Charges Against 4 Colorado Hospital Security Officers Dropped
The four hospital security officers were facing negligent homicide charges for their alleged roles in the death of a patient.
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Pueblo, Colorado – Negligent homicide charges against four St. Mary Corwin Hospital security officers have been dropped due to insufficient evidence.
The charges against Anthony Virant, Anthony Ruff, Drake Castro, and Randy Vialpando stemmed from the February 2021 death of Mathew Jones, a patient at the facility.
A struggle between Jones and the officers happened after Jones refused medical treatment for gout and wouldn’t leave the hospital, reports KRDO.
Surveillance video showed the hospital security officers talking with Jones for about 18 minutes. Jones then fell to the ground after resisting officers’ attempts to push him toward the door. The officers went to the ground with Jones and used various maneuvers to restrain him. Jones died eight days later.
He was determined to have died from “anoxic brain injury due to cardiopulmonary arrest during physical restraint in the setting of morbid obesity, methamphetamine, and probably cocaine intoxication, and cardiomegaly with cardiac fibrosis.”
In a motion obtained by the Pueblo Chieftain, 10th Judicial District Attorney Jeff Chostner said, “The case was dismissed because additional information was revealed through continuing investigation of the matter. A previously undiscovered witness was disclosed and nuances in the pathologist report indicated that the evidence in the case was not sufficient, in my opinion, to sustain a conviction. Therefore, based on my evaluation of the case, and my ethical requirements, I didn’t believe I could proceed further with the case.”
Ruff and Vialpando apologized to the Jones family for Mathew’s death. All but one of the hospital security officers are still employed at St. Mary-Corwin.
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About the Author
Robin Hattersley, Editor-in-Chief
Robin has been covering the security and campus law enforcement industries since 1998 and is a specialist in school, university and hospital security, public safety and emergency management, as well as emerging technologies and systems integration. She joined CS in 2005 and has authored award-winning editorial on campus law enforcement and security funding, officer recruitment and retention, access control, IP video, network integration, event management, crime trends, the Clery Act, Title IX compliance, sexual assault, dating abuse, emergency communications, incident management software and more. Robin has been featured on national and local media outlets and was formerly associate editor for the trade publication Security Sales & Integration. She obtained her undergraduate degree in history from California State University, Long Beach.
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