The father of Elijah McClain on Monday pleaded guilty to assaulting a Colorado State Patrol trooper during a drunk driving arrest in January.
Lawayne Mosley, 54, pleaded guilty to felony assault on a police officer and driving under the influence. Charges of careless driving and possessing a gun while drunk were dismissed, according to court records.
He will be sentenced on Oct. 28 in Arapahoe County District Court.
Mosley was stopped by a Colorado state trooper on Jan. 20 after another driver reported that he was weaving and not maintaining his speed while driving on Interstate 70 just before 5:30 p.m. Mosley had already pulled off the highway and into a gas station in Adams County when the trooper contacted him, the agency said.
Mosley didn’t follow a trooper’s instructions to get out of the vehicle, and when the trooper “began to assist” him out of the car, Mosley assaulted the trooper, the state patrol said.
An Adams County sheriff’s deputy who arrived at the scene used a Taser on Mosley, who was then treated for injuries caused by the Taser. He suffered no other injuries in the arrest.
Mosley identified himself as McClain’s father during the arrest. Mosley’s son was 23 years old and had committed no crime when Aurora police officers violently and wrongly arrested him in 2019. The officers put McClain in a neck hold and an Aurora paramedic injected him with an overdose of the sedative ketamine, leading to McClain’s death.
Three first responders were convicted of crimes in McClain’s death, including two paramedics and a then-Aurora police officer. The case led to court-ordered oversight and reform of the Aurora police department and statewide reform to limit the use of ketamine during police encounters. The city of Aurora paid $15 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought by McClain’s parents.
An attorney for Mosley did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday.
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