A former Aurora police officer is grounded for six months for failing to stop another officer from pistol-whitting, choking and threatening to kill an unarmed man.
An Arapahoe County jury convicted Francine Martinez in April of failure to intervene, a misdemeanor, in connection with the 2021 beating of Kyle Vinson by fellow former Aurora police officer John Haubert.
Martinez was the first officer in Colorado to be convicted by a jury of the charge brought under the groundbreaking police accountability bill passed following the 2020 George Floyd protests.
The felony carried a maximum penalty of 364 days in prison and a $1,000 fine. If Martinez breaks the terms of the house arrest, she will serve the remainder of her sentence in prison.
Haubert and Martinez were sent to a temporary restraining order on July 23, 2021 and contacted three men. Two of the men fled when officers attempted to arrest them on warrants, but Vinson remained in place, according to body camera footage of the incident.
Haubert drew his gun and pointed it at Vinson, even though Vinson had his hands up and had not fled or shown any signs of physical resistance, according to Haubert’s arrest affidavit.
Martinez watched for the next two minutes as Haubert pressed the barrel of his gun to the back of Vinson’s head, strangling him and hitting him in the head with his gun at least seven times. According to the arrest affidavit, Vinson did not hit Haubert or make life-threatening actions against the officers.
At trial, Vinson testified that he feared Haubert would kill him.
Martinez was fired from the department and Haubert resigned. Aurora city leaders later paid $850,000 to settle Vinson’s civil claims.
Haubert pleaded not guilty to six charges — including assault and menacing charges — in June and is scheduled for trial in November.
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