A Larimer County security officer has sued two county sheriff’s deputies claiming that he was taunted, punched twice and falsely arrested during a domestic violence call.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Alejandro Orozco in federal court by Denver attorney Raymond Bryant, claiming deputies Matthew Cherry and Troy Badberg trumped up false criminal charges against him.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages and attorneys fees.
The suit, filed Tuesday, says that Cherry and Badberg “overzealously used excessive force and wrongful criminal process to inflict unjustified street punishment on a man whom the officers suspected — but had not in fact — harmed his girlfriend during an argument.”
On Aug. 6, 2014, Orozco and his girlfriend, Renee Vasquez, got into a quarrel in which she threw objects into a mirror, the lawsuit says. He then left the home to protect his daughter, a minor, the lawsuit says. He claims Vasquez falsely reported that he threw a chair into a mirror and injured her.
Cherry waited in the darkness near Vasquez’s garage for hours until Orozco returned to the house. Cherry ordered Orozco at gunpoint to walk toward him. As he came closer, Cherry allegedly whispered, “So you like to hit women,” and sucker punched Orozco in the jaw.
Cherry allegedly backed up and ordered Orozco to walk toward him again and this time struck him in the chest, the lawsuit says.
“The deputies attempted to walk the fine line between mere exaggeration and fabricating false information by claiming that Mr. Orozco forced Cherry to threaten to ‘punch him in the face,’ ” the lawsuit says.
When he arrived at the jail, Orozco stood in front of a camera while telling a supervisor that he had been the victim of police brutality and asked that his injuries be photographed. Cherry stepped in front of him and said there would be no such report or photographs, the lawsuit says.
The officers then arrested him on false claims of resisting arrest and obstruction, the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit says the officers claimed: “Orozco walked toward the officer when told to remain still, ‘tensed up as if trying (to) pull away,’ … ‘moved his right hand … off of his head, and otherwise forced the deputy to threaten to ‘punch him in the face’ in order to gain compliance.”
The case went to trial during a “long, drawn-out criminal prosecution.” The jury returned a not guilty verdict, the lawsuit says.
“Mr. Orozco was forced to pay unnecessary criminal defense fees, lost business income, and suffered damage to his business reputation as a security officer,” the lawsuit says.
