The city of Denver will pay $200,000 to settle two lawsuits stemming from the actions of city employees — including a case filed after police officers struck and arrested a 60-year-old man who was not suspected of a crime.
The City Council on Monday afternoon unanimously approved settlement agreements in those cases. Aaron Hernandez and his attorneys will receive $75,000 for the police incident five years ago, according to city documents, while another settlement will pay out $125,000 to Morgan Riss for a vehicle crash with a city employee’s truck that injured her in 2021.
Hernandez was arrested on June 30, 2019, after he and his son, Aaron Hernandez Jr., were seen by Denver police officers sitting in a car in a vacant church parking lot next to a nuisance property.
Officers approached the vehicle after a search of the license plate revealed the younger Hernandez, the car’s owner, had a warrant out for his arrest, according to a police report providedto The Denver Post by Hernandez’s attorneys at Baumgartner Law after they filed suit 2021.
As officers approached, Hernandez Sr. got out of the car on the passenger side. As soon as he did so, an officer identified in the lawsuit as Jayme Larson ran up to him and grabbed him by both wrists.
He told Larson that he had to stand up because he had recently had surgery and suffered from severe sciatic pain, the lawsuit says.
During the ensuing arrest, Larson punched Hernandez in the side and another officer, identified in the suit as Vance Johnson, elbowed him in the face, dropping Hernandez to the ground and causing serious facial injuries, the suit says.
Larson and Johnson both wrote in their police reports that Hernandez kicked them before they struck him — but those claims later were refuted by body camera footage.
The footage also showed no evidence that Hernandez took a step toward Larson or balled his fists before she first grabbed him, contrary to what she wrote in her report.
“That was assault against me for me doing nothing,” he told The Denver Post in 2021, after the suit was filed. “I told them I couldn’t do anything at all, and then all of a sudden, I’m on the ground getting beat up, getting hit in the face. It was brutal.”
Hernandez was jailed for three days after his arrest and eventually was charged with two counts of assault. Those charges were dropped about nine months later, court records show.
He did not have a criminal history in Colorado. The type of warrant faced at the time by his son was unclear from case documents, though Hernandez’s attorney described it as a “warrant for a nonviolent offense.”
The lawsuit stated that Larson was later disciplined by the police department for her actions that day. The Denver Police Department’s public information office on Monday said that it had no records of disciplinary action taken against Larson or Johnson stemming from Hernandez’s arrest.
Birk Baumgartner, who represented the elder Hernandez in the case, said his client did not want to take the matter to trial.
“We believe it’s a fair settlement given all of the various complicated factors in this case,” Baumgartner said after the council vote. “Mr. Hernandez is happy it’s over with. It’s been several years and he’s just happy to have it in his rearview mirror.”
In the other case, Riss and her attorneys at Zaner Harden Law filed a lawsuit against the city in August after she was involved in a serious car crash with a city-owned truck driven by a worker identified as Karen Zeldin. City documents identify Zeldin as a Denver Parks and Recreation employee.
On Aug. 14, 2021, the lawsuit says, Zeldin ran a stop sign at the intersection of East Third Avenue and North Adams Street, causing Riss — who had the right of way — to collide into the side of the truck. According to her attorneys, Riss suffered serious injuries, including damage to her spine, and incurred $45,000 in medical bills, with further treatment recommended.
Both agreements passed unanimously as part of the council’s consent agenda, but Councilwoman Shontel Lewis called them out for special attention. By her count, she said the city of Denver has paid out $3.36 million in legal settlements so far this year, including Monday’s matters.
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Originally Published: July 29, 2024 at 3:52 p.m.
