Judge drops criminal charges against gaming officers in Christian Glass death

A judge this week dismissed charges against two state gaming officials charged in the shooting death of Christian Glass in Clear Creek County, a court document said.

In June 2022, Glass called 911 for help after crashing his car on some rocks in Silver Plume in Clear Creek County. When deputies responded, they began arguing with Glass, trying to persuade him to get out of his car. Glass said he was scared and appeared to be having a mental health episode. 

Glass told officers on the scene that he had geology equipment in the car, including a knife and a hammer, and he offered to throw the weapons out of the window. The officers told him not to do that and to keep them in the car.

Backup officers arrived from various agencies, including Colorado Division of Gaming officers Christa Lloyd and Mary Harris.

Eventually, after about 70 minutes of back and forth and escalation, Deputy Andrew Buen shot and killed Glass, who was holding his knife inside his vehicle. 

Buen was eventually charged with second-degree murder and reckless endangerment. He was convicted on the latter charge, but the second-degree murder charge resulted in a mistrial. He has another trial scheduled in 2025.

Other officers on the scene from Georgetown and Idaho Springs police departments and the Colorado State Patrol were charged with “failure to intervene,” as were Lloyd and Harris. 

Failing to intervene is a misdemeanor charge and a product of the 2020 police reform law passed by the state legislature that attempts to hold officers accountable for their colleagues’ behavior on the scene. 

But buried in a subset of that law is a description of agencies eligible to be held accountable for failing to intervene. The state Division of Gaming is not listed.

A lawyer representing Lloyd asked a judge to drop the charges against her back in August, citing that context. 

Clear Creek County District Attorney Heidi McCollum said after seeking advice from the attorney general’s office, she decided to concede that they didn’t think they would be successful in the prosecutions of the misdemeanor, given the omission of the Division of Gaming in the state law.

“It confounds me that two equally trained officers have different legal obligations under Colorado state law, especially when it comes to use of force,” McCollum said. “I’m perplexed why the legislature allows equally trained Peace Officer Standards and Training certified officers to be exempt from standing up and trying to intervene when another officer is using excessive force.”

The other officers have future court dates in 2025 for the charge, which is a misdemeanor, but a judge dismissed the charges against the gaming officers after their lawyers made a request in November.

Both Lloyd and Harris remain listed as certified officers in the state’s Peace Officers Standards and Training database.