Colorado police car-versus-train trial day 2: Police Officer Jordan Steinke takes stand for first time

On the second day of Fort Lupton Police Officer Jordan Steinke's 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 after he 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.

RELATED: Trial begins for police officer who placed handcuffed woman in police car parked on railroad tracks

The case should be thrown out, Revel says, because no evidence has been presented that proves Steinke's guilt.

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

"What the court has not heard is a single piece of evidence that proves that Officer Steinke knew she was putting Yareni Gonzalez in a car that was parked on train tracks," Revel said in court Tuesday, arguing that the tracks were flush with the road, so a person wouldn't trip over them.

Revel also said there were no illuminated railroad crossing signs or gates at the site, although bodycam footage, dashcam footage and a subsequent investigation from Colorado State Patrol show reflective signs on either side of the tracks.

Taking the stand for the first time in the trial, 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.

Despite what's captured by the officers' body-worn cameras dashcams, that footage are not an accurate representation of officers' real-time perceptions, Steinke said.

"Of course in my bodyworn camera, it shows that the tracks are clearly visible. I'm sure my eyes looked at the railroad tracks at some level but I did not perceive them because that is not where the threat was going to come from. The threat was going to come from (Rios-Gonzalez), her hands, her car. Those were the things I was focused on," Steinke said.

Judge Timothy Kerns refused to dismiss the case Tuesday. The trial is expected to wrap up Friday and isn't being decided by a jury, but instead by Kerns in Weld County.

The trial will resume Thursday at 9 a.m.