It’s been three years almost to the day that Michael Francisco was arrested at the Carbondale City Market and charged with obstruction of government operations, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. All because he pointed at someone who worked in the gas station kiosk. Even though the resisting arrest case was dismissed in May 2021, a subsequent civil case has not yet been resolved.
Michael Fairhurst, Francisco’s attorney, told The Sopris Sun in a recent interview that, originally, they filed legal claims in 2022 against City Market, its parent company Kroger and an employee involved in the episode leading to Francisco’s arrest on Dec. 24, 2020.
Police body cam videos bear witness to a rough arrest that Christmas Eve, with Carbondale police officers wrestling Francisco to the ground in the self-checkout aisle of the store, pinning him to the floor, conducting a body search and stripping him of his Rasta cap. Police forcibly removed Francisco from the store in handcuffs, put him in the backseat of a squad car and took him to the Carbondale police station.
After several hearings, all charges were dropped in May 2021 as part of a deferred sentence that included a facilitated conversation between Francisco and Carbondale Police Chief Kirk Wilson. Legal documents show that Wilson apologized to Francisco at that time.
“A few months ago, the City Market side of the case, meaning City Market, its related entity defendant and the individual employed by City Market, resolved their claims against Mr. Francisco,” said Fairhurst.
But, attempts at settling with the Town of Carbondale have been elusive. First, he said, they entered into what’s known as a tolling agreement with the Town over a year ago. “The idea was to provide the parties with time to negotiate without potentially going to court because we were getting somewhat close to potential statute of limitation deadlines,” he explained. “It made sense to buy the parties time to discuss the topic without intense time pressure.”
All parties, including City Market and the employee, ended up in private mediation in September. “And as is sometimes the case of these mediations, part of the case was resolved and part of it wasn’t,” he added. “So, [the City Market et al case] is done.” Fairhurst said that due to confidentiality requirements, he is unable to discuss details of the mediation or why things didn’t work out with the Town of Carbondale and the individual police officers except to say that it’s ending up in court.
Fairhurst filed a second amended complaint on Oct. 29 against the Town of Carbondale, Police Chief Kirk Wilson, former Carbondale police officer Tade Shively and Carbondale police officer Benjamin Mendoza. A second amended complaint is essentially the same as the original complaint, except with a few changes. “The second one is consistent with our resolution of claims against the City Market defendants and Carbondale’s unwillingness to reasonably resolve Mr. Francisco’s claims against the town and its police,” explained Fairhurst.
But, the motion to amend the complaint is stuck in the slow-turning wheel of justice. Fairhurst explained that the judge has yet to rule on their motion to amend the first complaint. “In other words, until Carbondale is officially added to the case, which at this point is up to the judge, we can’t move forward with discovery or anything else of substance in the case,” he said. “It’s in a holding pattern while the court has the motion to amend still pending on its docket.”
Attorneys for the Town of Carbondale have not responded to requests for comment from The Sopris Sun.