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Federal Judge Threatens Fines Over Denver Police Lawsuit

DENVER (AP) - A federal judge is threatening to fine Denver $5,000 a day for dragging its feet on court orders to provide complaints of excessive force against police.

The documents include records of every excessive-force complaint filed against a Denver police officer or sheriff's deputy in the past eight years.

Attorneys for Jason Graber say the documents are needed to prove their claim that the city has a continuing practice of unconstitutional misconduct by law enforcement after he was injured during a confrontation with police.

U.S. District Judge John Kane criticized the city in July for failing to turn over the documents sooner and he warned further obstruction would not be tolerated.

According to the Denver Post, the city has 300,000 pages of complaints and 7,500 audio and video recordings.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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