Killmer Lane obtains historic $3.2 million settlement for the family of Jeffrey Melvin against the City of Colorado Springs. The City of Colorado Springs has agreed to pay $3.2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by Killmer Lane on behalf of the family of Jeffrey Melvin. This marks the largest police misconduct settlement in the city's history, and comes after a seven year battle for justice for Mr. Melvin's death at the hands of Colorado Springs police. On April 26, 2018, Colorado Springs Police Department (“CSPD”) Officers Daniel Patterson and Joshua Archer killed Jeffrey Melvin, a 27-year-old Black man. The officers met Mr. Melvin when they were responding to a reported disturbance at an apartment, unrelated to Mr. Melvin; he was merely a [...]

LAWSUIT: Poudre School District pays $16.2 million to settle lawsuit for child abuse. Poudre School District will pay a total of $16,200,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the parents of ten children who suffered horrific abuse at the hands of former employee Tyler Zanella, a paraprofessional who was hired as a bus attendant to assist autistic, mostly non-verbal,  elementary school children. Killmer Lane client, the Montgomery family, were among the families included in the settlement. "My family will never be the same. I don't remember what life was like before Ash was assaulted," Daisy Montgomery said, "They showed us four videos of the 37 that they ended up finding in a one month period of our son being brutally assaulted." Finally, after [...]

LAWSUIT: Jim Purdy, 76, Dies After Dozens of Violent Falls in Jefferson County Jail Killmer Lane, LLP is proud to represent the family of Jim Purdy, who died as a result of the cruel indifference of Jefferson County Sheriff's personnel and the Jefferson County Jail's notoriously dangerous, incompetent private medical services provider, VitalCore. Mr. Purdy, who suffered from Parkinson's Disease and Dementia, fell violently over 70 times over the course of approximately a month's incarceration at the jail after VitalCore medical staff decided not to provide him with critical medications and Jefferson County personnel incorrectly housed Mr. Purdy in general population. Though Jefferson County deputies knew of Mr. Purdy's quickly worsening condition, and directly witnessed his accumulating open wounds over the course of [...]

Killmer Lane, LLP is gratified to report that our fifth (and final) client, Suhail Abdu Anam al-Sharabi, who had been wrongfully imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba for almost 23 years, has finally been released from custody and resettled in Oman. Suhail was brutally tortured in the earlier years of the prison, and has been cleared for release for several years. We have represented him (and 4 other Yemeni men) since 2006, and finally all five have been released. Hopefully now he can begin a new and rewarding life outside of illegal captivity. More On NY Times More On This News Item

Child With Autism Who Was Repeatedly Assaulted By A Former Poudre School District (PSD) Paraprofessional KL Partners David Lane and Liana Orshan filed a lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the family of a child with autism who was repeatedly assaulted by a former Poudre School District (PSD) paraprofessional, Tyler Zanella, while riding the bus to school. PSD officials knew that Zanella had a concerning criminal history, but chose to hire him and place him in a position of authority and control over extremely vulnerable children. "They should have never hired Zanella, and the public should see the kinds of people they hired to take care of vulnerable kids on a school bus,"" said Lane. More On Denver 7 More On This [...]

Barbaric Hazing Ritual at the Denver Police Academy KL Partners Darold Killmer and Reid Allison, with co-counsel John Holland, filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court today to seek justice for our client Victor Moses, who lost both legs after being forced to endure a "barbaric hazing ritual" at the Denver police academy. Known as "Fight Day," this hazing ritual is an unnecessarily violent rite of passage that recruits have to endure to be accepted into the police "fraternity." It is a shocking manifestation of a culture of excessive force and indifference to injuries at the Denver Police Department. More On Washington Post More On This News Item