A protestor shoved to the ground with a police baton during the Democratic National Convention last August won’t face criminal charges and hasn’t yet decided whether to retaliate with a lawsuit against Denver police, her attorney said today.
“We’re encouraging her to file a civil lawsuit,” said Dan Recht, the defense attorney for Code Pink anti-war protestor Alicia Forrest, 24, of Los Angeles.
Forrest was not at the press conference and did not return a telephone call for comment.
The Denver city attorney’s office dismissed a charge of interfering with a police officer against Forrest this morning.
A videotape caught the final instance before Denver Police Officer Scott Stewart shoved Forrest in the chest causing her to collapse. She was not injured.
The officer is heard on the video twice telling Forrest to back up as police arrested another protestor nearby. Forrest can be heard saying, “Do it again.”
The Denver District Attorney’s office did not to pursue charges against Stewart last fall, issuing a statement that Forrest “failed to comply with repeated lawful police orders to move back. She then grabbed an officer’s baton, pushing it away. The officer pushed back, using the baton, and the woman fell to the ground.”
Recht said today that “in the hecticness, he may have said ‘back up,’ and in the hecticness of it, she may not have done it as fast as he wanted her to.”
In a Code Pink press release last fall, Forrest stated, “I was standing up for my free speech rights, showing support for a fellow activist. If anything, this showed me how powerful standing up for your beliefs can be, and how necessary it is for the truth to get out even in the face of resistance.”
Vince DiCroce, director of prosecution for the city attorney’s office, said the investigation supported the officer’s version of events, but the legal question fell on whether Forrest’s refusal to follow the officer’s order affected the nearby police activity.
“The decision came down to whether there was a reasonable likelihood of conviction at trial,” Dicroce said of the choice not to prosecute.
More than 150 people were arrested during the four-day convention in Denver last August.
