Colorado officer who put suspect in car hit by train found guilty of reckless endangerment

The Colorado officer who put a suspect in a car hit by a train was found guilty of reckless endangerment but acquitted of an attempt to commit manslaughter. The verdict was not decided by a jury, instead by Judge Timothy Kerns in Weld County. 

Fort Lupton Police Officer Jordan Steinke was on trial for her alleged role in a police car being struck by a train with a handcuffed woman inside. Steinke took the stand for the first time on Tuesday after her attorneys asked for the case to be thrown out.

Steinke's trial began Monday and included testimony from two witnesses, including the man who called police on Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, saying she threatened him with a gun in a road rage incident, Ralph Andrew Olivas, a locomotive engineer with Union Pacific Railroads who was on the train that hit the patrol car, and another officer who responded to the traffic stop.

Defense attorney Mallory Revel argued Steinke was more concerned with the safety of the officers at the scene, so she placed Rios-Gonzalez in the nearest police car available after she was handcuffed to continue helping officers clear Rios-Gonzalez's truck.

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Steinke was charged with felony attempted reckless manslaughter and misdemeanor reckless endangerment. She was accused of placing Rios-Gonzalez in the back of Platteville Police Sgt. Pablo Vazquez's car, which Vazquez parked on the railroad tracks.

On the stand, Steinke said she didn't know Vazquez was parked on train tracks. Asked by her own defense attorney why she put Rios-Gonzalez in Vazquez's car, Steinke said she wanted to return to Vazquez and another officer as quickly as possible to help clear Rios-Gonzalez's truck in case someone else was still inside.

Moments later, the train rounded a bend in the tracks. Steinke said she didn't know a train was coming until right before it hit. On Monday, the train's engineer said they didn't realize a police car was on the tracks until they were about 150 feet away while traveling about 45 mph.

"I saw the front headlights of the train and heard the horn at the same time -- right before impact," said Steinke, who said she didn't realize they were on a railroad crossing because it was dark, they were outside of her jurisdiction of Fort Lupton and her primary fear during the car stop was a gunfight.

Steinke said she never doubted the "tactical position" of a colleague regarding their parking during a traffic stop and trusted Vazquez to have parked safely. She said she would not have put Rios-Gonzalez in a car if she knew it was parked on railroad tracks.

Prosecutors questioned how dark the area was, saying Steinke walked across the railroad tracks five times during the nighttime traffic stop and put Rios-Gonzalez in handcuffs on the tracks.

Steinke will be sentenced on Sept. 15 at 3:30 p.m.