Former Wyoming police officer charged with sexually torturing his mistress

A former Wyoming police officer is charged with aggravated rape and assault in Colorado and accused of sexually torturing his 19-year-old illegitimate girlfriend.

Sean Tatro, 33, is charged in Garfield County Court with strangulation, sexual assault, aiding and abetting the delinquency of a minor, menacing, use of a stun gun and various misdemeanors, according to an affidavit provided to Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.

As of 2020, he briefly worked for the Riverton Police Department, but most recently served as a school resource officer for the Glenwood Springs Police Department in Colorado.

The investigation culminated on April 24, when a Silt Police Department lieutenant handed Garfield County Sheriff’s agents an investigative package that included the lieutenant’s written recollection of a “threatening” situation in which Tatro allegedly attempted to use his Intimidating his girlfriend by quickly circling her in his car as she walked through the parking lot of Anytime Fitness in the Western Slope town of Rifle in early April.

Bad idea

At a Thanksgiving dinner on November 23, the young woman told a police officer who happened to be there that she was dating Tatro. The agent said that was a bad idea because Tatro was married, the affidavit states.

According to court documents, the two met for the first time at the young woman’s high school homecoming dance.

Despite the agent’s warning, Tatro and the woman continued to stay together and allegedly engaged in a sexual “parking lot” relationship in which they spent time together in each other’s vehicles.

From the young woman’s written and oral accounts of their relationship, which appear in the affidavit, it appears that they were both jealous – he of her other contacts and she of his wife. Their reports also state that they frequently drank alcohol and smoked marijuana together and took trips together and stayed at Airbnbs in the later weeks of their relationship.

He allegedly first pushed her to the ground on Jan. 14 after answering a call on the woman’s phone from a person described in the affidavit as a friend of hers. That was around the time he became aggressive during sex, pulling her hair and choking her, the document says.

Between February 16 and 18, she looked at his phone and noticed he was talking to other women and she said she was leaving him. He called her crazy, threatened suicide and threw his cellphone at her leg, causing it to shatter when it hit the ground, the affidavit says.

Between March 22 and 24, Tatro stayed at his estranged wife’s home to care for the dogs and reportedly had his girlfriend over. They had a “strange” discussion about Tatro’s wife; he got drunk and went to bed. The next day, his mood changed when his phone rang around noon and he told his girlfriend, “If you ever hurt me again, I will kill you,” the document says.

The girlfriend acted as if he had just made a joke.

The affidavit says he responded that he “wasn’t playing,” took out his Taser and used it to taser his girlfriend in the leg.

While she lay on the ground clutching her leg, he put the Taser away, the affidavit states.

“I want to make you faint.”

On March 30, he reportedly punched her multiple times on the left side of her face, injuring her cheek. That was also the month they had a playful argument and he became too rough with her, the document says.

At one point, Tatro sent the woman’s mother a photo of the bruises on the woman’s face and said the woman’s recent medical treatment had allegedly caused her to bruise easily.

The woman’s report states that in the early spring, Tatro could not become sexually aroused without hitting her. In one incident, he sexually tortured her so that she would bleed and urinate would be painful, the affidavit said.

In early April (the affidavit lists two different dates), the two met at Deer Field Park in Rifle. He was allegedly drunk and they drove his vehicle to an undisclosed location on the Flat Tops. They decided to separate. But he allegedly initiated sex and choked her while they were having sex while she gasped for air and tried to pry his hands away from her neck.

“I want to make you pass out,” he said, according to the document.

The affidavit says he didn’t care that she couldn’t breathe and didn’t stop choking her until the act was completed.

The next day she officially broke up with him.

On April 19, the woman texted the police officer she had dinner with on Thanksgiving and said her “ex-boyfriend” smoked marijuana and hit her, but he told her no one would believe her if she did would report him because he is a police officer.

What he said

An investigator interviewed Tatro in late April, after Tatro reportedly agreed to an interview after hearing his Miranda rights.

He said they had sex in their cars and often stayed in Airbnbs. He said he had rough sex with the woman and would use one hand on her throat, but never two. He admitted sending the woman’s mother a photo of her bruise and allegedly buying alcohol for her.

Tatro told police that they were “fighting” the entire time, which resulted in him sustaining a bloody lip, but the woman was never injured, the document said.

He reportedly denied the incident at Anytime Fitness and said his Taser was only used when he accidentally stunned himself during the Taser’s spark test.

Clair McFarland can be contacted at [email protected].