Significant Colorado Civil Rights Cases

Garcia v. Board of County Commissioners for Mesa County, et al. 09 CV 01128 - JLK-LTM (D. Colo. 2009).

This case challenges permanent, life altering injuries inflicted with alleged deliberate indifference by jail personnel and private health providers, as well as indifferent governmental policies on a diabetic inmate in the Mesa County Jail Detention Center. Plaintiff Garcia was admitted to the jail with a history of toe amputation. Jail nurses and sheriffs were fully aware of his chronic diabetic condition and of this amputation. To accommodate his missing big toe, Mr. Garcia had been prescribed special diabetic shoes. At the time of his incarceration, he was wearing those shoes and he explained to the workers that he had an urgent medical need for those shoes to prevent the development of new ulcers. With no medical justification and with deliberate indifference to his known serious medical needs, staff confiscated his diabetic shoes, causing him to promptly develop an ulcer on the bottom of his foot, resulting in a transmetatarsal amputation of his foot. He is now unable to work at his previous job as a machinist and is suing for damages, including punitive damages, and to reform Jail and Health Care Provider Policies for the care and treatment of diabetics in the Mesa County Detention Center.

Thomason v City & County of Denver, et al., Civil Action No. 1:07-cv-01715-MSK-MJW (D. Colo 2007.)

Mr. Thomason was arrested for an allegedly expired license to cultivate marijuana. He was unlawfully abused, mistreated, neglected and wrongfully imprisoned while a pre-trial detainee in the Denver Jail. Mr. Thomason cannot go without his pain and anxiety medicines as a result of his cancer, and brought his medications with him to the jail. Plaintiff was then unconstitutionally denied access to his medications despite valid prescriptions for their use by a nurse, pursuant to a deliberately indifferent jail policy, co-administered by The Sheriff and Denver Department of Health and Hospitals, which jointly prohibited all narcotics in the jail. As a result of the confiscation of his medications, Mr. Thomason suffered an excruciating night of pain and had a seizure.

After being released on his own recognizance, a deputy sheriff wrongfully and illegally kept Mr. Thomason in jail for hours from after he was to be released.

We brought claims on behalf of Mr. Thomason under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for denial of life, bodily integrity, and liberty rights under the 14th Amendment, and for violation of rights not to be subjected to unlawful arrest or illegal detention.

A substantial settlement was achieved, and the case was a poignant cover story feature entitled "Pain Management" in Westword and the City and County of Denver agreed to revised its jail narcotics policy to ensure that prisoner patients requiring such medications receive them, and that officers can no longer hold prisoners after they have been judicially ordered released.

Miales v. McDonald's Restaurants of Colorado, Inc. 438 F. Supp. 2d, 1297 (D.Colo. 2006).

Federal District Judge Walker Miller denied motion to summary judge this punitive damages race discrimination claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 for an alleged refusal by a McDonald's manager to sell food to or serve an African-American family. The Court held that the plaintiffs' showing of their humiliating public racial verbal assault required a jury trial concerning the company's intent to racially discriminate against them by interfering with their "same right as is enjoyed by white citizens" to make and enforce contracts. See the Federal Court Ruling in this case.

Guantanamo Bay Litigation

We represent detainees who have been held for several years in Guantanamo Bay without being criminally charged and without access to Courts. We have filed habeas corpus proceedings for each of our clients.

In so doing, we have joined with what is now several hundred lawyers from large and small practices all over the country to represent the almost 300 prisoners remaining in this "prison beyond law". We have now been to Guantanamo Bay several times.

In 2007, we traveled to Mauritania, in northwest Africa, to engage in negotiations with the Mauritanian government and candidates running for president on behalf of two of our Guantanamo clients. In September 2007, Mohammed Al Amin was released from Guantanamo Bay and flown home. He is now living free. We have written an article about this case, which was just published in a book entitled: The Guantanamo Lawyers Inside a Prison Outside the Law, Edited by Denbeaux and Hafetz and published in November, 2009 by New York University Press. Please see the "Other Resources and Info" page for more articles about our work at Guantanamo.

North et al v. Gilpin County, et al.

Just under a million dollar settlement, accompanied by a written apology, for two first amendment protected whistleblowers who were fired after they publicly exposed malfeasance in the handling of government moneys by the Gilpin County Assessor's office, which also resulted in the Assessor's conviction for malfeasance and forced removal from office.

Atlantis v. Adams, (D. Colo.)

This federal class action against RTD to mandate the equipping of all new buses with wheelchair accessible lifts resulted in a settlement on appeal in which RTD agreed to retrofit the well over 200 buses at issue in the lawsuit with lifts. RTD and Denver have both gone on respectively to become the most accessible transit and metropolitan areas in the nation.

Roy Smith v. Gilpin County, 949 F. Supp 1498 (D. Colo. 1996).

This was an extraordinary case of alleged racial hatred and abuse, and government indifference and discrimination. The case was featured on a Friday night 20-20 by Barbara Walter's called Roy Smith's America. It was also the subject of a documentary film by Jerry Kulhman shown at the Denver Film Society that was called Roy Smith. See a Denver Post article about the Roy Smith Case and the Federal Court decision.

Johnson v. Jefferson County Board of Health, 662 P.2d 463 (Colo. 1983), Johnson v. District Court, 674 P.2d 463 (Colo. 1984).

This was a case about the firing of a public health officer for uncovering the leaking of plutonium from the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plan and publicizing the same, forestalling the development of the northern third of Jefferson county. This case was twice heard by the Colorado Supreme Court, with the court first strongly adopting the First Amendment Constitutional principle that workers cannot be terminated for whistle blowing in the public interest, and then setting the test for disqualification of judges for civil cases. See the Johnson decision establishing whistleblower rights and the Johnson decision setting the standard for disqualifying judges in civil cases.

Popovich v. Irlando, 811 P.2d 379 (Colo. 1991).

This landmark case established that co-workers in Colorado can sue each other for sexual and racial harassment or discrimination or other outrageous conduct on the job without being barred by the Worker's Compensation exclusivity rule. See the Popovich decision by the Colorado Supreme Court.

Medina v. City and County of Denver, 960 F 2d 1493 (10th Cir. 1992).

This case established for the first time in Colorado that recklessly indifferent or shockingly abusive high speed chases by police are actionable under the Federal Civil Rights Act.

Daigle v. Shell, 972 F. 2d 1527 (10th Cir. 1992).

This case involved the adoption of strict liability principles for the first time in an environmental pollution case in Colorado.

Brunnetti v. I.R.S. 999 F. Supp. 1408 (D.Colo. 1998)

In this case, the Court recognized the right of an I.R.S. revenue agent to sue a co-worker supervisor for outrageous sexual harassment.

ISKCON v. United Pentecostal Church.

Obtained an injunction in Denver District Court against church leaders who felt they had a right to interfere with the distribution of religious literature at the airport by an Indian religious group. The church leaders were held in contempt twice before they complied.

El Fujitivo v. City of Westminster et al (D.Colo.)

Obtained an injunction and $500,000 in damages against the City of Westminster for racially targeting a Hispanic nightclub and its clientele.