A former Colorado School of Mines professor was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Wednesday for causing a crash that killed Golden police officer Evan Dunn and injured three others.
Stephen Geer, 44, pleaded guilty in October to vehicular homicide and assault for the drunken-driving crash on Colorado 58 the evening of Nov. 6, 2024, according to court records. Both counts are felonies.
Prosecutors dismissed one count of vehicular assault, third-degree assault and driving under the influence as part of the plea agreement.
Dunn, 33, and his partner Bethany Peterson – who previously went by Bethany Grusing – were responding to a crash on Colorado 58 near Washington Avenue at 5 p.m. when Geer hit them, trapping both under the vehicle from the initial crash.
Peterson, along with a father and daughter involved in the initial crash, were all seriously injured. Dunn died at the scene.
Geer smelled of alcohol when he was arrested after the crash and had a blood alcohol more than twice the legal limit when he was tested three hours later,
At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Dunn’s family asked for the maximum sentence in the case as they described their loss, Denver7 reported.
“I just don’t have words that can fully and fairly capture how deep that loss is. Itap real, itap forever, it hurts. Itap the greatest I’ve known,” Dunn’s brother Tyler Dunn said at the sentencing. “The collective pain caused by this tragedy is immeasurable.”
Geer apologized during the sentencing hearing and said he did not expect forgiveness but hoped his incarceration would provide closure, the station reported.
