Pilot who stood naked in hotel window wins $300,000 over arrest, Denver lawyer says
A pilot who was arrested last year after standing naked in front of a hotel window facing Denver International Airport has won $300,000 in a lawsuit against the city, according to his attorney.
Craig Silverman, the Colorado lawyer representing United Airlines pilot Andrew Collins, accused the Denver police officers who arrested Collins of being overzealous and lacking a warrant to enter his room, CBS4 reports.
“A respected family man and outstanding veteran aviator, Captain Collins was the victim of an unjustified and warrantless entry into his hotel room followed by an arrest and days of miserable incarceration,” Silverman said in a statement, according to the TV station. “The criminal case against Captain Collins was properly dismissed, but not before Captain Collins was suspended for half a year from his job as a direct result of the wrongful charges against him.”
Collins was arrested on indecent exposure charges after “exposing himself” in front of a window at The Westin Hotel at Denver International Airport the morning of Sept. 20, 2018, according to a probable cause statement filed by police and obtained by McClatchy news group last year.
Police accused Collins of “knowingly and willfully” breaking an indecent exposure law at the room window, which “overlooks the hotel plaza and (is) in full view of the public,” according to the probable cause statement.
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But Collins, who admitted he was naked, said it was all a misunderstanding.
“It was a beautiful morning and I opened the curtains to my window,” Collins said last year, according to the Denver Post. “I couldn’t see the terminal.”
People at the terminal could see him, though, with one Transportation Security Administration officer telling authorities that Collins was waving and “touching himself,” according to the Post.
“Some witnesses said I was dancing, gyrating and waving” from the 10th-floor room window, Collins said, according to the Post. “I’m completely innocent. It’s really unfortunate that it happened at all.”
Collins, a United pilot of 22 years, lives in Leesburg, Virginia, Denver7 reports.
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Collins said in a news release from his attorney that the Westin should better protect its guests’ privacy and warn them “about the openness of the rooms’ interiors,” Denver7 reported.
“My family has had to deal with things they had nothing to do with,” Collins told CBS4 earlier this year, according to the TV station. “I have three boys who serve in the United States Air Force. They’ve had to listen to the jokes of their superiors about their father doing things in front of windows. My wife was a 30-year flight attendant for United Airlines and she has to go to work to listen to these same comments.”
The settlement was “quietly paid” to Collins last month, according to 9News, which reports that the money “came from a Denver International Airport insurance policy and bypassed the scrutiny of City Council, which normally must sign off on settlements of $5,000 or more when they are paid out of the city’s liability fund.”
