The Washington Post - USA (2022-05-07)

SATURDAY, MAY 7 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

Department in the 2,000-person

municipality on the south side of

Indianapolis.

— Associated Press

TEXAS

Three officers indicted

in 2020 protests

Two Dallas police officers and

one from the Dallas suburb of

Garland were indicted Friday for

aggravated assault for their

actions during the 2020 protests

following George Floyd’s killing

by police in Minneapolis.

Dallas County District

Attorney John Creuzo announced

Friday that Dallas officer Ryan

Mabry faces six counts, former

Dallas officer Melvin Williams

faces four counts and Garland

officer Joe Privitt faces one count

after being indicted by a grand

jury.

Mabry and Privitt were placed

on administrative leave while

Williams was fired earlier this

year for violating the

department’s use-of-force policy

in a separate incident.

— Associated Press

Brown, 33, apologized and told

the court he would never forgive

himself for what he did.

Brown was convicted of

murder and a misdemeanor

marijuana possession charge

during a February bench trial.

Prosecutors agreed last

December to drop their death

penalty request against Brown in

exchange for the judge, instead of

a jury, hearing the case.

Brown was dangling upside

down by his seat belt on July 27,

2017, when Allan approached

after the single-car crash on

Indianapolis’s south side. Allan

attempted to crawl into the

vehicle to keep Brown calm until

paramedics arrived, but Brown

shot him 11 times.

Two other officers then opened

fire on Brown, wounding him.

The defense argued that Brown

suffered a seizure before the crash

and was not conscious of the fact

he was shooting at an officer. But

a doctor who treated Brown

following the crash testified that

he saw no evidence of a seizure.

Allan, who was married and

had two sons, was a full-time

officer with the Southport Police

national election and campaign

finance reform group, filed the

challenge in March with the

Georgia secretary of state’s office,

alleging that Greene, who has

built a reputation as one of

Trump’s most fervent supporters,

helped facilitate the violent

insurrection aimed at preventing

Congress from confirming Joe

Biden’s win.

The organization expressed its

disappointment in the judge’s

ruling, calling it a betrayal of the

14th Amendment.

— Eugene Scott and Felicia Sonmez

INDIANA

Man gets 55 years for

fatal shooting of officer

A man convicted of fatally

shooting an Indiana police officer

who came to his aid following a

car crash in 2017 was sentenced

Friday to 55 years in prison.

A Marion County judge

sentenced Jason D. Brown to 58

years, with three years

suspended, in the killing of

3 8-year-old Southport police Lt.

Aaron Allan.

While testifying in April about

her alleged role in the attack,

Greene said she could not

remember whether she urged

President Donald Trump to

impose martial law as a way to

remain in power.

Free Speech for People, a

challenge the results of the 2020

presidential election as “our 1776

moment.” The conservative

lawmaker denies that she played

a role in the event, which resulted

in the deaths of five people and

injuries to 140 members of law

enforcement.

GEORGIA

Judge rules Greene

can run for reelection

A judge in Georgia ruled Friday

that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

(R-Ga.) can run for reelection

after a group of voters challenged

the congresswoman’s eligibility

because of allegations that she

participated in the Jan. 6, 2021,

insurrection at the U.S. Capitol

after the 2020 presidential

election.

State Administrative Law

Judge Charles Beaudrot

submitted his findings to

Secretary of State Brad

Raffensperger, who accepted

them and said Greene’s name will

remain on the ballot.

A group of Georgia voters

launched a legal effort to

disqualify Greene from running

for reelection because of her

alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack on

the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump

mob.

Greene, 47, had been accused of

frequently using language to

incite violence at the U.S. Capitol,

including referring to efforts to

Politics & the Nation

BY JACLYN PEISER

Almost two years after man-
handling a 73-year-old woman
with dementia, breaking her arm
and celebrating the arrest with
colleagues, former Loveland,
Colo., police officer Austin Hopp
is going to prison.
Hopp, who pleaded guilty to a
second-degree assault charge in
March, was sentenced on Thurs-
day to five years behind bars,
with three years of parole to
follow. He faced up to eight years
in prison.
During the hearing, Larimer
County District Judge Michelle
Brinegar called Hopp’s actions
toward the victim, Karen Garner,
“deliberate, deceitful and calcu-
lated,” according to the Denver
Post.

“This case is not about a mis-

take,” Brinegar said, according to

the paper. “This [is] about a

young officer who used his posi-

tion of power and authority to

show off his toughness, disre-

garded any sense of humanity

and showed an alarming deal of

criminal thinking.”

Hopp apologized in court and

accepted responsibility for how

he handled Garner’s arrest, the

newspaper reported.

“I am truly ashamed of my

actions,” Hopp said.

On June 26, 2020, employees

at a Walmart in Loveland, a town

about 50 miles north of Denver,

called police to report that an

elderly woman had walked out

with about $14 worth of items.

Employees caught up with her

outside the store and took the

items back. Garner left the store

and started home.

She was strolling through a

field, picking wildflowers, when

Hopp, who was responding to the

store’s call for help, approached

her and, within seconds, moved

to arrest her, body-camera foot-

age shows. But Garner kept walk-

ing, a bundle of flowers in her

hands.

“I don’t think you want to play

it this way,” Hopp said. “... Do

you need to be arrested right

now?”

The officer then grabbed Gar-

ner, who weighed 80 pounds,

wrenching her arms back, video

showed. For the next several

minutes, she cried out that she

was “going home.” Hopp then

wrangled Garner to the ground.

As a result, she had a fractured

arm and dislocated shoulder.

Soon, another officer, Daria

Jalali, arrived and helped Hopp

restrain Garner.

The officers then took Garner

to the police station. Security

footage released by Garner’s at-

torney last year shows Hopp and

others watching the body-cam-

era footage from when Garner

was detained.

“Ready for the pop? Hear the

pop?” Hopp can be heard saying,

referring to the sound Garner’s

shoulder made when he brought

her to the ground.

The officers also mocked Gar-

ner, calling her “ancient” and

“senile,” and said the arrest “went

great” and that they had “crushed

it.” Meanwhile, Garner sat in a

booking cell, crying in pain.

In April 2021, prosecutors an-

nounced they were pursuing the

case after Sarah Schielke, an

attorney representing Garner’s

family, released the body-camera

footage, causing a public outcry.

Hopp was soon suspended from

the Loveland Police Department.

That May, he was arrested and

charged with using excessive

force and misleading his supervi-

sors. He later pleaded guilty to

second-degree assault.

Jalali, the other officer at the

scene, was charged with failure

to report use of force, failure to

intervene and official miscon-

duct. Her case is ongoing.

Garner’s family sued the city

and several police officers and

won a $3 million settlement in

September. The city issued a

public apology to Garner and her

family for “what they have en-

dured as a result of this arrest,”

Loveland City Manager Steve Ad-

ams said in a statement.

Garner’s health has declined

since the assault, her family told

reporters after reaching the set-

tlement. Garner, who has demen-

tia and sensory aphasia, a condi-

tion that impairs her ability to

communicate or fully under-

stand speech, now has post-trau-

matic stress disorder. Her family

said she has retreated, hesitates

to hug loved ones and no longer

goes on walks, which she once

enjoyed.

The family’s attorney did not

immediately respond to The

Washington Post’s request for

comment Friday.

Andrea Salcedo contributed to this

report.

Ex-officer gets 5 years for violent arrest of w oman, 73

DIGEST

SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A dark-colored, four-door sedan went over a cliff near Sutro Baths

in San Francisco on Friday. Authorities said four people were injured

after their car plummeted about 120 feet off the cliff in the predawn

darkness.

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