By Colleen Slevin, The Related Press
A lady who was shocked within the again with a Taser whereas mendacity on the bottom in Pueblo, Colorado, final 12 months is suing the police officer who shocked her and town’s police chief, accusing the police division of failing to report extreme drive by the officer to state regulators.
The federal lawsuit filed Sunday by Cristy Gonzales, who was suspected of stealing a car, says the police division discovered Cpl. Bennie Villanueva used extreme drive in opposition to Gonzales and one other individual a number of weeks later. Nevertheless, it says the company withheld the knowledge from a state board which oversees who’s certified to serve in legislation enforcement. If it had been reported, Villanueva would have misplaced his certification to work as a police officer for at the very least a 12 months, the lawsuit mentioned.
Gonzales was suspected of stealing a truck in February 2022, and didn’t cease for Villanueva, based on a police investigation. Finally the car ran out of fuel, based on the lawsuit.
After she obtained out of the truck, Villanueva pulled up and ordered her to get onto the bottom, based on physique digital camera footage launched by Gonzales’ lawyer. After one other officer grabbed certainly one of her arms, she obtained down on her knees after which seemed to be pushed to the bottom, when Villanueva deployed his Taser into her again.
Based on the lawsuit, Gonzales was hit with two probes within the small of her again close to her backbone. It says she continues to have numbness and issue utilizing her proper hand because the Taser was used on her.
Phone messages left for Pueblo police Chief Chris Noeller and town’s police union weren’t returned Monday. Villanueva couldn’t be situated for remark.
After seeing the video of Gonzales’ arrest, the assistant district lawyer prosecuting the car theft filed an extreme drive criticism, prompting an inner police investigation, based on the lawsuit. After the investigation, Noeller issued a letter of reprimand in opposition to Villanueva for his conduct within the Gonzales case in addition to for violating division insurance policies in two different circumstances.
Within the letter, supplied by Gonzales’ lawyer, Kevin Mehr, Noeller mentioned Villanueva appeared to make use of the Taser on Gonzales “for no obvious purpose.” Nevertheless, he additionally mentioned that using the Taser seemed to be “a results of your response to a extremely traumatic name for service after having been away from patrol responsibility work for a number of years.”
In a second case, Noeller mentioned Villanueva deployed his Taser on a suspect a second time apparently by chance whereas making an attempt to subject a “warning arc” to get the suspect to conform. In a 3rd case cited within the letter, Villanueva threatened to make use of a Taser on a suspect in custody who was not cooperating with medical personnel however he didn’t find yourself deploying it.
Annually, police departments are required to report back to Colorado’s Peace Officer Requirements and Coaching board whether or not their officers have had any “disqualifying incidents”, together with a discovering of extreme drive, that will disqualify them from being licensed to work as law enforcement officials within the state, based on the lawsuit. It claims the Pueblo Police Division didn’t report any such incidents for any of its officers in 2022.
“The Pueblo Police Division lied to the POST board, simply plain and easy,” Mehr mentioned.
