The former Aurora, Colorado, police officer who was fired after leaving a Black woman hogtied upside down in a patrol car for over 20 minutes will not get his job back, after appealing. The city’s Civil Service Commission chose to uphold his firing on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
On Aug 27, 2019, then officer Levi Huffine hogtied 28-year-old Shataean Kelly after he arrested her near Denver, Colorado, for allegedly refusing to stop fighting in a park with another woman. He ignored her repeated pleas for help as she remained in a face-down position on the floorboard of the patrol car for the duration of the 21-minute drive to the jail.
Footage of the car ride released by the Aurora Police Department last month sparked outrage. Police Chief Vanessa Wilson, who fired Huffine in February, six months after the incident, said the fired officer “tortured” Kelly, and that she was “disgusted” by what she saw on the footage.
Kelly repeatedly said that she could not breathe, and expressed fear that she might break her neck. “I don’t want to die like this!” she said at one point.
Wilson said Huffine’s “punishing” of Kelly in this manner could have caused her to die from positional asphyxia.
Huffine’s appeal hearing took place last week. The findings letter from the Civil Service Commission called his conduct “egregious,” and alleged that he intentionally ignored Kelly’s safety while transporting her.
The commission said that Huffine’s “callous and intentional disregard for the safety and well-being of (the woman) was so egregious that the ultimate sanction of termination was warranted.”
The letter also said that Kelly was initially placed on her side in the patrol car by Huffine and another officer and that she rolled off the seat during the drive.
Huffine has previously said that he is too short to have seen what was going on in the back seat during the drive, and repeated a similar narrative before the commission, saying he did not realize that Kelly had fallen to the floorboard.
He admitted he took no action to check on Kelly neither during nor after the ride. Huffine said he was concerned Kelly would try to escape by unlocking the back door of the patrol car, but Wilson said the locks in the back are not functional.
When Wilson fired Huffine in February, she wrote that he did not seem remorseful and was instead more concerned about how the incident might impact his job.
All charges against Kelly related to the fight have been dropped and she was not seriously injured.
Just months before the September release of the video involving Huffine, Aurora police faced scrutiny following the death of Elijah McClain, a Black man confronted by police after someone reported him as suspicious. The 23-year-old massage therapist died after being placed in a chokehold by police.
