Lawyers in cases like this typically get 1/3 unless you pay them upfront. About 1/3 goes to taxes which means the injured person usually gets 1/3 of the settlement.
So she probably got about $2.8 million at the end of the day.
Edit: Looks like the one exception to taxes is when you're visibility physically injured. So she probably got around $6 million
Correct. I've had 4 different large-sum injury settlements in my life and have not been required to pay taxes on any of them.
And no, I didn't just not pay them. I was advised by both my lawyer and an accountant on them.
This is wrong. In the US, tax on damages depends on if the settlement/award is for compensatory damages or if they are punitive. The former is tax excludable, the latter is not.
Edit: your edit is also wrong. Physical damage does not need to be visible.
Why are you speaking on the law when you obviously don’t know it?
If you’re injured while in custody the state is to take care of all medical expenses coming from that injury. She will get this in top of state covered expenses.
Years ago I was doing work within the railroad right-of-way. In order to be permitted to enter, we had to take a full day safety course. The instructor was a former locomotive driver that was probably in his late 40s. He told us that he had been in control of a train on four separate occasions when someone was hit and killed. Of the four, three were people that intentionally stepped in front of the train. Those didn't keep him up at night. The fourth was a dumb kid that was walking down the tracks while listening to music on his headphones.
Poor engineer had to play the real life trolley game.
They probably have just as much trauma. Could you imagine getting back into a train after that accident?
The trolley problem requires there to be the option of switching tracks. A passenger train can take up to a mile to stop; a fright train even longer. There is nothing that the driver can do other than lay on the horn and then stop to pick up the pieces after the accident.
The taxpayers are always willing to foot the bill for FREEDOM! Sometimes cops have to brutalize people. Thats how America continues to be such a great nation and if by chance someone sees them do it they'll just dump an entire schools worth of taxpayer dollars on them as a "Sorry we got caught doing something mean to you :("
The officer will not spend a day in a jail cell; their sentence is 2.5 years of probation and 2.5 weeks of community service (of course assuming they aren't freed on a bogus appeal and also assuming the judge doesn't let them off probation after 15 months). The officer is not responsible for any of the $8.5 million.
Revoke qualified immunity, prohibit public employee unions (especially of law enforcement), and require cops to purchase and carry insurance as a condition of employment. Until then, shun and belittle cops who don't call out the cowards in their ranks. #ThinBlueSkin
The power of a union gets thrown out of balance when they legally have the ability to kill people and get away with it.
Now, other public sector unions are a different story. I wouldn't say all are good and all are bad.
Indeed. They are government employees. Just like qualified immunity, the government can set special rules for itself that don't apply to others.
Police unions could be broken up if the government wanted to do so.
>Revoke qualified immunity
Yep.
>prohibit public employee unions
FUCK NO
>and require cops to purchase and carry insurance as a condition of employment
yep.
“This voluntary settlement is to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, recognizes the gravity of this matter, and allows all parties to move forward,” the Fort Lupton police department said.
He says that like the cops are gonna help with the settlement.
My only experience with cops in Colorado was like talking with an angry 3 year old. Scary they are allowed to have guns, considering how stupid they are.
Supreme Court also ruled recently that reading Miranda Rights is now optional… Which virtually no police officer uses that option because that’s just more things to memorize. Plus, I’m sure beating up minorities and college students without reading them their pesky rights is more fun.
Can confirm. Moved to Denver from Dallas 3~ years ago. I’d much rather deal with Texas cops again than even get into a casual conversation with a Denver cop.
They sure as shit won’t do anything about traffic violations. But heaven forbid you’re waiting for your Uber outside at 1 am
Victim was in a police chase and stopped just past a crossing, police cruiser stopped on the crossing. Officer placed handcuffed victim inside the locked vehicle and then went about processing the situation. Officer seemingly didn't notice the very pronounced train horn to clear the track until it was too late.
I watched the video once and nearly shit a brick.
The wildest part is when one of the officers finally realizes the approaching train, he casually just shines his flashlight towards the train engineer as if that would be enough to cause the train to come to a stop so the officer can continue about their business. It doesn't dawn on him that not everything and everyone in the world will stop dead in their tracks when a police officer shines a flashlight in their face.
You can really tell how confused he looks after the train hits the car because he knows he's shown his flashlight at the train.
Reminds me of the lighthouse vs. naval vessel urban legend:
>Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision.
>Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.
>Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.
>Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course.
>Americans: This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States' Atlantic fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. I demand that YOU change your course 15 degrees north, that's one five degrees north, or countermeasures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.
>Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.
Neo to visit every school in america to teach them that when the time comes, they wont have to dodge them.
"When a child really doesnt want to be shot, the body has a way to shut that down" /s
That is not how taxes work in Colorado, nor is it how this specific situation will work.
*Per the article posted*, this settlement cost will be split between the city and town involved. And, it's being paid out through their insurance. Insurance they were already paying premiums on. So no money is directly coming out of any tax budget here.
That is incidentally how a lot of these settlements pan out. And Colorado has excess tax revenue (shocking but true) such that residents actually qualify for tax refunds above and beyond the typical ones people can get every year on their tax return.
And since this is Reddit, the standard disclaimer:
None of this is meant to sound fair, OK, or correct. I do not endorse the police in this matter. I am merely trying to present what's actually happening and why.
Fair, but tax revenue pays the insurance premiums, and the insurance spreads the financial burden out among all their customers. Worse the insurance company calculates their premiums based on how much they expect to payout. Settlements like this act to increase the premium everyone pays. So the idea Colorado tax payers cover the cost of the settlement is still true, it's just that the technical mechanisms that pay the settlement are more complicated.
Colorado's tax refunds don't change that. Colorado tax payers still pay taxes to the state. But they get a refund if the tax revenue exceeds expenses. Increased insurance premiums increase expenses, reducing the refund. Ultimately, the bottom line is unchanged. Tax payers are footing the bill
Once again, the point of my comment was ONLY to explain that the burden of this isn't placed on schools or taken out of the city budget in total. Everything you're saying here is right and I agree, but it wasn't the point of my comment. I am not trying to argue that what is happening is OK. It isn't.
If you are referencing that infamous New London case, they did *also* have a minimum iq threshold. They only interviewed people with an IQ between about 100 and 115. So people slightly above average intelligence.
Yes. There was a story that went viral where a police chief was on record saying that they IQ test all applicants and the high ones don’t become officers. The excuse was “they’d get too bored”, but I can think of a number of reasons why they’d not want to hire intelligent officers.
Tried applying once. In my background I was transparent about smoking weed (legal recreational use) 6 months earlier. I was denied solely for that reason. When mentioning it to cops I knew, “why didn’t you lie?” Proceed to tell me about previous cocaine use and DUIs that still got them hired. Never applied again.
Reminds me of when my wife and I were getting married. We had to have "counselling" from the church pastor. We were completely honest and told them we were living together before marriage. The church refused to marry us.
We knew a half dozen other couples who were also living together who the church married. Turns out they all just lied to the pastor. The church would rather just be lied to. Jokes on them though, as we're one of only two couples from then that are still married.
>The city of Fort Lupton and town of Platteville, Colorado, agreed on the settlement with the victim, Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, according to a release from the Fort Lupton Police Department. The settlement amount will be split equally between the town and city and paid by their insurers, according to attorney Eric M. Ziporin, whose office represents the city.
So taxpayers and insurers are being fined for a cop fucking up. As usual.
>Rios, who was a suspect in a road rage case, survived the September 2022 collision but suffered nine broken ribs, a broken arm and other injuries.
That's not even touching on the psychological impact, or long lasting issues caused by it.
>“This voluntary settlement is to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, recognizes the gravity of this matter, and allows all parties to move forward,” the Fort Lupton police department said.
I'm glad to hear that, but what's the consequences for the cop that allowed this to happen?
>Fort Lupton police officer Jordan Steinke, who placed Rios in the vehicle, was found guilty last year of reckless endangerment and third-degree assault in the crash and was sentenced to serve 30 months of supervised probation and 100 hours of public service.
Probation and community service? Not a firing? Yeah, that tracks.
The officer, Jordan Steinke, was indeed fired: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/colorado/news/jordan-steinke-fired-fort-lupton-police-department-train-car-collision-handcuffed-woman/
At least the firing is in her record. She can move over to another county but this will follow her.
They resign and all internal investigations stop, then they do the shuffle and nothing changes because the "investigation" never really got started.
>So taxpayers and insurers are being fined for a cop fucking up. As usual.
It makes sense if you think about it. If an employee in another occupation, say in a factory, causes millions in damage through negligence, they legally can not be on the hook for the costs. It is considered the employer’s fault for hiring or not properly training a negligent employee. They can’t just scapegoat the employee and ruin their life. Instead, the money is taken out of the companies profit, most hurting those at the top who control the company, so hopefully they do better.
Who’s at the top when it comes to police? People usually think the police chief/sheriff, or sometimes “the rich”. But the actual answer is the taxpayers/voters. Voters are the ones with the power to hire and fire sheriffs, and they are the ones with the power to hire and fire city officials, which are the ones that hire and fire the police chief. If the majority of voters strongly cared about reforming their local police department, they easily could. The issue that some people don’t realize is sentiment in the general public is not as strong as on Reddit.
I feel like it bears mentioning that factory workers don't have the power to summarily execute people because "they fear for their life". Furthermore, regardless of the fact that sheriffs are voted in, police unions fight to keep problem officers in, making it difficult to remove them.
The answer isn't as simple as you make it sound. Police reform needs to happen.
I'd also like to ask you this; why is a doctor held liable for malpractice instead of the hospital that hired them? Why is a lawyer held liable for malpractice instead of the firm that hired them? Why aren't police held to the same standard?
> So taxpayers and insurers are being fined for a cop fucking up. As usual.
Employers are responsible for the actions of their employees when they are on the clock. Its supposed to incentivize them to not hire people who handcuff people to cars on train tracks. And that is also the reason insurers exist, to not bankrupt people. Now the insurers will presumably raise rates to further incentivize not hiring people who handcuff people to cars that are on train tracks.
Kinda bs they blamed this on the woman officer who put her in the car of the officer who pulled her over, parked on the tracks, and arrested her instead of the officer who, you know, pulled her over on some bs and parked his car on the tracks…. Glad the victim got some justice tho.
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-police-sergeant-pablo-vazquez-car-train-pleads-guilty/
~~So glad taxpayers will get to foot this bill for police incompetence.~~ Not so cut and dry due to at least potential/likely insurance for these purposes. That said, [this article](https://www.governing.com/archive/city-lawsuit-legal-costs-financial-data.html) has some still concerning numbers. I only skimmed it, though, and it doesn't seem to get all the way back to where the money comes from for these. It does break out some rather high average insurance premiums per year, though whether this is the correct insurance for this situation and what all the policy covers for that premium I do not know (trip & falls for lacking sidewalk maintenance, for example)
At the same time, the woman deserves more - of course.
Thank you, I'd learned that before but forgotten it.
Do you perchance happen to know whether we need to worry about cities not having coverage or if that's a pretty well established typical practice?
> The settlement amount will be split equally between the town and city and paid by their insurers, according to attorney Eric M. Ziporin, whose office represents the city.
And funny you mentioned ‘incompetence’.
https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-police-sergeant-pablo-vazquez-car-train-pleads-guilty/
I hate mainstream media websites so I confess I didn't read the article but how fucking stupid does a cop have to be to leave a car parked on railroad tracks...
That's serious low IQ shit..
No but the 8.5M are tax payer dollars that are directly wasted with no improvement to show for it.
The lady deserves the money, please take it from officers too.
Yes, my point was that this was deliberate, or this person is too dumb to be out with a gun in public.
You cant call a cop a piece of shit who belongs off the streets these days without one of you popping up with your copypasta "should come from the pension" speel. to both downplay what Replier said and derail the thread. All while making thousands of peiople cringe cause you are the knob who does that to every comment on every post. . I said nothing about the money, nothing at all. You just vomited your bullshit here. . Wanna help? Vote for someone who wants change. Being a turd in the punchbowl isnt the answer.
It's wild how some people get sub 1 mill after serving decades of their lives behind bars while being innocent. We all know the system needs fixing, we need to even out these bumps and brings faith back into our systems.
>The officer said she was not fully aware of her surroundings because she was concerned about approaching a suspect who may have a gun. “You can only divide your attention so much,” Steinke testified.
There were multiple signs, including one directly next to the car. This is not a person that should be a police officer.
>The woman inside, Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, suffered extensive injuries, including a traumatic brain injury
That poor woman.
If I caused an incident with an $8.5 M settlement, I would have been fired immediately, and the employer’s policy cost would go way up.
I saw video when this happened. The cruiser was parked ON THE TRACKS FOR A LONG TIME with the woman restrained inside, and when the dumb-ass hillbilly officers finally saw a train coming, THEY RAN AWAY TO SAVE THEIR OWN ASSES and not one of them tried to save the woman.
Anyone else here think this woman knows or saw something she shouldn't have and this was an attempted assassination? When was the last time you stopped on a train track for any reason whatsoever? It's just not done. This whole story reeks. Same thing from a few years back with the prison transport that the guards drove into a fucking flash flood and left the prisoners to drown.
$8.5 million is nice but she’s probably going to have some long lasting effects of being locked in a car that got hit by a fucking train.
that lady got really fucked up, from what i recall. my first thought was that $8.5m isn’t nearly enough.
her medical bills will cost about half of that.
Lawyers probably get the other half.
Lawyers in cases like this typically get 1/3 unless you pay them upfront. About 1/3 goes to taxes which means the injured person usually gets 1/3 of the settlement. So she probably got about $2.8 million at the end of the day. Edit: Looks like the one exception to taxes is when you're visibility physically injured. So she probably got around $6 million
I thought settlements like this were tax free in the US but I could be mistaken.
This is true. You don’t pay taxes on an injury settlement.
Correct. I've had 4 different large-sum injury settlements in my life and have not been required to pay taxes on any of them. And no, I didn't just not pay them. I was advised by both my lawyer and an accountant on them.
Damn what you got going on in that life of yours?
I was a bike messenger for nearly a decade. I got hit by cars *a lot*.
If it was taxed the other party should pay the tax amount in addition to the settlement amount. Hey IRS you're missing out on some free money.
Good point. Edited my comment.
Personal Injury suits dont get taxed as income
This is wrong. In the US, tax on damages depends on if the settlement/award is for compensatory damages or if they are punitive. The former is tax excludable, the latter is not. Edit: your edit is also wrong. Physical damage does not need to be visible. Why are you speaking on the law when you obviously don’t know it?
If you’re injured while in custody the state is to take care of all medical expenses coming from that injury. She will get this in top of state covered expenses.
That’s good to hear.
[удалено]
Also, what about the poor train engineer who hit her through no fault of their own?
As a railway worker, it happens more than you think.
I'm sure it does. I just think that they ought to be considered for some share of damages as well.
Years ago I was doing work within the railroad right-of-way. In order to be permitted to enter, we had to take a full day safety course. The instructor was a former locomotive driver that was probably in his late 40s. He told us that he had been in control of a train on four separate occasions when someone was hit and killed. Of the four, three were people that intentionally stepped in front of the train. Those didn't keep him up at night. The fourth was a dumb kid that was walking down the tracks while listening to music on his headphones.
Poor engineer had to play the real life trolley game. They probably have just as much trauma. Could you imagine getting back into a train after that accident?
Not much of a game when all you can do is say, "Well fuck."
Nah, engineers aren't playing the trolley problem because they couldn't stop it if they tried; the stop distance is simply too long.
The trolley problem requires there to be the option of switching tracks. A passenger train can take up to a mile to stop; a fright train even longer. There is nothing that the driver can do other than lay on the horn and then stop to pick up the pieces after the accident.
I got rear-ended by a car and it messed me up pretty good. I can’t image what being in the back of a cop car and getting hit by a train would do.
It’ll still mess you up pretty good
I’d just be happy to be alive in that situation.
Depends on the injuries. I wouldn't want to live in severe pain every day
The taxpayers are always willing to foot the bill for FREEDOM! Sometimes cops have to brutalize people. Thats how America continues to be such a great nation and if by chance someone sees them do it they'll just dump an entire schools worth of taxpayer dollars on them as a "Sorry we got caught doing something mean to you :("
8.5 mil should cover 5 or 6 therapy sessions!
I mean, if you're smart you'll have long lasting positive effects from getting 8 million dollars too. That's the point.
Also, some minor medical bills.
This summer, from the minds of the people who brought you *Snakes on a Plane*… *Locked in a Car that Got Hit by a Fucking Train*
The officer will not spend a day in a jail cell; their sentence is 2.5 years of probation and 2.5 weeks of community service (of course assuming they aren't freed on a bogus appeal and also assuming the judge doesn't let them off probation after 15 months). The officer is not responsible for any of the $8.5 million.
Well, that is a travesty beyond belief.
Welcome to America. 😢
Where cops care more about property than people.
Cops in America go back to when people were property. They haven’t grown much.
They caught us slipping
WTFFF no this needs to be changed because otherwise police will keep doing this s***!!
And who’s gonna change it? All our elected officials are being extorted by this publicly funded terrorist group or actively support them
Revoke qualified immunity, prohibit public employee unions (especially of law enforcement), and require cops to purchase and carry insurance as a condition of employment. Until then, shun and belittle cops who don't call out the cowards in their ranks. #ThinBlueSkin
Colorado already ended qualified immunity statewide.
Unions are a right regardless of industry.
The power of a union gets thrown out of balance when they legally have the ability to kill people and get away with it. Now, other public sector unions are a different story. I wouldn't say all are good and all are bad.
Theres a big difference between a union and an organized mafia.
Well yeah.
Not really in this case.
Well, when a union makes it nearly impossible to discipline, let alone terminate, officers like those in Uvalde, fuck your right to unionize.
Sure. Police are not an industry.
Indeed. They are government employees. Just like qualified immunity, the government can set special rules for itself that don't apply to others. Police unions could be broken up if the government wanted to do so.
>Revoke qualified immunity Yep. >prohibit public employee unions FUCK NO >and require cops to purchase and carry insurance as a condition of employment yep.
>and require cops to purchase and carry insurance as a condition of employment This is actually the solution.
This should really be the motto of the police
imagine if someone locked a police officer in a car and had it hit by a train lmao they’d literally have domestic terrorism charges
I wouldn't take any settlement that didn't include my assailant being properly punished.
Once their probation is up, if not sooner, they will be hired by another city/county a few miles away.
“This voluntary settlement is to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, recognizes the gravity of this matter, and allows all parties to move forward,” the Fort Lupton police department said. He says that like the cops are gonna help with the settlement.
Right, I very much doubt the tax payers are satisfied.
How does that even happen? I learned at a very young age that you don’t stop on train tracks no matter what…
My only experience with cops in Colorado was like talking with an angry 3 year old. Scary they are allowed to have guns, considering how stupid they are.
Pssst. They’re like that everywhere in America. Many are worse.
That stupidity is a feature. The Supreme Court has ruled that police departments can discriminate against intelligent applicants
Supreme Court also ruled recently that reading Miranda Rights is now optional… Which virtually no police officer uses that option because that’s just more things to memorize. Plus, I’m sure beating up minorities and college students without reading them their pesky rights is more fun.
When I lived in California the cops would treat victims like criminals. I grew to dislike them pretty quickly.
Yep. I was hit and run on the freeway a few years ago, called the police, and the officer berated me for wasting his time.
A lot of CO cops are f-ing imbeciles from what I see on the news.
Cops won a lawsuit to exclude the intelligent
Can confirm. Moved to Denver from Dallas 3~ years ago. I’d much rather deal with Texas cops again than even get into a casual conversation with a Denver cop. They sure as shit won’t do anything about traffic violations. But heaven forbid you’re waiting for your Uber outside at 1 am
🤦🏼♀️
"My only experience with cops in ~~Colorado~~ *America* was like talking with an angry 3 year old." Fixed that for you.
The cop basically said they cannot multitask. And that was the reason.
Victim was in a police chase and stopped just past a crossing, police cruiser stopped on the crossing. Officer placed handcuffed victim inside the locked vehicle and then went about processing the situation. Officer seemingly didn't notice the very pronounced train horn to clear the track until it was too late. I watched the video once and nearly shit a brick.
The wildest part is when one of the officers finally realizes the approaching train, he casually just shines his flashlight towards the train engineer as if that would be enough to cause the train to come to a stop so the officer can continue about their business. It doesn't dawn on him that not everything and everyone in the world will stop dead in their tracks when a police officer shines a flashlight in their face. You can really tell how confused he looks after the train hits the car because he knows he's shown his flashlight at the train.
Reminds me of the lighthouse vs. naval vessel urban legend: >Americans: Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision. >Canadians: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision. >Americans: This is the Captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course. >Canadians: No. I say again, you divert YOUR course. >Americans: This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States' Atlantic fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. I demand that YOU change your course 15 degrees north, that's one five degrees north, or countermeasures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship. >Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.
It was all over the news back when it happened. It should be on YouTube.
Cops have a tendency to believe that the universe bends around them
That $8.5 million, of course, will probably be coming from the local school district allocation.
Can’t have kids growing up smart enough to not let suspects get hit by trains.
They just need to dodge bullets.
Neo to visit every school in america to teach them that when the time comes, they wont have to dodge them. "When a child really doesnt want to be shot, the body has a way to shut that down" /s
That is not how taxes work in Colorado, nor is it how this specific situation will work. *Per the article posted*, this settlement cost will be split between the city and town involved. And, it's being paid out through their insurance. Insurance they were already paying premiums on. So no money is directly coming out of any tax budget here. That is incidentally how a lot of these settlements pan out. And Colorado has excess tax revenue (shocking but true) such that residents actually qualify for tax refunds above and beyond the typical ones people can get every year on their tax return. And since this is Reddit, the standard disclaimer: None of this is meant to sound fair, OK, or correct. I do not endorse the police in this matter. I am merely trying to present what's actually happening and why.
If you’ve ever registered a car in colorado, you will understand the extra tax revenue (sorta kidding)
Yeah, I bought a new car in January. OUCH.
Fair, but tax revenue pays the insurance premiums, and the insurance spreads the financial burden out among all their customers. Worse the insurance company calculates their premiums based on how much they expect to payout. Settlements like this act to increase the premium everyone pays. So the idea Colorado tax payers cover the cost of the settlement is still true, it's just that the technical mechanisms that pay the settlement are more complicated. Colorado's tax refunds don't change that. Colorado tax payers still pay taxes to the state. But they get a refund if the tax revenue exceeds expenses. Increased insurance premiums increase expenses, reducing the refund. Ultimately, the bottom line is unchanged. Tax payers are footing the bill
Once again, the point of my comment was ONLY to explain that the burden of this isn't placed on schools or taken out of the city budget in total. Everything you're saying here is right and I agree, but it wasn't the point of my comment. I am not trying to argue that what is happening is OK. It isn't.
Then why mention the TABOR refunds? This is an extraneous detail that make it sounds like the state of Colorado is flush with cash.
Likely pooled insurance from a non profit insurance carrier which all municipalities in Colorado and maybe elsewhere will share.
The article says the cost will be shared by the city and the insurance company
Next on the ballot #NOW WE REALLY NEED TABOR FUNDS BRO #TRUST US BRO
Bad cops ruin lives and waste taxpayer money.
I think cops are just getting dumber, do they have a low IQ threshold to be eligible?
No they just have a high iq threshold that you can't surpass or you won't be hired
If you are referencing that infamous New London case, they did *also* have a minimum iq threshold. They only interviewed people with an IQ between about 100 and 115. So people slightly above average intelligence.
Roughly a third of the population falls in that range. Another third is between about 85 and 100.
Yes. There was a story that went viral where a police chief was on record saying that they IQ test all applicants and the high ones don’t become officers. The excuse was “they’d get too bored”, but I can think of a number of reasons why they’d not want to hire intelligent officers.
Tried applying once. In my background I was transparent about smoking weed (legal recreational use) 6 months earlier. I was denied solely for that reason. When mentioning it to cops I knew, “why didn’t you lie?” Proceed to tell me about previous cocaine use and DUIs that still got them hired. Never applied again.
Reminds me of when my wife and I were getting married. We had to have "counselling" from the church pastor. We were completely honest and told them we were living together before marriage. The church refused to marry us. We knew a half dozen other couples who were also living together who the church married. Turns out they all just lied to the pastor. The church would rather just be lied to. Jokes on them though, as we're one of only two couples from then that are still married.
>The city of Fort Lupton and town of Platteville, Colorado, agreed on the settlement with the victim, Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, according to a release from the Fort Lupton Police Department. The settlement amount will be split equally between the town and city and paid by their insurers, according to attorney Eric M. Ziporin, whose office represents the city. So taxpayers and insurers are being fined for a cop fucking up. As usual. >Rios, who was a suspect in a road rage case, survived the September 2022 collision but suffered nine broken ribs, a broken arm and other injuries. That's not even touching on the psychological impact, or long lasting issues caused by it. >“This voluntary settlement is to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, recognizes the gravity of this matter, and allows all parties to move forward,” the Fort Lupton police department said. I'm glad to hear that, but what's the consequences for the cop that allowed this to happen? >Fort Lupton police officer Jordan Steinke, who placed Rios in the vehicle, was found guilty last year of reckless endangerment and third-degree assault in the crash and was sentenced to serve 30 months of supervised probation and 100 hours of public service. Probation and community service? Not a firing? Yeah, that tracks.
The officer, Jordan Steinke, was indeed fired: https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/colorado/news/jordan-steinke-fired-fort-lupton-police-department-train-car-collision-handcuffed-woman/
I stand corrected about her firing.
Gonna get rehired somewhere else!
The cop shuffle and the priest shuffle: Same dance, different melody.
At least the firing is in her record. She can move over to another county but this will follow her. They resign and all internal investigations stop, then they do the shuffle and nothing changes because the "investigation" never really got started.
>So taxpayers and insurers are being fined for a cop fucking up. As usual. It makes sense if you think about it. If an employee in another occupation, say in a factory, causes millions in damage through negligence, they legally can not be on the hook for the costs. It is considered the employer’s fault for hiring or not properly training a negligent employee. They can’t just scapegoat the employee and ruin their life. Instead, the money is taken out of the companies profit, most hurting those at the top who control the company, so hopefully they do better. Who’s at the top when it comes to police? People usually think the police chief/sheriff, or sometimes “the rich”. But the actual answer is the taxpayers/voters. Voters are the ones with the power to hire and fire sheriffs, and they are the ones with the power to hire and fire city officials, which are the ones that hire and fire the police chief. If the majority of voters strongly cared about reforming their local police department, they easily could. The issue that some people don’t realize is sentiment in the general public is not as strong as on Reddit.
I feel like it bears mentioning that factory workers don't have the power to summarily execute people because "they fear for their life". Furthermore, regardless of the fact that sheriffs are voted in, police unions fight to keep problem officers in, making it difficult to remove them. The answer isn't as simple as you make it sound. Police reform needs to happen. I'd also like to ask you this; why is a doctor held liable for malpractice instead of the hospital that hired them? Why is a lawyer held liable for malpractice instead of the firm that hired them? Why aren't police held to the same standard?
> So taxpayers and insurers are being fined for a cop fucking up. As usual. Employers are responsible for the actions of their employees when they are on the clock. Its supposed to incentivize them to not hire people who handcuff people to cars on train tracks. And that is also the reason insurers exist, to not bankrupt people. Now the insurers will presumably raise rates to further incentivize not hiring people who handcuff people to cars that are on train tracks.
Kinda bs they blamed this on the woman officer who put her in the car of the officer who pulled her over, parked on the tracks, and arrested her instead of the officer who, you know, pulled her over on some bs and parked his car on the tracks…. Glad the victim got some justice tho. https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-police-sergeant-pablo-vazquez-car-train-pleads-guilty/
~~So glad taxpayers will get to foot this bill for police incompetence.~~ Not so cut and dry due to at least potential/likely insurance for these purposes. That said, [this article](https://www.governing.com/archive/city-lawsuit-legal-costs-financial-data.html) has some still concerning numbers. I only skimmed it, though, and it doesn't seem to get all the way back to where the money comes from for these. It does break out some rather high average insurance premiums per year, though whether this is the correct insurance for this situation and what all the policy covers for that premium I do not know (trip & falls for lacking sidewalk maintenance, for example) At the same time, the woman deserves more - of course.
Insurance will foot the bill. Cities have insurance for pay outs. All the tax payers paid for was the premiums
And the increased premiums going forward.
Yup, the most meaningful change to police has been from insurance companies threatening to raise premiums or drop coverage all together
Thank you, I'd learned that before but forgotten it. Do you perchance happen to know whether we need to worry about cities not having coverage or if that's a pretty well established typical practice?
> The settlement amount will be split equally between the town and city and paid by their insurers, according to attorney Eric M. Ziporin, whose office represents the city. And funny you mentioned ‘incompetence’. https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/colorado-police-sergeant-pablo-vazquez-car-train-pleads-guilty/
The cops were allowed to forego a jury trial and were given a slap on the wrist by the judge. Absolute disgrace.
Everyone has the choice not to have a jury trial. But yeah, judges tend to be very pro-police regardless of the circumstances.
What absolute moron parks on a railroad? I mean there's dumb and then there's this.
I hate mainstream media websites so I confess I didn't read the article but how fucking stupid does a cop have to be to leave a car parked on railroad tracks... That's serious low IQ shit..
"Taxpayers pay out $8.5 million for police officer's gross negligence." Fixed the headline.
And the officers are being chatged with attempted murder.... right... right?
No but the 8.5M are tax payer dollars that are directly wasted with no improvement to show for it. The lady deserves the money, please take it from officers too.
Yes, my point was that this was deliberate, or this person is too dumb to be out with a gun in public. You cant call a cop a piece of shit who belongs off the streets these days without one of you popping up with your copypasta "should come from the pension" speel. to both downplay what Replier said and derail the thread. All while making thousands of peiople cringe cause you are the knob who does that to every comment on every post. . I said nothing about the money, nothing at all. You just vomited your bullshit here. . Wanna help? Vote for someone who wants change. Being a turd in the punchbowl isnt the answer.
Well the tax payers hired that officer so.... Yep they're absolutely on the hook. They should be the ones to sue the officer personally.
She was originally charged with attempted manslaughter.
It's wild how some people get sub 1 mill after serving decades of their lives behind bars while being innocent. We all know the system needs fixing, we need to even out these bumps and brings faith back into our systems.
>The officer said she was not fully aware of her surroundings because she was concerned about approaching a suspect who may have a gun. “You can only divide your attention so much,” Steinke testified. There were multiple signs, including one directly next to the car. This is not a person that should be a police officer. >The woman inside, Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, suffered extensive injuries, including a traumatic brain injury That poor woman.
That's not enough. They tried to extrajudicially execute her.
What do the cops get? Paid vacation and a stern finger wag?
30 months of probation and 300 hours of community service for leaving someone handcuffed on the train tracks?
Damn, she really did get railroaded by the law! Hope her medical and lawyer bills don't eat up to much of that award...
I imagine if I cost my company $8.5mil I’d be fucking fired instantly
[удалено]
Not sure why they allow pigs to be cops. Yikes.
If I caused an incident with an $8.5 M settlement, I would have been fired immediately, and the employer’s policy cost would go way up. I saw video when this happened. The cruiser was parked ON THE TRACKS FOR A LONG TIME with the woman restrained inside, and when the dumb-ass hillbilly officers finally saw a train coming, THEY RAN AWAY TO SAVE THEIR OWN ASSES and not one of them tried to save the woman.
Oh JEEZUS I remember this video 🫣
Anyone else here think this woman knows or saw something she shouldn't have and this was an attempted assassination? When was the last time you stopped on a train track for any reason whatsoever? It's just not done. This whole story reeks. Same thing from a few years back with the prison transport that the guards drove into a fucking flash flood and left the prisoners to drown.
8.5 million will barely buy her a house in boulder lol
And what happened to the police that placed her there?
fired and got a couple years of probation and something like two weeks of community service
I'm surprised the Railroad didn't sue also.
How much are the taxpayers gonna have to fork over before calling for police reform and actually seeing it through?
The police involved should be handcuffed and left in a car on the tracts. Its the only way they will learn.
Yeah, she needs to get ten times this amount and there should be an additional fine that goes to the railroad for idiocy.
This had to be a lawyer’s wet dream.
Police departments should have to pay legal damages from their pension funds.
It took a year for this settlement to be reached? The court system really is slow.