A Fort Lupton police officer who locked a handcuffed woman inside a police vehicle before it was struck by a train is claiming the sole felony charge she faces — attempted reckless manslaughter — isn’t a real crime and should be dropped.
Officer Jordan Steinke, 29, and then-Platteville police Sgt. Pablo Vazquez both were criminally charged after the Sept. 16 incident on railroad tracks near U.S. 85 and Weld County Road 38. The officers stopped 21-year-old Yareni Rios-Gonzalez after a reported road-rage incident, took her into custody and locked her in a police SUV parked on train tracks.
The officers then failed to move the SUV as a train barreled down the tracks, its horn blaring, and crashed into the vehicle, seriously injuring Rios-Gonzalez, who survived and is suing the Platteville Police Department. Steinke was placed on leave after the incident; Vazquez was fired.
Attorneys for Steinke argued in a 16-page motion to dismiss filed Friday that the crime of attempted reckless manslaughter is “logically impossible” because of the way Colorado law is written — a person cannot attempt to act recklessly, the attorneys argue.
Under state law, acting recklessly is different from acting intentionally or knowingly. A person acts recklessly when they consciously disregard a substantial risk. But in order to be charged with attempting to commit a crime, a person must take an intentional, substantial step toward committing the crime.
“Can you have intent to commit an accident? That is the issue with this case,” said Stan Garnett, a former Boulder County district attorney who is not involved with the case.
Steinke’s attorneys argued that you can’t. The motion to dismiss lists 11 states that have found it is legally impossible to attempt to act recklessly. The attorneys call the Colorado Supreme Court an outlier for recognizing the crime of attempted reckless manslaughter in the 1980s.
Aya Gruber, a law professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, said when she teaches this issue to law students, she tells them the principle of attempted reckless manslaughter makes no sense.
“That is a very clearly wrongly decided decision that is not based on criminal law principles or logic,” Gruber said of the Colorado Supreme Court’s stance. “…Did they attempt to murder this woman? No. They just did something really reckless. So attempt doesn’t make sense.”
Steinke’s attorneys additionally argued that Steinke didn’t act recklessly because she didn’t know that the SUV was parked on train tracks and therefore couldn’t disregard the substantial risk that position posed to Rios-Gonzalez. Steinke told other officers that she thought the SUV was parked on a road, according to the motion.
“‘I thought it was a dark country road,’” she said, according to the motion. The railroad tracks were marked with bright white reflective railroad crossing signs.
Weld County District Attorney Michael Rourke did not return requests for comment on the motion to dismiss. He previously dropped the most serious charge against Steinke — a felony reckless assault count — but declined to say why, citing the pending case.
Steinke is still facing the attempted reckless manslaughter charge and a count of misdemeanor reckless endangerment. She could be sentenced to one to three years in prison on the manslaughter charge if convicted.
Gruber said the original charge of reckless assault against Steinke was more appropriate for the case than attempted reckless manslaughter.
“Just because the prosecution chooses to charge what looks like a fancier charge in an era when people are outraged, to charge what they think looks tougher on crime, doesn’t mean courts should go along with it when it makes no sense and flies in the face of every criminal law principle and it’s not followed by any other court,” she said.
Rios-Gonzalez was charged with felony menacing; her case is set for a disposition hearing in May. Vazquez, the sergeant, faces five counts of misdemeanor reckless endangerment and three traffic violations. Both cases are pending.
Steinke’s attorneys argued all charges against the officer should be dismissed.
“This case amounts to a terrible tragedy, albeit a tragedy that Colorado statutes do not criminalize,” attorney Mallory Revel wrote in the motion to dismiss. “Finding a charge that fits a set of circumstances can certainly be a puzzle for DAs to undertake. However, when the facts do not fit charges, despite public outrage or external pressures, the solution is not to attempt to manipulate the pieces.”
Garnett said it’s unlikely a district court judge will opt to drop the charges at this point in the case, and suggested the judge may wait to take on the legal arguments until the case goes to trial or until the prosecutors and defense attorneys must agree on jury instructions.
He said the overarching issue of whether a person can intend to act recklessly could go to the Colorado Supreme Court.
“Usually the Supreme Court would eventually decide something like this,” he said.
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Updated 9:17 a.m. April 13, 2023 This story was updated to correct the characterization of what Aya Gruber teaches her students about attempted reckless manslaughter.
