The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado announces that former White House staff member Denise Maes will join the ACLU as Director of Public Policy, succeeding Jessie Ulibarri, who has resigned his position.

An experienced policy and litigation strategist who most recently directed budget and finance efforts for the Office of Vice President Joseph Biden and served as General Counsel in the Office of Administration for President Barack Obama, Maes brings to the ACLU of Colorado more than 20 years of experience practicing law in both the public and private sectors.

“Denise is a stellar addition to our senior staff team at the ACLU of Colorado,” said Executive Director C. Ray Drew. “Her significant experience working in the legal, legislative and public policy arms of the highest echelons of government – as well as her connection to the state of Colorado through years of nonprofit and other activism – will serve the ACLU of Colorado well.

“We can think of no one more uniquely positioned to carry on the legislative and public policy work Jessie Ulibarri has started at the ACLU of Colorado than Denise Maes.”

A native of Taos, New Mexico, Maes – a graduate of the University Of New Mexico School Of Law -- is a first generation college graduate in her family. An experienced environmental attorney who has worked on a number of high-profile hazardous waste and environmental justice cases, Maes is an expert both in municipal and administrative law and land use issues. After being named one of Denver’s Top Seven Women Lawyers by Law Week Colorado in 2009, she left the firm of Berenbaum Weinshienk & Eason, where she was partner, to serve as General Counsel for the White House Office of Administration in the Executive Office of President Barack Obama.

Despite her highly-impressive work in nation’s Capital, it is her strong ties to Colorado and passion for civil rights and social justice that bring Denise Maes back to a place she calls “home.” She has served as Chair of the Denver Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Chair of Mi Casa Resource Center for Women, Director of the Downtown Denver Partnership, Director of the Colorado Women’s Bar and Hispanic Bar associations, and was Director and Co-founder of the Latina Initiative.

Celebrated in the legal, business, social justice and Latina/o communities, she was lauded in 2010 as “Barrister of the Year” by The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Colorado (The Center).

Jessie Ulibarri, her predecessor at the ACLU, said with Denise Maes, the ACLU’s legislative and policy work is in good hands.
“Denise Maes has the vision and experience to continue our ambitious public policy work promoting smart criminal justice reforms, protecting voting rights, and upholding the ACLU’s core mission of defending civil rights and civil liberties for all people.”

In an announcement today, the ACLU of Colorado praised the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC) for adopting a new Administrative Regulation—drafted after months of collaborative negotiation with ACLU attorneys—that puts a stop to a practice the ACLU had criticized as unconstitutional corporal punishment. The newly-revised regulation prohibits CDOC officials from chaining and shackling compliant prisoners for extended periods of time when those prisoners are safely locked alone inside maximum-security prison cells.

“Immobilizing chains and shackles are justified only when prison officials determine that an agitated prisoner is out of control and poses a physical threat to himself or others,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. “These types of restraints, which are uncomfortable at best and often painful, should be applied only as long as necessary to bring the prisoner under control. When prisoners who no longer pose any threat of harm are chained and shackled for extended periods, the restraints are no longer justified—they serve only to impose physical discomfort and pain as punishment for the out-of-control episode that has already passed. Imposing pain as a punishment is corporal punishment, which violates the Eighth Amendment.”

Silverstein noted the two most significant policy changes that CDOC agreed to include in its revised administrative regulation:

• Compliant prisoners who are locked inside a cell cannot be confined in immobilizing chains and shackles for more than two hours

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• If prisoners who are locked within a cell are confined in immobilizing physical restraints for longer than two hours, a shift commander must regularly document the facts he believes justify the continued restraint.

“This policy change, and the training that will follow, curbs a practice that the ACLU criticized as unjustified corporal punishment, while also ensuring that CDOC’s security needs are fully met,” said C. Ray Drew, ACLU Executive Director. “But there is something else at work here. Because of ongoing collaborative work and negotiation between the ACLU and CDOC, this matter was resolved without litigation, at minimal cost to CDOC and the community as a whole. We look forward to continuing to work with CDOC to solve problems collaboratively.”

The practice CDOC agreed to modify came to the ACLU’s attention during its investigation of administrative segregation (long-term solitary confinement) earlier this year. In a letter to ACLU, a prisoner complained that he had been painfully restrained for eighteen hours after he was caught violating prison rules by “fishing”—casting a string outside his cell to retrieve a magazine being shared by another prisoner in solitary. When he declined to surrender his fishing line, prison guards in SWAT gear initiated a “cell extraction.”

They pumped pepper spray into the cell, removed the prisoner, stripped him to his underwear, and applied leg shackles, handcuffs, hip cuffs, and a tight belly chain. An additional crotch chain attached to the front of the belly chain, went through his crotch, and was attached to the belly chain behind his back. He was then placed into a bare “observation cell,” where he remained in restraints for eighteen hours.

“During those eighteen hours, the prisoner could not feed himself without assistance, could not defecate without assistance, and could not sit or lay down without extreme pain and discomfort,” said ACLU Staff Attorney Rebecca T. Wallace. “The in –cell restraints were unnecessary. While locked inside the maximum security prison cell, the prisoner complied fully with every order from the guards. He clearly posed no threat to himself or others. Under these circumstances, the painful, severely-confining restraints could have served only one purpose: to punish him physically for his past misconduct, in violation of the Constitution. ”

The ACLU’s investigation determined that this prisoner’s ordeal was not an isolated episode. CDOC documents confirmed reports from more than a dozen additional prisoners that they were removed from their cells and subjected to similar restraints, in individual observation cells, for more than twelve hours.

“Correctional professionals have long agreed that physical restraints should not be imposed as punishment,” Silverstein added. “Even when restraints may be justified at first, they can become punishment when the initial justification has passed. CDOC officials should be commended for being willing to hear the ACLU’s concerns and change a troubling practice.”

Visit https://aclu-co.org/case/ending-the-use-of-punitive-restraints-in-colora...

The ACLU of Colorado announced today a tentative agreement to resolve a lawsuit its attorneys filed against Denver police officer Timothy Scudder earlier this year. The agreement, which must still be approved by the Denver City Council, calls for additional training, changes in the police department’s Operations Manual, and compensation for the ACLU’s client, Valerie Rodriguez.

“We are very pleased that the Denver Police Department was willing to make changes in policy and training in order to resolve this lawsuit,” said Elisa Moran, who litigated the case as an ACLU Cooperating Attorney. “ The changes will reduce the risk of similar incidents occurring in the future.”

The lawsuit alleged that Officer Scudder engaged in “recklessly sloppy” police work that caused Ms. Rodriguez—who had no criminal record—to be falsely arrested and jailed for an incident with which she had no connection whatsoever.

Ms. Rodriguez was jailed on the basis of a bogus warrant that Scudder obtained nine months earlier, shortly after he took a report of a minor assault at a gas station in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood. A young woman told Scudder that she had been struck by an acquaintance who lived in the neighborhood and that the assailant’s name was Valerie Rodriguez.

According to the lawsuit, Officer Scudder searched a noncriminal database for the name “Valerie Rodriguez” and found information pertaining to the ACLU’s client, who did not know the victim and had never lived anywhere near Five Points. Without performing any additional investigation that would have immediately made clear that he had the wrong person, Scudder then wrote up a criminal complaint and warrant application with the name, date of birth, social security number, and driver’s license number of the ACLU’s client.

“Our client was handcuffed, locked in a scary jail cell, and lost a job opportunity simply because she has the same name as the person suspected of the assault,” said Mark Silverstein, ACLU Legal Director. “The Denver Police Department has now agreed to change its operations manual to make it crystal clear that finding a name in a computer database that is the same as the suspect’s name does not, by itself, provide grounds to obtain a warrant for the person whose information appears in the database. Police officials deserve credit for recognizing a problem and being willing to make changes to address it.”

If the Denver City Council approves the settlement, the City will also make a payment to compensate Ms. Rodriguez and cover her attorney’s fees.

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