ACLU Sues Denver Police for Misconduct
in Melee at Thomas Jefferson High School Dance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 1997
The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado (ACLU) filed a class action civil rights lawsuit today in federal court on behalf of students and parents injured by alleged police misconduct after a dance at Thomas Jefferson High School (TJ) on May 4, 1996, where a melee erupted after 70 nightstick-wielding police responded to a report of an isolated one-on-one fistfight in the school parking lot.
The dance, which was sponsored by Brotha 2 Brotha, a Black community service organization, was chaperoned by two dozen parents and attended by about 400 teenagers, most of them African-American. The brief fistfight broke out about a hundred yards from the school building, after the dance was over and students were spilling out into the parking lot to leave. Although the fight was quickly broken up, over seventy police arrived on the scene shortly afterward, emerging from their squad cars with batons in hand.
"As police moved in toward the crowd, they issued contradictory and confusing orders to the students," said ACLU cooperating attorney Bruce Jones of the law firm of Holland & Hart. "The police accosted the students with abusive language, including racial slurs. They shoved, poked, and struck students with batons. Students were sprayed with mace and some were falsely arrested on bogus charges of ‘interference’ or ‘resisting.’ Police hid their name plates, refused to give their names, and swung their batons at a video camera that one student attempted to operate. As the melee ended, police were seen expressing their exuberance by hand slapping and ‘high-fiving.’"
The lawsuit names several individual officers as well as Chief Michaud and the City and County of Denver. It alleges that the Denver police have a "custom or policy" of racially discriminatory law enforcement practices that result in overreaction and violations of constitutional rights, especially when police deal with groups of young people of color.
On behalf of Brotha 2 Brotha, the suit asks for an injunction to prevent any similar police response to future events sponsored by the organization. The lawsuit seeks a similar injunction on behalf of a class of individuals who wish to attend future Brotha 2 Brotha events. The suit also seeks money damages on behalf of several individual plaintiffs.
The events at TJ high school have mired the Denver Police Department in controversy ever since mid-May of last year, when dozens of students and parents met with Chief Michaud, Director of Public Safety Butch Montoya, and Mayor Wellington Webb. Mayor Webb was reportedly moved almost to tears after hearing students recount the bullying and racial slurs they received from Denver police that night.
Mayor Webb ordered what was described as the time as a thorough internal investigation. The investigation, which was completed by September, produced almost a thousand pages of documents, but Chief Michaud released only a two-page announcement stating that two unnamed supervisors had received unspecified discipline for "procedural violations." The Chief also announced that he would provide additional training for "critical incident management."
The conduct of the internal investigation as well as its results have produced criticism. Despite plentiful allegations that police abused the students with racial slurs, Chief Michaud said that he was not able to conclude that racial slurs were in fact made. "More than two dozen witnesses heard police making racial slurs," said ACLU cooperating attorney Harold Flowers, who recently left Holland & Hart to join the firm of Harth, Yeager & Sisk in Boulder. "But none of the officers admitted hearing what these students and parents heard so clearly. Even if the Chief could not figure out which officers were responsible, he could at the very least have acknowledged that it happened. Then he could have and should have instituted forceful measures to make sure it never happened again."
"When the Chief announced that two dozen written statements from eyewitnesses was not sufficient evidence that racial slurs were made, that was a turning point for our clients," explained Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. "They put their trust in the internal investigation that Mayor Webb initiated, and they felt betrayed. We filed this lawsuit because the Denver police have failed to police themselves."
Individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit include Quentin Jones, a student and member of Brotha 2 Brotha, and Gene Roach, his guardian. The suit alleges that both were unlawfully arrested and subjected to unreasonable force. ACLU cooperating attorney David Lane defended them until the City finally dismissed the criminal charges in February. Additional plaintiffs include TJ student Paulnesia Lewis; Herman Houston, who served as a chaperone, as well as Houston’s three sons, Lovell, Marcus, and Polica.
After Chief Michaud announced the results of the internal investigation in September, both Houston and Lewis appeared before the Public Safety Review Commission (PSRC), asking for an independent investigation and review. The PSRC has hired its own investigator, and that independent investigation is currently proceeding.
In addition to Chief Michaud and the City, defendants in the lawsuit include Sergeant Ronald Samson, Sergeant William Hoffman, and Offices Christopher Foegen, Donald Gilworth, and J.A. Hamel.
According to the suit, Sergeant Samson approached Lovell Houston and told him to leave. Houston attempted to explain that he was with Brotha 2 Brotha and had to stay to help clean up. Samson allegedly shoved Houston and cursed at him. When Quentin Jones verbally protested Samson’s treatment of Lovell, Samson turned to Jones, grabbed him by the throat and took him to the ground. Jones was allegedly kicked and beaten with batons while he lay on the ground, prompting his father, Gene Roach, to run over and cover his son’s body with his own, in an attempt to shield him from the blows of the police. According to the suit, both Roach and Jones were the victims of a false arrest and illegal and unnecessary force.