Denver city attorneys have agreed to pay $3.25 million to a former jail inmate who accused guards of ignoring his screams while being tortured, choking him later when he complained about his pain and then covering up the abuse.
City Attorney Scott Martinez told reporters the payment was not an admission of liability, but is “an opportunity to move forward.”
In his lawsuit against Denver, Jamal Hunter accused the city and Denver jail Deputy Gaynel Rumer of facilitating and encouraging a brutal 2011 attack against him by inmates in his cell. Rumer did not come to Hunter’s aid while the inmate screamed and inmates attacked him, scalding his genitals.
Thirteen days after the attack, jail video cameras recorded a noncombative Hunter being choked by Denver sheriff’s Deputy Edward Keller.
Many have questions the sized of the settlement, which is the largest payout ever in a civil case in Denver.
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