DENVER –The ACLU of Colorado renewed its request today for records related to the Colorado Springs Police Department’s internal affairs investigation into the traffic stop of Ryan and Benjamin Brown, two ACLU clients who were pulled over, handcuffed, searched, and detained at gun point and taser point over a cracked windshield.

The ACLU’s request follows a decision yesterday by the 4^th Judicial District Attorney’s office to dismiss an obstruction charge against Ryan Brown, whose video recording of the traffic stop has been viewed more than 155,000 times on YouTube.

Brown filed a complaint with the department following the incident in March.  He received a brief boilerplate letter in June informing him that police had conducted a “complete and thorough” investigation into the incident and concluded that the officers’ conduct was “justified, legal, and proper.”  A subsequent ACLU records request for the internal affairs file was denied due to the pending criminal charge against Brown.

“Now that the criminal charge has been rightly dismissed, there are no more excuses for denying the internal affairs records,” said ACLU of Colorado Legal Director Mark Silverstein. "The public has a right to know how the Colorado Springs Police Department determined that it was 'justified, legal, and proper’ to remove two African-American men from a car at gunpoint and taser point, handcuff them, search them and detain them, over a cracked windshield."

Ryan and Benjamin Brown were driving just a block away from their home when they were pulled over by Colorado Springs police.  After a taser-wielding officer ordered Benjamin Brown, the driver, out of the car, he was handcuffed, searched without cause, and detained in the back of a police vehicle, even though he had been cooperative, no weapons or contraband were found, and there was no evidence to suggest that he had been involved in a crime.

Ryan Brown then began recording the scene on his phone. His repeated requests for the officers to identify the reason for the stop were ignored.  Officers worked together to force him out of the car, push him to the ground, face down in the snow, search him, and cuff him, all the while at gunpoint.

While dragging Ryan Brown out of the car, officers on the video are heard saying that he is not under arrest and that they were just checking him for weapons.  No weapons were found.  Officers took his phone, turned off the video, and threw it in the snow.

Benjamin Brown was cited for a cracked windshield, and Ryan Brown was charged with “interfering with official police duties.”  The ACLU defended the Browns in criminal court and yesterday won a complete dismissal of Ryan Brown’s charge."

The ACLU has maintained from the beginning that Ryan did not commit any crime,” said ACLU cooperating attorney Megan Downing of Recht Kornfeld PC. "We are very pleased that the District Attorney's Office did a thorough review of the facts and in the end, full dismissal was the right result.”

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DENVER - The Colorado Springs Police Department, City Attorney’s Office, and Municipal Court are illegally enforcing the City’s panhandling laws against impoverished people who have not violated those laws, according to a letter sent yesterday to the City Attorney by the ACLU of Colorado. According to the letter, the City’s practice has resulted in poor people being fined and imprisoned—for as long as 90 days—“under circumstances that cannot be legally or morally justified.”

The City’s two panhandling ordinances specifically exempt individuals who engage in passive solicitation—meaning that people who merely display a sign inviting charity do not violate the ordinances. Nevertheless, an ACLU investigation found that all three major arms of the Colorado Springs municipal justice system – police, prosecutors, and judges -- are routinely enforcing the ordinances against people who engage in passive solicitation.

“The police, prosecutors, and the municipal court are all involved in citing, prosecuting, and sentencing poor persons, sometimes to jail, for crimes they did not commit,” said ACLU Staff Attorney Rebecca Wallace. “These astounding extra-legal exercises of power strongly suggest that none of these offices are respecting the limits of their legal authority, at least when it comes to poor and homeless people.”

There are two sections of the Colorado Springs Municipal Code, Section 9.2.111 and Section 10.18.112, which address solicitation. The definition of “soliciting,” which applies to both sections, states that “soliciting does not include passively standing or sitting with a sign or other indication that one is seeking donations.”

The ACLU of Colorado reviewed all citations since January 2013 for violations of Section 9.2.111 and found that more than one-third were issued to a person who was displaying a sign inviting charity. Over that same period, police issued 892 citations for violation of Section 10.18.112. The ACLU reviewed two dozen of those citations and found that more 90 percent were illegally issued to people who engaged in passive solicitation and did not violate the law.

Rather than dismiss the unlawfully-issued citations, the City Attorney’s Office regularly prosecuted the cases, usually against poor or homeless defendants who had no attorney present. Colorado Springs Municipal Court judges then entered convictions, imposing fines and, in some cases, jail sentences, even though the defendants had not violated the law. In one particularly alarming case, a municipal court judge sentenced a 58-year-old homeless man to 90 days in jail for soliciting with a sign.

In today’s letter, the ACLU of Colorado demands that Colorado Springs immediately stop illegal enforcement of the solicitation laws, dismiss pending prosecutions of individuals charged with passive solicitation, and initiate procedures to vacate any sentences that are based on convictions for conduct that does not violate the ordinances.

The ACLU’s letter comes at a time when the Colorado Springs City Council is considering an ordinance that would make it a crime, punishable by up to six months in jail, to sit on the planters or the sidewalks downtown.

“Colorado Springs is already wielding its enforcement powers to target poor and homeless persons for extra-legal, discriminatory, and fundamentally unfair treatment,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU of Colorado Legal Director. “We urge the City to rethink how its criminal justice system interacts with residents who are experiencing poverty. Instead of adopting yet another measure that targets the poor, the City needs to get its house—and its justice system—in order.”

In 2012, the ACLU challenged a Colorado Springs ordinance that attempted to create a “Downtown No Solicitation Zone.” After the ACLU obtained a preliminary injunction, the City repealed the ordinance and paid the ACLU $110,000 in attorney’s fees.

Resources:

• Read the ACLU Letter to Colorado Springs Regarding Illegal Enforcement of Panhandling Laws
• Read ACLU Statement on the Proposed “Sit-Lie” Ordinance in Colorado Springs

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“The poll released today by the Better Priorities Initiative confirms what we had suspected to be true; namely that Coloradans have grown uncomfortable with the failed experiment of the death penalty. Given the clear racial and geographical disparities in its application, fair-minded Coloradans are showing they are ready to move forward toward sensible criminal justice policies that actually serve us all.
Additionally the poll would suggest that there’s a shift among the public as displayed by the life sentences handed down by juries in the two recent death penalty cases. It’s an incredible burden to ask citizens to decide if someone will live or die, and the increasing preference for alternatives to the death penalty is likely an indication that we, as Coloradans, would rather not saddle our friends and our neighbors with such a grievous weight any longer.”
Resources:
Read the poll results from the Better Priorities Initiative