Oct 2023. Blues Vol 39 No. 10

serve 30 months on

serve 30 months on supervised probation. Jordan Steinke, 29, was sentenced Friday by Weld County District Court Judge Timothy Kerns, who found her guilty of reckless endangerment and assault for the Sept. 16, 2022, crash near Platteville. Kerns acquitted the former Fort Lupton police officer of criminal attempt to commit manslaughter after her bench trial in July. Kerns said he had planned to sentence Steinke to jail, but he changed his mind after both prosecutors and defense attorneys sought a probationary sentence, 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.” He ordered Steinke to perform 100 hours of community service. And if she violates the terms of her probation, “I will harken back to my original gut response as to how to address sentencing,” Kerns warned. Steinke, who wept during the sentencing hearing, apologized to Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, who attended the hearing virtually. “What happened that night has haunted me for 364 days,” Steinke said. “I remember your cries and your screams.” Steinke said she hoped to fulfill some of her community service by giving educational talks to new police officers about the dangers of railroad tracks and the importance of officers being aware of their surroundings. Then-Plateville Police Sgt. Pablo Vazquez had stopped Rios-Gonzalez after a reported road-rage incident involving a 66 The BLUES gun. Steinke took her into custody and locked her in Vazquez’s police vehicle, which was parked on the railroad tracks. A train crashed into the SUV. Rios-Gonzalez, who suffered a lasting brain injury and is in pain, was conflicted about how she wanted Steinke to be punished, attorney Chris Ponce said. “The conflict that she feels is one where every day she has to feel this pain,” Ponce said. “And she’s had to deal with (doctor) appointments and having her life so radically changed. And feeling upset, very upset about that — angry about that — but on the other hand, feeling for Ms. Steinke, and, I think, truly empathetically feeling sorry for how she lost her career.” Steinke was fired from the Fort Lupton police department after her conviction. She is expected to lose her Peace Officer Standards and Training certification, her attorney Mallory Revel said, meaning she can never be a police officer again. During Steinke’s trial, her defense attorneys said she did not know that Vazquez had parked his police vehicle on the tracks. Vazquez still faces trial for his role in the crash. He has been charged with five counts of reckless endangerment for allegedly putting Rios-Gonzalez, Steinke and three other people at risk, as well as for traffic-related violations, including parking where prohibited. Rios-Gonzalez has also filed a lawsuit against the police agencies involved. MAN TRIES TO BREAK INTO CALIFORNIA AUTO SHOP BY RAPPELLING DOWN FROM THE ROOF ‘MISSION: IMPOSSI- BLE’-STYLE By Ken Carlson MODESTO, CA. — An accused burglar tried an unusual way of breaking into an auto repair shop in Patterson. He rappelled from the roof on a nylon cord like a cat burglar but soon was dangling upside down as a surveillance camera recorded his struggles to free himself. The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department said the 30-year-old man’s attempt to break into the business on Highway 33 occurred before 1 a.m. Sept. 7. “He decided to rappel into the

usiness like ‘Mission: Impossible’ and, as you can see, it didn’t go well,” Chief Joshua Clayton of Patterson Police Services said. The suspect’s leg and foot became entangled in the nylon cord. The video, lasting one minute and 38 seconds, shows him hanging upside down and making several attempts to reach up and grab the cord to free himself. His loud moaning and a crashing sound are heard on the video. Eventually, the man is shown falling from the cord several feet onto the floor. The man groans in pain after hitting the floor. The Sheriff’s Office said the moans of pain triggered an alarm, prompting a response to the business from Patterson deputies. Deputies arrested Elmer Sanchez, 30, of Patterson. He was booked into jail on potential charges of first-degree burglary and possession of burglary tools. Clayton said Sanchez was in possession of a saw, bolt cutters and a pulley. Authorities received a call from the alarm company at 2:15 a.m. Deputies found the suspect inside the business around 3 a.m. Sanchez was not seriously injured by the fall, Clayton said. The chief said the alleged burglar used a paracord, or a thin nylon cord, to lower himself from the roof. Using the thin cord was not advisable and is likely why he became entangled in the line, the chief said. Clayton wasn’t sure how the man gained access through the roof. He said Sanchez is known to Patterson police and has a criminal record. Sanchez remained in custody Monday, with bail set at 0,000. The alleged burglary is under investigation. Authorities did not release the name of the car repair business. PHILADELPHIA SHERIFF DIS- PUTES CONTROLLER REPORT THAT HER OFFICE CAN’T AC- COUNT FOR NEARLY 200 GUNS Associated Press PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia’s sheriff on Thursday disputed a city controller report that determined that the sheriff’s office couldn’t account for 185 guns that the controller’s office says are missing. Sheriff Rochelle Bilal said at a news conference that the controller’s report released earlier this week contained “misleading statements,” and she questioned the controller’s review. Acting City Controller Charles Edacheril said his office conducted the review as a follow-up to a 2020 report that found the sheriff’s office couldn’t account for more than 200 weapons. That report stated that the office had haphazard recordkeeping practices and unclear procedures regarding the handling of guns. Some of the missing guns were part of the sheriff’s office’s arsenal and others were confiscated from people subject to protection-from-abuse orders. Bilal, who took office in 2020, said earlier this year that her department had accounted for all but 20 of the guns cited in the 2020 report, and they were either located or found to have been disposed of or sold. The controller, though, notified the sheriff’s office on Wednesday that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to account for 76 of its guns and 109 weapons that were surrendered to the office. S.C. DEPUTY SHOT IN THE HEAD, K-9 FATALLY WOUNDED BY GUNMAN Associated Press JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. — A man who shot two people, including a sheriff’s deputy, along the South Carolina coast was killed by officers after he fatally wounded a police dog, authorities said. The dog, named Rico, was sent The BLUES 67