The lawsuit alleges officers injured Garner when they arrested her in June 2020 for alleged petty theft. All rights reserved. Last year, the city of Loveland paid a $3 million settlement to the woman, Karen Garner. Officer Paul Ashe detained Preston Sowl after Sowl refused to answer his questions about a motorcycle crash Sowl witnessed outside a Loveland bar Sept. 22, 2019. That complaint, which only named Loveland and Gates as defendants, alleged three claims in connection to the arrest two years ago: unlawful arrest without probable cause, arrest without probable. According to the Associated Press, Garcia said the settlement states the city and officers do not admit any guilt in this case. The lawsuit states that Officers Wood and Dunlap slammed her into the concrete stairway outside the home and pushed her against a brick wall. Loveland is not a safe place for grandparents. Support her work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. She was on her period that day and felt scared by the thought of bleeding all over a police car or jail cell, the lawsuit states. In an image taken from police body camera video, a 14-year-old girl is arrested at her home in Loveland, Colo., in 2020. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday. You can send your story ideas to her at sswanson@coloradoan.com or on Twitter at @sadyswan. The first roughly 21 pages share Elias story of his arrest the night of Jan. 4, 2020. They treat animals like trash. He began to place handcuffs on her, which were too large for the 14-year-olds small wrists, making it easy to slip out of, Ms. Schielke said. The guy was probably arguing unnecessarily, and probably not a liberal at all but he was right in this case. Sowl was cited with obstructing a peace officer and resisting arrest, but the charges were later dropped. We'd love to hear eyewitness The lawsuit claims that a man and his 14-year-old daughter were arrested by officers who used excessive force during the encounter in 2020. Karen Garner, who has dementia, was arrested last June for walking out of a Walmart in Loveland, Colorado, with $13.88 worth of items, according to an amended lawsuit filed Sunday. Loveland Police Department is located at 810 E 10th Street, Loveland, CO 80537 map Lobby hours: Monday through Friday 8am-5pm The LPD lobby is a safe place for online sales transactions and custody exchanges. The civil lawsuit alleges Loveland police officer William Gates falsely arrested Harris Elias on suspicion of DUI while driving in midtown Fort . Loveland City Manager Steve Adams said the city was also releasing its own video from the ordeal and that while the city initially reviewed and deemed appropriate at the time the actions of the officers, but was now taking a second outside look at the incident in our efforts to ensure we are policing in a respectful and proper manner., As we move forward on our accountability efforts launched in 2021, best practices in law enforcement will be maintained and we are committed to accountability if those standards are not upheld.. The three officers named in the lawsuit Matt Sychla, Jeremiah Wood and Evan Dunlap still arrested S.S. outside her home that day. You can send your story ideas to her at sswanson@coloradoan.com or on Twitter at @sadyswan. An excessive force lawsuit filed against the Loveland Police Department has been settled for nearly $300,000. The complaint claims Gates said he could smell alcohol coming from the vehicle and that K.S. Schielke filed a 52-page lawsuit Wednesday accusing Officer Hopp, Officer Daria Jalali, Sgt. or anything. As Siers continued to try to get the dog, Sychla failed to put Siers into an arm hold and pushed him to the ground, then pushed him again, the suit says. Shes a good kid.. By law, if I see an OSHA violation and fail to act,I can be held personally responsible. The arrest startled her father, Jon Siers, who repeatedly told the officers that what they were doing was completely wrong, the lawsuit states. arrested him for refusing to answer questions as a witness about a motorcycle crash outside a Loveland bar Sept. 22,2019. https://www.reporterherald.com/2020/06/22/man-sues-loveland-police-department-alleging-excessive-force/?fbclid=IwAR1nA4PCQglIk6_WZnOrE2Hy6S3zGZ5L5-sxQFW2_D4aHA1QedY48JlaYu0, https://pmatep5f7b.execute-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/ProdStage. Antolina Hill as one of the defendants as well as including a number of other stories alleging wrongful DUI arrest and information on the culture of the LPDs DUI enforcement. The official filing of the amended complaint comes quickly after the LPD announced that it would be launching an outside, professional review of its DUI enforcement program; Schielke said she had informed the department of the amended complaint two weeks ago. It also includes a post from Overcash in February of 2021 congratulating two of the three officers involved in the incident for receiving awards from the department for actions in 2020, with Dunlap and Wood each receiving an Exemplary Action Ribbon for an undescribed reason. He submitted to another breath test at the station on a certified Intoxilyzer machine and blew a 0.028%. I was helpless watching my daughter getting manhandled by three other police officers. Officers Wood and Dunlap eventually got her into handcuffs and arrested her for investigation of charges of harassment, domestic violence, obstruction and resisting arrest. The lawsuit names three officers who were involved in the arrests of Siers and his daughter as defendants: Officers Matt Sychla, Jeremiah Wood and Evan Dunlap. I am confident that a thorough and impartial process was undertaken and appreciate the time and attention spent to review this matter, Adams said in the news release. The incidents were initially reviewed and deemed appropriate at the time of the event, but the city is taking a second outside look at the incident in our efforts to ensure we are policing in a respectful and proper manner, City Manager Steve Adams said in the release. Let there be no mistake: Loveland is not a safe place for children. The lawsuit alleges Metzler intimidated and bullied the witness and deactivated his body-worn camera during the interaction to cover up the use of excessive force. A federal judge has dismissed a man's lawsuit against the city of Loveland and multiple police officers that alleged excessive force and unlawful arrest. The investigation offered a positive review on many of the departments policies and practices along with critiques on how to improve in the areas in which it was lacking. I'm not talking to nobody.". The city hired Jensen Hughes in 2021 to lead an independent investigation into the departments policies and procedures following the release of information about Garners arrest. Our interviews with LPD staff revealed that they would like to be more involved with community members and community organizations, but do not have time to engage in these activities or problem solving because of the Departments emphasis on its data-driven strategies and the need to produce daily numbers of enforcement actions, the complaint quotes from the report. He first blew a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.000%, the complaint says, and later that night Elias was given a blood test that eventually came back negative. Anyone can read what you share. According to a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver on behalf of Preston Sowl, 60, by attorney Sarah Schielke, Sowl and his wife were leaving Charlie L's Pub with some friends on. According to the report of an internal affair, the Loveland Police Department (LPD) responded to a report of a motorcycle crash that turned out to be a rider who had lost his balance while stopped. Schielkeis alsorepresenting Karen Garner and her family in an ongoing civil rights lawsuit against Loveland police. In Ticer's presentation to the. So, I didn't know quite how to react.. City of Loveland via YouTube/ lovgov.org On September 7, the City. She had been dating 18-year-old Elijah Hall and, around lunchtime on June 20, 2020, she rode her bike to the nearby Safeway where she found Hall with another woman. On June 20, 2020, S.S. bicycled back to her fathers home, heartbroken over the confrontation she had with the boy hours earlier. The roommate then exited the house and Talmadge soon received a call from police asking him to step outside. The city said Ashe violated three department policies and procedures:. The federal lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, alleged Sowls' First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments were violated, according to a news release fromSchielke. Colorado Supreme Court ruling makes more police internal investigations accessible. Talmadge allegedly told responding officers what had happened and they left. The amended complaint, which Schielke filed to the United States District Court in Denver Thursday, has the same three claims but comes with several notable additions, including naming Sgt. The Loveland Police Department has also suspended Officer Austin Hopp, who initially handcuffed Garner; two others who were on the scene, Officer Daria Jalali and Sgt. They had yelled at each other, which caused someone to call the police, according to the lawsuit. Body camera footage then shows an officer yanking Skippys collar and pulling him off the ground as Mr. Siers yells, Dont choke my dog!, Im not choking, the officer says. Sady Swanson covers public safety, criminal justice, Larimer County governmentand more throughout Northern Colorado. Colorado Supreme Court ruling makes more police internal investigations accessible. It also included that 1,352 of the drivers he pulled over 84% of his stops were let off with just a warning. Siers then can be seen complying with Sychla as he handcuffs him, but asks him to put the dogs away, stating he doesnt want the officers to shoot them. "Any complaint leveled against our personnel is taken seriously," the department said in a statement. Get on the ground, an officer yells, pointing a Taser at Mr. Siers and then firing it. All the investigation and work we were putting in to get a peek at the tip of the iceberg was taking forever, she said. 2023 www.coloradoan.com. Im not talking to nobody.. Schielke said she filed Elias original complaint quickly as to avoid the statute of limitations closing. You can be in the know right alongside Colorados political insiders. Police are strengthening their checks of motorcycles and mopeds at the start of spring. She also represented Karen Garner and her family in that case, which led to a $3 million settlement last year. Philip Metzler and the City of Loveland of excessive force and violation of the Americans With . The Loveland City Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment as of Thursday afternoon. The suit, filed in the 8th Judicial District Court on Wednesday morning, lists three claims for relief: unreasonable seizure and excessive force resulting in the abuse of their dog Skippy and wrongful arrest of Siers by Sychla; violation of due process and malicious prosecution of Siers by Sychla; and unreasonable seizure and excessive force with an arrest of S.S. by Wood and Dunlap. The video ends by pointing some blame at the elected officials in Loveland who have supported the LPD and its officers, including clips of previous and unrelated statements from Mayor Pro Tem Don Overcash and councilors Pat McFall and John Fogle. While in the parking space, Sychla pulled out a stun gun and, after Siers began to walk toward him, fired it, hitting Siers in the stomach and causing him to collapse. Siers had his two dogs outside on leashes at the home, according to the suit. You can send your story ideas to her at sswanson@coloradoan.com or on Twitter at @sadyswan. With more equipment and more officers, they are able to make more arrests and then point to those arrest stats as proof of rising crime levels that they then proclaim requires more funding, equipment and officers to solve. A civil lawsuit filed in Larimer County District Court accuses Loveland police officer Mat Grashorn of "recklessly killing" Wendy Love and her husband Jay Hamm's 14-month-old dog, a. The. What theyre doing is just violence., Arrest of Colorado 14-Year-Old Over a Slap Prompts Excessive-Force Suit, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/us/colorado-loveland-police-lawsuit.html. The suit adds that, per LPD policy on handcuffing, people 14 or younger should not be restrained unless they are suspected of a dangerous felony.. Sierss daughter tried to get to her dad, but officers continued to try to put her into handcuffs. She said that her hope with the filing of this amended lawsuit is to address problems she sees in how the LPD operates its DUI enforcement, focusing on her concern with incentives given to officers to arrest and charge citizens. While the original complaint totaled 15 pages, the amended complaint was filed at four times larger, coming in at 62 pages of information, allegation and claims for relief. A lawsuit filed by a Fort Collins man accuses a Loveland police officer of wrongfully arresting him on suspicion of driving under the influence in January 2020. RELATED: City of Loveland chooses firm to conduct independent review after arrest of Karen Garner, RELATED: Former Loveland officer faces assault charge, accused of writing inaccurate reports related to Karen Garner's arrest, RELATED: Karen Garner's family feels more 'concern than relief' after charges announced against officers. I was scared. The attorney representing Karen Garner and her family released a video Monday of officers discussing and joking about injuring Garner after her arrest. Sowls arrest in September 2019 was capturedon body camera footage, released by Sowls attorney Sarah Schielke. The accident turned out to be a man losing his balance on his motorcycle and falling over. The lawsuit alleged officers violated Sowl's constitutional rights when they arrested him for refusing to answer questions as a witness about a motorcycle crash outside a Loveland bar Sept. 22, 2019. The defendants asked Varholak to dismiss the lawsuit because of Talmadge's successful criminal prosecution and because he neglected to describe the actions each officer took to allegedly harm him. Schielke, of the Life and Liberty Law Office, filed the original complaint in January, claiming Fort Collins resident Harris Elias was wrongfully arrested by LPD officer William Gates in early 2020 for DUI. 2023 www.coloradoan.com. Be Truthful. Brian Bartnes. In the suit, Schielke is asking for declaratory and injunctive relief, compensatory, punitive or exemplary damages, and attorneys fees and costs. / CBS Colorado. DENVER - A consulting firm that the city of Loveland brought in to assess the Loveland Police Department last year amid several lawsuits filed over officers' use of force in different cases is coming in to look at another case in which LPD officers are alleged to have used excessive force against a man, his teenage daughter, and their dog. that is degrading to another person. Schielke said the names used in the suit were gained from a records request made to the LPD and, out of respect for each persons privacy, she did not include their full names with the exception of one person. Wood was in field training at the time, according to the lawsuit, which says that Dunlap decided to use this childs slap as a chance for Officer Wood to get more experience practicing a domestic violence arrest.. I am confident that a thorough and impartial process was undertaken and appreciate the time and attention spent to review this matter, Adams said in the news release. January 27, 2021 / 4:46 PM The video below is police bodycam footage from the incident. Sychla can be seen carrying Skippy to the door before pushing him inside and eventually kicking the dog back in when it tries to come out. The city of Loveland and Loveland Police Department settled the lawsuit with Sowl in January for nearly $300,000. Photo: Paul Zinken. NISP opponents sue Larimer County commissioners over permit approval, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Example video title will go here for this video. The first third of the complaint retells Elias story with much of the restgoing into more detail on what the complaint describes as Chief Bob Ticer and the LPDs obsession with DUI arrests.. DENVER OK is your Colorado news, entertainment, music & fashion website. While all cases referred to each person only with initials and no full names, stories mirrored what Elias went through in early 2020. person will not be tolerated. A consulting firm that the city of Loveland brought in to assess the Loveland Police Department last year amid several lawsuits filed over officers' use of f. LOVELAND, Colo. (KDVR) A Loveland police officer involved in the forceful arrest of Karen Garner resigned on Wednesday following an independent investigation by a consulting firm.. 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Following multiple pleas from Siers to put the dogs inside, Sychla can be seen approaching Skippy and picking him up by the leash and carrying him toward the door, dangling several feet above the ground by his neck. All rights reserved. Loveland is not a safe place for pets. Were stuck on Groundhog Day, basically, she said. Chief Ticer and Sergeant Hill did not care about these poor innocent people Gates was victimizing without consequence, the complaint said. Officer Paul Ashe detained Preston Sowl after Sowl refused to answer his questions about a motorcycle crash Sowl witnessed outside a Loveland bar Sept. 22, 2019. No wonder why you guys get a bad rap, Siers can be heard saying when Sychla returns to him on the ground. "Force is not reasonable when a suspect is non-violent, not resisting, not fleeing, or poses no threat.". As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. By Elise Schmelzer | PUBLISHED: March 2, 2022 at 3:24 p.m. | UPDATED: March 2, 2022 at 3:26 p.m. The city announced Tuesday it was again bringing in Jensen Hughes to review the latest incident, which happened on June 20, 2020, and involved a 14-year-old Loveland girl who was accused by police of domestic violence after she slapped her boyfriend, as well as the girls father, who was tased by an officer while trying to remove his dog from the scene. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism The video also encourages viewers to contact the city of Loveland and let them know your thoughts on their amazing police department!, The theme across all these assaults is that this is a police department that has no concept of what community safety actually means and entails, Schielke told the Reporter-Herald. Although Christopher Talmadge claimed that he was nonviolent and "minding his own business" when police reportedly slammed his head into his driveway, the city pointed to an affidavit the night of Talmadge's arrest indicating that he had assaulted his roommate and resisted officers. The suit says the girl suffered cuts, scrapes, bruises and a concussion during the ordeal. The city of Loveland and Loveland Police Department settled the lawsuit with Sowl in January for nearly $300,000. The suit claims Sychla also attempted to conduct a hold maneuver to stop Siers, an attempt that was unsuccessful. Get an email notification whenever someone contributes to the discussion. Schielkeis alsorepresenting Karen Garner and her family in an ongoing civil rights lawsuit against Loveland police. The lawsuit, filed against officers Ashe, DeLima, Schnorr and Brian Bartnes, alleges that police violated Sowl's First and Fourth Amendment rights, and that the city of Loveland violated his. Hill said she could smell alcohol in Dutkas vehicle, which Dutka explained was due to a drunk friend whom she had driven home. Longmont landscaper under scrutiny after new complaints, Carreras Tacos Bring West Coast Mexican with a Competitive Edge, Murdaughs fall from grace ends in life sentence for murder, Former clerk Tina Peters found guilty on obstruction charge, Boulder police seek person of interest in womans shooting near CU Boulder. accounts, the history behind an article. Another officer, according to Talmadge, slammed him to the ground where his "head bounced off the concrete." You know, I dont know quite what, but some kind of change. The event also allegedly changed Skippys entire demeanor; he became extremely aggressive with every stranger to come near the Siers home and eventually had to be rehomed to family out of state. Another person, identified as K.S., was pulled over by Gates Sept. 30, 2019. According to the lawsuit, when Siers got home after work he noticed all the missed calls and voicemails from officers who said they wanted to talk with his daughter. As we move forward on our accountability efforts launched in 2021, best practices in law enforcement will be maintained and we are committed to accountability if those standards are not upheld.. The city, in response, said it will conduct an independent review and maintained that it is committed to accountability. This included slamming her body and limbs down into concrete multiples times, the lawsuit says. His attorney says the injury required Sowl to undergo shoulder replacement surgery. "Accordingly, Plaintiffs illegal arrest claim is barred by Heck.". The Jensen Hughes report released earlier this year found officers were focusing more on arrest and citation numbers rather than quality policing, and that some officers needed a stronger emphasis on the sanctity of all human life when using force against people. A Loveland law office has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Loveland Police Department and the officers involved in Garner's arrest after it allegedly caused a fractured and dislocated shoulder along with other injuries. He also added that Skippy had bitten one of the officers involved. According to the complaint, the arrest destroyed her life, derailing her military career as she was not able to be deployed until her case was resolved, and devastated her marriage. Two months later, the complaint said, her blood results came back with a BAC of 0.02% and the case was dismissed. This is not the first time the department has faced an excessive use of force lawsuit for actions of its officers. The complaint adds that the LPD often posted about their victories in these absurd arrest competitions on social media, continually reaffirming to all Loveland police officers that DUI arrests are valued over all else, especially citizens constitutional rights., LPD has obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars of grant funding for themselves as a result of their DUI arrest numbers, the complaint said. The father of a teenage girl filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against three police officers in Loveland, Colo., who arrested her in 2020, saying the men used excessive force when they slammed the 14-year-old onto concrete, fired a Taser at him and choked the familys Jack Russell terrier. She said, at the time, her records requests were not being fulfilled quickly enough to file before time ran out. Sowl's arrest in September 2019 was capturedon body camera footage, released by Sowl's attorney Sarah Schielke. She begged the officers to let her grab a tampon, but they told her no, causing her to flail and then collapse on the ground in tears, the lawsuit states. Loveland resident Pretson Sowl filed the lawsuit against the city of Loveland, Loveland Police Department and Loveland police officers Paul Ashe andBenjamin DeLima, Det. Local attorney Sarah Schielke has filed an amended lawsuit against members of the Loveland Police Department and the city of Loveland regarding an alleged wrongful DUI arrest in early 2020.
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