The family of an elderly dementia patient who was seen being brutally arrested by a Colorado cop in shocking video footage have revealed their disgust over a controversial plea deal that could see him walk free in a year.
Officer Austin Hopp, 26, was fired and charged with serious bodily harm after his police body cam captured him hurling 73-year-old Karen Garner to the ground and breaking her arm.
The 80-pound grandmother was left sobbing in pain in a jail cell for six hours while gloating Hopp replayed the sickening arrest to his colleagues and boasted: ‘We crushed it!’
Hit with felony charges of second degree assault, attempting to influence a public servant and official misconduct, the rookie Loveland Police Department cop faced up to 30 years behind bars.
However, Garner’s family learnt last week that prosecutors are offering the warped bully a plea deal that will reduce his charges and likely slash his sentence to just a few years when it’s rubber-stamped at an upcoming plea hearing.
Bodycam footage showed Hopp throwing Karen Garner to the ground on June 26, 2020
Garner’s daughter-in-law Shannon Steward said this incident was ‘the lowest form of human behavior and indecency’
Shannon Steward, Garner’s daughter-in-law, told DailyMail.com that her loved ones are adamantly opposed to the pact and will make a heartfelt plea to the judge when Hopp appears Wednesday morning at the Larimer County courthouse.
‘Karen didn’t resist. She didn’t fight. She didn’t swear. She did nothing to deserve this inhumane treatment,’ said Steward, who is married to Garner’s son John.
‘You would expect that officer to get her home safely not to abuse her, throw her down, assault her and then leave her locked up for six hours with a dislocated shoulder.
‘We think there’s more than enough evidence to get a guilty verdict so why do a deal now? This is cheapening what happened to Karen, it’s not justice.’
Steward said says her gregarious, outgoing mom-in-law never recovered from her brutal June 2020 ordeal at the hands of Hopp, who chased her down for forgetting to pay for $13 worth of items at a Walmart, including a Pepsi and a candy bar.
Hopp’s body camera footage shows him catching up to her as she walked through a field
Garner’s family said she was a happy grandmother (right) before the traumatizing arrest in June 2020 where she was left in a jail cell in pain with her broken arm still cuffed behind her (left)
Body-worn camera footage shows him catching up to Garner as she picks flowers on her route home and giving her barely seconds to comply before he savagely bundles her to the ground and hogties her.
Garner, who frequently forgets things because she suffers from dementia and sensory aphasia, cries out in pain and repeats the phrase ‘I’m going home’ over and over as the snarling officer drags her to his squad car.
As she languished in a cell for the next six hours crying out in pain because of a fractured arm and dislocated shoulder, Hopp was recorded on his police department’s CCTV system laughing and joking as he played back his footage to colleagues.
‘Ready for the pop?’ he was overheard saying as he relived the moment he pinned Garner to his vehicle and violently yanked her arm behind her back.
‘I think it went great. I think we crushed it,’ he sniggered, giving his partner Daria Jalali a celebratory fist bump. ‘I was like, ‘All right, let’s wrestle, girl. Let’s wreck it!’
Garner faced no further action but the damning video evidence instead led to criminal charges being leveled against Hopp and Jalali, 27.
Loveland city leaders fired both and paid Garner, now 75-years-old, a $3 million settlement but nothing can repair the damage done to her dwindling quality of life, Steward told DailyMail.com.
Austin Hopp, left, and Daria Jalali, right, turned themselves in after warrants were issued for their arrest
Prior to the incident her mother-in-law lived alone with constant monitoring from family who used a tracker on her phone to see where she was.
She had left it at home the day she was roughed up by Hopp.
Today, she lives in a facility for dementia patients, suffers from PTSD and no longer recognizes her three children and nine grandchildren.
‘Karen would repeat things, she would show me her new bedspread three times while I was visiting, that sort of thing. But she wasn’t leaving the stove on, it wasn’t dangerous. She loved to walk, she loved to be active,’ Steward said.
‘After the incident all she could say was, why did they do this to me? Why did they do this to me? She couldn’t discuss it, she just repeated herself over and over.
‘She didn’t trust anyone. The doctors and nurses would try to come in her room and she would push the doors shut. She wanted to be left alone. She couldn’t get a Covid vaccine because she wouldn’t let anyone touch her.
‘We were told by her care facility that the PTSD has accelerated her dementia. She wouldn’t even let us hug her.’
Garner’s family say they were anticipating an April trial for Hopp when they were contacted out of the blue last week by Assistant District Attorney Matt Maillaro and asked to review a potential plea deal that would scrap the less serious charges and downgrade the assault charge.
Steward says the family spent hours debating what was best before deciding to reject it – only for Maillaro to push on regardless.
They will come face to face with Hopp at this week’s plea hearing where they’ve been advised that Judge Michelle Brinegar could sentence him to anything from two to six years in jail.
Taking into account his clean record, good behavior and Colorado’s emergency Covid directives, Hopp could be back on the streets in as little as a year, they fear.
‘We were taken aback. We were unhappy. Karen has no ability to comprehend what is going on with the case but we reviewed it as a family and said, categorically no,’ Steward said.
‘There is plenty of evidence and it’s our position that this should go to trial. In less than 24 hours he said he was doing it anyway.
‘It’s not just us, our town – the video went global, the world was outraged when they saw that video. We will have to go before the judge and plead with him to give Karen what she deserves, her day in court.’
The DA’s office have declined to provide further information about the potential plea deal.
DailyMail.com revealed last April that Hopp and Jalali, who also lost her job for her part in Garner’s arrest, were previously in a romantic relationship.
She faces misdemeanor charges of failing to report excessive use of force, failure to intervene and first-degree official misconduct.
