Jury finds Loveland man who punched undercover Fort Collins officer not guilty of assault

A Larimer County jury has found the Loveland man who punched an undercover Fort Collins Police Services detective last year not guilty of assault.

Quentin Wallace, now 36, was arrested in late September 2022 after punching undercover Fort Collins police Sgt. Scott Crumbaker and knocking him unconscious while Crumbaker and another plainclothes detective, Cpl. Josh Goldschmidt, conducted an operation to remove a GPS tracker from a vehicle in Loveland.

A jury found Wallace not guilty of second-degree assault Friday after a four-day trial. Wallace's attorneys argued that he acted in self-defense when he punched the undercover officer, who Wallace did not learn was a police officer until later.

The two Fort Collins police detectives were following up on a previous case in the area of North Boise Avenue and East Eighth Street in east Loveland about 8 p.m. Sept. 29. The GPS tracker was on a truck that Wallace was driving, which belonged to Wallace's boss as part of a criminal investigation that Wallace was not involved in.

Wallace, who testified in his own defense Thursday, told the jury he thought he was being robbed when he returned from an errand and was still sitting in the truck when he felt it shaking like something was in the bed. He said the only thing he saw was one of the undercover officers, Crumbaker, standing on the corner as if he were acting as a lookout.

Wallace said he was "very suspicious, very skeptical and very scared."

Wallace's defense attorneys argued Wallace acted in self-defense when he punched the officer, but prosecutors said Wallace acted out of anger and tried to take justice into his own hands.

Wallace got out of his truck to confront Crumbaker when he saw Goldschmidt move away from his truck holding something, Wallace told the jury. Wallace said Goldschmidt fled and he tried to chase after him, but Crumbaker stopped him and told him to relax or calm down. Wallace claimed Crumbaker grabbed him and reached for his waist, which made Wallace think Crumbaker had a gun and was about to pull it out, which is when "it turned into a fight or flight thing" for him, he told the jury.

Wallace punched Crumbaker in the left side of his head, knocking him unconscious. Crumbaker suffered multiple fractures in his face and one on the back of his head from hitting the ground, Deputy District Attorney Kati Kunisch told the jury.

Crumbaker ended up spending eight days in a medically induced coma. He attempted to return to work at the police department but ended up retiring after 20 years with the department in January.

"The injuries from this one punch cost Sgt. Crumbaker his career," Kunisch said in her opening statement, adding that this incident "changed the entire trajectory of his life."

Crumbaker testified during the trial that he did not remember anything about that night starting shortly after arriving to the area with Goldschmidt and that he has no memory of interacting with Wallace or being hit.

Goldschmidt testified that, despite not being nearby during Wallace and Crumbaker's confrontation, he could see that Crumbaker's hands were at his sides when Wallace punched him. Goldschmidt said he rushed to Crumbaker's aid and told the jury, "I think he's dead at this point, he's just still."

"Cpl. Goldschmidt was shocked at the fact that the punch had been thrown ... and he was shocked at the force of the punch," Kunisch said.

It's at that point that Goldschmidt told Wallace that he and Crumbaker are police officers, and Wallace helped hold Crumbaker's head while Goldschmidt used Crumbaker's phone to call 911.

Deputy District Attorney Robert Axmacher argued that Wallace acted out of anger, not fear, when he thought someone was stealing from him, confronting who he thought was responsible. Axmacher told the jury that people are allowed to use reasonable force in self-defense, "but the law does not allow for someone to take justice into their own hands out of anger."

But defense attorney Ashley Morriss told the jury that Wallace "defended himself with a single punch from what he thought was a threat."

Wallace's other attorney Grace Kennedy called this a "flawed undercover operation," and said the officers did not attempt to identify themselves or deescalate the situation.

"His punch was in response to his reasonable fear," Kennedy said.

Fort Collins Police Chief Jeff Swoboda said in a statement that the department "honors and respects the verdict of the jury," and now their focus will turn to supporting our retired Sergeant and his family as he continues to recover from this incident."

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Loveland man found not guilty of assault for punching Fort Collins officer