A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit early this month filed by a Colorado Springs church alleging selective law enforcement and religious freedom violations by the city, its police department, the Fourth Judicial District Attorney’s Office, and officials and officers in those departments.

In a ruling handed down Feb. 4, United States District Judge William Martínez dismissed a case filed by the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church and several of its members against the city, the Colorado Springs Police Department, Chief Vince Niski and Detective Brian Corrado, as well as Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen and his office. He dismissed the case on a motion filed by those defendants.

The allegations stemmed from an August 2020 incident during which church members, accompanied by a locksmith, attempted to reclaim property and assist a family in moving out of an apartment the church leased, due to members of the family allegedly violating terms of the lease.

When church members went into the apartment, according to arrest and court records, the situation escalated into two of the family members allegedly displaying weapons, prompting the parishioners to retreat and call police. Police who responded arrested several of the church’s members, but none of the family who lived in the apartment.

The church’s allegations included claims the police department, Corrado and Niski engaged in selective law enforcement, false arrests and religious freedom violations, and that the District Attorney’s Office and Allen contributed to those violations including through wrongful prosecution.

Defense attorney Bernard Kleinman, who represented the church in the case, said he disagreed with Martínez’s ruling, specifically on the grounds the judge cited of qualified immunity.

“There actually has been a serious, certain amount of criticism of that doctrine,” he said.

District attorney spokesman Howard Black said he was “not able to comment, as there are still criminal cases pending.” A call to a spokeswoman for the city, who handles requests for comment for the City Attorney’s Office, was not immediately returned.

Martínez dismissed the church’s claims that some members were subjected to false arrests and wrongful prosecution – would-be violations of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment – on grounds they failed to specifically allege that there was not probable cause for their arrest, according to his order dismissing the case.

He wrote in the order the church and its members failed to specifically allege the nature of the charges brought against them, “which makes it very difficult for them to plausibly allege they were arrested without probable cause.” He added that even based on the facts as alleged, he could not conclude that the police department, District Attorney’s Office, or their officers and officials lacked probable cause to arrest the church members based on their treatment in that situation of the family.

Martínez dismissed claims that church members were victims of selective law enforcement, a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, because while no members of the family were arrested, the church did not claim they engaged in the same behavior its members had – instead referencing one of the family members brandishing a gun, and another wielding a baseball bat.

“A similarly situated individual of another race could have been, but was not, arrested for the offense for which plaintiffs were arrested,” Martínez wrote in the order. He noted the church, or the plaintiffs in the case, also failed to allege they were victims of discrimination because all parties were of the same race.

According to court records, no charges were filed against the family member who allegedly brandished a gun, Nick Gainer, in connection with the incident.

Martínez also tossed claims that the church’s religious freedoms were violated on grounds that they’d failed to allege different treatment based on their religion, or to allege that police or prosecutors had used land use regulations to violate those freedoms, which the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act they cited requires to be proven.

Allen, Corrado and Niski were also entitled to qualified immunity, Martínez ruled, in part due to no claim being made any of them had violated church members’ constitutional rights.

Parishioners filed for the original complaint to be dismissed without prejudice Friday, according to court records, for reasons Kleinman said he “can’t go into.” If dismissed without prejudice, the issues the original complaint laid out could be raised in court later, he said.

Some parishioners involved in the situation, including Eric Jenkins, Matthew Brown, Willie Pee and William Williams, were found guilty in October of second-degree burglary and felony trespassing, but still have their cases in limbo due to being raised in appellate court. A sentencing hearing is set for late February.

4 Colorado Springs parishioners found guilty after investigation they allege was prejudicial

The Gazette’s Lisa Walton contributed to this report.