An Adams County sheriff’s deputy wrongfully arrested a man last year for recording the deputy during a traffic stop and gathering information for a complaint about the deputy’s driving, according to Denver attorneys. Now, the county has agreed to settle for $80,000.
Barry Zatkalik, a former reserve officer for the Denver Police Department, noticed an Adams County sheriff’s deputy aggressively speeding past him on U.S. 85 without lights or sirens activated on Feb. 5, 2024, said Maddie Schaefer, an associate attorney for Killmer Lane LLP who represents Zatkalik.
The Denver-based practice focuses on civil rights litigation, including police brutality and misconduct.
A short distance down the highway, near 104th Avenue in Commerce City, Zatkalik noticed the deputy had pulled a car over and stopped nearby. He began videoing the traffic stop from a distance, and the deputy, Walter Berlinski, approached him.
“Can I get your name and badge number?” Zatkalik asks Berlinski in the body-worn-camera video. “… So I know who I’m making a complaint against.”
After Zatkalik told Berlinski he planned to file a complaint about the deputy’s speeding, the deputy demanded he turn over his license, registration and proof of insurance, even though Berlinski hadn’t stopped Zatkalik. Zatkalik refused.
“No, I’m doing nothing,” Zatkalik said. “If you’re gonna start this (expletive), you get your sergeant over here.”
Berlinski repeatedly ignored Zatkalik’s requests for a supervisor, threatened the man with a Taser, cuffed him and put him in the back of his patrol car under the guise of “obstruction,” Schaefer said.
“It is not illegal to film police officers from a distance, and it is not illegal to ask for an officer’s name and badge number for purposes of making a complaint,” Schaefer said. “We still live in a country where the First Amendment protects criticism of police, and Mr. Zatkalik was arrested in direct retaliation to his exercise of that right.”
Schaefer said the only thing Zatkalik was obstructing was Berlinski’s attempt to unlawfully and unconstitutionally arrest him.
The body-worn-camera video captured Berlinski explaining the situation to other deputies who arrived on scene after the arrest, and those officers agreed that there was no probable cause to arrest Zatkalik for obstruction. Berlinski also admitted to those deputies that his arrest was weak.
“You’re right, some of these guys, they forget that it’s not against the law for someone to videotape your traffic stop, it’s not against the law to pull to the side of the road, it’s not against the law to make a comment,” Detective Sergeant Eric Brodheim can be heard telling Zatkalik on the video.
Adams County settled the case with Zatkalik and his attorneys before a lawsuit was filed, Schaefer said.
The Killmer Lane law firm sent the county’s attorneys a legal letter announcing Zatkalik’s intent to sue the sheriff’s office and the county in May, but ultimately settled the case outside of court.
“I know my rights, and I know when they are being violated — but others might not,” Zatkalik said in a statement. “It was important to me to assert my rights that day, and to let this officer know that he was violating the law. He should have known better, and I hope he never does this again.”
The Adams County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
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