It sounds like something out of an old Western, but unfortunately, it’s all too real: A Colorado police officer is on trial for leaving a handcuffed woman in a parked police car that was hit by a freight train. And the cop allegedly responsible has an interesting defense: she didn’t know she parked her police cruiser on active train tracks.
On September 16th, 2022, Yareni Rios-Gonzales screamed for help as the freight train barreled into the car where she was restrained. Miraculously, Rios-Gonzales survived. However, according to the Associated Press, the twenty-one-year-old suffered extensive injuries, including a traumatic brain injury. Unsurprisingly, she’s suing for the cost of her treatment.
But there’s also a criminal trial underway against Fort Lupton Officer Jordan Steinke.
Last year, Steinke placed Rios-Gonzales under arrest, but instead of putting her somewhere safe, she placed the partially immobilized woman in her police car, which was sitting in what would soon be the path of an oncoming train. In her testimony, Steinke claims that she didn’t realize the car was sitting on the tracks until it was too late.
“I saw the front headlights and heard the train at the same time right before impact,” Steinke testified, according to the AP. However, prosecutors said that Steinke walked over the railroad tracks roughly five times during the stop.
Steinke faces a felony charge for criminal attempt to commit manslaughter, as well as two misdemeanor charges for reckless endangerment and third-degree assault.