Richmond man wins $100K after alleging rights violated

A Richmond man will receive $100,000 as part of a settlement with the City of Burlington and a former police officer in a lawsuit alleging they violated the man's rights, according to the man's lawyer. 

Michael Mullen, who filed the lawsuit on May 16, alleged that dishonesty by former Burlington police officer Christopher Lopez resulted in felony drug possession charges against Mullen. He spent four months in jail while the case was pending as a result. The case was ultimately dismissed and Mullen released from jail.

"I think the case was pretty clear-cut," Mullen's lawyer David Bond said. "They recognized they had liability. ... Rather than test the worth of the case through a jury trial, my client was willing to accept a settlement at this time." 

As a result, the lawsuit is being dismissed "with prejudice," meaning it cannot be refiled, court papers show.

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Lopez's lawyer in the lawsuit, Philip Woodward, declined comment on the settlement and said he was "not at liberty to say" what portion of the lawsuit Lopez would pay.

Burlington City Attorney Eileen Blackwood said the city's insurance company covered the $100,000, but the city will most likely still have to pay a deductible to the insurance company. She said that sum will most likely come out of the city's general fund, which has a reserve set aside for these types of situations. However, Blackwood said she did not know how much the city will have to pay in this case or how much the city has set aside. 

Since Lopez was a city employee at the time of the action, the insurance covered him too, Blackwood said.

"The insurance company in this case felt that it was better to settle this case rather than to go forward," Blackwood said. "It's about making decisions about risk." 

Blackwood said the city feels "very strongly that the claims against it were unfounded." 

"While we may have been confident that the claims against the city would have been dismissed at some point during this lawsuit, or it would have ended successfully for the city ... this all in all was a reasonable settlement to resolve this unfortunate event," Blackwood said.

Lawyers discovered that Lopez may have lied in a written affidavit after body camera footage from an October 2016 traffic stop was found to contradict what he eventually wrote to establish evidence for criminal charges against Mullen. Specifically, Lopez wrote that he smelled what he knew from his training and experience to be the scent of marijuana emitting from the car. He is heard on the body camera video telling another officer that he didn't smell anything, but he wanted to find probable cause to search the car because "something doesn't feel right."  

Burlington Police Department body camera policy allows officers to stop recording when they are having on-scene conferences. Lopez thought he had switched off his camera, but it continued recording the statements in question, officials have said.

Burlington Police Department was made aware of the suspected perjury in February. Mullen's case was ultimately dismissed, along with about 15 other criminal cases in which Lopez had been involved. 

The Vermont Attorney General's Office has been reviewing a Vermont State Police investigation into whether Lopez committed any crimes. Assistant Attorney General John Treadwell said Wednesday that the case remains under review. He said he does not have a timeline for when the review may be complete. Attempts to reach Lopez's lawyer Lisa Shelkrot were unsuccessful. 

Bond said he thinks his client feels vindicated by the settlement. 

"He's happy to move on with his life and put this behind him," Bond said. "This is actually a settlement that will help change his life too." 

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizMurrayBFP.