A Grand Junction man was unnecessarily tased by police because his wife refused to stop arguing with officers, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
Abraham Ybarra is seeking compensatory damages related to the January 2023 incident, where police responded to Ybarra’s home to arrest another man. When they confronted Ybarra, they tased him, prompting an outburst by his wife, which led to a second tasing by Grand Junction Police Department Officer Cody Lopez.
In the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, attorneys for Ybarra state police were looking for Gilbert Galan when they arrived at Ybarra’s house. Galan was suspected of smashing out car windows and threatening people with a hammer, according to the arrest affidavit for that night.
When police arrived, the affidavit states, they encountered Galan in Ybarra’s driveway. The officers said Ybarra spoke profanely to them and went into his house after they pulled up.
In the arrest affidavit, Lopez, who is the named defendant in the lawsuit along with the city of Grand Junction, said the officers heard a woman screaming inside the home and felt they had to “make entry to ensure innocent lives were not being harmed.”
Video from Ybarra’s attorneys — Liana Orshan and David Land of Killmer Lande LLP — shows five armed officers standing outside the door. One of them, identified in the lawsuit as well as the arrest affidavit as Kaselyn Butters, attempted without success to break the door down.
“Officer Butters began to kick the front door to open it, she kicked it approximately four times and the subjects inside opened it,” the affidavit says.
Both the lawsuit and the affidavit state that when Ybarra answered the door, he was asked to drop a weapon, which the suit says was a lighter. The police did not report finding a weapon on Ybarra in their account, though the lawsuit said he did have two harmonicas, a cell phone and a pack of cigarettes in his pocket.
“The harmonicas did not appear to be a knife,” the lawsuit said. “They appeared to be harmonicas.”
During the exchange in the doorway, Lopez tased Ybarra, who fell to the ground. At that point, Ybarra’s wife accosted police over their behavior.
“Further outraged by Defendant Lopez’s needless, dangerous use of force against her husband, Mrs. Ybarra continued to complain about the GJPD officers’ misconduct. At this point, her encounter with the officers escalated, and the officers began to physically engage her,” the lawsuit said. “Defendant Lopez turned to argue with Mrs. Ybarra, and stated, ‘He’s gonna get tased again if you don’t stop.’”
Video footage of the incident taken from a doorbell camera lines up with that account.
“When Mrs. Ybarra did not immediately cease her behavior, approximately five seconds after he threatened to tase Mr. Ybarra in retaliation for Mrs. Ybarra’s action, Defendant Lopez did exactly that, pulling the trigger on his taser and again electrocuting Mr. Ybarra for another approximately five-second taser cycle,” the lawsuit reads.
The Grand Junction Police Department declined to comment on the suit, as they do not comment on ongoing litigation.
Video provided by Ybarra’s attorneys of the event shows a scuffle, and police said they were struck several times by Ybarra’s wife. The arrest affidavit makes no mention of the threat to tase Ybarra a second time, though it — as well as the buzz of the taser — is audible in the video.
Charges were ultimately dropped against Ybarra, who was arrested and spent the night in jail.
Galan was charged with felony menacing, assaulting a police officer and firefighter while in custody, criminal mischief and domestic violence. He later agreed to a plea deal for the felony menacing charge, according to court records.
Lopez was not investigated for his use of force by the Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT), which is activated in the case of fatal or near-fatal incidents. According to the CIRT guidelines, the use of the Taser in this case would not have risen to the level of a CIRT investigation.
The lawsuit requests damages including for emotional and physical harm as well as attorney fees.
