DENVER — A photographer who said he was injured while filming the George Floyd protests in Denver in 2020 has settled for $485,000. Denver will pay $350,000 of that – Jefferson County, Golden and Arvada will cover the rest.
Trevor Hughes' lawsuit said officers shot him with a projectile, nearly tearing off his finger.
Several police brutality settlements have come out of those protests, totaling more than $15 million.
Interactions with Denver police during the protests in 2020 led to more than a dozen lawsuits against the city. Many of them are still going through proceedings in federal court.
Hughes' attorney, Andy McNulty, said his client had to go through surgery to reattach his finger.
"Luckily, he has recovered to the point where he can use that finger again," he said.
McNulty also represented Michael Acker. He said Denver police hit his eye with a projectile – and Acker settled for $500,000.
Another attorney represented Megan Matthews whose lawsuit said she was hit with a rubber bullet. That case settled for $575,000.
"They are going to spend a record amount of money settling these police brutality cases that happened during the George Floyd protests," said McNulty.
The biggest payout came this spring when a grand jury awarded $14 million to a dozen protestors. McNulty only expects the numbers to keep going up.
"There's a lot still pending. We saw the verdict of $14 million, and this is a significant injury to Mr. Hughes but other people have suffered just as bad if not worse injuries," he said.
McNulty said his office has had other protestors reach out after these big settlement amounts become public, but he said the time has passed to file a lawsuit. Colorado's statute of limitations is two years.
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