Former Colorado police officer sentenced to 45 days in jail in rough arrest of woman with dementia

FORT COLLINS — A former Colorado police officer who did not stop another officer from being rough with a 73-year-old woman with dementia was sentenced Friday to 45 days in jail and three years of probation.

Daria Jalali earlier pleaded guilty in the arrest of Karen Garner in Loveland, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Denver, in 2020. She had faced up to 60 days in jail for failing to intervene, a crime created by lawmakers as part of a police reform bill passed during protests over racial injustice and police brutality in 2020.

Former officer Austin Hopp arrested Garner after she left a store without paying for about $14 worth of items. Police body camera video released last year shows Garner repeatedly saying that she was trying to go home.

After Garner turns away from him,…