The city of Grand Junction has paid a quarter-million dollars to settle a lawsuit filed earlier this year in which Grand Junction Police were accused of tasing a man unnecessarily.
The settlement agreement from September details the sum. The case was dismissed from federal court in October.
The agreement does not include attorneys' fees and releases the city and the police department from further liabilities in the case. The lawsuit was prompted by a 2023 arrest when the Grand Junction Police Department went to Abraham Ybarra’s home while looking for another man.
When Ybarra answered the door, he confronted officers who asked him to drop a weapon. It was later determined that Ybarra had two harmonicas in his pocket. After a confrontation, police tased Ybarra, which led his wife to confront police officers who then tased Ybarra again.
Ybarra spent the night in jail after the incident, though charges against him were dropped.
The officer who tased him was not investigated for use of force, as the use of a Taser does not call for an investigation under the Critical Incident Response Team guidelines.
