A Denver activist sentenced to prison last year for a case related to threatening a judge was awarded $65,000 in a settlement agreement related to a separate case after the City Council voted to approve the payment on Monday.
Eric Brandt has been a frequent, vocal critic of police departments and the criminal justice system around metro Denver for years. He could often be seen walking around Denver with signs bearing slogans cursing cops and protesting the homeless camping ban including by handing out food as part of the Occupy Denver movement on the 16th Street Mall.
The settlement agreement approved Monday stems from an arrest on Sept. 24, 2018, when Denver police officers took Brandt into custody for allegedly disturbing the peace on the mall.
In an amended lawsuit filed by attorney Andy McNulty from the Denver firm Killmer, Lane & Newman, LLP last year, McNulty accused Denver police specifically of concocting a reason to arrest Brandt that day.
Brandt had been at a court appearance for two fellow activists, Brian Loma and Mikel Whitney, arrested the day before in relation to vulgar language on the 16th Street Mall. After that court hearing, Brandt walked down the mall. Upon seeing a group of Denver police officers, he began chanting “No justice? No peace! (Expletive) the Denver Police,” according to the suit.
At that point, one of the officers asked if a passerby would be willing to sign a criminal complaint against Brandt for disturbing the peace, the lawsuit alleged. She agreed and Brandt was arrested, the suit says. The charges were dropped days later.
Brandt filed a lawsuit himself in relation to that arrest in February 2020 before McNulty filed an amended version. In a phone interview Monday, McNulty declined to discuss the specifics of the settlement agreement but noted the episode stemmed from unprofessional Denver police officers seeking to retaliate against critics.
Loma and Whitney’s arrests resulted in a $128,000 legal settlement approved by the City Council in August.
“What happened to Eric is unconscionable and people in Denver shouldn’t be happy that there are these lawsuits popping up because there are these snowflake cops on the 16th Street Mall that can’t handle any criticism of them,” McNulty said.
Brandt was sentenced to 12 years in prison last year after pleading guilty to three felonies related to a threatening phone call he made to a Denver judge’s courtroom in 2019.
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