By C1 Staff
DENVER, Colo. — New video has surfaced regarding an incident back in 2011 where a Denver sheriff’s deputy choked an inmate while being led back to his cell.
The video is part of an inmate’s federal lawsuit against two deputies and the city of Denver.
The Denver Post reports that inmate Jamal Hunter claims he was pleading for better medical assistance when Deputy Edward Keller points to a doorway, then takes Hunter by the arm and leads him in the same direction.
Witnesses say Hunter was cursing and calling Keller a racist, and Keller ordered Hunter back to his cell.
The video shows Keller push Hunter through that doorway and through the door of a cell, followed by a second officer.
Hunter turns around and appears to say something to the deputies, but there is no sound on the video. It’s at this moment that Keller puts his hands around Hunter’s neck and pushes him down onto the cell bed.
“Mr. Hunter was an uncooperative inmate who refused to go back into his cell,” said Keller’s attorney. “He took an aggressive step forward. The video and another deputy corroborate his side of the story.”
The second officer assists Keller in restraining Hunter while other officers respond to the incident, one using a TASER.
It takes six officers total to put Hunter on the floor and into restraints, where he is then lifted off the floor and escorted out of the cell.
An investigation into the incident didn’t start until two years later, and a disciplinary panel suggested Keller be suspended for 30 days. The case led to the revelation of dozens of inmate allegations against the sheriff’s deputies not being investigated.
“Denver’s practice of failing to investigate and discipline its sheriff’s deputies after serious allegations of misconduct against inmates created an environment that fostered the rampant use of excessive force that defendant Keller embodied when he brutalized Mr. Hunter,” Hunter’s lawsuit states.