Woman sues CSPD after officers refuse to document sexual assault claims, arrest her instead

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Multiple Colorado Springs police officers, Police Chief Adrian Vasquez, and the City of Colorado Springs are facing a federal lawsuit accusing two officers of ignoring sexual assault claims made by a Colorado Springs woman.

On July 18, 2021 Rebecca Varney did not believe calling 911 to report alleged domestic and sexual abuse at the hands of her ex-husband would result in her being charged with misdemeanor harassment and violation of a protection order. However, that's exactly what happened.

Two CSPD officers, David Kester and Carlotta Rivera, responded to Varney's home that July day. Inside the home, Varney attempted to outline that her ex-husband had fractured her wrist by slamming it in between a door in their home. In addition, she attempted to tell the officers that he had "stolen" multiple items from their shared home, and had been a victim of previous sexual assault.

The federal lawsuit filed on July 12, 2023 claims the two officers "failed to take the steps necessary to conduct a thorough and fair investigation into Ms. Varney’s claims." Instead, the officers chose to "repeatedly interrupted, talked over, and dismissed Ms. Varney’s account of her experiences, seemingly ignoring facts that did not align with his view of Ms. Varney as the aggressor and interrogating her about details that he seemed to think would undermine her credibility," the lawsuit claims.

Rebecca Varney is seen on the officers body-worn camera attempting to show Officer Kester a video of how her wrist became fractured. After watching it, Kester responded with "I just don't see the intent. It's not like he purposely slammed the door on your arm or anything like that. Actually, that would be a huge problem, Kester states in the videos"

Varney's husband had an active protection order against her from a previous arrest where she "scratched his eye" in 2020. However, the order had been amended to allow them to contact and see one another, but any form of harassment or intimidation would be a violation. Her ex-husband was active military stationed at Fort Carson and also had a MPO (Military Protection Order) that was in place on the date of the incident.

Below is a screen grab of the video Varney showed the CSPD officers:

After leaving Varney's home, the officers conducted a 40 minute interview with him over the phone. When asked by Officer Rivera if he felt "harassed" by his ex-wife, he responded with "That's a really hard question, ma'am. That's a heavy question." After Officer Rivera asked several more times on the phone he admitted that he felt harassed and knew it could result in her arrest.

The lawsuit claims that not once did Officer Rivera "ask Ms. Varney’s ex-husband about Ms. Varney’s allegations of abuse." Despite telling the officers on scene that she "did not intent to press charges," Officer Rivera told her ex-husband that Varney was "calling in today to try to get you arrested for breaking her arm during that incident."

After the phone call, Officer Rivera conferred with Officer Kester and chose to issue a warrant for Varney's arrest for harassment and a protection order violation. The lawsuit claims that she "ultimately spent 36 hours in jail and paid hundreds of dollars to be released on bond." In October 2021, the 4th Judicial District Attorney's dismissed all charges against her.

One day after she called 911, Varney filed a complaint with CSPD regarding the conduct of Kester and Rivera, explaining that she felt the charges against her were baseless. The lawsuit says the IA investigation "concluded that both officers’ conduct had violated CSPD policy by failing to investigate Ms. Varney’s report of domestic violence and by failing to make an accurate report of sexual assault."

It also noted that the officer failed to interview multiple roommates that were there the night of the incident to corporate Rebecca Varney's claims. The IA investigation concluded that "Officer Kester did interrupt her and talk over her at times." In response, the lawsuit says Kester was required to attend a Crisis Intervention Team class for active listening skills. To date, both officers are still employed with CSPD, Kester as a School Resource Officer for Liberty High School, and Rivera as a Detective.

13 Investigates spoke with Varney and her attorney's virtually Tuesday. She says she imminently took action after the incident because she felt like her reports of sexual abuse weren't being heard by the CSPD officers.

"I felt absolutely devastated. I immediately lawyered up because I didn't know what to do. I didn't know why I was in trouble. It seemed like just kind of a slap in the face," Varney said. "I just felt so blamed. I wish that they had just listened and actually interviewed the people that were there and just did the right thing."

Varney says her trust and faith in law enforcement has been diminished by the actions of a few. Now, she says she walks away from cops in public instead of trusting them to look out for her.

"I used to be a very big blue line supporter, huge blue line supporter. I trusted our cops. I got into therapy almost immediately after and it's like I can spot a cop from a mile away. You know, I go to a lot of concerts. There's always cops there. I always go the opposite way," Varney said. "I try to avoid them just because I'm just so scared, you know, I didn't do anything wrong and I got in trouble."

Varney's attorney's, Laura Wolf and Erin Vanek, tell 13 Investigates they reached out to CSPD and attorney's for the City of Colorado Springs before ever filing a lawsuit. However, they say they never received a response to their attempts to resolve it outside of court.

"Our goal is always to try to reach some type of resolution that calls for systemic change, some type of training policy changes," Wolf said. "We didn't receive a response. At one point, we actually found out that one of our emails had been deleted while unread, and only after that we started receiving responses."

Wolf expressed frustration with CSPD's response to their officers engaging in "misconduct," which was sustained through the Internal Affiars Investigation. She wishes the officers were further trained on ways to mandatorily report allegations of sexual abuse.

"There was no actual repercussions from the perspective of increased training, increasing the discipline. Both officers essentially walked away. My guess feeling as though they can engage in a similar way again and have nothing happen," Wolf said.

13 Investigates reached out to CSPD for comment on the federal lawsuit and the claims made against their officers. A spokesperson said it is their policy to not comment on ongoing litigation.