sep. 16, 2022, regarding a road rage allegation. Steinke arrived to help. As seen on video, police put Rios-Gonzalez in Vazquez’s vehicle — which had been left on train tracks.
“Oh, s—!” Steinke said as the train approached.
The train wiped the police SUV off the tracks. Rios-Gonzalez sustained injuries including broken bones, a punctured lung, a traumatic brain injury, and amnesia, the defense in her criminal case said, according to The Denver Post.
She pleaded no contest to misdemeanor menacing in exchange for avoiding jail under a deferred sentence.
That left the criminal cases against police officers Steinke and Vazquez.
Steinke testified that she was focused on the potential threat from Rios-Gonzalez and her pickup truck instead of the ground, according to the AP. She maintained she did not realize the train was coming until just before it struck the SUV. She did not notice the tracks or the ground when squatting to arrest a kneeling Rios-Gonzalez, she reportedly said.
Deputy District Attorney Christopher Jewkes challenged her on cross-examination.
”I am sure I saw the tracks, sir, but I did not perceive them,” she answered.
Kerns cited that during his ruling.
“When she testified to that, I wrote down, ‘What does that mean?’” the judge said. “And then I thought about that, and frankly, this is what it means to the court. It’s the equivalent of acknowledging that she was aware of the signs and information that this was a railroad track, but didn’t appreciate the risk. ‘Recklessly’ is the conscious disregard of awareness. Lack of appreciation is, in fact, the disregard of what she consciously observed.”
Steinke still works for Fort Lupton police as of Friday, the City Clerk Mari Peña told Law&Crime. She is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 15 and faces a maximum of 18 months for the assault charge and six months for reckless endangerment.
The officer’s attorney did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment. The Weld County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Vazquez’s case for eight charges of reckless endangerment is ongoing. His attorney did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment. The Platteville Police Department did not immediately respond to a Law&Crime request for comment.
Rios-Gonzalez’s lawsuit over the crash is ongoing. The city has no comment on the lawsuit, Peña said.
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