‘I felt dehumanized’: Michael Francisco speaks amid suit against Carbondale, police over wrongful arrest
Jonson Kuhn/The Aspen Times
Michael Francisco is a man of many titles.
Rastafarian, educator, radio DJ and landscaper, just to name a few, but perhaps above all, he’s a deeply intuitive human being.
He’s relied on that intuition for much of his life to help him get by and avoid trouble, but he feels even in this day and age there are some titles that all of the intuition in the world can’t help steer a person clear of conflict.
The title of being Black.
Though Francisco is from the Caribbean, he says he wears the same “tuxedo” as those who identify as African-American, and it’s his strong feeling that the events that transpired on Christmas Eve 2020 that ultimately resulted in his wrongful arrest were entirely race related.
“This is what African-American people go through psychologically whenever they see the cop car,” he said. “When the cops see me, they just assume I don’t belong in a certain situation.”
The civil rights law firm Killmer Lane, LLP, who are representing Francisco, filed an amended race discrimination lawsuit in Colorado federal court at the end of last month. The case is based on an incident that occurred on Dec. 24, 2020, in which the Carbondale police arrested and forcibly removed Francisco from the Carbondale City Market, according to the suit, because of his race, and therefore violating his civil rights.
In December 2020, Francisco was working at the Aspen City Market and on the way back to his home in Glenwood Springs he stopped to see a friend in Carbondale to collect some money he was owed. Running low on gas, Francisco’s friend advised him to stop at the gas station located at the City Market in Carbondale because the gas was cheap and it would make for a convenient meeting spot for the two friends.
Francisco said in that moment, his intuition spoke to him, warning him he was “going off path” by not driving straight home as he normally would. But he said he needed the money and was looking forward to catching up with his friend. So, against his better judgment, he made the stop at the Carbondale City Market.
Once at the gas station, Francisco said he saw two attendants at the gas station’s kiosk, a man and a woman, one of whom he recognized since he, too, was a fellow City Market employee. He said he recognized the woman, named in the suit as Erlinda Martinez, who was standing behind the other attendant. Francisco said he pointed his finger in her direction in an attempt to say hi. Little did he know that an attempt to say hi would soon lead to his downfall.
After pumping his gas and meeting his friend in the parking lot, the two made their way into the store to pick up a few items. While talking with his friend and shopping for his items, Francisco said he saw a police officer enter the store and again his intuition was on alert.
“As soon as I saw the cop, I remember I paused in my conversation and the thought that ran through my mind was, ‘There’s going to be a confrontation with this individual in the future,'” he said. “I didn’t know it was going to be like less than 30 minutes later, I was thinking it was going to be like years or days down the line.'”
According to the suit, the officer that Francisco saw enter the store was Carbondale Police Chief Kirk Wilson, who at the time was in the store for unrelated reasons to Francisco.
The City Market manager of the self-checkout area, named in the suit as Tia Walker, reported to Wilson that a gas station attendant, Martinez, had told her Francisco had made gestures she perceived as threatening.
According to the suit, based on Martinez’s complaint, Wilson then called for additional back up to assist in removing Francisco from the store without any further investigation, which Francisco’s attorney Michael Fairhurst said is what makes this a case of racial discrimination.
“The fact that the police so hastily removed Mr. Francisco from the store without any modicum of reasonable investigation, to us, suggests that race was a motivating factor because it strains credulity to imagine that a white customer would have been treated with such disrespect,” Fairhurst said.
Carbondale Sergeant Tade Shivley and Officer Benjamin Mendoza, who are also listed in the suit, were the officers to respond to Wilson’s request for backup. Once approached, the officers told Francisco he was trespassing and had been asked to leave the store by the manager.
Francisco made it clear that he was well acquainted with the City Market store manager, Sarah Oddan, and even saw her in the store prior to the altercation with police and at no point did Oddan ever ask him to leave the store. When he suggested the police speak with Oddan, the police declined and further insisted he was trespassing.
After defending his innocence and refusing to show the officers his ID, Francisco was then tackled to the ground and placed under arrest. According to the suit, it was during the ensuing struggle that Shivley’s body worn camera “suddenly cut off.” It was also during this time that Shivley and Mendoza removed Francisco’s tam (also known as a Rasta cap) from his head as part of the search.
Being born in Belize and a practicing Rastafarian, the cap has religious significance for Francisco and, according to him, it was only after he threatened to sue the officers for violating his religious rights that the tam was then placed back on top of his head.
“I felt dehumanized, I felt like nothing at all,” he said. “I felt like I wasn’t even a human being. I was trying to figure out what was going through their mind to try to take off my tam, they already had me handcuffed. I couldn’t do anything.”
Francisco was eventually removed from the store and taken to jail. However, in May of 2021, Carbondale officially dropped all charges against him. As of 2022, the town and police had not been named within the suit, only City Market, who later reached a settlement with Francisco after a mediation with all involved parties. Carbondale, however, despite dropping charges against him, chose not to reach an agreement. This prompted Francisco’s legal team to drop City Market from the suit and instead add the town of Carbondale, as well as members of the Carbondale Police Department.
“It has been almost three years since the Carbondale police forcibly ejected Mr. Francisco from the Carbondale City Market because of his race after illegally arresting him inside,” Fairhurst said. “Unfortunately, Carbondale still refuses to take accountability for violating Mr. Francisco’s civil rights. So, we will take Mr. Francisco’s fight for justice with the Carbondale police to federal court.”
Fairhurst added that Carbondale and the police chief have 21 days from being served with the lawsuit to file a response to all of Francisco’s claims, and should the case go to trial, it still likely would not be for one to two more years. Carbondale police were not immediately available for comment.
Francisco said the 2020 incident was the third altercation that he had with Carbondale police, all within a few months of each other. After the first two encounters, Francisco chose to finally move to Glenwood Springs; however, due to his many jobs, he still must travel to Carbondale for work.
He said after his arrest at City Market, he still suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, and relies on back roads at all times whenever driving to Carbondale in an effort to avoid further police contact.
“Every time I see a cop, if I see a police car, it triggers something in my mind,” he said. “The police used me pointing at her (Martinez) as a point of reference that I had done something wrong, but only well after the fact,” Francisco said. “It was a harmless gesture, even the other attendant in the kiosk said I didn’t say anything wrong to him and he was going to testify that I didn’t do anything to her. The point to me is that if you are a Black man in America you can go to jail for not doing anything wrong. That’s the point.”
To reach Jonson Kuhn, email him at jkuhn@aspentimes.com.
