The city of Denver is poised to settle for $90,000 complaints of wrongful arrests by a Sterling woman who spent five days in jail and a Denver man who contends officers mistook him for a man who actually was dead.
The City Council will consider on Monday settling for $65,000 a lawsuit filed on behalf of Christina FourHorn by the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.
The lawsuit states that Denver Police Officer Mark Dalvit wrongly submitted a warrant for FourHorn’s arrest in 2006 for an aggravated robbery in a Denver apartment complex. The officer confused her with someone having a similar name.
He located FourHorn — who at the age of 33 was seven years older than the alleged assailant and weighed 90 pounds more — by searching motor-vehicle records.
The officer made no effort to determine whether the person located from those records was the same person described by the victim and witnesses, the suit states.
FourHorn had been at home on the day of the robbery, the lawsuit states.
After her arrest, FourHorn located through a public database the true assailant, who was living in Oklahoma, according to court documents.
The council Monday also will consider settling for $25,000 a wrongful-arrest claim by Samuel Powell Moore. The lawsuit states Moore was arrested four times under an outstanding Aurora warrant for a different person.
By the time of the fourth mistaken-identity arrest by Denver police in 2007, the true suspect, William Douglas Pipkin, had been dead for three years, the lawsuit states. Even so, Moore ended up spending eight days in jail, the lawsuit states.
Court documents allege that Pipkin presented Moore’s stolen ID in 2002 when he was accused of attempting to steal $450. Police also refused to look at a court docket Moore carried with him to show he was not the suspect, the suit contends. Even after Moore protested that he did not have tattoos like the actual suspect, deputies at the jail and other law-enforcement officers failed to investigate further, the lawsuit adds.
When Moore was brought before Aurora Municipal Court to appear on the warrant, a judge realized the error and ordered Moore released.
The lawsuit filed against the city of Denver by the ACLU has five other plaintiffs alleging wrongful arrests.
Luis Corchado, Denver’s assistant director of litigation in the city attorney’s office, did not return telephone messages seeking comment.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
