A Colorado man who is deaf and uses sign language to communicate said two Idaho Springs officers slammed him to the ground during an arrest despite his attempts to tell them that he could not understand their commands.
The man, Brady Mistic, said he was wrongfully jailed for four months over the incident on Sept. 17, 2019. He is suing Officers Nicholas Hanning and Ellie Summers, as well as the city of Idaho Springs and the Clear Creek County Board of Commissioners.
The suit, filed this month in U.S. District Court, says the incident began after Mistic was alleged to have run a stop sign before he pulled into the parking lot of a laundromat. Unaware that police had followed him into the lot, Mistic got out of his vehicle and began walking toward the laundromat, according to the lawsuit. Without any "warning or attempt to communicate," the suit alleges, Hanning grabbed Mistic by the sweatshirt and threw him on the ground, causing Mistic's head to hit the concrete.
The Idaho Springs Police Department defended the officers' actions, saying in an online statement that Mistic approached a "clearly marked patrol car" that had its emergency lights activated.
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The department also said in their statement that Hanning suffered a broken leg because of Mistic's "resistive actions." The lawsuit alleges that Hanning caused his own injury.
