Colorado authorities have agreed to pay $8.5m to a woman who was left handcuffed in a parked police vehicle that was hit by a freight train.
The incident took place on 16 September 2022, near Platteville, Colorado, after Pablo Vazquez, then a Platteville police sergeant, had stopped Yareni Rios-Gonzalez following a reported road-rage incident involving a gun.
Another officer, Jordan Steinke of the Fort Lupton police department, took Rios-Gonzalez into custody and locked her handcuffed in Vazquez’s police vehicle, which was parked on the railroad tracks. A train crashed into the SUV, causing Yareni Rios-Gonzalez to suffer serious injuries.
Last year, Steinke was found guilty of reckless endangerment and assault in the case, and ordered to serve 30 months on supervised probation and perform 100 hours of community service. Steinke was fired from the Fort Lupton police department after her conviction.
During the trial, Steinke’s defense attorneys said she did not know that Vazquez had parked his police vehicle on the tracks.
Steinke, who wept during the sentencing hearing, apologized to Rios-Gonzalez, who attended the hearing virtually.
“What happened that night has haunted me for 364 days,” Steinke said. “I remember your cries and your screams.”
Vazquez had been charged with five misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment in connection with the crash. He reached a plea deal with prosecutors, and pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment for parking his patrol car on the tracks. He was sentenced to 12 months of unsupervised probation.
Following the crash, Vazquez had told other officers that he thought he had cleared the tracks when he parked his patrol vehicle.
CNN reports that the city of Fort Lupton and the town of Platteville will split the amount of the settlement equally, and that it will be paid by their insurers.
“This voluntary settlement is to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, recognizes the gravity of this matter, and allows all parties to move forward,” the Fort Lupton police department said in a statement seen by CNN.
The Guardian reached out to the Fort Lupton police department for comment.
