Denver settles protest lawsuits by men injured by police projectiles

Denver will pay $465,000 to settle a lawsuit filed on behalf of two men shot in the head with less-lethal projectiles by police officers during the 2020 George Floyd protests.

Nicholas Orlin and Shawn Murphy jointly sued the city and up to five unidentified police officers in January 2022, seeking damages for eye and facial injuries suffered in those incidents while protesting police brutality on May 30, 2020. These payments were approved as part of the Denver City Council’s consent agenda on Monday afternoon.

According to their attorneys, both men also received payments from the city of Aurora in the same case.

An amended version of the complaint identified Aurora Police Officer Cory Budaj as the person who fired the projectile that injured Orlin, and Aurora Police Sergeant Matthew Brukbacher as the person who fired the projectile at Murphy.

Orlin and Murphy did not know each other, but were both in the Lincoln Park area at the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Lincoln Street that evening, the lawsuit said.

Orlin was knocked unconscious by an unknown hard projectile after covering a tear gas canister with a traffic cone, the complaint said. A short time later, Murphy was shot in the face with a hard projectile after kicking a tear gas canister.

In both cases, officers gave no warning before firing, plaintiffs’ attorneys said. Both men suffered from vision problems and facial disfigurements after the incidents.

The two settlement agreements with the city of Denver designated $210,000 for Orlin and $255,000 for Murphy.

Orlin had already received $100,000 through a settlement with Aurora. According to attorney Birk Baumgartner, Murphy received $175,000 from that city, totaling damages of $310,000 and $430,000 to the two men, respectively.