FOUNDATION

ACLU CIVIL
AMERICAN NEWSLIBERTIES
RELEASE
UNION of COLORADO

FOR IMMEDIATE
Rehan RELEASE:
Hasan, Chair August 20, 2009
 Mark Silverstein, Legal Director

CONTACT: John Culver, ACLU Cooperating Attorney, 303-716-0254

Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director, 303-777-5482 ext 114

Denver sued for indiscriminate mass arrest during DNC; class

action claim also alleges Denver illegally denied arrestees access to
attorneys

Just days before the anniversary of a mass arrest that shut down a downtown protest

march during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last year, eight Plaintiffs

represented by lawyers for the ACLU of Colorado filed suit last evening in Denver District

Court against Denver and high-ranking police officials. The Plaintiffs, who include a legal

observer for the People’s Law Project (PLP), a journalist, students documenting the march ,

and peaceful onlookers who observed the march legally from the sidewalks, assert that they

were falsely arrested without probable cause and groundlessly prosecuted for crimes they

did not commit, in violation of the First and Fourth Amendments.

In an additional claim filed as a class action on behalf of nearly one hundred persons,

the ACLU charges that Denver illegally prohibited the Plaintiffs and others held at the City’s

special DNC detention center from meeting with attorneys who came to provide legal advice

and consultation after the mass arrest.

“With regard to policing protest during the DNC, Denver police sometimes got it

very right, for which they deserve credit,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director.

“On this evening, however, Denver police got it wrong, very wrong. Although Denver

often allows street marches to proceed without the required permit, the police chose to crack

400 Corona Street  Denver, CO 80218-3915  303-777-5482 x114  FAX 303-777-1773  msilver2@att.net
ACLU of Colorado… because liberty cannot protect itself.
down on this one. But police failed to distinguish between street marchers and others who

were participating or merely observing from the sidewalks, where they had a legal right to

be. If there is a case where a large and potentially raucous public gathering threatens to get

out of hand, police can issue orders to disperse and clear the area, but no such order was

issued that night.”

The march started from Civic Center Park in the early evening of August 25, 2008.

Participants marched on 15th Street and the adjoining sidewalks but were quickly stopped by

a solid line of police at Court Street. A second line of police-- clad in full body riot armor

and carrying an array of less-lethal weapons--quickly closed in from behind, confining

hundreds of persons in a one-block stretch of 15th Street between Court and Cleveland. The

encircled group included not only the street marchers, but also participants who had been

marching legally on the public sidewalks, as well as legal observers, curious onlookers,

members of the press, and other nonparticipants. This large group was detained a substantial

time between police lines while Denver’s top officials decided what to do.

According to the lawsuit, Denver carried out an arbitrary and groundless mass arrest

of an entire group of 96 individuals, knowing that the roundup included numerous innocent

persons such as the ACLU’s clients. Indeed, of the 54 persons who did not accept an

immediate plea bargain, at least 38 were exonerated after jury trials or after prosecutors

finally dismissed charges. Although officers at the scene completed statements under oath

recounting “facts” that supposedly justified each of the Plaintiff’s arrests, the lawsuit

charges that these sworn statements were “universally and materially false.”

“The arresting officers consistently swore that Plaintiffs were marching in the street

and that they ignored audible orders to disperse issued by a police supervisor,” said John

Culver, of Culver & Benezra, LLC, who is litigating the case as an ACLU cooperating

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attorney, along with his partner Seth Benezra. “As Denver later acknowledged, however, no

order to disperse was ever issued. Our clients did not participate in the march in the street,

and police never provided them with any opportunity to leave the area.”

The ACLU asserts that its clients were falsely arrested and forced to defend

themselves in court proceedings from groundless accusations of criminal conduct. All were

charged with failing to obey a police order to disperse. After Denver finally acknowledged

that no such order had ever been issued, City attorneys nevertheless persisted in prosecuting

the Plaintiffs for allegedly “obstructing” a public right of way by marching in the street

without a permit. With legal representation from the PLP, all the criminal cases have now

been resolved in the Plaintiffs’ favor, either through dismissals or acquittals after jury trials.

After their arrest, the Plaintiffs and most of the arrestees were locked into holding

cells at a vacant warehouse that Denver converted into a detention facility for DNC-related

arrests . At the warehouse, which protesters dubbed “Gitmo on the Platte,” Denver refused

to allow attorneys to meet with or speak with any of the arrestees.

The lawsuit relies on a longstanding Colorado statute that requires custodians of

detention facilities to allow attorneys to meet with detainees in a confidential setting. The

law provides for penalties of up to one thousand dollars for each violation. This claim is

filed as a class action, and the ACLU lawyers ask that the statutory penalty be imposed on

behalf of all the persons swept up in the August 25 mass arrest who were held at the City’s

detention facility.

“Prior to the DNC, the ACLU advised Denver on multiple occasions that Colorado

law required them to accommodate attorney visits at the detention facility, but Denver

officials insisted that no attorney visits would be permitted," said Taylor Pendergrass, ACLU

Staff Attorney. "This lawsuit challenges Denver's willful decision to deny an entire class of

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 persons a basic right long protected by Colorado law--to consult with an attorney at any

place of custody. Denver officials had no legitimate basis for treating the detention facility

as a legal black hole where this fundamental Colorado law did not apply."

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Nathan Acks, Tiffany Bray, Chase Goll, Eli Hardy,

Aminah Masud, Ian Morrison, Blake Pendergrass, and Kim Sidwell. Defendants include

Denver as well as police Commander Deborah Dilley and Sgts. Anthony Foster and Anthony

Martinez.

In addition to Culver, Benezra, Silverstein and Pendergrass, the Plaintiffs’ legal team

includes ACLU Cooperating Attorney Lonn Heymann, of Rosenthal and Heymann LLC,

who also represented arrestees in their criminal cases on behalf of the PLP.

The Complaint, pre-DNC correspondence between the ACLU and Denver regarding

the issues raised in the lawsuit, and other materials are available on the ACLU’s website at

http://www.aclu-co.org/docket/200822/200822_description.html.

--end--
The ACLU is a nationwide, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to defending and preserving the principles of the Bill of Rights
through litigation, advocacy and public education. The ACLU Foundation of Colorado works to protect the rights of all Coloradoans.

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