CENTENNIAL — A civil trial gets underway today in Arapahoe County District Court in which a man says he was severely beaten by a Denver process server who was not charged in the assault.
Ken Bernstein is suing the Denver process-server company, Checkmate Inc., for hiring Anthony Davis, a convicted felon.
According to the lawsuit, on Sept. 30, 2005, Davis was serving Bernstein with a civil subpoena and after serving it, Davis, now 39, refused to leave.
Bernstein then tried to call police, the lawsuit said, when Davis punched him in the side of his head. Bernstein’s 8 year-old son was at the home and tried to revive his father. Bernstein suffered permanent brain damage, the lawsuit says.
Criminal charges were not filed. Bernstein’s attorney, Chad Hemmat, said no charges were filed because prosecutors did not have enough evidence.
But Checkmate attorney Kathy Chaney said the district attorney’s office decided Davis acted in self-defense. She said Bernstein came out of his house like a “raving madman reeking of alcohol,” was aggressive and yelled racial epithets at Davis.
“Anthony (Davis) was just trying to defend himself,” Chaney said.
Regardless of that, Hemmat says, Davis should have never been hired by Checkmate in the first place because of his lengthy criminal record that includes convictions for theft and second-degree assault.
But Chaney said the convictions were so long ago that the company hired Davis anyway. In fact, Davis continued to work for Checkmate after the 2005 incident but left on his own accord a while later.
Hemmat believes once this case is out in the public, process servers will be required to be screened more thoroughly before they are hired.
Carlos Illescas: 303-954-1175 or cillescas@denverpost.com
