BY: Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, Executive Director, and Denise Maes, Public Policy Director


Use of violent force is never something to celebrate. Any time law enforcement officers legitimately use force or violence against people in the communities that they serve, it is at best an unfortunate part of the job that should be kept to the minimum amount necessary to control a situation.
Yet in the El Paso County Jail in Colorado, Sheriff’s Deputy Sandra Rincon was celebrated with a tiara, a “princess” plate, and a cake with the number “50” on top. The number, however, wasn’t her age. It referred to the number of times she had used force against prisoners, ranging from handcuffing to punching and kicking. She was the winner of what one of the county jailers called a “fight club,” crowning whoever used force most often as the champion.
The “fight club” competition was uncovered in the course of a lawsuit filed by civil rights attorney Darold Killmer, which charged sheriff’s deputies with using excessive force against his client, Philippa McCully. The deputies, according to McCully, knocked her legs out from under her and shoved her to the floor, fracturing her knee, tearing her ACL, and bruising her badly. After the “fight club” competition was revealed, the county settled McCully’s case for $675,000.
The uncovering of the “fight club” did lead to an investigation, but that investigation fell far short of being genuine and robust. The investigation largely minimized the culture of violence that led to the “fight club” coming to be in the first place. There were written reprimands, but no demotions, no transfers, or dock of pay for anyone involved, and there was no other disciplinary action along the lines of limited suspension. The competition was dismissed as little more than “bad judgment,” and the county denied that it resulted in increased use of force, even though incidents of use of force nearly doubled during the first two years of the competition.
Use of force is no joking matter, especially in a time when community’s trust in law enforcement has been eroded by repeated incidents of excessive and even lethal force against unarmed community residents, especially people of color, usually with little or no accountability for officers involved. Excessive force is always wrong, whether the perpetrators are police officers on the streets or corrections officers in prisons and jails.
The county’s dismissal of the “fight club” as simply bad judgment only exacerbates the distrust between the community and law enforcement. Indeed, it may further erode it. Rather than essentially turning a blind eye, the county should use this as an opportunity to revisit its use of force policy, double down on investments in training (not reduce them), and commit to greater accountability on the part of the sheriff’s department.

DENVER – The ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit today against Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell alleging that he is violating Colorado law by continuing to jail an individual who is eligible for release, at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Leonardo Canseco is charged with two misdemeanors, and the Teller County Court set his bond at $800. According to the lawsuit, the sheriff is acting on a detainer request from federal immigration authorities, who suspect that Canseco is removable from the country. An ICE detainer asks sheriffs to keep prisoners in jail after they would otherwise be released, to provide time for ICE to take them into federal custody for immigration proceedings.

“Colorado sheriffs have no authority to enforce federal immigration law,” said ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein. “Being present in the country in violation of the immigration laws is a civil matter, not a crime. When Mr. Canseco posts his $800 bond for his minor misdemeanor charges, Colorado law requires the Sheriff to release him. Instead, at ICE’s request, the Sheriff plans to keep him in jail, without a warrant, without probable cause of a crime, and without any other valid legal authority.”

ACLU of Colorado successfully raised the same issues earlier this year in a class action lawsuit asserting that El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder had unlawfully imprisoned dozens of individuals at the request of ICE. In March, District Court Judge Eric Bentley ordered Sheriff Elder to release two ACLU clients and to stop relying on ICE detainer requests as grounds for refusing to release individuals when they post bond or resolve their criminal cases. 

In 2014, ACLU of Colorado wrote to Colorado sheriffs explaining that when they hold a prisoner on the basis of ICE detainer requests, they are making a new arrest without legal authority. ACLU of Colorado then negotiated a $30,000 settlement with Arapahoe County on behalf of Claudia Valdez, a domestic violence victim who was held for three days after a judge ordered her release because the jail honored an ICE detainer request. 

Within a few months, every Colorado sheriff receiving the ACLU letter declared that they would not hold prisoners for ICE without a warrant signed by a judge. The County Sheriffs of Colorado issued a statement in which it explained that sheriffs have no authority to do so. By the end of 2016, more than 500 state and local law enforcement agencies around the country were declining to hold prisoners on the basis of ICE immigration detainers and ICE administrative warrants. 

“Colorado law is clear that sheriffs cannot hold prisoners for ICE based on a detainer request,” Staff Attorney Arash Jahanian said. “The statewide sheriff’s organization got it right, and then Judge Bentley correctly ruled that Sheriff Elder had to release our clients from the El Paso County Jail when they posted bond. Now, we’re asking a court to order Sheriff Mikesell to let Mr. Canseco out of the Teller County Jail when he posts bond. State law requires it.”

The ACLU lawsuit, filed in Teller County District Court, seeks a declaratory judgment and an emergency order ensuring Canseco’s release. Canseco is represented by Silverstein and Jahanian of the Colorado ACLU and Byeongsook Seo and Stephanie Kanan of Snell & Wilmer L.L.P.

more on this case

A Note from Public Policy Director Denise Maes

Colorado’s legislative session is 120 days and a great deal happens in these mere four months that affect many Coloradans. For example, in the 2018 session, transportation and education saw unprecedented gains in funding. The legislature infused $645 million into multi-modal transportation and infrastructure and increased per pupil funding by $469 per student.

Civil liberties legislation rarely gets much attention. The one exception this year was the reauthorization of the Colorado Civil Rights Division, which protects all Coloradans from discrimination in employment, housing, and public spaces. The division has been under attack stemming primarily from its role in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case. Thanks to immense public response, the commission was reauthorized this year in relatively good form, despite efforts to defund it or severely weaken its enforcement power.

In legislative sessions past, I have proudly reported unanimous victories on the legislation we proactively championed. I was told that losses would eventually come. In 2018, they did. The losses weigh heavily not simply because loss is always hard, but because these legislative efforts—had they become law—would have brought relief to many Coloradans.

We were unsuccessful in our attempt to implement a statewide court reminder program. Such a program would greatly reduce the number of failure to appear warrants, and therefore, the number of people in our county jails. We also attempted to bring greater transparency to police internal affairs’ files, to no avail. Our efforts to stop the practice of revoking an individual’s driver’s license for their failure to pay a traffic-related fee was also rejected.

Our gains, however, are not insignificant. We championed a bill sponsored by Sen. Vicki Marble and Rep. Susan Lontine that will bring independent and robust public defenders to all Colorado municipal courts. Incarcerating kids for missing school is a harsh punishment. Thanks to Sen. Chris Holbert and Rep. Pete Lee, this practice is now limited.

We also championed a bill expanding voting rights in Colorado by ensuring that all eligible voters in county jails are able to vote. Ultimately, the Secretary of State acknowledged that legislation was not necessary and agreed to implement rules facilitating in-jail voting. This practice will be fully implemented in time for the 2018 general election.

Through our work with juvenile justice advocates, we learned that the Department of Youth Services was not providing bras to teenage girls in their care. We brought this matter to the attention of Rep. Leslie Herod, and she pushed the Department to fund bras for these teenagers. The small price tag of $40,000 matters a great deal to our girls in youth services.

We’re gearing up now for the 2019 session, where much of what we can accomplish will be directly impacted by the results of the statewide elections in November. Be sure to vote!

Click here to view the 2018 Legislative Scorecard.