Jury hits Parker with $24 million in civil-rights case over arrest

The Town of Parker faces a more than $24 million civil-rights judgment after a Douglas County jury found former Parker Police Detective Shannon Brukbacher liable for malicious prosecution and unlawful seizure in the arrest case of Robert Dial, a 62-year-old New Jersey resident.

The May 12 verdict puts a sharp financial and governance spotlight on Parker, where the town’s 2026 budget was set at about $183.3 million. The award, broken out in local coverage as $22 million in economic damages and $2 million for pain and suffering, is being described by attorneys as the largest civil-rights verdict in Colorado history.

The case grew out of a February 15, 2022 shooting at Stone Canyon Apartments, 19255 Cottonwood Drive in Parker, where police said one person was killed and another injured. Parker police said Cameron Dial, Robert Dial’s adult son, was taken to the Douglas County Jail on charges including second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder and first-degree assault after the shooting at the apartment complex.

Robert Dial’s lawyers argued that he was trying to help from 2,000 miles away, hiring a Colorado lawyer and urging his son to call for emergency help. They said Brukbacher became angry after the lawyer was retained and pushed ahead with an arrest affidavit against the father anyway. The lawsuit also said the detective relied heavily on a witness the plaintiffs considered unreliable and inconsistent.

Dial was later arrested at Denver International Airport in May 2022 as he deplaned from New Jersey. The verdict now raises direct questions about how the arrest case was built, whether the police work behind it held up, and how much scrutiny the town and the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office will give earlier statements, affidavits and witness accounts tied to Brukbacher.

The Parker Police Department said at the time that it worked with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the Douglas County Coroner’s Office, Lone Tree Police Department and the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office on the shooting investigation. After the verdict, the district attorney’s office said it was notifying people in cases where Brukbacher was a witness and reviewing whether additional disclosure about her credibility was needed.

Colorado’s 2020 police-reform law opened a civil-enforcement path for violations of rights under the Colorado Constitution, and the Parker case now joins a short list of major verdicts in that arena, including a $3.76 million Ruby Johnson award and a $14 million verdict for Denver protesters. For Parker, the judgment is more than a courtroom loss; it is a test of public trust, taxpayer exposure and how police supervision failures can reshape a town’s finances and credibility.