The man hit by a police Taser last year at an Aurora children’s restaurant called a news conference Wednesday to decry the recent ruling by a city advisory board that cleared the department and officers of any wrongdoing.
“This is far from over,” said Danon Gale, 30, holding his son’s hand at a Denver coffee shop.
Gale was accused of not paying for a trip through the salad bar at an Aurora Chuck E. Cheese restaurant Feb. 27, 2005.
Police were summoned and say they subdued an irate Gale by shocking him with a Taser and handcuffing him. Gale was charged with six misdemeanors, including resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.
Gale threatened to sue the city for $500,000 but instead reached an agreement in which five of the charges were dropped. The city apologized and agreed to pay his medical and legal bills and said the newly formed panel would look at his case.
Gale on Wednesday said police attacked him in front of his two children, and he denied ever resisting. Nicole Melons, a friend who was there, said police were too aggressive. Gale pointed to scars on his forehead that he says were from the incident.
But Aurora’s Incident Review Board, made up of four police officers and four citizens, on Monday ruled that the officers followed departmental policy and no changes need to be made.
Gale, who testified in front of the board, said the process was biased against him.
Wednesday, he said he wasn’t allowed to bring in his family or listen to the board’s deliberation, though police officials were able to sit in on the proceedings. He feels police had too much of a hand in the way the board operated.
“I felt intimidated, I felt scared, I was shaky,” he said. “I had to sit in the same room as the officers who were involved in this. And I couldn’t even have my mother with me.”
Deputy City Manager Frank Ragan called the first meeting of the board a success.
“To say that it was biased is totally unfair to all the individuals who were involved,” he said, adding that Gale only testified about eight minutes and didn’t explain his case. “He and his attorney didn’t participate. They chose to criticize the process rather than convey to us his side of the story.”
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer can be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
