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$522,000 verdict for CU athlete run over by Denver cop

by: Rob Low

Posted: Jan 24, 2023 / 09:11 PM MST

Updated: Jan 24, 2023 / 09:11 PM MST

DENVER (KDVR) — A Denver jury has awarded $522,000 to a former Colorado Buffaloes women’s basketball player after she was run over by a Denver police officer in 2019.

The verdict came down in November. But Quinessa Caylao-Do and her attorney waited to speak with the Problem Solvers until last week, when Judge David Goldberg denied the City of Denver’s motion for a new trial.

Caylao-Do had been celebrating her 22nd birthday on Dec. 16, 2019, when she was hit by a patrol car driven by Officer John Logue.

During jury selection, Wolf said the City of Denver tried to strike a Black woman from the jury pool, simply because she was Black and female like Caylao-Do.

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The city attorney for Denver denied it wanted the juror removed for racial reasons, but Wolf raised what’s called a Batson challenge — a legal precedent that prosecutors cannot exclude a potential juror because of race, ethnicity or sex. The woman was kept on the jury after a rare ruling by Denver Judge David Goldberg, who sustained the Batson challenge.

“I do not find Defendants’ (City of Denver) arguments compelling and persuasive, and do find that they were race-based,” Goldberg ruled.

“I think it was the judge really acting appropriately and looking at the circumstances, saying, ‘I don’t see a valid reason here to strike this one juror outside of the fact that she also happens to be a young Black woman,'” Wolf said.

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The trial testimony didn’t go any better for the city of Denver.

On the witness stand, Logue testified, “She ended up underneath my car. I feel horrible for that. I — and how could I not feel responsible for that?”

Even though the jury awarded Caylao-Do $522,000, the City of Denver won’t have to pay more than $387,000 because of Colorado‘s government immunity cap that applies to government workers, which includes police officers.

Wolf said Denver hasn’t agreed to pay the cap of $387,000 and has instead signaled it plans to appeal the verdict to a higher court after the judge denied the city’s motion for a new trial.

Read more at KVDR.