Boulder police officers tackled a teenage boy, arrested him and left him with a concussion even though he didn’t resemble a bank robbery suspect they were pursuing, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Boulder County District Court.
Galileo Wise, 18, sued the Boulder Police Department, claiming one of its officers and one of its sergeants used excessive force and wrongfully arrested him in June 2025, in violation of the Colorado Constitution, according to the lawsuit filed by Dan Williams and Clarice Tenorio of Grata Law and Policy. Wise is asking for an undetermined amount of damages to cover his mental health expenses and to compensate for his emotional distress.
Wise, of Lafayette, is also asking for the court to order the two Boulder police officers, Sgt. Steven Faber and Officer Austin Myers, to be retrained, the suit says.
Boulder police found Wise riding his e-bike at the Broadway tunnel that leads from University Hill to the University of Colorado Boulder the afternoon of June 5, 2025, the lawsuit alleges. When the officers saw Wise, they ordered him to stop, and while he slowed down and raised his hands, Myers pushed him to the ground and tackled him, according to the suit.
Wise hit his head when he was tackled, leaving him with a pounding head and a concussion. After twice asking the officers what he was accused of while he sat on the ground in handcuffs, Faber told him that police were looking for a bank robbery suspect who looked like Wise, the suit claims.
However, Boulder police were told the suspect was a tan-skinned man wearing a green shirt and clear glasses, according to the suit. Wise was wearing a tan sweatshirt and no glasses. He also was wearing a helmet that covered his face.
Myers lied to Wise when they told him he resembled their description, the suit states. Even though multiple officers were heard on body-worn camera footage acknowledging that Wise didn’t look like their guy, he was kept under arrest.
Myers even told Wise’s mother on the phone that her son resembled the bank robbery suspect’s description and followed a similar route to the suspect, which the lawsuit alleges was another lie.
A map depicting Wise’s e-bike route and the bank robbery suspect’s route that police tracked shows that the two were in the area of the Broadway tunnel and College Avenue around the same time. But police tracking indicated the suspect had stopped at a coffee shop on The Hill, whereas Wise never stopped riding his e-bike until police ordered him to, the lawsuit claims.
“Simply put, without any report that the bank robber was traveling by bike, although any diligent officer would have realized the robber traveled by HOP bus or other motor vehicle, and although Mr. Wise had on neither a green shirt nor glasses, Defendant Myers decided to apprehend Mr. Wise,” the lawsuit says.
However, an officer can be heard on the body-worn camera footage provided by Grata Law asking the other, “They’re on an e-bike?” before they first saw Wise. The Police Department’s incident report, also provided by Grata Law, describes the suspect as possibly riding an e-bike or motorcycle.
Wise remained detained for a total of eight minutes, which Boulder police’s own Professional Standards Unit said was too long because any reasonable suspicion had dissipated, the suit claims. The Standards Unit also exonerated both Faber and Myers on the question of excessive force, searches and seizures, according to the investigation report summary provided by Grata Law.
After Wise received medical attention, Faber told Myers not to admit fault and that he wouldn’t change anything about the arrest, despite Myers saying he felt bad, the suit claims.
Two hours later, Boulder police arrested the man suspected of stealing $2,200 from a bank in the 1600 block of 28th Street, the suit states. He was a 46-year-old, tan-skinned man wearing blue jeans and a gray shirt.
Wise still suffers from intrusive memories about his arrest, distress, flashbacks and a high susceptibility to concussions, all because of Myers tackling him and the extended detention, according to the suit. Wise was not able to finish his senior year of high school because of the physical and psychological effects he suffered, the suit claims.
Faber, the police sergeant, and Myers, the officer, are both summoned to respond to the lawsuit by Aug. 12, according to court filings.
“The video is quite disturbing,” Williams, one of Wise’s attorneys, said in a call with the Daily Camera. “It emphasized the need for stronger police oversight in the city of Boulder.”
Boulder police did not write an arrest report for Wise, according to Williams. Police did, though, read him his Miranda rights, handcuff him and detain him for eight minutes.
The city of Boulder does not comment on pending lawsuits, according to spokesperson Sarah Huntley.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
