Denver approves settlement with man over wrongful arrest claim in auto theft case

The Denver City Council on Monday approved a $125,000 settlement with a man who was arrested and jailed for six days in 2022, then spent months fighting prosecution for the theft of a truck that he did not commit.

Attorneys for Scott Carey filed a lawsuit in July 2023 stemming from what they termed as Carey’s false arrest the prior summer. The suit named Denver police Detective Mark Matthews as a plaintiff.

Matthews was a chief investigator on the case, which began in April 2022 after two trucks were stolen from the property of Diamond Drilling and Sawing Company in Denver.

According to details included in that suit, Matthews ignored errors and discrepancies in how fingerprint evidence was collected and processed from one of the stolen trucks after it was recovered. A print matching Carey’s was found, but only on a cargo box outside the cab of the truck, according to the lawsuit.

When he filed for an arrest warrant, Matthews also allegedly ignored eyewitness evidence that suggested a Hispanic man in his 30s or 40s had been seen driving the truck after it was stolen. Carey is a white man in his 60s, according to his attorneys.

“In truth,” the lawsuit says, “Mr. Carey’s fingerprint was allegedly found on the door to a tool compartment that was separate and disconnected from the cab of the truck. Mr. Carey’s fingerprints were not found anywhere inside the cab of the truck. In fact, other people’s fingerprints were found inside and around the truck, and a witness to the theft identified a man who looked nothing like Mr. Carey as the thief.”