Jury awards $200,000 to Mexican tourist in Colorado 'fart police' lawsuit

Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post on Nov 3, 2026

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DENVER — A Colorado jury on Tuesday awarded more than $200,000 to a Mexican tourist who was bitten by an Aurora police dog three years ago after officers gave nonsensical Spanish-language warnings about the dog.

Jurors found Robert Wong, the dog’s handler, liable for using excessive force during the SWAT operation and a second officer, Grant Peet, liable for pursuing a malicious prosecution. Jurors did not find fault with the other two officers named as defendants in the complaint, Oscar Pena and Jeremiah Miles.

Salvador Alonso Guerrero-Salmeron was renting a room in an Aurora home on March 2, 2023, when police officers arrived to arrest a man who was renting a different room in the house and who had no connection to Guerrero-Salmeron, he alleged in his lawsuit.

The officers used a loudspeaker to command people in the home to come out during the early morning operation, but Guerrero-Salmeron, who was asleep when police arrived, did not hear or understand their commands, which the officers announced in both English and poorly pronounced Spanish, he alleged in his complaint.

The officers also tried to warn residents that a police dog named Loki was present, but their attempts to do so in Spanish were nonsensical, according to court records.

“Pedo policía pedo la madera,” officers repeatedly said, which a translator later found meant, “Fart police, fart the wood.”

Eventually, the officers entered the home and arrested the man they were looking for. After that man’s arrest, the officers entered the bedroom where Guerrero-Salmeron was and commanded the police dog to bite the man. The dog bit Guerrero-Salmeron, who was unarmed, on the arm for about 15 seconds as he held up his tourist visa and ID.

In court filings, Aurora city attorneys representing the four officers named as defendants took the position that the officers acted reasonably and that commanding the dog to bite was an acceptable use of force because Guerrero-Salmeron did not comply with police commands for more than an hour and could have been armed or preparing to attack officers.

Guerrero-Salmeron’s attorneys, Joshua Landy and Luke McConnell, alleged the dog’s bite was unnecessary and excessive and pursued both excessive force and malicious prosecution claims. Guerrero-Salmeron was initially charged with failing to obey a police order, a municipal offense that prosecutors later dropped.

In a joint statement Tuesday, Landy and McConnell said the jury’s verdict “sets the record straight.”

“What makes this verdict particularly significant is that the jury didn’t stop at finding excessive force,” the statement said. “The jury also found that an officer maliciously prosecuted an innocent man and imposed punitive damages for that conduct.”

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