Juan “Willie” Vasquez said he still wakes from nightmares, clawing at the air and crying out for protection from the police.

“It’s always me running from the cops, and there are lots of them,” the 16-year-old said in an interview Wednesday. “I’m dreaming about it all the time.”

An encounter with a Denver police officer, who has been charged with felony assault, left the teen with a kidney that no longer works and a pile of unpaid medical bills in excess of $100,000.

A tube now drains waste from his body. He aches all the time. He sleeps most of the day.

“I just want my life back,” he said during his first public comments on the incident.

He was once a par golfer, accomplished enough to attract the eyes of those who run the Park Hill Golf Club. Now he wonders whether the kidney will ever function again.

On April 18, at 9:30 p.m., Vasquez had a beer in his hand while with a group of friends on the front porch of a home near West 37th Avenue and Pecos Street when he was spotted by Officer Charles Porter and others from the Denver police gang unit.

Vasquez, who says he’s not a gang member, says he ran because he’s a 16-year-old who knew he was caught with an unopened beer.

The district attorney’s office has said that when Porter caught up to Vasquez, the 12-year veteran officer subdued the 5-foot-6, 130-pound teen and jumped up and down on his back. Vasquez said he had tripped near a fence after being hit with a flashlight by another officer and that he curled up on the ground before Porter started jumping on him.

“I begged, ‘Please, please stop.’ The pain was unbearable,” Vasquez said. “It could have been death if he had done it a couple more times. It would have busted me right open.”

Porter has been charged with felony assault. Vasquez, who had to be rushed to the emergency room, was never cited for the beer, he said.

“His worst crime was being a kid,” said his adult cousin Veronica Gonzales, who, as his legal guardian, has raised him since his mother died when he was 9.

Vasquez declined to discuss whether he had a juvenile record, though Gonzales acknowledged he is “not an angel.” But she insisted any brushes he had with the law were minor. A police report on the April 18 incident makes no mention of any warrant for Vasquez’s arrest when Porter started chasing him.

The city has placed Porter on unpaid leave from the Police Department’s gang unit pending the conclusion of the criminal charges.

Porter has declined to comment, and city officials also have declined to discuss specifics.

Gonzales said she had to leave her job to care for Vasquez, whom she considers a son. She must clean his bandages daily and make sure the tube that takes waste from his body doesn’t clog. She said she must monitor the bag of waste he carries at his side and clear it when it becomes full.

She said there is no way to pay for the medical bills she keeps in a file folder. The family has no insurance. The bill for Vasquez’s stay in the intensive-care unit came to nearly $60,000. Then there’s the ambulance trip, the medication and the follow-up visits.

She said the doctors have told her they will no longer treat him for life-threatening injuries and will refer bills to a collections agency unless she starts making $350 monthly payments. She said they also tell her she must come up with $155 for each additional visit.

After learning that the doctors would no longer provide treatment without payments, the family this week tried on their own to remove the waste tube to see whether Vasquez could function without it. His temperature soared to 102 degrees, so they reattached the tube.

They are hoping the public will contribute to the Juan Vasquez Trust that they established at Chase bank to help them cope with the medical bills. A bank officer confirmed that contributions can be made at a Chase bank branch or by mailing a check to the Chase bank at 2040 S. University Blvd., Denver, CO 80210.

Vasquez and Gonzales, who say they are Denver natives, plan to file for Medicaid coverage to see whether it will help pay the medical bills, but getting final approval could take as long as 90 days.

The family has filed a police-brutality lawsuit, hoping to recoup damages from the city. But for now there is bill after bill — and no way to pay.

For now, Vasquez said, his bad dreams continue.

Gonzales said she hears him crying out in his basement bedroom. She said that when she checks on him, he’s flailing. She said when he wakes, he screams: “You’re telling them I’m here. You’re telling them I’m here. You’re telling them I’m down here.”

Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com