A woman who sued two Colorado cities reached an $8.5 million settlement this week after she was severely injured during a 2022 traffic stop when a train struck the police cruiser she was left handcuffed inside as it was parked on train tracks.
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Woman handcuffed in police car hit by freight train reaches $8.5M settlement
Rios-Gonzalez had stopped her car just past some train tracks after being pulled over by a Platteville police officer. Police body-camera footage showed the officer parking their patrol vehicle in the middle of the train tracks and two Fort Lupton officers arriving to assist.
Rios-Gonzalez was then handcuffed and locked inside the cruiser when a train hurtled toward it shortly after. She later sued Platteville, Fort Lupton and the three police officers involved in the incident. The settlement money will be paid by the cities’ insurers, an attorney representing two of the officers confirmed to The Washington Post.
Paul Wilkinson, an attorney for Rios-Gonzalez, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday evening. He told Colorado Public Radio that the settlement was “a hard-fought result.”
“She is still recovering from some physical and emotional impacts that she’ll be dealing with for the rest of her life,” Wilkinson said of his client.
Platteville Police Chief Carl Dwyer on Wednesday apologized to Rios-Gonzalez in a statement to The Post. The Platteville Police Department “remains committed to providing the best service possible for all who reside, visit and travel through our community,” he said in the statement, adding that the settlement was in the best interests of Platteville residents.
Fort Lupton Police Chief William Carnes said in a news release Tuesday that the settlement was voluntary and “to the mutual satisfaction” of those involved, adding that it “recognizes the gravity of this matter, and allows all parties to move forward.”
On the night of the accident, a Platteville police officer pulled over Rios-Gonzalez after receiving a report of a “road rage incident involving a firearm” earlier in the day, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Two officers from Fort Lupton arrived to help with what the agency called a “high-risk traffic stop.”
An officer then handcuffed Rios-Gonzalez — who could be heard on body-camera footage asking what was happening — and locked her in the Platteville police vehicle. A train horn sounded in the distance as the officers searched Rios-Gonzalez’s vehicle, where KTVZ reported they found a gun in the center console.
Shortly after, a train struck the vehicle with Rios-Gonzalez inside.
“Oh, my God. Oh, my God!” a female officer can be heard saying on body-camera footage as the train hit the cruiser.
Rios-Gonzalez suffered a traumatic brain injury, the Associated Press reported. She later pleaded no contest to misdemeanor menacing, her lawyer told the AP.
Two officers were charged in the incident and both were terminated by their departments. Jordan Steinke, the Fort Lupton officer who placed Rios-Gonzalez inside the car, was convicted of assault and reckless endangerment in July, and was sentenced in September to supervised probation and community service. Pablo Vazquez, the Platteville officer, pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment in December and was sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation, the AP reported.
Steinke, during her sentencing hearing in September, gave Rios-Gonzalez an emotional apology.
“What happened that night has haunted me,” she said, adding: “I remember your cries and your screams.”
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Want to own a real T. rex? It could cost you $30 million
“Gus,” a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, is pictured during a press preview at Sotheby’s in New York City on July 1.
Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images
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Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images
If you ever wanted to own an actual T. rex and not just a toy, you now have a chance. But it’s going to cost you some bones. Millions of them.
The Tyrannosaurus rex fossil known as “Gus” will go up for auction Tuesday morning at Sotheby’s New York City office. The starting bid for the dinosaur is $19 million and the auction house estimates it could sell for $20 to $30 million.
Gus was found in Harding County, S.D., on private land in 2021, according to Sotheby’s. The T. rex skeleton, which is 38 feet long and 12 and half feet tall, is believed to be from the late Cretaceous period from about 67 million years ago.

“Judging from the overall size and degree of bone development it can be determined that Gus’ skeleton belonged to a very large, robust, adult individual,” the auction house said in the listing.
Thomas Heitkamp, president of Theropoda Expeditions, the company that excavated the site, said in a Sotheby’s video about the discovery that nearly a thousand pieces were collected.
The creature is named after the owner of the ranch where it was discovered, Gary “Gus” Licking. He died during the excavation process, which ran through 2023, and was not able to see Gus fully assembled, according to Cassandra Hatton of Sotheby’s.
“Gary had for years roamed around his 6,500 acre property and seeing T. rex teeth and little bits of fossils and such, and he realized that there was probably something really important under the ground,” Hatton said in the video.

Gus is one of the largest and most complete T. rex specimens ever found, according to Sotheby’s.
It’s not the first time dinosaur bones have been for sale to the highest bidder.
The first auction for a dinosaur was held by Sotheby’s in 1997. The creature, a T. rex named Sue, was purchased by a few large companies for the Field Museum in Chicago. It went for $8.4 million.
In 2024, Apex the stegosaurus sold for $44.6 million, the most ever for a dinosaur fossil. It was purchased by billionaire investor Ken Griffin, who loaned it to the American Natural History Museum in New York for four years.
Paleontologist Scott Persons, who is the curator of natural history at the South Carolina State Museum, says dinosaurs fetching tens of millions of dollars reflects an “increase in market demand.”
“More and more dinosaurs are being sold this way and at ridiculous prices,” he says in an email to NPR.
He says people who can afford to spend this much on an auction could do more to support further research.
“A sum like that could endow a research program at a public museum of your choosing,” he says. “That would pay for a career’s worth of fieldwork, the discovery of whole new species, and the public exhibition of the findings.”
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Map: 4.1-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Southern California
Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 3 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “weak,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. The New York Times
A light, 4.1-magnitude earthquake struck in Southern California on Sunday, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The temblor happened at 3:38 a.m. Pacific time about 1 mile southeast of Frazier Park, Calif., data from the agency shows.
U.S.G.S. data earlier reported that the magnitude was 4.4.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
Subsequent quakes have been reported in the same area. Such temblors are typically aftershocks caused by minor adjustments along the portion of a fault that slipped at the time of the initial earthquake.
Aftershocks detected
Quakes and aftershocks within 100 miles
Aftershocks can occur days, weeks or even years after the first earthquake. These events can be of equal or larger magnitude to the initial earthquake, and they can continue to affect already damaged locations.
The New York Times When quakes and aftershocks occurred
Sources: United States Geological Survey (epicenter, aftershocks, shake intensity); LandScan via Oak Ridge National Laboratory (population density) | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Pacific time. Shake data is as of Sunday, July 12 at 11:54 a.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Sunday, July 12 at 2:24 p.m. Eastern.
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Mexico-US relations are already strained, but experts say they’re about to get worse | CNN
The death of a Mexican man in Houston at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is threatening to upend already-strained relations between Mexico and the United States.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum took the unusual step of announcing at a press conference on Thursday that Mexico is seeking civil and criminal investigations in the US related to the deaths of 17 Mexican nationals during immigration enforcement operations or at detention centers.
These investigations aim to “protect the human rights of Mexicans in the United States,” the Mexican government said.
The impetus for the announcement was the ICE shooting death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas last week. ICE officials said agents shot Salgado Araujo, whom they said was in the US illegally, after he rammed a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow verbal commands during a traffic stop.
His family has disputed ICE’s account, telling CNN that the 52-year-old father of three would have stopped if he had known the car that followed him belonged to law enforcement.
At her press conference announcing the request for criminal investigations, Sheinbaum also called for petitions to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Asked about Sheinbaum’s comments, the US Department of Homeland Security defended ICE’s actions.
“ICE agents are trained to use the minimum necessary force to resolve dangerous situations to prioritize the safety of the public and our officers,” the agency said.
The agency also said that detainees in ICE custody “receive full due process, are provided with adequate food, water, and medical treatment, and have opportunities to communicate with their families and attorneys.”
Analysts who spoke with CNN said that Salgado’s death and Mexico’s response may signal a major rift between Mexican and US authorities.
“This is no minor incident,” said José Luis Valdés Ugalde, academic at the Center for Research on North America at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). “It affects the bilateral relationship and the pending issues that Mexico and the United States have before them,” including “security, migration, and trade.”
International affairs expert and newspaper columnist Fausto Pretelin said the relationship between Mexico and the United States was at “its worst moment” in the aftermath of the killing of Salgado Araujo. But he thinks Sheinbaum’s actions will damage relations further, for little more than political points gained within Mexico.
“It’s a performance,” Pretelin said of Sheinbaum’s announcement. “The opportunity to take these issues seriously is lost. And when I say seriously, I mean that diplomatic channels should be used.”
Yet some might argue that diplomatic channels have seen plenty of traffic, especially on this issue. Mexico’s government has already issued 11 diplomatic notes of protest to the US over the deaths of its citizens, Foreign Minister Roberto Velasco told reporters.
Now, his country had to go “beyond the diplomatic realm.”
While Pretelin and Valdés Ugalde have warned that Sheinbaum’s announcement spells trouble for US-Mexico relations, some experts believe that the Mexican president hasn’t gone nearly far enough.
Academic and columnist Tomás Milton Muñoz Bravo, professor of international relations at UNAM, says that this type of response should have come much earlier.
“It’s incredible that 17 deaths had to occur for Mexican authorities to finally announce a strategy that goes beyond the merely diplomatic to the judicial,” said Muñoz Bravo. “Of course, the announcement has been made, but I still want to see the actions that have been stated actually develop.”
Yet Valdés Ugalde points out that the US shows no signs of caring about Mexican criticisms of its immigration policy. Likewise, Valdés Ugalde said, Mexico has not known how to defend the migrant community and has made what he describes as “mistakes” in its foreign policy.
One of these, according to Valdés Ugalde, has been rejecting extradition requests for politicians allegedly linked to drug trafficking on the grounds of national sovereignty. This has given the Trump administration an opening to retaliate in other areas, such as the renegotiation of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which protects many Mexican exports from American tariffs.
“There are no signs of rebuilding the relationship; the relationship is very damaged by the attitudes of both governments and by Mexico’s defensive stance,” Valdés Ugalde said.
Muñoz Bravo said that the November midterm elections in the US could open an opportunity for Mexico if Republicans lose their control of Congress.
“What we’re going to see in November is extremely important,” he said. If Trump “does not have a majority in the chambers, there will be checks and balances that will even allow for room to negotiate with other actors in the United States.”
Until then, tensions between the neighbors remain high, with any further deaths of Mexican migrants threatening to deepen the rift.
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