A former Denver police lieutenant backpedaled Wednesday on statements he made to the city’s police watchdog agency about alleged failures of leadership during the 2020 George Floyd protests, criticizing how the Office of the Independent Monitor characterized his opinions in a memo prepared for an investigation into the protests.

Former training academy Lt. John Coppedge took the stand briefly in the ongoing trial over how police handled the demonstrations sparked by George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, though he said he was not present at the protests.

Under cross-examination, he said his characterization that officers reacted to what unfolded on the ground “without any sort of leadership” was “within the context of a hypothetical discussion about what I saw on the news.”

Response to George Floyd protests drew criticism from some in Denver police’s leadership ranks, former monitor says

The federal case, now in its third week of trial, claims police used excessive force against protesters in 2020 with dangerous and indiscriminate deployment of less-lethal munitions. The Office of the Independent Monitor released a report in the fall of 2020 that described police’s use of chemical agents and kinetic projectile weapons “troubling,” and dozens of memos based on interviews with officers were prepared during the investigation.

The case seeks to hold Denver accountable for failing to train officers properly for responding to the protests.

The Police Department has been criticized for using force against whole crowds rather than isolating individual people who were behaving violently for appropriate force or arrest. The Office of the Independent Monitor’s report found police used force against people who were not being physically aggressive, fired munitions at people’s heads, faces and groins – all prohibited parts of the body – and continued using chemical agents after crowds dispersed.

The department has disciplined few officers for inappropriate force during the protests. Testimony earlier in the trial revealed many internal investigations prompted by complaints about use of force were closed because the individual officers at issue couldn’t be identified.

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Coppedge disputed the memo’s description of a statement that the Police Department’s leadership had failed to recognize during the protests when officers on the front lines had taken too much abuse, with the suggestion that it heightens the risk of their tempers running short and officers using their weapons in retaliation against protesters.

Coppedge said on cross-examination that had been a hypothetical conversation during his interview rather than specifically about failures during the George Floyd protests.

“I said … if any human being is left standing for 12 hours, multiple days in a row, and subjected to violence, abuse … eventually, over days, their cognition will start to flip and emotions will start to take over.”

Pressed by Arnold & Porter partner Tim Macdonald, Coppedge said he’s not sure training can overcome those wearing effects of mental fatigue.

“Could it help?” Macdonald asked.

“It couldn’t hurt,” Coppedge replied.

Jury hears from former officer Monday in federal trial over Denver’s policing of 2020 protests

Coppedge reiterated that his opinions about training he gave during his interview were based on theoretical settings, and suggested the Office of the Independent Monitor went in search of misconduct during its investigation.

“There’s stuff missing. We had a lengthy conversation about crowd dynamics, and that’s nowhere in there,” he said.

Coppedge was asked a single question by the city’s defense attorneys: Did anyone in the Office of the Independent Monitor check whether his opinions and impressions were captured accurately in the memo of his interview?

“No,” he said.

Coppedge didn’t dispute the memo’s characterization that he had described the Police Department’s response to the George Floyd protests as a “total leadership failure,” but Macdonald didn’t go further on that line of questioning.

The trial is scheduled through the end of this week.