After months of careful negotiations, the deal was struck.
Three Westminster cops, charged with using excessive force and then covering it up with false reports, would plead guilty to lesser charges to avoid jail and to give them a chance to resume their careers.
An Adams County judge, however, quickly squashed the agreement.
“This is a total travesty,” District Judge Harlan Bockman said during a hearing Friday. “I have read the grand jury transcript and I’m not going to accept this plea. The idea that these three individuals would be back out on the streets without any real punishment for their acts is a real travesty.”
Shocked, defense attorney Nathan Chambers jumped to his feet and said Bockman hadn’t heard the other side of the story.
“Grand-jury testimony is completely one-sided,” Chambers said. “It’s conducted completely by the district attorney. There is a very different side of what happened on the streets that night.”
Bockman accepted the challenge: “OK. Then let’s go to trial. Let’s have the public hear what happened out on the street.”
Last August, a hit-and-run accident in Broomfield led to a police chase that crossed into Westminster. More than a dozen Westminster police joined the pursuit until officers managed to stop the driver, Scott Danielson, 41.
Four Westminster officers forced Danielson to lie down, then beat him, saying they thought he was reaching for a weapon. Two Federal Heights police officers witnessed the incident and reported that the Westminster officers used excessive force.
Mark Toth, 49; Jason Poppenger, 38; and Norman Haubert, 34, were indicted on charges of third-degree assault causing injury, filing false reports and first-degree official misconduct. Officer Chris Plyer, 34, was indicted on charges of first-degree official misconduct and false reporting.
The charges are misdemeanors but include an automatic decertification by the state, preventing them from working as Colorado peace officers.
On Friday, Toth, a commander who was fired by Westminster police, pleaded not guilty and was scheduled for trial this summer.
Poppenger and Haubert negotiated a deal with prosecutor Tom Quammen to plead guilty to lesser charges of attempted third-degree assault and second-degree official misconduct. Plyer was to plead guilty to second-degree official misconduct.
Those charges do not include automatic decertification.
Quammen said he was recommending probation instead of jail time because it was the officers’ first offenses.
After Bockman rejected the deal, the three withdrew their pleas and pleaded not guilty to the original charges. On Monday, Bockman will set trial dates.
In the hallway after the hearing, Chambers, who represents Poppenger, was visibly upset. “This was a fair disposition that the DA agreed to after considering all the evidence,” he said.
Staff writer Mike McPhee can be reached at 303-820-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com.
