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Teen girl sues ex-Colorado deputy, claiming excessive force during arrest
Posted: Jan 17, 2024 / 04:56 PM MST
Updated: Jan 17, 2024 / 07:48 PM MST
WESTCLIFFE, Colo. (KDVR) — When a 16-year-old female runaway was found far from home in a trailer with two middle-aged men, deputies from the Custer County Sheriff’s Office showed no concern the teen might have been the victim of sex trafficking, according to a newly filed lawsuit.
Instead, the civil complaint filed by the teenager alleges a deputy would repeatedly shock the girl with a Taser, causing her to urinate on herself.
The plaintiff, identified in the lawsuit only as L.Z., was reported to have stolen a car from her guardian’s home in Cañon City on Jan. 18, 2022.
As part of their search, deputies pinged L.Z.’s phone and tracked it to a trailer in Westcliffe, an hour away from where she’d last been seen, where she was found with two middle-aged men.
The lawsuit claims that Deputy Michael Kear wasn’t interested in the fact that two older men were harboring a runaway teenage girl or appeared to be supplying her with alcohol. The lawsuit also says deputies didn’t investigate the men for any crimes, allowed one man to leave the scene without identifying him and declined to arrest the other man, a 51-year-old with an outstanding warrant.
Body camera recordings show an interaction where the 51-year-old asks, “She’s not 18?” Then, after being told her actual age, he responds, “Oh, wow.” The other male companion can be heard saying, “I don’t know nothing, I apologize,” before he was allowed to leave.
The lawsuit claims this is despite Kear later acknowledging that the girl appeared to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
When Kear asked the 51-year-old if the girl had been using drugs, he responded that he did not know. According to the lawsuit, he then “spontaneously asserted that he traveled all over the state, as well as to South Dakota, and regularly ‘helped’ girls like L.Z. by letting them stay at his trailer, which contained a single bed.”
“This is a 16-year-old runaway in a trailer with two middle-aged men. She’s isolated, intoxicated, afraid, with no ID, hiding in a closet,” said Kevin Mehr, who represents L.Z. “These are all red flags for sex trafficking. But these officers ignore them and proceed to use their Tasers like cattle prods on an underage victim cheering each other on the whole way.”
The lawsuit says Kear and other deputies on the scene never investigated the possible crimes of contributing to the delinquency of a minor or human trafficking. It also claims the footage shows the deputies handcuffing L.Z., dragging her to a patrol car and then shocking her with a Taser. Body camera footage released to the Problem Solvers appears to match what is outlined in the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Kear claimed that the girl attempted to bite him but was unsuccessful. Eventually, she was put in the back of the police car but used her foot to block the door from closing, and that’s when Kear shocked her with a Taser, the lawsuit says.
Once the girl was brought to the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, body camera footage shows she was shocked with a Taser a second time while sitting in the back of the car, and then she was placed in a restraint chair.
According to the lawsuit, this caused L.Z. to urinate, convulse and hyperventilate. Instead of providing her medical assistance, Kear threatened to shock her again.
The lawsuit claims that Kear requested L.Z. be charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest, but the charge was dismissed by the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office after a motion was filed by L.Z.
According to the lawsuit, Kear was later fired by the Custer County Sheriff’s Office while under investigation for claims of sexual misconduct with coworkers and underage girls.
moar at link:
https://kdvr.com/news/problem-solvers/teen-girl-sues-ex-colorado-deputy-claiming-excessive-force-during-arrest/
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