Lawsuit Against Denver Cops Over 2020 Protests Could Be One of the Last

Lindsey Minter, who was wounded in the face by a sting-ball grenade after leading a peaceful chant during the 2020 protests that followed the murder of Minneapolis's George Floyd, is pressing a federal lawsuit against the City of Denver and Denver Police Chief Paul Pazen over the incident — and it could be one of the last cases filed over alleged law enforcement abuses during those demonstrations. Such complaints must be filed within two years of the event, and Minter's beat the deadline by three days.

Not that Denver officials should be breathing a sigh of relief. An estimated fifty-plus lawsuits over the protests have already been filed to date, including cases involving Russell Strong, who lost an eye as the result of a police interaction, and Gabriel Schlough, who says that a projectile essentially blew off his chin. The Minter lawsuit references both Strong and Schlough and includes multiple photos showing gruesome injuries suffered by other protesters.

At least two lawsuits have already been resolved, and at a high cost to the city. In January, Denver City Council approved a $500,000 payment to Michael Acker, who was struck in the eye by a 40mm baton round, and in March, a jury awarded $14 million to twelve plaintiffs represented by the ACLU of Colorado.

Andrew McNulty of Killmer, Lane & Newman LLP, who is handling several protest cases, including Minter's, earlier this year predicted that Denver will eventually have to pay between $25 and $50 million to settle all the suits. And Mari Newman, McNulty's co-counsel for the Minter case, believes more pricey outlays are likely.

"This is just one more example of police departments using the same kind of excessive force in reaction to people expressing their concerns about excessive force, particularly against people of color," Newman says. "In this case, Ms. Minter was giving voice to the community's concerns about the use of excessive force against people of color not just in other parts of the country, but here in Colorado. And she was met with the same kind of excessive force she was speaking out against."

In addition to the City of Denver and Chief Pazen, the defendants in the lawsuit filed May 27 include Commander Patrick Phelan and a trio of officers referred to as "John Does 1-3."

"Lindsay is an activist who has worked for law enforcement reform for many, many years," Newman says. "In fact, she's a former law enforcer herself, and she's been trying to work through the system. She spent years working on Aurora's community police task force and has tried to help the police there reckon with their problems and change their conduct well before the issue hit the public consciousness in 2020. But she faced dead ends constantly, and now she's speaking out publicly against a system that just won't change."

According to Newman, on May 30, 2020, during the week that the protests were at their height, Minter was guiding fellow demonstrators through a recitation of words from Assata Shakur: "It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains."

"There were public statements ensuring that protesters understood the importance of staying peaceful and not engaging in any conduct that would detract from the messaging," Newman notes. "Lindsay was walking back to her car when police targeted her. A sting-ball grenade was thrown at her, and two other officers indiscriminately fired less-than-lethal projectiles near and around her. It's not certain which of them ultimately hit her, but her face immediately stung and started swelling. It felt to her as if she was going to lose her teeth on one side, and she ended up having to have a surgical tooth extraction and a bone graft after suffering a lengthy infection. And she's still going to require some additional surgeries."

The term "less-than-lethal projectiles" is something of a misnomer, since they've proven to be fatal at times — and Newman believes the way the DPD used them risked worst-case scenarios: "Denver police shot at people's faces, shot at people's genitals, and intentionally deployed these so-called less-than-lethal munitions in a way that was calculated to cause the greatest damage possible. People lost eyes, testicles were ruptured, and all kinds of very severe injuries took place because of the way officers used these munitions in a way to punish protesters for communicating a message the officers didn't like."

Even so, Newman says, "The fundamental issue is Denver's unwillingness to acknowledge that it has engaged in wrongdoing and needs to change. Shockingly, even after a federal jury issued a multimillion-dollar verdict against Denver police for excessive force against protesters, Denver is continuing to say it did nothing wrong and doesn't need to change. And that's a problem." In fact, the city plans to appeal the award in that ACLU suit.

"We will continue to file lawsuits on behalf of protesters injured in the 2020 summer protests in the coming months," Newman says, though she recognizes that the clock is ticking. "Anyone who was injured by police in the summer of 2020 should immediately reach out to a qualified lawyer before the two-year statute of limitations has run."

In response to the lawsuit, Denver City Attorney's Office public-information officer stated, "The City Attorney's Office does not comment on matters pending litigation." Kelly Jacobs, director of communications for the Denver Department of Public Safety, did so as well, but added more details. In her words, "While it would be inappropriate to comment specifically on the lawsuit that was filed, we can share that to our knowledge, the Office of the Independent Monitor and the Internal Affairs Bureau of the Denver Police Department never received a complaint regarding these allegations of inappropriate force by Ms. Minter or her attorney, Mari Newman. Without an opportunity to investigate this alleged incident, we have no ability to comment."

Click to read Lindsay Minter v. City of Denver, et al.