The photographs were bloody, the police statements inconsistent, and the city and county of Denver could have lost millions of dollars if a jury ever got a chance to hear the case.
That is why Alexander Landau received $795,000, one of the largest excessive-force settlements in city history.
Larger settlements of $3 million, $1.3 million, and $900,000 have been paid out by the city, but those cases involved deaths — a woman who bled to death in the Denver jail and two questionable police shootings. Juan Vasquez, who was just 16 when he was stomped on by an officer, suffering serious injuries, received $885,000 in what is believed to be the largest payout ever in Denver in a nonfatal incident, and Landau’s payment stands just behind that.
The six-figure payouts from city coffers are not easily awarded and City Council members who vote on approving amounts have not always agreed on them.
But in Landau’s case, council members Jeanne Faatz and Charlie Brown — who just last week voted against an excessive-force settlement — felt Landau’s award was appropriate given the circumstances in the case.
“There is no question it was very high,” Faatz said. “I felt that this was one that I did not see we had a lot of chance of winning. I was not happy by any stretch of the imagination but you have to decide if you are going to support something.”
Before his vote on Landau, Brown listened to a presentation of the case by a city attorney who laid out the details and photos of a bloodied Landau in a neck brace and breathing tube.
“Frankly, on that one it was overwhelming because they had the photos and it was clear that this case needed to be settled,” Brown said.
Brown said he always wonders if the city’s settlements are going too far, but he relies on the advice of the lawyers who know more about the court process than he does.
“At some point do you wonder have we gone too far and maybe we should take one of these to trial?” he said. “We listen objectively and make a decision.”
Landau, an aspiring rapper/musician and college student, suffered brain injuries and trauma during the January 2009 traffic stop for an illegal left turn.
His federal lawsuit says he thinks officers Randy Murr, Ricky Nixon and Tiffany Middleton got upset with him during the traffic stop because he asked one of them if they had a warrant to search his trunk.
Landau claims they used fists, a police radio and flashlight to beat him, called him racial slurs, and threatened to shoot him in the head. He also says two of the officers falsely accused him of trying to reach for one of their guns during the arrest in order to justify the beating.
Landau filed a complaint with the internal affairs bureau that at first went nowhere until Murr was implicated in another excessive-force case.
“This was a very pure example of outrageous abuse of power,” Landau’s attorney John Holland said.
This year, Murr and Nixon were fired for commission of deceptive acts in separate excessive- force cases.
Negotiations between Landau’s attorney and the city and county of Denver went on for a month before the settlement agreement was reached.
“How badly does his brain hurt? How upset is he? What about post-traumatic stress? Will it affect his work life?” Holland said. “I had to evaluate that.”
Landau’s case would likely inflame a jury and could lead to millions in damages. City attorneys figured in the chance of winning or losing one or more claims in federal court, the amount of damages a jury could award and the cost of defending the case, city spokeswoman Nancy Kuhn wrote in an e-mail.
Holland doesn’t think the $795,000 settlement is too much money for what happened to Landau.
“I wonder if I got enough,” Holland said. “It never entered my head that I got more than I was supposed to. What I struggled with was — was it enough?”
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
