Former officer sentenced for arrest of 73-year-old woman with dementia that broke her arm

The former police officer who broke the arm of a 73-year-old woman who had dementia will spend up to five years behind bars.

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Former Loveland, Colorado, police officer Austin Hopp pleaded guilty to second-degree assault earlier this year, The Washington Post reported.

Hopp had faced up to eight years in prison but was sentenced to five years of confinement and three years of parole after release.

Larimer County District Judge Michelle Brinegar called Hopp’s physicality of the arrest of Karen Garner, “deliberate, deceitful and calculated,” The Denver Post reported.

“This [is] about a young officer who used his position of power and authority to show off his toughness, disregarded any sense of humanity and showed an alarming deal of criminal thinking,” Brinegar said, according to The Denver Post.

Hopp apologized for what he had done, telling the court, “I am truly ashamed of my actions.”

Garner had been accused of leaving Walmart with about $14 worth of items without paying on June 26, 2020. Store employees caught up to her and retrieved the items. Garner left and was walking through a field, picking wildflowers when police found her.

Hopp had been responding to the store’s request for officers.

Body camera footage shows Hopp approaching Garner and quickly attempting to arrest her. Garner kept walking, holding the flowers.

The judge said only 26 seconds passed from Hopp getting out of the car and Garner being forced to the ground, The Denver Post reported.

Hopp can be heard on the video, “I don’t think you want to play it this way ... Do you need to be arrested right now?” The Washington Post reported.

He grabbed her and pulled her arms back. For several minutes, she cried out that she was “going home.” Hopp wrestled the 80-pound woman to the ground, breaking her arm and dislocating her shoulder.

Another officer, Daria Jalali, arrived and helped restrain Garner.

After they took Garner to the police station, video was captured of Hopp watching the footage of her arrest with other officers.

Hopp can be heard asking them, “Ready for the pop? Hear the pop?” referring to the sound Garner’s shoulder made when he got her on the ground.

Other officers called Garner “ancient” and “senile,” and told Hopp that the arrest “went great” and that they had “crushed it” while Garner cried in pain, sitting in the department’s booking cell.

Nearly a year after the arrest, prosecutors announced they were pursuing a case against Hopp after Garner’s family released the body camera footage. Charges were filed against Hopp in May, accused of using excessive force and misleading his supervisors. He eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree assault.

Jalali has been charged with failure to report use of force, failure to intervene and official misconduct. Her case is ongoing, The Washington Post reported.

Garner’s family had won a $3 million settlement after suing the city and several police officers last year. They said that Garner, who has dementia and sensory aphasia, now has post-traumatic stress disorder that is causing her to hesitate when hugging loved ones and refuse walks, which they said she used to enjoy, The Washington Post reported.

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