2025 CLEA Awards for Outstanding Clinical and Externship Students: Denver’s Cassandra Dinaro, MaKenna Zoglmann, Teagan Foti, Maya Cemper, Makayla Shoults, Anahi Quezada-Villa

Over the course of two academic years, this team successfully achieved reversal of a grant of summary judgment in a case involving the unjustified police killing of Patrick Harmon, Sr., in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. In 2017, Mr. Harmon Sr., a Black man, was stopped by police after riding his bicycle without a taillight. Mr. Harmon was shot and killed by a Salt Lake City police officer moments after he attempted to flee arrest.  Mr. Harmon’s children and Estate filed suit alleging violation of Mr. Harmon’s right to be free from excessive force under the Fourth Amendment. The Utah district court granted defendants summary judgment, and the Civil Rights Clinic at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law took the case to appeal the decision on behalf of the Harmon family.

 

The first iteration of the team filed the appeal and drafted the primary briefs, while the second prepared for and performed oral argument at the Tenth Circuit.  On April 22, 2025, the Tenth Circuit issued its decision and reversed the district court’s order granting summary judgment – an all-out win for student team and Mr. Harmon’s family, reviving the case so it can be tried before a jury.

 

The Tenth Circuit published the decision, making it a useful precedent for other plaintiffs pursuing excessive deadly force claims to help overcome qualified immunity.  The decision also has significant implications for the analysis of deadly force cases on summary judgment where questions surround officer perception of a suspect’s imminent threat. 

Anahi proactively reached out to the Meyer Law Firm when she realized they had done organizing work with her 10 years ago when she was an organizer at a nonprofit. Anahi pursued law to utilize her past professional background and personal experiences on behalf of her community.

 

Initially, Anahi completed intensive waiver applications for cases that were stalled out. Her supervisor shared that she delivered her work “in a way that was unprecedented”, in terms of volume and efficiency. She currently provides counsel and advice to nonprofits, daycare centers, and faith communities on raid/enforcement preparedness plans; represents noncitizens in immigration detention in bond and substantive cases; works on affirmative immigration cases of all nature and complexity; leads know-your-rights trainings in communities; and seeks immigration benefits for survivors of crime. Anahi testified this month at the Colorado legislature in support of immigration protection legislation and prepped directly impacted clients so their stories could form the center of conversations at the Capitol.

 

In her reflections, Anahi regularly discusses the challenge of carrying clients’ burdens as if they are her own, working tirelessly to find the balance between building rapport and offering a stable presence while also maintaining emotional boundaries to do the work for the long haul. She has focused extensively on trauma-informed practice, communicating with clients in native languages, developing ethical practices to sustain herself and her clients. Her supervisor reported “she fights for [clients] with a level of grace, composure, and class” that he has yet to achieve after 20 years in practice.