WAPAKONETA — A jury trial has been scheduled for Feb. 13 in Auglaize County Municipal Court for a former Lima police officer charged with misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest and obstructing official business during an incident in Wapakoneta earlier this year.
Veronica Sepulveda, 36, of Napoleon, appeared for her final pre-trial hearing on Tuesday but did not enter the courtroom as her attorney talked with prosecutors behind closed doors.
She was arrested after Wapakoneta police and emergency medical personnel were dispatched to a residence in that city on June 19. A head injury suffered by Sepulveda prompted the 911 call, according to initial reports.
Footage from a police body camera shows Sepulveda fainting as medics tend to her head wound. Moments later Sepulveda and a male — identified as Tyler Dunlap, an employee of the Lima Police Department — are seen sitting on the ground together, with Dunlap apparently propping her up.
Lt. Shannon Place of the Wapakoneta Police Department is shown as she tried to coax Dunlap to leave the area so medics could work uninterrupted, but the situation escalated when a seemingly confused and intoxicated Dunlap sat back down with Sepulveda.
Place pointed her taser at Dunlap but he continued to ignore orders from the officer. Sepulveda then rushed towards Dunlap, at which time Place turned and pointed her taser toward Sepulveda. “You need to get the (expletive) off me too,” the officer tells the woman.
Dunlap was eventually handcuffed and placed in a police cruiser. The camera captures Place looking at her left hand several times after handcuffing and escorting Dunlap to a police cruiser. In one exchange, Place complains to another officer that she might have broken her finger.
She went on light duty for seven weeks after the incident due to her apparent injury.
Dunlap was charged with resisting arrest, misconduct at an emergency and obstructing official business, the latter a fifth-degree felony. He is scheduled to stand trial beginning Feb. 8 in Auglaize County Common Pleas Court.
He was placed on paid administrative leave by the LPD on June 20. Sepulveda resigned from the agency on June 24.
