A former Colorado police officer who put a handcuffed woman inside a cop car parked on railway tracks that was then struck by a freight train has been spared prison time after offering a tearful mea culpa.
Jordan Steinke, 29, was sentenced Friday to 30 months of supervised probation after being convicted of reckless endangerment and assault for the Sept. 16, 2022, crash outside Platteville, which left her detainee, Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, with serious injuries.
During her bench trial in July, Weld County District Court Judge Timothy Kerns cleared Steinke of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter.
Kerns said he had planned to sentence the former Fort Lupton cop to prison, but changed his mind after both prosecutors and defense attorneys argued for probation, the Denver Post reported.
“Someone is going to hear this and say: ‘Another officer gets off,’” Kerns said. “That’s not the facts of this case.”
The judge warned Steinke that if she violates the terms of her probation, “I will harken back to my original gut response as to how to address sentencing.”
Fort Lupton Police Department
Click on the link below to continue…
