Cops Get Fired, Arrested, and Sued After Unlawful Arrest

[Music] welcome to audit the audits where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers excessive force mental health and resisting arrest and is brought to us by nine news's channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve on june 26 2020 73 year old karen garner who suffers from dementia and sensory aphasia which impairs her ability to communicate and understand attempted to leave a walmart in loveland colorado carrying 13.88 cents of items she had not paid for when she was stopped by store employees ms garner attempted to hand over her credit card to pay for the items but the employees refused to allow her to pay and took the items back ms garner left the store and a walmart employee then called the loveland police department to report the supposed theft officer austin hopp responded to the call and tracked down ms garner as she was walking home on the side of the road officer hopp pulled up behind ms garner with his lights on and when she did not stop he stopped his vehicle and approached her all right let's stop ma'am i don't think you want to play it this way ma'am police stop you want to stop the lights on siren stop you just left walmart do you need to be arrested right now no no no okay let's stop after failing to effectively communicate with ms garner officer hopp grabs her and throws her to the ground in an attempt to restrain her ms garner visibly confused repeatedly tells officer hop that she's going home as the two engage in a brief scuffle eventually officer hop is able to place ms garner into handcuffs and lead her back to his patrol car right now you're resisting which is not gonna fly with me and before that you tried to steal from walmart and they caught you and took the stuff back stand up oh why are you fighting with me and why are you trying to slip the cuffs off [Applause] stop i'm going home no you're not are you finished are you finished we don't play this game you understand me and if you try to kick me oh this is going to be bad i'm going to stop [Applause] shortly after officer hopp was able to gain control of ms garner officer daria jalali arrives on the scene and the two officers once again force ms garner to the ground [Applause] there we go all right sit down sit down get in the cart here you go do not hook on to him i'll come on the other side grab her [Applause] what's that who's my sergeant yeah okay well first i can tell you that sergeant metzler he's at the police department you can go talk to him if you have an issue yeah give me your card so i can put a report okay i see you saying there how you throw that little kid little kid well i don't know stole from walmart and refused to stop refuse to listen to lawful orders and to fight me this is what happens when you fight the police i have to use force to safely detain her that's what this is this isn't just some random act of aggression officer jalali assists officer hop in restraining ms gardner's feet and placing her in the patrol vehicle after which a concerned citizen confronts officer hop about his conduct although officer hop informs the citizen that he was within his authority to use force against ms garner his conduct almost certainly violated department policy colorado law and the u.s constitution section 18-1-707 of the colorado revised statutes currently states that quote peace officers in carrying out their duties shall apply non-violent means when possible before resorting to the use of physical force a peace officer may use physical force only if non-violent means would be ineffective in affecting an arrest however this language was recently added to the statute by colorado senate bill 20-217 and although the bill was signed on june 19 2020 these provisions did not go into effect until september 1st 2020. at the time of ms garner's arrest the statute that was in effect stated that quote a peace officer is justified in using reasonable and appropriate physical force upon another person when and to the extent that he reasonably believes it necessary to affect an arrest when courts determine whether an officer's use of force is quote unquote reasonable under both colorado law and the fourth amendment they review the totality of the circumstances focusing on three factors identified by the supreme court in the 1989 case of graham vs conor now quoting the severity of the crime at issue whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight while it technically could be argued that ms garner was attempting to evade arrest by slowly walking away from officer hop in her confusion the first two gram factors clearly weigh against the use of force in this situation ms garner was accused of the attempted theft of pepsi a candy bar a t-shirt and some shout wipe refills which is a petty offense in colorado and as an elderly woman with dementia who was five feet tall weighed approximately 80 pounds and was simply trying to walk home she clearly posed no threat to anyone's safety i don't know if you realize that yeah well the way that i see it from over there you know i was like doesn't know but you see you don't know the whole situation that's the thing yeah you know but it's like but knowing the situation do you feel differently now oh yeah but you're not like seeing it from there that that guy just walking yeah i get that i get that so when i went to go grab her and talk to her she started running leaving pulling away from me trying to fight me that does the thing i didn't see it running so before you go to a snap judgment you gotta get all the facts but right here she wasn't running i get that i see a walking right there you pull over i gotta deal with this you hang tight okay get your feet in the car all right okay let me see your feet credit card we'll get it oh my god okay karen i got your credit card okay it'll go with you what's your date of birth karen i have it you will have it with you i will not lose it i promise what's your date of birth karen what's your date of birth what's your date of birth [Applause] the officers attempt to ascertain ms garner's identity by asking her when she was born but she refuses to engage with the officers throughout the interaction it does not appear that any of the officers even consider the possibility that ms garner was mentally unstable despite the obvious symptoms of dementia she exhibits the loveland police department policy on interaction with persons suspected of suffering from mental illness states that quote department members are not expected to act as mental health clinicians make diagnoses or provide medical or psychiatric advice but they should be aware of commonly encountered behaviors associated with mental disorders the policy identifies dementia as one of the mental disorders that police officers often encounter lists disorientation regression memory loss and disordered thinking and speech is typical symptoms that officers should be aware of and explains that now quoting when encountering a person exhibiting signs or symptoms that may indicate the person is suffering from a mental illness enforcement personnel should attempt to establish a sincere relationship with the individual while maintaining the safety and security of all persons involved throughout the encounter according to the policy officers should also model calm behavior and non-threatening body language use simple commands announce actions before initiating them ask direct and simple questions that permit a very brief response permit adequate response time when asking questions utilize active listening techniques and expect possible delayed responses due to confusion and fear it is evident from the body camera footage that officer hop either failed to notice the clear signs of mental impairment in ms garner's behavior or intentionally violated this policy in his interactions with her negative sorry i got nothing else it's just from a credit card she has copy she's probably like four ten five foot maybe like a hundred pounds how'd you said you're trying to talk oh you were good i had her handled if it was a big dude have been different but she was like 20 pounds what's the 200. well at least resisting right now is that a 200 right now okay hey let's get her down the station okay we don't need to wait for capella uh no we can see what i mean we know we know she what's it say she stole some stuff and they caught her before she left and got it back and she ran out so we have the then you contacted her for that and then she resisted it so we're good either way so we're good either either way she's gone all right if they decide not to prosecute i don't care cool okay we'll head down there sergeant philip metzler tells officer hopp that ms garner is going to be charged with resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer regardless of whether the walmart employees decide to prosecute her for attempting to shoplift although laws vary from state to state in colorado individuals can still be found guilty of resisting arrest when they are not convicted of the charge they were being arrested for section 18-8-103 of the colorado revised statutes which defines the offense of resisting arrest states that quote it is no defense to a prosecution under this section that the peace officer was attempting to make an arrest which in fact was unlawful if he was acting under color of his official authority and in attempting to make the arrest he was not resorting to unreasonable or excessive force giving rise to the right of self-defense however if charges were pursued against ms garner she would have a strong argument that she was acting in self-defense as a court would likely conclude that officer hopp was using unreasonable and excessive force additionally ms garner's mental condition could serve as another defense if charges were filed against her since to obtain convictions for both resisting arrest and obstructing a peace officer which is codified in section 18-8-104 of the colorado revised statutes the government would be required to prove that she acted quote-unquote knowingly which section 18-1-501 defines as being aware of the nature of one's conduct under section 18-1-803 of the colorado revised statutes evidence of a quote-unquote impaired mental condition which section 16-8-102 defines as quote a condition of mind caused by mental disease or defect that prevents the person from forming the culpable mental state that is an essential element of any crime charged can be offered as a defense to show that a criminal defendant was incapable of acting knowingly given officer hopp's use of excessive force ms garner's right to self-defense and her impaired mental condition it is highly unlikely that she would be convicted of resisting or obstructing and this is likely why the charges against her were quickly dropped hey you got the door open come on karen i'm gonna run you're gonna run oh good thing we got the hot i was gonna pay for it but you didn't after the officers brought ms garner to the police station she was carried inside handcuffed to a bench and left there for several hours without medical care as a result of officer hopp's use of force ms garner suffered a fractured and dislocated shoulder a bloody nose scrapes to her face and contusions to her knees she was also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following the incident and continues to suffer debilitating physical pain in her shoulder arm and wrist while ms garner was restrained at the police station security footage showed officers hop and jalali reviewing the body camera footage with community service officer tyler blackett high fiving bragging and celebrating the injury to ms garner's arm in his narrative report on the use of force officer hopp wrote that quote upon contact the suspect attempted to flee the scene and was placed onto the ground to safely detain her the suspects fought against officers continuously and several controlling holds had to be used the suspect sustained minor lacerations to her wrists from the handcuffs and a small laceration to her chin despite the fact that this account was clearly contradicted by the body camera footage and ms garner's actual physical condition multiple higher level officers including sergeant metzler approved the use of force as quote necessary reasonable and within policy in fact no action was taken against any of the officers involved until ms garner filed a federal lawsuit against the city of loveland officers hop and jalali and sergeant metzler on april 14 2021. ms garner's attorney sarah shilka publicly released the body camera footage and in response to national outrage over the incident officer hop was placed on administrative leave and officer jalali and sergeant metzler were reassigned to administrative duties pending an internal investigation all three officers as well as officer blackett later resigned and the city retained law enforcement consulting firm hillard heinz to conduct an independent investigation of the arrest and the department's policies practices and procedures on may 19 2021 the colorado 8th judicial district critical incident response team concluded an investigation into the incident and criminal charges were filed against former officers hop and jalali mr hop pled not guilty to all three charges and is scheduled for a jury trial in april 2022. as of the date of this episode ms jalali has yet to enter a plea on the charges against her and they remain pending however loveland city leaders agreed to pay ms garner a 3 million settlement on september 9th overall the former loveland officers get an f for escalating a minor violation into an unnecessary and violent arrest failing to consider ms garner's mental condition before using force and for displaying an unprofessional attitude and what could certainly be considered sociopathic tendencies at the very least the conduct of mr hop and ms jalali was nothing short of inhumane from the very beginning of this interaction and their corruption continued well beyond ms garner's arrest not only did the officers celebrate injuring a mentally unstable senior citizen but they also made several attempts to alter or delete the body cam footage lackluster covered the details of the officer's actions following this encounter and i highly recommend checking out his video to get a fuller picture of the lengths these officers went to in an effort to cover their tracks i will leave a link to his coverage in the description below the behavior of these individuals extends far beyond the context of a police encounter and i believe that mr hop's actions were just as much those of an evil and dispassionate person as they were an act of officer misconduct this is yet another officer who deserves a grade lower than an f and this interaction highlights the importance of taking legal action following an act of misconduct if ms garner hadn't filed her lawsuit then this encounter likely would have never been known to the public and officer hopp would still be a member of the loveland police department as for ms garner it would not be appropriate to assign a grade to an individual who was not in full control of their mental faculties at the time of the interaction if nothing else this encounter is a prime example of the current relationship between american policing and individuals suffering from mental health conditions and is a testament to the complications that often arise when poorly trained officers attempt to handle these cases ms garner was not only a victim of police misconduct she was also the victim of a corrupt human being and a society's refusal to act upon the shortcomings of policing and mental health care i commend ms garner for having the courage to follow up this interaction with the proper legal action and i sincerely hope that this encounter inspires other departments to take pre-emptive measures to ensure that their officers know how to properly handle mental health calls let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out my second channel for even more police interaction content [Music] you

Channel: Audit the Audit

Views: 1,471,636

Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: WOiNT0mUOHo

Length: 17min 26sec (1046 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 17 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/MarkJ-]

Did I catch that right? Resisting an illegal arrest is, illegal in CO?

[u/Crimsonak-]

The video states they resigned, not that they were fired.

[u/DefendCharterRights]

The "$3,000,000 Lawsuit" actually was a $3,000,000 settlement. Big difference.

Oftentimes, the video thumbnail exaggerates the nature of the content in an attempt to attract more viewers (i.e., "click-bait"). This is a rare instance of a thumbnail that downplays the content.

[u/DefendCharterRights]

According to the police chief: "We found out, nearly eight months later, that this had occurred. We took swift action at that point."

But, according to the Denver Post: "Assistant Chief of Police Ray Butler watched the body camera footage of now-former Officer Austin Hopp violently arresting Karen Garner — conduct for which Hopp now faces a felony assault charge — and wrote that Hopp’s use of force was 'necessary, reasonable and within policy,' according to the internal police report."

And: "Sgt. Phil Metzler, Lt. Robert Shaffer and Butler all signed off on Hopp’s use of force in August 2020, two months after the incident occurred, according to the document released by [the victim's attorney]."

[u/-0op]

Video shows Loveland Sergeant dismiss concerns of witness to Karen Garner’s arrest

[u/TedInATL]

I'm sorry, I can't watch what they did to that elderly lady again. There's no humanity in those cops.

[u/kyleh0]

Fucking cops.

What a total badass, you know he kisses his biceps when he's looking into the mirror.

Edit: Kind of surprised the dissenting witness didn't get his ass kicked and arrested. Almost like the cops have restraint for some reason.

[u/[deleted]]

Accountability for all actions taken, on a personal level, is the only acceptable answer.

[u/spreyes]

Resisting an unlawful arrest is illegal …you can’t make this shit up