>>Former Loveland police officer fired for striking woman now faces misdemeanor charge

The former Loveland police officer who was fired after a video showed he punched a detained woman is now facing a misdemeanor assault charge.

Russell Maranto was fired by Loveland Police Department on May 23, accused of using inappropriate force after striking a woman he and another officer took to the hospital for help last month.

Maranto had worked at Loveland Police Department since June 2022 and was nearing the end of the department’s standard one-year probationary period all officers must complete before becoming a full-fledged police officer.

Before working at Loveland Police Department, Maranto worked at the Montrose Police Department and the Wyoming Department of Corrections, the department said in a statement.

Body camera footage from the first officer who responded, Nick Hobbs, released by Loveland police Friday, shows Maranto striking the woman in the face after she continues to spit, yell and be generally uncooperative with officers and hospital staff after officers brought her in for help the evening of May 20.

Maranto and Hobbs had responded to multiple reports of “a woman wandering in and out of traffic and speaking incoherently” in the area of North Garfield Avenue and East 29th Street in Loveland about 8:30 p.m. that night, police Chief Tim Doran said in a prior video statement. They took the woman to the hospital, and Hobbs’ body camera footage shows Maranto striking her there.

Hobbs called for another officer and a sergeant to respond and told the sergeant that Maranto had told him “ultimately he was just trying to get her face away” so she wouldn’t spit on him but ended up hitting her “a little hard,” according to the footage.

Hobbs also told the sergeant he stepped in because he felt Maranto’s reaction to the woman spitting was “a little too excessive.”

A criminal investigation by Larimer County Sheriff’s Office, which was requested by Loveland police Chief Tim Doran, found probable cause to charge Maranto with third-degree assault, a Class 1 misdemeanor, according to a sheriff’s office news release.

As of Friday afternoon, online court records did not show formal criminal charges against Maranto. The sheriff’s office said it presented the case to the 8th Judicial District Attorney’s Office on Thursday and that a court summons was issued to Maranto.

The woman involved has been charged with third-degree assault, as well, Doran said in a video update to the community on June 9.

All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in court. Arrests and charges are merely accusations by law enforcement until, and unless, a suspect is convicted of a crime.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Loveland police officer fired for striking woman now faces misdemeanor