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On Monday night, the Denver City Council approved a $40,000 settlement for Eric Winfield, the Denver artist severely beaten by three police officers as he was making his way through the LoDo crowds after a 2007 World Series game.
The city also agreed to cover Winfield's legal fees -- but the deal doesn't include an apology from the Denver Police Department or Mayor John Hickenlooper, Winfield notes with disappointment on the Facebook page he launched to publicize his case. The beating left him with chipped teeth, permanent scars and nerve damage in his hands that affects his ability to work.
The police officers involved -- Glenn Martin, Antonio Milow, and Thomas Johnston -- have maintained that Winfield was the aggressor in the incident and attempted to knee Milow in the groin. But Winfield's version of the incident, supported by his witnesses and detailed in our February account, has the officers punching him, throwing him to the ground and beating him about the head after he was apparently misidentified by a bouncer as someone who'd caused trouble inside Le Rouge on Market Street. Winfield and his companions hadn't been in the club that night.
The officers had a considerable weight advantage on Winfield; Milow, for example, is over six feet tall and weighs more than 300 pounds (and reportedly lists cage fighting as an off-duty hobby). In interviews, the 160-pound Winfield has insisted he wouldn't "suddenly start swinging" on three police officers.
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