DENVER — A federal jury awarded $500,000 to a man who was arrested at Denver International Airport on charges that he’d forged an identification card.
Denver police arrested Juan Valenzuela in Feb. 2017 after concluding that his California identification card was forged. In reality, it was expired and had been damaged after going through the wash but was not fake.
Valenzuela, a prison guard, offered several other forms of identification to a Denver police officer, including his employment ID which included his photo.
The officer arrested him on suspicion of felony forgery, and Valenzuela spent two days in jail and lost his job. The criminal charges were eventually dropped.
Valenzuela sued for wrongful arrest, and the federal jury included $300,000 in punitive damages in its award.
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