The Greeley City Council will vote Tuesday night on a $295,000 settlement to a resident who wrongfully spent five days in jail after a Greeley police officer falsely accused her of driving during a 2023 traffic crash.
In May, Teneah Perez filed a complaint against officer Donovan Serafino and the city of Greeley seeking relief relating to loss of wages, confinement and loss of liberty, legal expenses and other compensatory damages, according to a complaint filed in Colorado District Court.
The complaint was filed through Pennsylvania-based attorney Richard Wiener, who also represented Roseann Perez in a similar lawsuit against Greeley police regarding a 2019 arrest.
The incident took place on May 29, 2023, when Perez was a passenger in a crash at 12th Avenue and 8th Street in Greeley. The driver, Perez’s husband at the time, fled the crash with his three biological children, while Perez and her two children remained on scene, the complaint alleges.
Despite Perez and her 6-year-old son repeatedly telling police that Perez’s husband was the one driving, Serafino “falsely announced on his police radio, ‘The kid just told me that she was driving,’ ” according to the complaint.
Perez was charged with three counts of DUI – vehicular assault, five counts of child abuse, driving under the influence, driving under restraint and six traffic offenses, the complaint alleges.
After reviewing footage from Serafino’s body-worn camera, it was learned that the 6-year-old never said Perez was driving, according to the complaint.
The day after the crash, Serafino got an email from someone claiming to have seen the crash, telling him that Perez was not the driver of the Jeep. Serafino did not document the email as part of his investigation, instead concealing it for 15 months, according to the complaint.
When the email was discovered, the charges against Perez were dismissed.
The Greeley Police Department conducted an internal investigation, finding that Serafino “violated numerous department policies and directives, including those relating to proper preservation and storing of evidence, submitting complete, accurate and truthful reports, and being truthful at all times when conducting official police business,” according to the complaint.
Serafino has since been fired from the Greeley Police Department, according to public information officer Kristen Duus.
To represent Serafino, the city retained outside counsel, who recommended the city settle with Perez, according to the city council agenda packet.
The resolution, if approved Tuesday night, will resolve all Perez’s claims against the city and Serafino.
The settlement will come out of the city’s claims reserve fund.
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