File, March 23, 2006, the gavel in an empty courtroom.
Joe Gratz/Flickr
A Denver jury has awarded Arlie Jackson, a homeless man, $1 million after he was allegedly assaulted by a concierge at his luxury apartment complex.
In early 2022, Jackson was walking home from his construction job. At the time, Jackson’s home was a Salvation Army shelter. He was one of more than 5,000 people experiencing homelessness in the Denver metropolitan area at the time.
It was getting late and the temperature was below freezing. Jackson decided to knock on the door of the luxury high-rise Quincy Apartments to warm himself after seeing the fireplace in the lobby. The incident would end with concierges dragging Jackson from the building and one of them pointing a gun at Jackson’s head, the lawsuit alleges.
A jury on Nov. 21 found negligence at the hands of the concierge and NFC Amenity Management, the company that employed the concierge, and awarded Jackson money. The jury’s verdict also said Jackson suffered injuries, damages and losses. They found that both Kendall Robinson and Greg Landrum “knowingly or intentionally” acted to cause injury to Jackson.
The case will be heard in Denver District Court, and the defendants can appeal the decision.
Azra Taslimi, one of Jackson’s lawyers, said: “I think this case is important because it shows how society often abuses and neglects its most vulnerable people, and how injustice always occurs.” This is because it highlights how neglected the situation is.” “The fact that the jury returned such a verdict sends a message that this is wrong and this is not the way we operate as a society.”
When Jackson approached the Quincy Apartments, two of the building’s 24-hour concierges let her in, but quickly changed their minds, the lawsuit alleges.
Two concierges on duty that night then used force to drag Jackson out of the apartment building, according to the complaint. Jackson’s lawyer said he did nothing to provoke the concierge and was not given a reasonable opportunity to leave.
“He did nothing wrong,” Taslimi said. “He has the right to ask if he can come in and warm up. They could have said no.”
Robinson and Landrum were not criminally charged by police. He did not respond to requests for comment.
During the confrontation, Robinson pulled out a handgun and pointed it at Jackson’s head. Robinson did not have a permit to carry a concealed weapon, according to the complaint.
The surveillance video was deleted less than a week after the assault. It is still unclear who destroyed the footage. Jackson’s attorney said the video will be automatically overwritten after 30 to 33 days. This time it happened within a week of the incident.
But the defense argued that Concierge and NFC Amenity Management were not responsible for the missing footage, and that even if the footage had been restored, it would not have made a significant difference to the case because the footage was of poor quality. .
Jackson’s attorney was able to obtain footage from a Denver police body camera. Taslimi said the footage played an important role in the lawsuit.
“We were able to find the video and use it to bring justice to Mr. Jackson,” Taslimi said.
However, the video does not show what happened outside the apartment. Jackson’s lawyer claimed that one of the concierges kicked Jackson after he was dragged outside.
Robinson and Landrum were employed by NCF Amenity Management, a third-party concierge service for the apartment complex. Taslimi said both men are no longer employed by the concierge service, but it took months or even years for the management company to take appropriate action.
“The NFC is at fault because after this incident happened, the NFC promoted them, gave them raises, didn’t fire them, didn’t train them, and didn’t conduct spot checks to see if Robinson continued to carry a gun at work.” Because we didn’t have it. We carried something we didn’t even have permission to do,” Taslimi told Denverite.
NCF Amenity Management and Quincy Apartments’ property manager did not respond to Denverite’s requests for comment.
Taslimi said Jackson suffered serious injuries. As a result of the assault, he suffered a spinal cord injury and underwent surgery, including having screws placed in his neck.
“His entire life has changed as a result of what happened to him and what the defendants did to him,” Taslimi said. “Again, I think that’s reflected in the verdict. The jury recognized that he would never regain the life he had before the incident.”
