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The officer was reprimanded, but kept his job. He’s still working for the Pueblo Police Department.
PUEBLO, Colo. — A lawsuit filed by a woman who was tased by a Pueblo police officer in 2022 says the officer should not be able to maintain his police officer certification.
According to the lawsuit, an internal affairs investigation found the officer violated several department policies when he used a taser in three cases in 2022.
The officer was reprimanded, but kept his job. He’s still working for the Pueblo Police Department.
According to the lawsuit, in February 2022, police contacted Cristy Gonzales on suspicion that she was driving a stolen truck. The complaint said the vehicle ran out of gas, and was still rolling slowly towards a busy intersection.
“She could not get it to stop so she jumped out to use her body weight to stop it. Didn’t work,” Kevin Mehr, a civil rights attorney representing Gonzales, said. “Cristy is standing in the road, with her hands literally up like this.”
Mehr said what came next shouldn’t have happened.
The lawsuit says Gonzales didn’t show she was about to run, or that she was armed.
“[The officer] runs up, grabs her left arm, twists it behind her back, standard handcuff procedure,” Mehr said. “She is almost totally horizontal and he tases her in the back.”
The lawsuit filed Sunday says the district attorney who prosecuted Gonzales was concerned about the use of force too, and complained to the Pueblo Police Department because she believed the officer had used excessive force.
“I don’t see any reason for him tasing her, and that is frankly what the IA investigation also found,” Mehr said.
Mehr shared documents that show the department reviewed this case and two other times the officer used a taser. The three incidents happened within a few months of each other in 2022. Gonzales’ arrest was the first incident.
An internal affairs investigation found the officer may have violated several department policies. The police chief agreed, and said the officer appeared to tase Gonzales “for no apparent reason.”
According to a letter of reprimand provided by Mehr, the police chief found the officer violated the department’s policy for using a taser.
“Mere flight from a pursuing officer, without other known circumstances or factors, is not good cause for the use of the Taser device to apprehend an individual,” the letter said.
The letter said in the other two incidents the officer violated policies on conduct, which could include “unreasonable and unwarranted force.”
The officer was ordered to complete additional training on de-escalation and the operation of a taser. The letter said the officer had completed that requirement.
Mehr believes because of the findings in the internal affairs investigation, the officer should have his police certification revoked or suspended. State statute says that’ll happen if an internal investigation finds an officer used “unlawful force.”
“Cristy is in prison. She paid her penance. She accepted accountability for being in a stolen vehicle and she went to prison for it,” Mehr said. “This police officer shot her in the back with a taser without reason and he didn’t even lose his job.”
9NEWS asked the Colorado Attorney General’s Office if this incident qualifies for decertification or suspension. A spokesperson said POST – a unit of the attorney general’s office that manages and documents police officer certification – would need more information to determine if this would need to be reported to POST as an unauthorized use of force under state law.
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