Hutchinson Black and Cook attorneys Dan Williams and Colleen Koch recently served as co-counsel in a civil rights lawsuit alleging police misconduct brought on behalf of Sammie Lawrence, a Black resident of Boulder, against the City of Boulder arising from Mr. Lawrence’s wrongful arrest.
Sammie Lawrence and the City of Boulder have agreed to settle the lawsuit, pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, through a settlement agreement requiring the payment of $95,000 and the release of police use-of-force data, including data on use of firearms and stun guns, over a two-year period.
Per city charter, the settlement was approved by the Boulder City Council at its January 4, 2022 meeting.
Boulder Police Officer Waylon Lolotai arrested Mr. Lawrence at Boulder’s Mapleton Ballfields in April 2019 when Mr. Lawrence exercised his right to observe and record Officer Lolotai, who at the time was harassing individuals experiencing homelessness who were present at the park. When Mr. Lawrence refused to leave the scene, Officer Lolotai violently threw him to the ground and arrested him, all without probable cause.
In the months following Mr. Lawrence’s arrest, the current Boulder Police Chief and the former Boulder City Attorney commended Officer Lolotai’s work as a police officer and steadfastly defended his conduct. In the face of the City of Boulder condoning Officer Lolotai’s misconduct, Mr. Lawrence filed a federal civil rights lawsuit. A police-practices expert retained for purposes of the lawsuit, Sergeant Natasha Powers-Marakis (Retired) concluded: “the actions of [Officer] Loloati were not in concert with generally accepted police practices.”
In announcing the settlement, Dan Williams said: “This settlement affords some measure of justice to Sammie Lawrence. We hope this settlement will prompt introspection from City officials, whose lofty rhetoric around policing has lagged far behind the reality of Boulder’s pattern of abusive police conduct.”