A civil case over a Denver Police SWAT standoff that ended with a woman’s house burning down has an uncertain outcome after attorneys for the police officers filed an appeal in federal court before the trial’s scheduled start.

The trial, scheduled for four days, was originally slated to start Monday in Denver. But on April 10, attorneys for two police officers named in the case appealed a summary judgment decision to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 10th Circuit has ordered mediation in the case, and a conference is set for May 12, according to court papers. If the parties don’t resolve it that way, the appeals court will take up briefing and consider holding oral arguments.

Mary Quintana, a homeowner in Denver’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, claims police officers violated her Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures, and her 14th Amendment protections for due process and excessive force, when they threw chemical agents into her house in their attempt to force her son out during an hours-long standoff.

In January 2019 police attempted to arrest her son, Joseph, when they learned he had an open warrant. After Mary Quintana gave police permission to go in her house, Joseph Quintana opened fire and shot one officer in the leg and another in the abdomen, hitting his tactical vest.

According to Quintana’s version of events, SWAT officer Richard Eberharter threw a “burn box” into the house without regard for where it would land and whether it might land near flammable materials. Burn boxes are vented steel boxes used to contain the chemical agents to reduce the risk of them catching fire.

But the burn box thrown by Eberharter caught fire — which the Denver Fire Department confirmed — and caused the destruction of Quintana’s house, which rendered her homeless for a time.

She alleges Justin Dodge, a sergeant also assigned to the police department’s Metro SWAT operations, authorized the use of flammable chemical weapons on the residence even though they are meant for outdoor use as a crowd-control tool.

Attorneys for Eberharter and Dodge requested summary judgment in Quintana’s lawsuit, a ruling that means a judge opts to decide a case on the matters of law in question without it going to trial if there are not facts in dispute between the parties. They have argued Quintana didn’t show evidence the officers acted willfully and wantonly, a requirement under the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act to hold public employees liable on tort claims for actions taken in the course of their duties.

But Judge William Martinez decided earlier this month that Quintana and the officers dispute enough of the facts in the case to make summary judgment inappropriate. Attorneys for the officers filed an appeal of the summary judgment ruling on April 10.