False DUI arrest leads to $400,000 settlement for wrongly accused driver, lawsuit says
A lawsuit was settled for $400,000 after a man was wrongly accused of driving under the influence in Colorado, federal officials said.
In January 2020, Harris Elias was driving home in Fort Collins after attending a dinner party at his girlfriend’s house, according to the lawsuit.
The father of three missed his turn and saw a car speeding up to him, the suit said.
Then Elias put on his left turning signal and made the lane change, officials said.
Loveland police officer William Gates pulled Elias over after suggesting he “didn’t signal his lane change,” officials said.
Gates, who has won trophies from Mothers Against Drunk Driving for “having the highest DUI arrest numbers” also suggested he stopped Elias for driving 18 miles hour in a 45-mph zone, the document stated.
After Gates asked Elias about his night and how much he’d had to drink, Elias decided to “remain silent and not be interrogated,” the document stated.
Gates then arrested Elias after saying he smelled the “overwhelming odor of alcohol coming” from his car, the lawsuit said.
After Elias refused further questioning and refused to be breathalyzed at the scene, he was arrested and taken to the Loveland Police station, officials said.
While at the station, Elias’ breath and blood tests came back negative for alcohol and drugs, the document said.
McClatchy News reached out to Gates’ attorneys for comment on Dec. 12 and was awaiting a response.
“No amount of money will ever return me to the peaceful state of naivete to our broken system that I enjoyed before I was stopped by former Officer Gates that night and put through the nightmare of this wrongful arrest. Nothing will shake from my heart the horror and shock I felt after blowing zeroes and not being set free. All I can hope is that with this lawsuit, with Gates gone from the department, and with this settlement, I have saved at least one other person from having to experience what I did,” Elias said in a news release.
In 2022, Elias sued Gates, Sgt. Antolina Hill and Chief Bob Ticer for “purposefully” performing DUI arrests regardless of the driver’s innocence to get more “bragging rights, more funding, more equipment” and more trophies, the release said.
“This is, as far as we can tell, the largest non-confidential monetary payment ever made in Colorado to settle a civil rights lawsuit where the primary allegation is a wrongful DUI arrest with no physical injuries or time spent in jail,” Elias’ attorney Sarah Schielke said in the news release. “While, like with most civil rights settlements, the City admits no wrongdoing, we feel the size of this particular settlement — and the fact that both the arresting officer William Gates and former Chief Ticer are no longer at LPD — are realities which speak volumes regarding accountability we were able to accomplish here.”
Loveland is about 50 miles north of Denver.
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