Lawsuit Alleges Unlawful Arrest at Denver Pro-Palestine Protest in 2024

Around one year ago, students, faculty and community members at the Auraria Campus near downtown Denver were arrested while protesting Israel’s actions against Palestine in Gaza.

Z Williams, a longtime local activist who co-founded the Bread and Roses Legal Center, was one of those arrested on May 14, 2024, while acting as a legal observer and police liaison. Williams has now filed a lawsuit against four members of the Auraria Campus Police Department for allegedly breaching constitutional freedom of speech rights, unlawful arrest, unlawful search and malicious prosecution.

Williams’s lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court by the Newman McNulty lawfirm, asks for damages, a formal apology, policy changes and training to avoid future “similar misconduct.”

“There was no basis to arrest Mx. Williams,” the lawsuit reads. “Their arrest was purely based on a desire by the Auraria Campus Police Department, through its police chief Defendant Jason Mollendor, to shut down the student protests against the genocide in Gaza that had been occurring for almost a month on the Auraria Campus.”

Along with Mollendor, Auraria police force members Justin Verardi, Sam Maes and Jelena Workens are named defendants.

“We don’t have a huge range of tools to hold law enforcement accountable, and so it’s important that we use every tool that we have available to us to hold them accountable whenever there are these instances of political repression and targeting of protesters, other kinds of misconduct,” Williams says, pointing out that Denver police publicly stated they would not take action against the student protesters due to concerns about the constitutionality of such an action.

For around three weeks in late April and early May 2024, students from the University of Colorado Denver and Metropolitan State University – two of the three schools housed at the Auraria Campus – set up an encampment in solidarity with Gaza. They wanted their schools to condemn Israel’s genocidal acts and divest from corporations that operate there.

Before the encampment dispersed, eighty people were arrested, mostly students, but also faculty members, staff and community members who supported the cause.

Williams went to MSU and protested the Iraq War on the Auraria Campus decades ago. Since then, their career has focused on advocacy. Although Williams fully believes in the right to protest and doesn’t think anyone should have been arrested for doing so, the new lawsuit focuses on the fact that Williams was not even a protester. Instead, Williams says they served as a liaison between protesters and law enforcement and as a legal observer.

During protests, legal observers are on the scene to document what happens, a practice started by the National Lawyers Guild to provide a perspective other than that of the arresting officer. Williams has been trained as a legal observer by that guild.

According to both the lawsuit and Williams, the legal observer role was needed at Auraria because ACPD officers could not produce accurate records of their body camera records, which has led to the dismissal of many of the charges leveled against those arrested. 

The lawsuit argues that acting as a legal observer and police liaison are distinct forms of speech that cannot be limited by government as they were when Williams was arrested.

During similar protests on campus in the recent past, Williams had acted as a liaison and observer without being arrested, the lawsuit continues. Mollendor himself worked with Williams on April 26, 2024, when several people were arrested in a protest on the Tivoli Quad, according to the lawsuit.

“It was clear to everyone, including Defendants Mollendor, Verandi, Maes, and Workens, that Mx. Williams was at the protests in their capacity as a legal observer and police liaison,” the lawsuit argues. “In fact, Larry Sampler, Metropolitan State University’s Chief Operating Officer, expressed gratitude to Mx. Williams for their actions in helping keep students safe during the protests.”

However, because Williams continued to be present at protests, the ACPD decided Williams was the “mastermind” of the protests, according to the lawsuit. That theory was false, Williams says.

“It was a student-organized event,” Williams says. “Folks like myself were in those roles because we were able to offer safety or skill set that students might have needed to make sure their actions were successful, but we definitely weren’t in charge of anything.”

Williams considers it infantilizing and ageist that the ACPD didn’t believe students could lead and organize protests themselves, instead blaming Williams for being an “outside agitator.”

On the day of Williams’s arrest, the lawsuit says they were standing a few feet away from the protesters holding a notepad. At no point did Williams chant, hold a sign or actively participate in a protest, according to the lawsuit.

When police issued a dispersal order, Williams told Maes that they would stay until everyone had left to document what was happening and would leave once arrests were concluded. Instead, ACPD officers told Williams to leave or face arrest.

“There was simply no way for Mx. Williams to fulfill their responsibilities as a legal observer and police liaison if they left the area and exited the Tivoli Student Union Building,” the lawsuit says. “Because of this, Mx. Williams remained in the building and continued to legally observe the actions of law enforcement and act as a police liaison.”

According to the lawsuit, students, some of whom were disabled, had been injured during previous protests, so Williams felt it was important to document the arrests. Though Williams attempted to explain that they would not interfere and would leave as soon as all the arrests were made, Newman McNulty lawyers say that police arrested Williams and another person acting as a legal observer, and charged them both for trespassing and interfering with law enforcement officers.

“Importantly, Mx. Williams was arrested before any of the protesters were arrested,” the lawsuit states. “This makes it clear that the officers were targeting them with arrest first, and the purpose of arresting them first was to ensure that they could not observe the arrests of the protesters.”

The lawsuit argues that no government interest was served by arresting Williams, so the action was illegal under the Constitution. After what the lawsuit calls “serious prosecutorial misconduct,” Williams’s charges were dismissed.

Through spokesperson Devra Ashby, the Auraria Campus and ACPD say they have not been made aware of the lawsuit.

“As with any legal matter, though, Auraria Campus remains committed to following the appropriate legal processes and protocols,” Ashby adds. “Our priorities continue to be transparency, accountability, and the safety and well-being of the Auraria Campus community.”

This is the second lawsuit that has been filed against the ACPD alleging unlawful arrests and free speech violations during pro-Palestine protests last year. The other was filed by eight Colorado residents, including three professors.

Williams hopes the outcome of both lawsuits will reaffirm Colorado’s strong First Amendment protections. Meanwhile, they pledge to continue working to hold law enforcement accountable.

“I’m both hopeful that the outcome of this lawsuit will create a better understanding that these sort of pseudo-law enforcement agencies, like Auraria, will be held to the same standard as any other form of law enforcement and that their violence and repression will never be tolerated,” Williams says. “I also know that the real work around this happens in our communities through organizing.”