{"id":43347,"date":"2021-12-10T01:54:45","date_gmt":"2021-12-10T08:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-colorado-cop-pleads-guilty-to-using-taser-on-man-in-70s\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:13:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:13:04","slug":"former-colorado-cop-pleads-guilty-to-using-taser-on-man-in-70s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/former-colorado-cop-pleads-guilty-to-using-taser-on-man-in-70s\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Colorado cop pleads guilty to using Taser on man in 70s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nicholas
Nicholas Hanning, a former Colorado police officer who used a Taser on a 75-year-old man without warning, pleaded guilty Thursday and permanently relinquished his right to serve as a peace officer in the state. (The 5th Judicial District Attorney's Office via AP, File)<\/span>The 5th Judicial District Attorney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

IDAHO SPRINGS, Colo. \u2014 A former Colorado police officer who used a Taser on a 75-year-old man without warning, requiring the man to be taken to the hospital, pleaded guilty Thursday to a misdemeanor assault charge in a deal in which he permanently relinquished his right to serve as a law enforcement officer in the state.<\/p>\n

An attorney for the man’s family objected to the deal, claiming that prosecutors showed former Idaho Springs Officer Nicholas Hanning special treatment and asking the judge to consider appointing a special prosecutor to take on the case, KUSA-TV reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Judge Cynthia Jones conditionally accepted the plea but scheduled a January hearing to hear objections from Michael Clark’s family attorney. The charge carries a penalty of six to 24 months in jail and sentencing was also set for January.<\/p>\n

If the judge finds a special prosecutor is needed, the plea deal would be voided.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors denied doing Hanning any favors and cited his acceptance of responsibility as a factor in the deal.<\/p>\n

Hanning was charged with third-degree assault on an at-risk person and fired from the department after the May 30 event.<\/p>\n

According to police body camera footage and court documents, Hanning and another officer knocked on the door to Clark\u2019s apartment without announcing they were officers. A 30-year-old woman who had just moved in next door had accused Clark of punching her in the face, which Clark later denied.<\/p>\n

Clark opened the door \u2014 yelling, \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d \u2014 and Hanning forced him into a wall, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.<\/p>\n

Clark was holding what his attorney said was a collectible sword made from a sawfish snout and put it away but refused repeated police commands to both lie down and leave the apartment. Hanning then used his Taser on Clark, who fell and hit a chair, an affidavit said.<\/p>\n

Hanning told a paramedic that he also kicked Clark in the knee and punched him in the back of the head, the affidavit said.<\/p>\n

Within days, Clark was hospitalized for a stroke and other health problems, according to Clark’s family lawyer, Sarah Schiekle.<\/p>\n

Police originally said Clark and the officer got into an altercation before the Taser was used but later said Hanning initiated the altercation and that Clark put down a sword-like weapon when asked to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nicholas Hanning, a former Colorado police officer who used a Taser on a 75-year-old man without warning, pleaded guilty Thursday and permanently relinquished his right to serve as a peace officer in the state. (The 5th Judicial District Attorney's Office via AP, File)The 5th Judicial District Attorney IDAHO SPRINGS, Colo. \u2014 A former Colorado police […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85667,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43347\/revisions\/85667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43347"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}