A former Denver police recruit is suing the department, saying he was forced to participate in a "brutal hazing ritual" that cost him both his legs.
Victor Moses, 29, alleges that the department and paramedics forced him to participate in "Fight Day," a police training exercise that simulates arrest and assault situations. The lawsuit filed Tuesday says that the force used during the training was excessive and led to life-threatening injuries.
"I never thought that I would become the target of police brutality as I was training to become a police officer," Moses said in a news release accompanying the lawsuit. "Now I am picking up the pieces and coming to grips with a lifetime of disabilities."
What happened to Victor Moses?
On Jan. 6, 2023, Moses was participating in a so-called dynamic action drill during Denver police academy training, according to the lawsuit, which says the drill involves four stations intended to teach future officers how to escalate and de-escalate force. It's also known as "Fight Day" in the department, the lawsuit says.
At the second station, Moses was knocked to the ground, hit his head and passed out in a simulated attack by multiple assailants, the lawsuit says. Department personnel forced Moses to his feet to continue the drill until he passed out again when an officer called paramedics over, the lawsuit says.
Moses told the paramedics that he was "extremely fatigued" and experiencing "extreme leg cramping," a sign of distress in people with sickle cell trait, something Moses said he had in a police application form, the lawsuit says.
Although paramedics found that Moses' blood pressure was extremely low, they cleared him to continue training, the lawsuit says. But, it continues, Moses was so exhausted that officers had to bring him to the third station, a ground-fighting drill during which an officer put his body weight on Moses, causing the recruit to say, "I can't breathe," before he became unresponsive.
Moses was then taken to the hospital. He required multiple surgeries to save his life, had to have his legs amputated and was hospitalized for four months, according to the suit.
Moses developed severe compartment syndrome, rhabdomyolysis, malignant hyperthermia, and severe hyperkalemia in the hospital, according to the lawsuit.
Victor Moses files suit
Moses' lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court, names the city, the police department, Denver Health, 11 police department employees and two paramedics.
The Denver Police Department declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Denver Health also declined to comment on the lawsuit but said in a statement to USA TODAY that "safety and well-being is a top priority for Denver Health and its paramedics."
Lawyers for Moses pointed to the department's training tactics as a root cause of the department's excessive use of force in the field.
"Instead of training police properly in constitutional use of force techniques, including de-escalation and rendering emergency aid to the injured, the defenseless or the subdued, Denver with the groupthink help of Denver Health instead teaches police recruits it is acceptable to seriously injure people, even fellow officers like Victor Moses, to the point of unconsciousness and then not timely secure emergency care to help them," John Holland, one of Moses' attorneys, said in a statement.
“'Fight Day' is an archaic, outmoded, and unnecessary training program, brutally violent and dangerous," Darold Killmer, a lawyer for Moses, said in a statement. "Such brutality in training is not necessary to produce good police officers."
The lawsuit includes multiple text exchanges from recruits present during the training where Moses was injured.
"What got me was the lack of attention from the paramedics, they should have stepped in way sooner and stopped it,” then-recruit Zachary Vasquez said in a group chat, according to the lawsuit.
Lawsuit alleges department lied about recruit's injuries to doctors
The lawsuit alleges that paramedics lied to doctors at the hospital, denying that there was a "significant traumatic mechanism of injury," causing Moses' care to be compromised.
"I mean the bulk of us witnessed him fall headfirst on the tile, they don’t have much of an argument against it," Vasquez said in the group chat, the lawsuit says.
Killmer says the paramedics helped "enable continued violence and brutality, holding the gate open for additional infliction of trauma even if the recruit has been rendered unconscious."
The lawsuit alleges the department continued to cover up their actions, telling news media at the time that Moses' injuries were caused by undisclosed conditions.
Moses is seeking compensatory and putative damages from six claims, including a claim against the police officers under a Colorado statute that allows claims against individual police officers who either deprive someone of their state constitutional rights or fail to intervene in such deprivation.
