IDAHO SPRINGS, Colo — Nicholas Hanning, the former Idaho Springs police officer who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge related to the tasing of a 75-year-old man, was sentenced Thursday to two years of supervised probation.
Hanning pleaded guilty in December to one count of third-degree assault, which stemmed from an incident on May 30 during which he tased Michael Clark while responding to an assault report made by Clark's neighbor. In addition to two years probation, he was sentenced to 120 days of electronic home monitoring and 150 hours of community service.
The plea deal allowed for a sentence of six to 24 months in jail.
Clark's family is not happy with the deal, and during the December hearing, their attorney filed a motion asking the judge to reject the plea deal, remove the 5th Judicial District Attorney’s Office from the case and appoint a special prosecutor to take over.
The judge initially "conditionally" accepted the deal and set another hearing to hear arguments related to the request for a special prosecutor. At a Jan. 6 hearing, the judge denied that request and formally accepted the plea.
According to prosecutors, Hanning and another officer named Ellie Summers were responding to a call regarding an alleged assault on a woman by her neighbor in the middle of the night.
When officers contacted the neighbor, who was later identified as Clark, he was holding a “sword-like weapon with what appeared to be teeth along both edges,” according to a news release from the district attorney’s office. Idaho Springs Police gave a similar description.
Hanning and Clark got into a fight, the release said, and he deployed his stun gun after he and other officers gave multiple commands.
RELATED: 'They need to be seen to be believed': Body camera footage shows tasing of elderly Idaho Springs man
Sarah Schielke, an attorney for Clark, obtained and released body camera footage that she said paints a very different account of what happened.
The footage shows the officers banging on Clark's door before he opens it and yells, "what do you want?"
There's quickly a physical confrontation, with the officers yelling at Clark to "put it down."
> The video below shows video from Summer's body camera. Viewer discretion is advised.
In the video, Clark turns and sets something on top of a nearby dresser, and then turns back toward officers without anything in his hands.
The officers ordered him to get to the ground, but he refused, and instead began to explain that his neighbors hit the wall so hard, he thought they were going to come through it. Seconds later, the video shows Clark being tased while the officers are several feet away.
Clark lost consciousness and flew backward from the tasing, the video shows. His attorney said he struck his head on a dining room chair on the way down.
Clark was ultimately hospitalized with heart complications, and had a stroke within days of the incident, according to Schielke.
He was never charged with any crime.
Hanning was fired and Summers later resigned from the department.
POST decertification
Anyone who works in law enforcement in Colorado must be certified by Colorado Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST). According to the Colorado Attorney General's office, the Idaho Springs Police Department notified POST of its internal investigation involving Hanning in July.
Last October, Hanning voluntarily relinquished his POST certification. That was accepted during a meeting on Dec. 3. The decertification means he cannot serve as a peace officer in Colorado ever again.
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