A federal jury on Thursday rejected excessive-force claims made by a former Boulder County inmate whose leg was broken in jail.
Robert Kirkland had accused four Boulder County sheriff’s deputies — James O’Brien, Brian D. Jones, Rafael Avina and Henry E. Trujillo — of excessive force after he “cussed” at one of the deputies in the jail’s sally port. “The jury didn’t believe a word of it,” said Boulder Assistant City Attorney Dea Wheeler, referring to the allegations against the deputies. “They deliberated for less than three hours.”
“It’s difficult when it comes down to the word of four deputies against one inmate,” Kirkland’s attorney, David Lane, said after the jury decision following a four-day trial.
Sheriff’s deputies arrested Kirkland on charges of harassment and disorderly conduct Dec. 3, 2011. at the sheriff’s department, the four deputies allegedly “slammed” Kirkland into a wall, the plaintiff claimed.
Once in a disciplinary cell, the deputies “threw Mr. Kirkland facedown” on the bunk, fracturing his leg in the process, the lawsuit said.
Kirkland claimed one of the officers then taunted: “Now we’re going to break your other leg” before slamming Kirkland’s right ankle against the bed and severely twisting it.
One of the deputies allegedly shoved Kirkland’s beanie cap into his mouth, causing him to choke. They , begging for a doctor.
But Wheeler said jurors concluded that the allegations were not credible.
“We knew our deputies were innocent of what they were accused of,” Wheeler said.
A jail nurse placed Kirkland in a wheelchair without providing proper medical care, the lawsuit said, alleging that it took two days before his leg was X-rayed and diagnosed, and his leg wasn’t properly splinted until the third day.
Kirkland filed a grievance Dec. 7, 2011, but a sergeant on the following day determined his claim to be unfounded, the lawsuit says.
In retaliation for filing the grievance, according to the lawsuit, Boulder deputies filed an additional assault charge against Kirkland for allegedly pulling a chair out from underneath Cinda Van Dusseldorp more than two months earlier.
He told deputies he was emotionally distraught and two sheriff’s employees heard him crying in his cell, the lawsuit says. He subsequently slit his wrists in a suicide attempt. He pleaded guilty in the assault case so that he could be released from jail, the lawsuit says.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, kmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kirkmitchell, denverpost.com/coldcases
