COLORADO SPRINGS — Colorado Springs City Council is prone to settling, specifically when it comes to civil lawsuits regarding police use of force.
Despite multiple reviews finding officers' actions were justified in the cases at hand, the city has settled eight civil cases in the last two years, paying litigants millions in taxpayer dollars.
We had a lot of questions: Why would the city settle the suits, to make them go away? Because it doesn’t trust the evaluation by independent investigators? Because it’s worried it’ll lose in court?
We also wondered how often the city uses taxpayer dollars to settle potentially winnable lawsuits. So we went to City Hall to get answers.
The most recent of the lawsuits settled by the city revolved around the arrest of then-29-year-old Dalvin Gadson in October 2022. Officers forcibly removed Gadson from his car after pulling him over under suspicion of driving under the influence. Officers spotted a knife in the car and instructed Gadson and his passenger to get out, according to the affidavit, but Gadson did not listen to the officers' commands. Three officers then pulled Gadson out of the car and hit him in the face and body until they could place him under arrest.
Colorado Springs Police chain-of-command and an internal investigation both found the officers acted within department policy. But two months later, Gadson's attorneys filed suit, and the city council voted 7-1 to settle the matter. Gadson was awarded $2.1 million.
City Council Approves $2.1 Million Settlement Lawsuit Against CSPD
The one dissenting vote was entered by District 1 Councilmember Dave Donelson, who still contends that the city should not simply settle, especially given the message he believes it sends.
"Why are we settling? If the police did everything right, it doesn't make sense to young people. So then they get the idea that the police aren't doing what they're supposed to, that they must have done something wrong," Donelson told News 5.
According to data we obtained through a Colorado Open Records request, before settling the Gadson case, Colorado Springs City Councilmembers elected to settle seven other cases in the last two years, paying out a total of $5,745,000 in restitution.
Here’s a breakdown of those settlements:
- Celia Palmer, awarded $175,000
- Tara Hadam, $140,000
- Ean Cole Meadows, $10,000
- Jason Shelton, $175,000
- John Mullins, $100,000
- Tyrone Moss, $70,000
By far the largest settlement in the last two years was the case of De’Von Bailey whose civil suit against the city and officers settled for $2.9 million.
"Several times, I voted against these settlements because, again, the De’von Bailey case is a good one, where it's a tragedy, it's a tragic incident where a young man loses his life. But did our police do anything wrong in that case? No, they didn't. And it was investigated again by three agencies, and we settled. I would say, because we're afraid of going to court," Donelson said.
Donelson says there are other reasons the city would choose to settle versus go to court beyond the risk of losing and likely having to pay more. There’s the liability of becoming a city that regularly fights lawsuits - which Donelson says would increase the city’s insurance. There’s the risk to retention and recruitment of police officers who may not feel supported if one of their own is sent to trial to potentially lose their livelihood. And then there are the optics.
"It gets it out of the news cycle. Also, it gets this case where a young, black man, was shot by CSPD off the news cycle. Some people want that to happen as fast as possible, and then we don't risk we won't have it drug out in court for a couple of years, or whatever it's going to take," Donelson said.
"Why are we having this many issues to begin with," asked District 4 Councilmember Yolanda Avila, who sees a separate problem.
Avila agrees that the city should consider going to trial versus reaching settlements in cases where officers’ Use of Force was determined by multiple reviews to be justified. She cited what she learned from officers through the Law Enforcement Transparency and Advisory Commission.
"They did a deep dive into transparency matters, report about CSPD and how they're doing. And one of the things is that officers felt that they needed more training, much more training than they were getting. And so I think if we did take one of these cases to court ... everything would be out in the open, everything. And we might learn from that," Avila told News 5.
We reached out to CSPD Chief Adrian Vasquez to discuss this topic but he declined an interview. Interestingly, whether to settle is not always up to the council. Lawsuits asking for damages under $100,000 are dealt with by the City Attorney’s Office and do not fall under the council’s purview.
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