Editor’s note: The court has yet to hear the motion to dismiss the $100 million lawsuit against Robert Comstock, a Colorado Springs police officer. Other updates have been made to the story for clarification.

A $100 million lawsuit filed against a Colorado Springs police officer for his alleged excessive use of force that left a man paralyzed after a chase is headed for a trial, although it could still be dismissed.

Jacob Root, 31, is suing Officer Robert Comstock for using a Taser two years ago on him during a foot chase, which broke Root’s neck and paralyzed him from the waist down.

A motion to dismiss the case was filed by City Attorney Brian Stewart, who is representing Comstock and the city of Colorado Springs, according to court documents. The motion, which is still pending, would make the case moot.

Root is being represented by national civil rights attorney Harry Daniels, whose law firm is based in Georgia, and Salida-based attorney Tyler Jolly. They are seeking damages from Comstock “in his individual capacity” and not from the Police Department, according to the lawsuit.

Root, Daniels and Jolly gathered at the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse in Denver to schedule a potential timeline for the case if the motion is denied.

On May 16, 2022, officers working in a multi-agency auto theft task force found Root driving a stolen car to a Kum & Go gas station on Airport Road after he had previously eluded officers, according to police records. Root fled when officers approached him, prompting a brief chase.

Just before Root ran into the street, bodycam footage shows Comstock shocking him in the back with the Taser, causing him to fall face-first into the street. Injuries from the fall left him paralyzed.

Daniels said Comstock violated one tenet of CSPD’s use-of-force policy by deploying the Taser while Root was in an elevated position, and violated another by not warning Root before using the Taser on him.

“Officers should know how to govern themselves. They are held to higher standards than anybody else because an officer can take your life. So at least they should be held to those standards and at minimum, they should be held to the policies,” Daniels said in a press conference held Tuesday morning.

CSPD Standard Operating Procedure No. 500 requires officers to give a clear verbal order before deploying a Taser or any use of force, but it notes the warning is not required when delaying the discharge would be unsafe, when the element of surprise is necessary to minimize the risk of harm, or is otherwise not feasible.

The department’s procedure further states that an officer cannot use a Taser on someone “in an elevated position or a location where a fall may cause substantial injury or death.”

In the hearing to dismiss the case, attorney Stewart argued that Comstock warned Root several times by telling him to “stop” and “get on the ground.” Officers also fired a BolaWrap, a device that shoots out a tether meant to restrain people who are non-complying from a distance, which Stewart argued was another warning.

“The task force’s repeated efforts to capture (Root), the presence of multiple officers outside the convenience store and the recently fired BolaWrap should have sufficiently warned (Root) that officers would use force if he continued to flee,” Stewart’s motion to dismiss said.

Stewart also argued that the plaintiff did not clearly establish a definition of what constitutes an elevated surface when Root was stunned, noting the plaintiff doesn’t include facts that show the slope’s height, length or degree of incline, nor do they point to established law that defines and elevated surface.

Daniels told The Gazette that anything that’s higher than the ground, like a step, is considered an elevated surface.

“That officer pretty much made a choice for me to be a prisoner in my own body,” Root said in a press conference.

In the news conference, Daniels said the recourse he wants from the Police Department is better training, to hold Comstock accountable for his actions, and for Root to be given resources to help him with medical expenses.

“Hopefully he (Root) can get the help he needs so he can walk again. That’s the goal, not that he stays in this position for the remainder of his life, but so he can walk again. But it takes resources for it to happen,” Daniels said.

As of Tuesday, the lawsuit is scheduled to be a two-week trial in 2025 if the motion is denied. The city could also settle, which isn’t the first time it’s happened in a case with Daniels.

Daniels said he keeps coming back to Colorado Springs because of bad police behavior, which he hopes to help correct.

In May, the Colorado Springs City Council settled a $2.1 million federal lawsuit filed in 2022 by Dalvin Gadson Ochoa after he was beaten by CSPD officers during a traffic stop. Daniels was one of his attorneys.

The settlement was approved in a 7-1 vote.

CSPD internal investigation

In September 2022, Colorado Springs police completed an internal investigation, which exonerated Comstock, adding that his performance was consistent with department policy.

The report states that Comstock tried to minimize risk of injury by issuing verbal commands and announcing the possible use of force through a police canine but notes that the situation did not meet the threshold to use a canine, since they are prohibited from being deployed in cases of motor vehicle theft.

In the bodycam footage released by CSPD, Comstock is heard saying, “Police. Canine, stop. You’re going to get bit.”

“If he had the time to use all of those syllables … he could have easily said, ‘if you don’t stop, I’m going to tase you,’” Daniels said in the press conference.

The report states Comstock further tried to minimize risk of injury by using the Taser before Root ran into traffic, which the report notes could have caused a crash, making him a threat to officers and others.

Standard Operating Procedure 500 outlines that officers and marshals are authorized to use conducted energy weapons, Tasers, if they have ground to arrest or detain the person and their actions are at a level of active resistance or aggression and law enforcement has a reasonable belief the person poses an imminent danger to themselves or others.

“Comstock is a valued employee and is in good standing with the department,” an announcement from CSPD said.

Comstock, who has been with the department since 2012, has been in at least one other internal investigation where he was cleared of another allegation of excessive force in subduing a protester during Black Lives Matter protests.