A Black man filed a lawsuit against the Denver Police Department on Thursday, alleging he was harassed and racially discriminated against by police officers when he called for help during a minor vehicle crash.
First reported by The Denver Post, Keilon Hill is suing Corporal Bart Stark, Officer Thomas Ludwig, Officer Gary Yampolsky, and the City and County of Denver for punitive damages. In the lawsuit, Hill alleges the officers made nasty comments—including calling him a “turd”—and attempted to violate as many of his constitutional rights “as possible in a single encounter” during the traffic accident in April 2020. Hill said that the officers unlawfully searched his vehicle, unlawfully arrested him after Hill questioned that search, used force against him, and retaliated against him by fabricating charges.
“Denver has a long history of retaliating against citizens who criticize their police officers,” Hill’s lawyer, Benjamin DeGolia, told The Daily Beast. “We saw that in the summer of 2020 during the George Floyd protests in Denver, when the police department responded with extreme violence against its citizens. We’ve seen time and time again against citizen-journalist attempts to record the police engaging in unlawful or excessively forceful conduct against citizens. …It’s also nothing new for the Denver Police Department to decline to discipline officers to react in that way.”
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None of the officers involved faced any sort of discipline for their behavior in the incident, The Denver Post reported, as department investigators ultimately determined that they followed proper protocols.
“However, the department recognized the language used by Officer Ludwig was inappropriate and he was counseled and reminded to maintain his professionalism during the course of his duties,” Denver Public Safety spokeswoman Andrea Webber told the newspaper.
In April 2020, Hill, 25, got into a car accident while driving home. According to his lawyer, Hill called 911 to report the accident. Paramedics arrived first and checked him out to make sure that he was not injured after experiencing whiplash. When police arrived, an officer glanced at Hill and said, “He looks like a turd.”
Police body camera footage showed that while Hill was in the ambulance, the police went to the other vehicle involved in the accident and spoke with the driver and passenger—both of whom were white, the lawsuit says. They allegedly claimed that Hill was hostile and had caused the accident by driving “recklessly” and trying to slip in between two cars and was “very aggressive.”
The officer went into Hill’s car, according to the lawsuit, and started searching through his things without a warrant or probable cause. Hill left the ambulance and allegedly caught the officer searching in his car. After confronting the officer about it, the officer allegedly immediately told Hill that he smelled weed, but, according to the lawsuit, they never found any. The officer also shouted for Hill to “back up” and “get out of my face.”
Two officers became aggressive and grabbed and twisted Hill’s arm to arrest him, according to the court papers. The lawsuit states that they used a hyper-flexing wristlock, a pain-compliance technique, even though Hill was not resisting arrest. The officers also accused Hill of being “an asshole” when he asked why he was being handcuffed and placed in the back of the patrol car, the lawsuit states.
“He understands he’s a Black man in America,” DeGolia said. “He didn’t do anything wrong, but he’s not going to put up a fight and risk getting severely injured.”
The corporal later arrived and told Hill that he would let him go if Hill said that he wasn’t injured during the accident or by the police officers, according to the court papers. Eventually, he was sent to the Denver jail and charged with police interference—but the case was eventually dropped.
After being released, Hill says he went to the doctor and was diagnosed with multiple injuries, including closed head and right shoulder injuries, cervical strain, strain of the thoracic region, and paresthesia.
Hill filed an internal affairs complaint after the incident, his attorney said. However, after the city of Denver cleared the officers of any wrongdoing, he decided to move forward with a federal lawsuit.
The 25-year-old was a grad student finishing his master’s in business administration when the accident occurred. He moved to Denver in 2019 because of its progressive culture, his attorney said.
“This happened within a year of him moving here,” DeGolia said. “It’s a shame that this is his perception of Denver.”
