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Remember The Smiling Cop Who Beat The Black Vet? Well… The DOJ Remembers Him Too

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About this time last year, pho­tos were leaked of a Colorado Springs Police Officer smil­ing a lit­tle too hard while show­ing his blood­ied knuck­les after vio­lent­ly arrest­ing a Black man. He and his col­leagues escaped pun­ish­ment from the police bru­tal­i­ty alle­ga­tions but the DOJ is ask­ing to spin the block with their own probe.

On October 9, 2022, Gadson was pulled over by Officer Matthew Anderson for dri­ving under the speed lim­it and hav­ing no license plate dis­played. However, the body cam­era footage shows Gadson’s vehi­cle parked and the offi­cer men­tion­ing noth­ing about the dri­ving speed. At the time of the traf­fic stop, Gadson was unhoused and suf­fer­ing PTSD from serv­ing in the Army. Authorities said the respond­ing offi­cers had sus­pi­cions of Gadson being under the influ­ence and that he refused to exit the vehi­cle when asked.

Read from the DOJ’s letter:

The Office of Justice Programs, Office for Civil Rights, has received a Complaint against the Colorado Springs Police Department (the Department). The Complainant, Dalvin Gadson Ochoa, alleged that the Department dis­crim­i­nat­ed against him based on his race. Specifically, the Complainant alleged that the Department’s offi­cers used exces­sive force dur­ing a traf­fic siop on October 9, 2022. The inci­dent gar­nered pub­lic inter­est and gen­er­at­ed sev­er­al media reports.

The Complainant also filed a law­suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, Civil Action No. 1:22-cv-03278, which involves sim­i­lar alle­ga­tions as his OCR Complaint.” The OCR will sus­pend its review of the Complaint (23-OCR-0142) dur­ing the pen­den­cy of the fed­er­al court proceedings.

Given the nature of the law enforce­ment mis­con­duct alle­ga­tion, we are refer­ring the enclosed Complaint to your office for review and appro­pri­ate action.

News of the traf­fic stop spread quick­ly after images of Gadson lying blood­ied on the ground cir­cu­lat­ed the media as well as one offi­cer smil­ing while show­ing off his blood­ied knuck­les. His attor­neys said Gadson suf­fered eye injuries, a rup­tured eardrum and chest wall con­tu­sions, via KOAA. The DOJ’s inquiry comes over a year after an inter­nal inves­ti­ga­tion cleared the offi­cers of any wrongdoing.

“By refer­ring this case for crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tion, the Department of Justice is putting these offi­cers on notice,” said attor­ney Kevin Mehr. “The CSPD may not take bru­tal­i­ty seri­ous­ly, but the DOJ does.”

From the root.