Austin Hopp will spend just five years in prison after cutting a deal for the brutal assault that broke the wrist and popped the shoulder of 73-year-old dementia patient Karen Garner. She later received a $3 million settlement from Colorado’s Loveland Police Department over the incident.
Hopp had attempted to arrest Garner after she left a Walmart with around $15 worth of items she forgot to pay for. She willingly left the goods after being stopped by a clerk, but by then the store had already called police about the attempted shoplifting event.
Hopp and his partner, Officer Daria Jalali, then approached Garner, according to their body-cams. When she ignored them and acted confused about the shoplifting accusation—common in dementia patients—Hopp jumped her, threw her to the ground, and arrested her. Video shows she still had flowers she had picked on the street in her hand when she was cuffed.
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When the two officers got back to the precinct, they joked about the arrest with Hopp laughing, saying “Ready for the pop?” before Garner’s shoulder audibly popped out of place on the video. Other officers laughed at the footage and joked about the arrest and her struggle, according to surveillance video in the police station. “I think it was her shoulder,” Hopp then said, adding, “I can’t believe I threw a 73-year-old on the ground.”
Jalali was convicted of three misdemeanors in the incident, including failure to report an excessive use of force, failure to intervene in the use of excessive force, and first-degree official misconduct. She will not face prison time. Community Service Officer Tyler Blackett, as well as Sgt. Phil Metzler and Sgt. Antolina Hill, were all named in a lawsuit brought by Garner. Jalali, Blackett, and Hopp resigned from the force in April 2021. The others are on administrative leave.
Hopp, on the other hand, faced as many as 32 years in prison but worked out a deal in which he pleaded guilty, which dropped the sentence to a maximum of eight years—a move Garner’s family opposed.
In court, Hopp said he accepted full responsibility for his “horrible actions” that day. The sentencing judge said he showed “an alarming degree of criminal thinking that day,” according to a local NBC news station, adding that his actions were “deliberate and deceitful.”
At the sentencing hearing, Garner’s family members filled the courtroom as the judge sentenced the former officer to just five years. After the hearing, they told local reporters they could begin to the process of “bringing closure” to the painful last two years. Garner is living in a local memory-care facility and her family told reporters that her condition had worsened and she had “no idea” about the sentencing hearing.
