The El Paso District Attorney’s Office has dropped criminal charges against a man who has filed a federal lawsuit against three police officers after he was beaten by police during a traffic stop.
Dalvin Gadson, a 29-year-old Black man who was beaten by three white officers with the Colorado Springs Police Department on Oct. 9, filed a civil lawsuit on Dec. 21 claiming excessive use of force.
Gadson, who was hospitalized, suffered a “black eye, back injuries, chest wall contusions, an abrasion to the right side of his back, and a closed head injury,” according to the lawsuit. He also has been suffering from severe mental anguish and severe emotional distress since the incident.
The police department in December released body camera footage of the arrest, which showed the officers punching and kicking Gadson for about a minute and a half.
Gadson was initially charged with two counts of second-degree assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, obstructing a peace officer, driving under the influence and driving without license plates. He paid a $15 fine for improperly displaying the license plates on his car, his attorneys said in a Tuesday news release.
In that release, from the Law Offices of Harry M. Daniels, the civil rights attorney again called for criminal charges to be filed against the Colorado Springs officers who beat Gadson.
“By dropping the charges, the District Attorney has made it clear that these officers had no reason to detain Mr. Gadson for a DUI investigation much less beat him mercilessly and then smile for the cameras as he lay on the ground bleeding,” the lawyers stated in the release. “In other words, this decision means that their actions weren’t just excessive. They were unlawful.
“Chief Adrian Vasquez said that Officers Colby J. Hickman, Matthew Anderson and Christopher K. Hummel did nothing wrong,” the lawyers continued. “But the reality is that they brutally beat Dalvin Gadson for a $15 fine and they should be investigated, arrested and prosecuted. Failing to do so puts lives at risk. Just ask Tyre Nichols’ family.”
An administrative review by the police department found the officers’ actions to be within policy, the department said in December. An internal affairs investigation was ongoing at the time, while all three officers remained on full duty.
The civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Denver claims the officers “deliberately, knowingly, intentionally and violently” beat Gadson without any kind of verbal warning as required by the police department’s use of force policy.
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