The ACLU of Colorado added two new staffers in January, hiring Development Assistant Caryn Osterman and Communications Associate Erik Maulbetsch.

Caryn will help Associate Director Mary Korch with development projects including fundraising, special events, and administration. Erik will handle internal and external communications, including press releases, event publicity, and updating the website.

Coming to the ACLU from the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine, Caryn worked as a development associate. She researched and cultivated donors and assisted with the planning and execution of fundraising events and dinners. Caryn holds an RN from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and an MBA from the University of Colorado.

Erik worked previously as editor of The Yellow Scene, an arts, entertainment and news magazine covering East Boulder County and the North Metro area. He covered local and state politics, regional news, and cultural activities for the past four years. He holds a BA from Middlebury College in Vermont.

In response to a routine request for public records filed by the ACLU of Colorado, the City of Colorado Springs filed suit against the ACLU in state district court in Colorado Springs. The lawsuit asks for a ruling that the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) is not required to release the records of an Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) investigation into allegations of serious police misconduct.

"In this case a patrol officer’s narrative report suggests that a second officer, K.D. Hardy, repeatedly used his full-sized metal flashlight to brutally beat Delvikio Faulkner, African American passenger traveling in a car that was initially stopped for a minor problem with its license plate," said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. "According to the report, Officer Hardy delivered six blows from the flashlight, including three to the victim’s head. Using a large metal flashlight as an impact weapons poses a substantial risk of very serious injury and even death."

"This is not only a case about alleged police brutality and grossly excessive and unjustified force," Silverstein continued. "It may also be an example of the most vicious kind of racial profiling. The public is entitled to know how the police department discharged its duty to investigate this alleged misconduct. It is also entitled to know the findings and what discipline, if any, was imposed."

The CSPD initially responded to the ACLU request by saying that as a matter of policy it did not release IAB documents under the open records laws. In an effort to persuade CSPD officials to change their view, ACLU staff Attorney Taylor Pendergrass supplied a copy of an order issued in an ACLU case by Denver District Court Judge Catherine Lemon in December, which held that a similar policy of the Denver Police Department violated the Colorado open records laws. Judge Lemon’s ruling followed similar rulings in three additional cases in recent years holding that the Denver Police Department must release IAB files to the ACLU under the open records laws.

Last January, in response to Judge Lemon’s order, Denver officials abandoned earlier intentions to appeal and instead announced that they would revise their disclosure policies to conform with the legal analysis in Judge Lemon’s ruling.

"I hoped that sending Judge Lemon’s ruling might persuade Colorado Springs officials that they had a duty under the open records laws to share more information with the public," Pendergrass said. "On Friday I spoke with a representative of the Colorado Springs City Attorney’s Office, who said he would send certain police reports but still would withhold the IAB file. He never mentioned any intention to sue the ACLU. I was surprised when a process server arrived at our office with a lawsuit and a summons."

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Denver’s Hannah Picasso-Hobin, a senior at the Denver’s Colorado School of the Arts, is one of nine high school seniors from across the country to receive a $4,000 college scholarship in recognition of their outstanding work to protect civil liberties, especially for young people.

The award was first given in 2000 to honor the efforts of graduating seniors who have demonstrated a strong commitment to civil liberties and civil rights through some form of student activism.

“Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders, and young people are keenly aware of threats to our rights and freedoms,” said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. “The ACLU Youth Activist Scholarship gives a small reward for the great courage and determination shown by these young men and women.”

Beginning in her freshman year, when she formed a chapter of the ACLU at the Denver School of Arts in Denver, Colorado, Hannah-Picasso-Hobin has served as a role model for student leaders. Hannah got the ACLU Youth Education Program off the ground by involving students from schools across the state. She helped plan the first Annual Colorado Youth for Civil Liberties Expo, winning the Colorado ACLU “Trailblazer Award” for promoting awareness of the Bill of Rights -- all this while becoming Denver School of the Arts Musician of the Year, President of the Denver Public Schools Student School Board, Mile High Scholar, and achieving membership in the National Honor Society all four years.

Click here to read Hannah's essay.