OAN’s Taylor Tinsley
3:07 PM PT – Wednesday, June 5, 2024
The cities of Platteville and Fort Lupton, Colorado have settled a lawsuit with a woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury after she was struck by a freight train while detained in a police vehicle.
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Yareni Rios was pulled over by former Platteville officer Pablo Vasquez in September 2022, after someone reported she waved a gun at them during an alleged road rage fight.
Former Fort Lupton police officer Jordan Steinke came to assist as she handcuffed Rios and placed her in Vasquez’s patrol car.
Neither of the officers noticed the car was parked on the tracks, and neither noticed the approaching freight train despite the conductor blasting his horn.
The train launched Vasquez’s vehicle into a nearby ditch, with Rios still inside.
Rios’s attorney said she suffered a traumatic brain injury and several broken bones as a result.
Both of the former officers faced punishment. Vasquez pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to 12-months of unsupervised probation.
If he completes the sentence without incident, the misdemeanor charge will be dropped.
Steinke was convicted of reckless endangerment and assault, but was sentenced to 30 months of supervised probation and 100 hours of community service.
Platteville and Fort Lupton will split the $8.5 million settlement.
Rios’s lawyer, Paul Wilkinson, said “This is an excellent result and a hard-fought result,” adding his client didn’t want to speak about the incident publicly.
“She is still recovering from some physical and emotional impacts that she’ll be dealing with for the rest of her life,” he said. “But considering she got hit by a train, she’s doing all right.”
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