The Weld County Community Corrections Board Wednesday rejected the application of a former Loveland police officer who has served nine months in prison of a five-year sentence for assaulting an elderly woman with dementia.

Austin Hopp, now 28, will be eligible for parole in July 2024. He’ll continue serving his five-year sentence in prison until then, board members ruled.

Karen Garner, 73 at the time, left a Loveland Walmart June 26, 2020, after having forgotten to pay for $14 worth of items. Garner has dementia and sensory aphasia, which limit her ability to communicate. She returned the items when an employee confronted her, but Hopp stopped her as she walked home. Body camera footage showed Hopp grabbing her arm and pushing her to the ground after she turned away from him. Prosecutors said this all happened within 30 seconds once the encounter began.

Hopp then pushed Garner against the hood of his patrol vehicle. Garner attempted to turn around and told officers she was trying to go home. Hopp then pushed her back against the vehicle and bent her arm unnaturally.

“Nine months just doesn’t seem to fit what started out with everybody putting their due diligence in; being an 8-to-10 year sentence,” said Garner’s daughter-in-law, Shannon Steward, referring to the sentence Hopp could have received if he had been convicted of second-degree assault. He pleaded guilty to the charge last year.

Garner suffered a dislocated shoulder, broken humerus and a sprained wrist during the arrest. Her family says she has suffered post-traumatic stress disorder and her dementia has worsened as a result of the incident.

Board member Matt Turner, a captain in the Weld County Sheriff’s Office, said when he voted to reject Hopp’s referral that the incident has sowed distrust for public safety in Larimer County.

“As a law enforcement officer looking at this, there was no reason for it at all. My worry is a lot of what’s cited here is hinged on two things, and that’s mental health and, ‘I was just trying to do my job.’ There was no job to do here.”

Larimer County District Court Judge Michelle Brinegar sentenced him last May to five years in prison.

Under state law, the Department of Corrections has to refer non-violent offenders in its system to community corrections — commonly called halfway houses — 19 months before their dates of parole eligibility.

Hopp’s charge is not considered a crime of violence. According to state statute, some forms of second-degree assault classified as crimes of violence include:

• Causing serious bodily injury to an on-duty peace officer, firefighter or EMT
• Causing serious bodily injury to someone during the commission of certain other crimes, including murder, robbery, burglary, arson, escape, first-degree kidnapping, sexual assault or third-degree felony sexual assault on a child
• Causing serious bodily injury using a deadly weapon
• Intentionally causing serious bodily injury

In a mitigation letter submitted to the court before sentencing, Hopp said his mental health and job performance had deteriorated because of struggles in his personal life, including a divorce and losing two people close to him. He also had an affair with former officer Daria Jalali, who also was involved in Garner’s arrest.

Jalali received a sentence in August of 45 days in jail and three years of probation.

The board also heard Wednesday from Larimer County prosecutor Matt Maillaro, who was assigned to the case. He objected to Hopp’s release to community corrections. Maillaro said he wouldn’t object to Hopp’s eligibility for parole in 2024, but that release to community corrections after serving only nine months of his sentence is too soon.

“In 25 years as a prosecutor, this case and what he did to Ms. Garner will never leave me,” he said, later adding: “He didn’t just abandon his duty as an officer who was sworn to protect and serve. He abandoned his duty to Ms. Garner personally. This was a person who needed his help. And what he did instead was to severely injure her.”

Hopp and Jalaliwere were charged in May 2021 — nearly a year after the incident — after Garner’s lawyer released body camera footage of the arrest as part of a federal civil rights lawsuit.

In September, the city agreed to pay the family $3 million in a settlement. Garner’s family indicated that they chose to settle because of Garner’s declining health.