A PROTESTER has claimed a cop sexually assaulted him with a baton during his arrest, leaving him bleeding weeks later.
Michael Jacobs, 23, shared footage of his July 29 arrest this week and said he is planning to take action against the Denver Police Department for “savagely” beating him.
Jacobs told local station KMGH that he was rattling a fence at Lincoln Park to get an officer’s attention before he was arrested.
“I was grabbed from behind, it felt like it was from my neck, no warning, no ‘you’re under arrest,'” Jacobs said.
In the footage, several officers can be seen holding Jacobs on the ground.
The picture is a bit unclear, but onlookers can be heard shouting at cops to stop hitting the man.
Jacobs can also be heard yelling: “He tried to sodomize me!”
The self-described student activist said that he is traumatized by the altercation, and that he has lingering health issues, including panic attacks and bleeding from his backside.
“As I was on the ground and as I was completely helpless, someone took what felt like a nightstick and shoved it up my butt,” Jacobs explained.
“It was the most traumatizing thing I’ve ever experienced in all 23 years of my life.”
He added that he’s had to see GI doctors since the incident, and that he’s now dealing with bleeding hemorrhoids.
“I mean, the people that are there to protect you, to do something so wrong, it’s like, I have panic attacks now, which I’ve never experienced before,” Jacobs added.
However, the Denver Police Department released a statement saying that Jacobs was part of a group trying to push down a gate at the park and that he tried resisting arrest and even attempted to grab an officer’s pepper ball gun.
Jacobs and his attorney, Matt Greife, have said that the charges are a “cover.”
“To say that he attempted to disarm a police officer of their pepper gun or pepper ball gun, that’s nonsense, he was on the ground way too fast,” Greife said.
The lawyer added that it has been a challenge to obtain evidence, like police reports and body camera footage, in the case.
“We should know what the police reports say. We should know what the body cams tell us,” he said.
The Denver Police Department confirmed to The Sun that an internal investigation regarding the allegations had been opened.
The department said they could not comment further as the investigation is ongoing.
