In 2019, a deaf Colorado man's interaction with police ended with the man being tased and spending four months in jail because of miscommunication.
Brady Mistic was driving into a laundromat in September of 2019, and when he stepped out of his car, he was met with the lights of a parked police car.
Two Idaho Springs police officers started yelling commands at Mistic before one of them threw the 24-year-old on the ground. At the same time, the other stunned him with her taser, according to a new federal lawsuit, NPR reported.
After the incident, the officers claimed that Mistic resisted arrest, but the Colorado resident says that his confusing behavior was because he could not hear them.
Misitic, who is deaf in both ears and uses American Sign Language to communicate, is now suing both of the officers involved in the incident, saying that they violated his civil rights as he was violently arrested without warning.
The officers worked for the city of Idaho Springs and the Clear Creek County Board of Commissioners.
"They went to force unreasonably fast, unreasonably rashly, without any legitimate justification for using force, which is particularly problematic for a person who's disabled like Mr. Mistic was," Raymond Bryant, Mistic's attorney, shared with NPR.
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Mistic was charged with assault on a first responder, obstructing a peace officer, and resisting arrest. Police also charged him with possession of forged currency, the suit says, because movie-prop money was found in his wallet.
After he was arrested, Mistic spent more than four months in jail and eventually had the charges against him dropped, the lawsuit said. However, it was also reported that while he was in jail, he was denied an interpreter.
In a statement, the Idaho Springs Police Department shared that the two officers were unaware Mistic was deaf and shared that Mistic resisted arrest, causing one officer to break his leg.
The officer's actions were deemed appropriate by the Idaho Springs Police Chief, Christian Malanka.
The incident occurred when former Idaho Springs Police Officer Nicholas Hanning and Officer Elli Summers followed Misitic to a laundromat after they saw him allegedly run a stop sign.
When Mistic got out of his car and walked toward the laundromat, police said the officers ordered him to get back to his car. When he didn't, they attempted to put him in handcuffs "due to his unexplained actions," at which point he resisted arrest, NPR reported.
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However, Mistic says he didn't know what the officers wanted or that they were at the laundromat for him.
Mistic's lawyer shared that for his client to resist arrest, he would have had to know that he was under arrest.
Misitc began yelling "no ears" while he was on the ground to communicate that he was deaf, but both officers ignored him, the lawsuit says.
Hanning was fired and charged with third-degree assault in a separate case where he used a taser on a 75-year-old man, The Associated Press reported. Summers is still employed by the Idaho Springs Police.
