Former deputies charged in Glass case to appear in Clear Creek County court on Aug. 7

BY DEB HURLEY BROBST DBROBST@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

e former Clear Creek sheri ’s deputies charged in the June 2022 death of Christian Glass in Silver Plume will be in court again at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 7 for a status hearing in preparation for their trials.

Former Sgt. Kyle Gould and former deputy Andrew Buen were in court on June 21 for a 10-minute status hearing. An issue discussed at the hearing was whether Gould and Buen would have a joint trial or whether they would be tried separately.

Catherine Cheroutes, 5th Judicial District Court judge, said she believes they should be tried together because they were named together in the grand jury indictment, but no o cial decision has been made yet. Cheroutes told the defense attorneys that they would need to le for a “severance” to request separate trials.

e defendants’ attorneys have said that unequal media attention has been focused on Buen, so the defendants likely would pursue separate trials.

e attorneys asked for more time to work out details before the two men are tried in the case in which Glass, who was stranded in his car and called 911 on June 10, 2022. O cers asked Glass to leave his car, but he refused in what turned into a stando that ended when o cers broke the car window and used a Taser on Glass, according to the indictments.

Buen shot Glass, killing him. Gould was not at the scene but was a supervisor watching Buen’s bodycamera footage. He ordered deputies to remove Glass from his car, according to the indictments.

In April, Cheroutes denied mo- tions by both defendants to dismiss their cases.

Buen has been charged with second-degree murder, o cial misconduct and reckless endangerment. Gould has been charged with criminally negligent homicide and reckless endangerment.

On May 23, four agencies reached a settlement with the family to pay $19 million. ree law enforcement agencies and the state will pay the settlement since o cers from four agencies were at the scene the night Glass was killed.

Clear Creek County will pay $10 million; $5 million from Georgetown; $3 million from the state of Colorado; and $1 million from Idaho Springs. It is the largest known single payout for police violence in the state’s history.

On May 24, Gov. Jared Polis apologized to Christian Glass’ parents, Simon and Sally, then declared May 24 Christian Glass Day and displayed Glass’ artwork that has been hung in the Capitol.

“What happened to Christian should not have happened,” Polis told Glass’ parents in a live-streamed statement. “We are going to do the best we can to avoid any parents going through what you have gone through.”

Earlier this month, the Clear Creek County commissioners announced that the county would start a mental-health crisis co-responder program with its pilot program to be implemented this summer.

In a statement, they called the killing of Christian Glass a “reprehensible act” that should never happen again. ey also said Sheri Rick Albers had not “adequately accepted responsibility” for his role in the tragedy and needed to correct the gaps in training and protocols that existed when Glass died.