Three people jailed after Denver police officers and sheriff’s deputies mistook them for others will receive legal payouts from the city to settle a six-year-old lawsuit that has brought changes to the city’s warrant process.
The Denver City Council on Monday approved paying $337,250 combined to Muse Jama, Jose Ernesto Ibarra, Dennis Michael Smith and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. The council passed the resolution as part of a block vote.
The ACLU, which filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the three and other false arrestees, will receive the largest amount, $229,750, to cover its costs and attorney’s fees.
Ibarra, a construction worker held for 25 days when he was mistaken for a man with a similar name, will receive $52,000.
Jama, who wrongly was arrested when he was a 27-year-old Metro State biology student and held in jail for a week without a court appearance, will receive $50,000.
And Smith, who was detained for 4½ hours after he was mistaken for a man with a similar name while visiting a former student in the county jail, will receive $5,500.
Each person’s settlement appears to be commensurate with the amount of time they were held in the jail.
Mark Silverstein, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado, said the case forced Denver to make changes to its arrest warrant process.
“Denver finally realized these mistaken identity arrests and, in some cases, multiple mistaken identity arrests were indeed an ongoing problem,” Silverstein said. “They have definitely improved how they handle these issues.”
Denver City Attorney Scott Martinez said the city will continue to work with the ACLU to improve its process.
Three others who were plaintiffs in the lawsuit earlier received a combined $232,000 settlement in 2009 that covered damages and attorney’s fees, Silverstein said. When the ACLU filed the suit in 2008, it called the mistaken arrests “recklessly sloppy police work.”
The ACLU accused police officers and sheriff’s deputies of ignoring facts that would have proved they were arresting the wrong person. And the civil rights organization said city officials knew mistaken arrests were a recurring problem but had not changed its policies to prevent them.
In 2012, the city told The Denver Post it was conducting an analysis of arrest procedures in an effort to reduce mistaken arrests.
Staff writer Jon Murray contributed to this report.
