In The News

Victor Moses, a Denver Police Recruit, was catastrophically injured during a Denver Police Department training exercise

30 Jul Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed by Permanently Disabled Police Recruit Against Denver Police and Denver Health for Injuries Suffered in Brutal Training Exercise and Failure to Provide Medical Treatment

Posted at 15:33h in In The News by

Holland, Holland Edwards and Grossman, LLC with our co-counsel at Killmer Lane, LLP have recently filed a major lawsuit on behalf of Victor Moses.

On January 6, 2023, then 28-year-old Victor Moses, a Denver Police Recruit, was catastrophically injured during a Denver Police Department training exercise that has been known for years to Denver Police as “Fight Day.” This exercise is an exhausting and violent series of grueling combat-type drills designed to exhaust the Recruit and to give them the experience of receiving violent physical assaults from multiple attacking trainers who pretend to be criminal suspects. On January 6, 2023, it devolved into a brutal hazing ritual.

During the “Fight Day” drills, Mr. Moses was knocked off the floor mats, slamming his head onto the concrete floor. Although many trainers and recruits witnessed this violent fall and his collapses and loss of consciousness, the drill continued. Mr. Moses tried to stand up many times but collapsed each time. He was rendered completely unconscious at least twice. After such great exertion, his blood pressure was alarmingly low. He was also experiencing extreme cramping.

The lawsuit asserts that if this had been a boxing match the fight would have immediately stopped when Victor Moses was first knocked unconscious. If this had been a football game, he would have been removed from the game when his head was slammed down under concussion protocols.

Rather than stopping the drill and immediately providing obviously necessary medical care or taking any steps to manage this brewing crisis, the training staff insisted that he continue, even though he had been knocked unconscious. The rules of Fight Day were clear to all Recruits and their Trainers: If you do not finish the drills, you cannot become a Denver Police Officer.

Further, Mr. Moses had disclosed, as part of his police application and that very day on the mats, that he had Sickle Cell Trait (“SCT”). SCT is common to approaching 8-10% of African Americans.  It is not the disease of Sickle Cell Anemia.  Most people with SCT never experience any medical complications.  However, it is well known that people with this trait can experience serious medical complications while performing intense physical activity at high altitude if not properly managed.

Two Denver Health paramedics were stationed right there, presumably to provide necessary medical care to an injured Recruit. Abandoning their duties to provide emergency care to an obviously injured person, the lawsuit alleges that Denver Health medical providers had become part of the police team, and authorized the continued brutality, disregarding the then well known to them symptoms Mr. Moses was displaying and the obvious dangers to Mr. Moses’s health and life. When Mr. Moses awoke during their taking of his abnormal blood pressure vitals, he again informed the paramedics and all present that he had SCT.

Although Mr. Moses could not even stand up, or walk and had been knocked unconscious, the complaint further alleges that the police trainers, and observing/participating officers, with the paramedics’ blessing, ordered the drill to continue and proceeded to the wrestling component. At that time Victor Moses was helpless, on his back, totally incapacitated and unable to defend himself. He could not even move to the next station. They had to bring that station over to him.

When his trainers and involved officers tried to stand him up, he fell down. From his assaults, he was by then involuntarily in police custody, paramedic care and in need of emergency hospitalization. Only upon his loss of consciousness again, occurring 30 seconds or so into this two-minute drill, did the paramedics finally decide to place him in the ambulance to go to UC-Health. By then he was receiving sternal rubs.

Upon arrival, Mr. Moses was nearly dead. Numerous emergency surgeries saved his life, but the doctors were forced to amputate both of Victor Moses’s legs below the knee. Mr. Moses went into a coma after collapsing during this “training” with rhabdomyolysis complicated by compartment syndrome, acute kidney failure and stress related cardiomyopathy which resolved.

He was hospitalized for 4 months, experiencing over 20 surgeries, on his legs, arms and hands, and to repair/save functioning in his internal organs. He underwent numerous limb salvage surgeries called fasciotomies. He was placed on dialysis.

In a span of just a few minutes on the morning of January 6, 2023, Victor Moses went from a healthy, vibrant young man to a person who will battle lifelong disabilities and trauma, recovering from devastating injuries inflicted upon him by the Denver Police Department. Most recently Victor Moses underwent 8 hours of surgery to try to restore function in his right hand. Medical care to treat his catastrophic injuries will be required for the rest of his life.

The lawsuit asserts that Fight Day both encourages Denver police to engage in brutality and to be indifferent to the injuries they inflict.

The complaint detailing these grim events was filed on July 30, 2024 in Denver District Court and is attached. The suit names 11 police officers, two Denver Health paramedics, the City & County of Denver and the Denver Health and Hospital Authority as Defendants.

Law Firm Files Complaint for Victor Moses (PDF)

            This matter is of serious public concern and has been the subject of significant media coverage discussing the numerous allegations contained in the 500-paragraph complaint.