A Florence (CO) man has filed a federal civil suit in Denver claiming excessive force against a police chief and sergeant who ordered a police dog to attack him after he was trapped against a car following a foot chase.
Jeffrey Mark Tomlinson’s lawsuit filed Friday on his behalf by Denver attorneys David Lane and Eudoxie Dickey names Florence police Sgt. Sean Humphrey and police Chief Michael De Laurentis as defendants.
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Tomlinson, 46, seeks compensatory and punitive damages and attorney’s fees. He is also seeking a court-ordered public apology.
Tomlinson acknowledges that during a traffic stop and search of his car on the afternoon of Oct. 30, 2014, he resisted attempts to arrest him. He later pleaded guilty to charges of tampering with physical evidence, possession of a controlled substance and obstructing a peace officer.
When De Laurentis searched Tomlinson by having him put his hands on the hood of his car, the lawman found a pocket knife and a glass pipe used for illegal drug use. Tomlinson’s suit says he asked De Laurentis not to arrest him and attempted to snatch the pipe because he was afraid of being charged with drug possession. He also admits that when De Laurentis tried to arrest him he ran through the middle of Florence and hid in a ditch beneath a bridge.
He ran a total of 5 times before being apprehended.
Once Tomlinson was cornered, Humphrey used excessive force when he released and sicced Faroan on Tomlinson by yelling something that sounded like “Shah,” the lawsuit claims. The dog viciously mauled Tomlinson, biting him three times, leaving gaping wounds and permanent scars on his upper back, shoulder, torso, bicep and shinbone, the suit says.
The lawsuit says that the attacks were ordered even though Tomlinson was unarmed, was 5-feet-4 and weighed 110 pounds and was surrounded by as many as a dozen officers, it says.
Tomlinson acknowledges that after Faroan bit him in the shoulder and Humphrey pulled the dog off of him, he crawled under a car in a fifth attempt to escape.
