Family: $7M wrongful police taser settlement came after Idaho Springs man had 'best life ripped away'
Idaho Springs police have agreed to a multi-million dollar settlement with a 75-year-old man who was wrongfully tasered by police in May of 2021. Michael Clark will reportedly receive a record-breaking payout.
Clark has agreed to settle his claim for $7 million.
"A settlement like this doesn't happen unless things get really bad," Clark's attorney Sarah Schielke said. "And get quite bad they did."
Clark was unexpectedly and wrongfully shot with a taser on May 30, 2021, by Idaho Springs Police Officer Nicholas Hanning. The taser deployment caused a chain reaction of medical issues with Clark including a heart attack, stroke and several seizures.
Aside from his physical health, Clark also experienced financial difficulties as a result of the response, many of which were associated with extended hospital stays and now includes a 24-7 caretaker.
"He went from being able to get out of bed on his own to having to call for help simply to transfer from his bed to his chair," Daughter Cynthia Flageolle said at the news conference Wednesday. "From making his own breakfast to having to have it made for him, for being able to use the restroom by himself to having to call and ask for help just to get to the restroom."
Idaho Springs police were dispatched to Clark's apartment complex after his neighbor reported that he had assaulted her, something that was never supported through later investigations. He admitted to answering the officer's knock on the door with a small swordfish-looking sword in his hand because he didn't know who was trying to speak with him so late at night.
Officers are seen in body camera footage demanding that Clark drop the sword, which he is seen then putting the sword back on top of a cabinet. However, without warning, moments later Clark is shot with a taser while he began explaining his disagreement with his neighbor. He collapsed to the ground. As former Officer Hanning grabs his limp body to drag him to the hallway in his underwear, he pulls his arm, causing his head to slam into the cabinet. You can hear the former officer mutter "s---" on his body camera.
Former officer Hanning was later given probation for violating Clark's civil rights, and terminated from the department later on.
The settlement between Clark and Idaho Springs is believed to be one of the largest settlements ever reached in American history in a civil rights case that didn't result in death, if not the largest ever. That money does not bring peace to the family, who is already strapped with medical bills, and a future with their father who they say can't always remember parts of his day after the damage caused by officers.
"This settlement doesn't even come close to repay my father or our family for the past 18 months of torment we have endured," Clark's son, Jeremu Clark said. "We don't know how much more time we will be able to spend with our father, but this money will be used to pay for his medical care and allow him to have his second-best life, since his best life was ripped away from him."
In Colorado, it will surpass the record-breaking settlement paid out to Karen Garner in September of 2021.
Garner was paid more than $3 million by Loveland police after she was thrown to the ground and forcefully arrested by former officer Austin Hopp. Garner, who lives with dementia, was arrested and experienced a broken arm, separated shoulder and sprained wrist in the incident that stemmed from a report that she attempted to steal less than $15 of goods from Walmart.
Hopp, and fellow former officer Daria Jalali, were both sentenced to time in jail for their failure to properly handle the arrest. Attorney Schielke believes this will not be the last incident of bad policing in Clear Creek County or Idaho Springs, calling out the mountain area as a spot willing to pick up other department's "bad apples."
"I think it is going to get worse before it gets better," Schielke said. "They're just not attracting the candidates that they need to do these types of job safely. When you're talking about a small mountain town like Idaho Springs and Clear Creek County, you're not getting the best that policing has to offer."
"A lot of the citizens of these communities don't know they are getting the officers who couldn't get a job anywhere else, those who applied at about ten other places or just been convicted of a crime in another state like Utah and pop over here...this is where they end up."
