Denver attorneys have entered a tentative agreement to pay a disabled veteran $860,000 after he was beaten so severely by a police officer frequently accused of excessive force that he had to be resuscitated.
“James Moore was beaten almost to death,” his attorney, David Lane, said on Tuesday. “(Officer) Shawn Miller is the poster child for everything that is wrong with the Denver Police Department.”
According to court records, the settlement was reached during a hearing before Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty last Wednesday. The tentative agreement must be approved by the City Council. The 2010 lawsuit named Miller, Officer John Robledo and the city as defendants.
“As a final agreement on this case has not yet been reached, the city cannot confirm the outcome or comment further,” City Attorney Scott Martinez said in a statement.
Cmdr. Matt Murray, police spokesman, said he couldn’t speak to the settlement itself, but he defended Miller’s record. He said Miller has never been disciplined for inappropriate force: All such complaints against him have been declined or not sustained after independent review.
He also noted that the Moore case dated from 2008 — three years before current Chief Robert White’s tenure began.
“Since then everything has changed,” Murray said. “We understand the public’s concern, but if this happened yesterday the entire process would be different.”
The lawsuit says Moore was beaten following a noise complaint March 23, 2008, at apartments on the 2600 block of Blake Street. When he and Robledo arrived at Moore’s apartment, Miller ordered Moore, who was standing outside next to his girlfriend, to get his hands out of his pockets even though Moore didn’t have his hands in his pockets, the lawsuit says.
When Moore asked what was “going on,” the officers tackled him, hog-tied him and struck him in the head, the lawsuit says, adding that the officers laughed when Moore kept repeating that they had the wrong guy. “I’m a disabled vet.” The officers struck Moore with closed fists and “impact weapons” called saps and kicked him, the lawsuit says.
“(The officers) beat Mr. Moore with such brutality while he was helpless on the ground that he lost consciousness, his heart stopped beating and paramedics or law enforcement officers had to administer CPR to save his life,” the suit says.
After Moore was resuscitated, the officers charged Moore with two felony assault counts. The Denver district attorney’s office later dismissed the charges.
Internal affairs officers have conducted 39 investigations against Miller, including 15 excessive-force complaints, Lane said.
“They won’t fire Shawn Miller, who is one of the most violent officers in Denver,” Lane said.
Murray said that since Miller joined the force in 2005, there have been 36 citizen complaints against him plus two complaints that were initiated internally and one that was “akin to him running through a red-light camera.”
Murray said there has been a third-party review of each of Miller’s cases through the Independent Monitor’s Office. He said only six of the cases resulted in discipline but none of the six were inappropriate-force cases.
Denver paid a $225,000 settlement to Lane’s client Jason Graber in 2008, after Miller allegedly broke Graber’s knee during an excessive-force incident.
Lane filed another lawsuit against Miller and the city last month. The complaint filed by businessman Yasir Gabani accuses the officer of excessive force when Miller handcuffed Gabani instead of a threatening customer. Miller allegedly told Gabani that he was tired of the businessman making police complaints.
