City pays family $60,000 over police search

The city of Columbus has paid a South Side family $60,000 and disciplined three Columbus police officers, after an investigation found they used improper force and illegally searched the family’s home.

Officers Alex Mottinger, Mark Wolf and Christopher Davis responded to a report of a theft of medication from a pharmacy Aug. 17, 2018.

Witnesses told Davis that the suspect had jumped a fence into a backyard on Ann Street, and Davis began searching the area, according to the Police Division’s internal investigation report. Davis ultimately called Mottinger and Wolf to the back of a home on the 700 block of South 17th Street.

One of the residents, Brian Denbow, saw police looking over a 6-foot-tall privacy fence surrounding his backyard and went outside. But when police asked him to open a gate into the yard so officers could search it, Denbow refused and began exchanging words with Wolf, the report stated.

At some point, Wolf pushed Denbow, who was leaning over the fence, in the forehead. The officer then climbed the wooden fence, dislodging two planks and breaking one in the process, the report said.

Officers Mottinger and Davis came into the yard when Wolf opened the gate. Denbow was taken into custody and struck several times while being handcuffed, the report said.

In his recommendation for departmental charges against the three officers, Cmdr. Terry Moore wrote the “entire incident could have been avoided had someone taken control of the situation.”

“No one tried to de-escalate. No one slowed it down to determine whether or not the entry was proper,” he wrote. “No one asked the one essential question, ‘Why are we doing what we are doing?’”

All three officers were found to have violated departmental policy and the constitutional rights of Denbow by unlawfully entering his property. The three received written reprimands. In addition, Wolf forfeited 32 hours of vacation time and Mottinger forfeited eight hours of overtime pay.

According to documents from Columbus City Council, Denbow and two of his relatives filed claims for damages and injuries suffered.

The $60,000 settlement, paid from the city’s general fund, was approved by the City Council at its July 29 meeting.

During the same meeting, the City Council approved a $35,000 payment to Patricia Butts for injuries she received in a crash with a Columbus police cruiser March 7, 2016. Documents show Officer Matthew Dober failed to stop at a stop sign and struck Butts’ vehicle, causing injuries to her head, neck, chest and back.