In Ticer's presentation to the. It is terrifying because we all have to drive, we all use the roads, and it shouldnt be that easy for an officer to destroy our lives and there needs to be consequences when they recklessly do so, she said. 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. When the arrest begins, Siers can be seen in the video yelling at Sychla and the other officers that they cant arrest his daughter; all the while the familys two dogs can be heard barking continuously in the background. ), First published on January 27, 2021 / 4:46 PM. 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. 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. 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. In police station surveillance video released on Monday by an attorney for Karen Garner's family, three Loveland police officers can be seen reviewing body-cam film of the arrest - footage. The report said Ashe and two other officers took the man to the ground and arrested him for obstructing a police officer and resisting arrest, injuring his shoulder. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. You know, I dont know quite what, but some kind of change. Two officers Dunlap and Wood responded and spoke to the girl and young man, as well as other witnesses. Even Chief Ticer himself assisted Hill with arresting and charging an innocent person with DUI, by providing a (Drug Recognition Expert) evaluation of the individual and declaring in his (Ticers) expert DRE opinion that the person was under the influence of cannabis.. The city said the findings of the latest review will be made public once it is complete. The city said Ashe violated three department policies and procedures: limits of authority and exercise discretion; search and seizure; and use of force. The suit claims that at this time Siers noticed that his dogs were trying to protect him and his daughter and wanted to safely get them inside. At one point in the interaction, Sowl can be heard telling Ashe, "I don't know what happened. 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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. Im not talking to nobody.. each comment to let us know of abusive posts. LOVELAND, Colo. (AP) - An excessive force lawsuit filed against the city of Loveland and four of its police officers has been settled for $290,000. The ordeal was enough for someone to call Loveland police to the scene, according to the lawsuit. Four officers were there in total, the lawsuit states. The suit says the girl suffered cuts, scrapes, bruises and a concussion during the ordeal. They have used this funding to buy themselves more equipment and hire more officers. All the investigation and work we were putting in to get a peek at the tip of the iceberg was taking forever, she said. According to the suit, the event caused emotional and physical trauma to not only Siers and S.S. but also Skippy. As for the claim of unlawful arrest, Varholak explained that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision inHeck v. Humphreyprevents criminal defendants from suing for monetary damages over unconstitutional imprisonment unless their conviction is overturned. Sowl was cited with obstructing a peace officer and resisting arrest, but the charges were later dropped. The lawsuit alleges officers injured Garner when they arrested her in June 2020 for alleged petty theft. As S.S. watched this from a few feet away, she began having a panic attack, the lawsuit states. S.S. can be heard crying and yelling in the background. I appreciate the difficult, challenging, and often dangerous roles that LPD officers undertake to keep our community safe, and I want to express my gratitude to the men and women of LPD for taking on this important work and for continuing in our larger efforts to improve community policing to best serve our community, Adams said in the release. The case was settled for $290,000, City Attorney Moses Garcia said. I'm not talking to nobody.". RM W79EWX - Feldjger, the military police of the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces. Best practices in law enforcement will be maintained and we are committed to accountability if those standards are not upheld, he said. Schielkeis alsorepresenting Karen Garner and her family in an ongoing civil rights lawsuit against Loveland police. RM D5WCP3 - A police officer stops cars at a special checkpoint in Berlin, Germany, 09 April 2013. This included slamming her body and limbs down into concrete multiples times, the lawsuit says. After grabbing witness statements from people in the area, including a statement from Hall where he said the incident did not cause him physical pain, the officers attempted to call S.S. and Siers to no success. "Force is not reasonable when a suspect is non-violent, not resisting, not fleeing, or poses no threat.". His two dogs Montana, a chihuahua, and Skippy, a Jack Russell terrier were on long leashes outside the house. I was getting my dog, Siers can be heard screaming in the video. Secure your subscription to Colorados premier political news journal, in continuous publication since 1898. This is not the first time the department has faced an excessive use of force lawsuit for actions of its officers. or anything. The city did not pay the demanded amount and the attorney subsequently released an edited version of the body-camera video to the public, the city said in a news release. 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. Reach him at afleskes@prairiemountainmedia.com or on Twitter @Austinfleskes07. The arrest startled her father, Jon Siers, who repeatedly told the officers that what they were doing was completely wrong, the lawsuit states. By Keith Coffman. We provide you with the latest news and videos straight from the Mile High City! ( Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The complaint goes on to say that Ticer and the LPD had a history of giving awards and recognition for high DUI arrests, including reporting the arrest numbers to agencies like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The city of Loveland said Schielke had requested a settlement with the city more than a month ago and had given the city a four-day window to pay the settlement lest she release body camera video from the incident. 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.. But Schielke states in the lawsuit several times the officers were bored and that Loveland police superiors had an unspoken practice of requiring officers to finish at least 10 citations each day in order to get promoted and onto the best shifts. 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 Loveland Reporter-Herald reports Preston Sowl claimed the officers violated his constitutional rights by detaining and injuring him after he declined to talk to them while at the scene of an accident in September 2019. 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. When they discovered that neither Siers nor his daughter were home, they left. Loveland Police Department officers Jeremiah Wood and Evan Dunlap arrest a 14-year-old girl in Loveland in June of 2020. The attorney representing Karen Garner and her family released a video Monday of officers discussing and joking about injuring Garner after her arrest. In their motion to dismiss, the defendants submitted a police affidavit in support of Talmadge's arrest from July 6. U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak noted that Talmadge had failed to allege which officers did what, meaning his excessive force claim was not viable under the law. In fact, we already know that some of the allegations being made are inaccurate and do not describe the professionalism and respect shown by our officers to the individual involved. Watch the body camera footage here According. The Loveland City Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment as of Thursday afternoon. The three officers named in the lawsuit Matt Sychla, Jeremiah Wood and Evan Dunlap still arrested S.S. outside her home that day. 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. DENVER, Sept 8 (Reuters) - The city of Loveland, Colorado, has agreed to pay $3 million to an elderly woman with dementia who suffered a dislocated shoulder and broken arm while . Sierss daughter tried to get to her dad, but officers continued to try to put her into handcuffs. Its uncommon for the city to share information about internal investigations publicly, city manager Steve Adams said in the news release, but the city chose to in this instance to increase transparency. 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. Chief Ticer and Sergeant Hill did not care about these poor innocent people Gates was victimizing without consequence, the complaint said. Talmadge allegedly told responding officers what had happened and they left. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. The lawsuit alleged that Sowl declined to provide more information when asked and was injured while being detained. 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. Watching what they do to this family on this video has to be unsettling and terrifying for any parent in this town because there is no common sense utilized and there is no interest in the damage being inflicted to, here, a juvenile.. Siers was also arrested for investigation of obstructing a peace officer and resisting arrest, but the district attorneys office also dismissed those charges. View this page in Standard (full site) format. The familys small white dog, Skippy, began to bark at the officers in a show of protection, the lawsuit states, prompting Mr. Siers to tell the officers that he was going to get his dog so he wouldnt bite them. / CBS Colorado. 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. The lawsuit claims Sychla arrested Siers without a warrant and used excessive force against him, and violated the Dog Protection Act when he allegedly choked the dog. "It is long-established that a citizen cannot be charged with obstruction (or any crime) for merely refusing to answer police questioning," Sowl's attorney Sarah Schielke said in a news release at the time the lawsuit was filed in June 2020.