AURORA, Colo. — A former Aurora Police officer who was convicted of failing to intervene during a violent arrest by a fellow officer was sentenced Friday in Arapahoe County District Court to six months in jail, which she'll be allowed to serve through judicial house arrest.
Francine Martinez was convicted April 21 on one count of failure to intervene, a misdemeanor offense following a three-day jury trial.
She had faced between six and 18 months in jail, and at sentencing, the judge made it clear that Martinez would end up serving her six months in jail if she slipped up with any of the house arrest conditions.
Martinez and now-former officer Jon Haubert responded to a trespassing call near South Parker Road and Dartmouth Avenue on July 23, 2021. While they responded to the trespassing call, they encountered Kyle Vinson, who had a warrant out for his arrest.
Body camera footage, which was shown at the trial, showed Haubert with his hands around Vinson's throat for nearly 40 seconds. The video appeared to show Vinson beginning to lose consciousness.
Aurora Police's chief at the time said the video also showed Haubert strike Vinson with his duty weapon as many as 13 times. The video also showed that Haubert held the gun to Vinson's head while Vinson was facedown.
Vinson suffered numerous injuries during the altercation including:
- Bruise and cuts on forehead
- Right eye was half swollen shut and bruised
- Cut on top of the head that required five stitches
- Bruising on the chest area
Martinez was fired from the Aurora Police Department the month after the incident.
During Friday's hearing, Martinez's attorney argued that she had already suffered many consequences from her actions, such as the loss of her job and career as he asked the judge to sentence her to probation.
"You saw a lot about Martinez on her worst day during what was a tough situation, before this, she served with honor and saved people's lives both literally and figuratively," he told the judge.
Prosecutors asked for jail time and said the assault went on for too long and that Martinez had plenty of time to do something.
"This was not a close call – this was not where someone had to make a split-second decision – this was an officer standing by during a three-minute beating and doing nothing," one of the prosecutors said.
Both sides pointed out that Vinson, the man Haubert is accused of attacking, did want Martinez to go to jail.
Haubert, who resigned from his position with APD the week after the incident, is scheduled to go to trial in November.
He is charged with the following:
- Attempted first-degree assault
- Second-degree assault
- Felony menacing
- Official oppression
- First-degree official misconduct
Colorado lawmakers passed a police accountability bill in 2020 in the wake of the death of George Floyd in Minnesota. That law made it a crime for officers not to intervene or report use of force incidents.
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