A new lawsuit alleges that a group of Colorado deputies violated the civil rights of a teenage girl who was reportedly the victim of a sex crime and used excessive force against her when she was detained two years ago.
Lawyers representing a young woman identified as L.Z. in the complaint obtained by Atlanta Black Star allege that Custer County Deputies Michael Kear, Miles DeYoung, and Megan Robbins, alongside Sgt. Scott Hinshaw was involved in that detainment, which was caught on bodycam footage in Westcliffe, Colorado, on Jan. 18, 2022.
That footage shows Deputy Kear finding the then-16-year-old girl at a trailer in town with two older men after deputies received a call that she ran away from home.
After Kear finds the girl hiding in a closet, he handcuffs her and leads her outside. The complaint says that Kear alleged the girl tried to pull away from him after they walked outside, so he forced the girl “face first into a parked car.”
After some time, Deputy DeYoung arrives to help Kear take the girl into custody. Body camera footage shows Kear ordering the girl to get into the back of DeYoung’s police car, but she refuses to comply, and she lets her legs give way to sit down on the ground.
After demanding she get up to get in the car, the deputies try dragging her instead, and at one point, L.Z. suddenly turns her head at Kear in an alleged attempt to bite him, and Kear gives her a warning.
While still struggling to put the girl in the back of the car, DeYoung asks Kear if he thinks she should be Tased. Kear says no. Moments later, deputies finally got the girl partly into the backseat and demanded she put her whole body in the car. Kear asked her if she wanted to get Tased when she wouldn’t comply and pulled out his Taser.
After deputies try ordering the girl again, Kear uses the Taser on her, and the girl shifts her body so that she’s fully inside the car.
Before leaving the scene, Kear questioned one of the…
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