Jamal Hunter wasn’t the first person whose treatment at the hands of Denver police or sheriff’s deputies over the past 12 years sparked community outrage, but he stands apart from the others in one significant way: He’s alive. “Paul Childs, Marvin Booker, Emily Rice — they’re all dead,” Hunter said in an interview Wednesday. “I think I was blessed that I made it.”

Because Hunter made it — and because video of his abuse at Denver’s downtown jail surfaced — he has been able to speak out in graphic details that have shaken the foundations of the criminal justice system in Denver in a way previous cases have not.

Hunter’s case also has encouraged other inmates to step forward with their own accusations of mistreatment — complaints that were often discouraged or ignored previously. Just in the past month, the number of open internal investigations involving sheriff’s deputies jumped nearly 30 percent. There were 147 investigations in July, up from 114 in June.

Repercussions continue to be felt, but Hunter’s case has already prompted several major developments:

• Sheriff Gary Wilson was forced to step down amid a continuing string of allegations that deputies abused inmates, including Hunter.

• A federal judge accused Denver police officers of intimidating a witness in Hunter’s case and called for a federal investigation of the police and sheriff’s departments.

• City Attorney Scott Martinez placed Assistant City Attorney Stuart Shapiro on paid leave pending an investigation into allegations he withheld evidence and improperly pressured police.

• Denver independent monitor Nick Mitchell’s office reviewed thousands of inmate grievances that led to the reopening of dozens of serious, previously ignored complaints against deputies.

• The sheriff’s office overhauled the city’s grievance system, which has already driven a dramatic jump in complaints against deputies.

In part to stop Hunter from talking about the deputy who choked him and a physician from describing permanent damage to Hunter’s body after his genitals were scalded, Denver city attorneys have offered him a $3.25 million settlement. The city said it was not an admission of guilt, but both sides agreed the proposed settlement was the least costly way to go. The agreement awaits City Council approval.

“I don’t think there has ever been a civil rights case in Denver that had such an immediate, far-reaching impact as Jamal Hunter’s case,” said Hunter’s attorney, Qusair Mohamedbhai. He pointed out that five law firms have represented defendants in the case, and Denver was going to have to pay his law firm’s fees over the past two years once Hunter won a jury trial.

But some, including plaintiffs attorneys in the Childs’ case and others with multimillion-dollar settlements, say much more needs to be done to change what one called the “code of silence” culture that pervades Denver’s police and sheriff’s departments. Law enforcement officers simply have no compelling incentive to change their entrenched practices, they argue.

“Police officers are not going to (report abuse by fellow officers) because the downside is still greater than the upside,” said Boulder attorney Timothy Rastello, a partner in the firm of Holland and Hart, who secured a settlement of $1.33 million in the case of 15-year-old disabled boy Paul Childs in 2004. Denver paid out $1.25 million for attorney’s fees in the early 2000s alone and a total of $3.5 million in the Randy Bartel case, the highest civil settlement ever in Denver. A police officer ran a red light during a call in 1989 and killed Bartel.

David Lane, whose law firm obtained a $3 million settlement against Denver in the death of 24-year-old Emily Rice, whose screams for help in the jail went unanswered in 2006, called the proposed settlement to Hunter “hush money.” Denver Health Medical Center paid an additional $4 million in the Rice case.

“They will pay any amount of money to avoid the embarrassment of exposing the actions of their officers to public scrutiny,” Lane said. Lane’s firm is set to take the case of homeless street preacher Marvin Booker to trial in September after he died during a jail scuffle with deputies.

The “coverup” approach that includes replacing Wilson is merely cosmetic and won’t do enough to make a meaningful dent in how the city handles complaints against police and deputies, Rastello said. He noted that it appears the two Denver police internal affairs sergeants accused of pressuring a witness in Hunter’s case not to testify are not being investigated.

Mayor Michael Hancock said Friday he has received “no indication whatsoever” that federal agents are investigating the police or sheriff’s offices. Nonetheless, the city is going forward with its own review.

“I don’t think you can look at the recent string of events and not do something that addresses the real root problems,” Hancock said. “We certainly needed to make some bold steps. We’re going to take a very close look at both the police department and sheriff’s office.”

U.S. District Judge John Kane said the officers’ investigation “smacks of a sham” and eventually brought the inmate in for an extraordinary open-court deposition. That witness, Amos Page, described working with a jail guard to sell pornography and marijuana behind bars and mete out beatings to fellow inmates who crossed him. He also verified key details in Hunter’s accusations against the deputy and the city.

Some evidence seems to support Rastello’s concerns about the lack of further inquiry into the police officers’ behavior.

Police Chief Robert White has said he would welcome any inquiry into his officers’ actions during the internal affairs investigation in the Hunter case. But thus far, it does not appear an investigation has been launched.

“We have not received anything formally or informally that there has been movement in that direction,” said Cmdr. Matt Murray, the Denver Police Department’s chief of staff.

Murray said the chief has looked into the allegations that police internal affairs investigators tried to intimidate the witness, but “he’s very comfortable with the actions of the sergeants,” Murray said.

Pressed by attorneys in Hunter’s case, the two police investigators recently dropped a bombshell by revealing previously undisclosed e-mails in which Shapiro, the assistant city attorney, pressured them as they prepared to interview Page in prison.

The officers said the e-mails from Shapiro were “inappropriate and designed to influence their investigation.”

Hunter’s attorneys accused the city of a coverup by failing to disclose the e-mails — despite orders from Judge Kane. In other e-mails to Hunter’s attorneys, Shapiro had denied being involved in the investigation or being privy to its internal workings.

Shapiro’s boss, Martinez, has asked for an independent investigation into his office that would look at everyone — including himself. The city said it will take bids from outside firms to conduct the investigation.

Kane has indicated he might pursue contempt-of-court charges against city attorneys. Still pending is Kane’s request for federal authorities to investigate the practices of the Denver police and sheriff’s departments.

Last week, the Justice Department announced that the Newark Police Department — New Jersey’s largest force — will be placed under an independent monitor. Officers there have faced allegations that would sound familiar in Denver: civil rights violations, excessive force and misconduct.

And in April, the Justice Department accused the Albuquerque Police Department of a “pattern or practice of use of excessive force.” Other cities remain under federal oversight.

Lane said the settlement avoids the spectacle of having a city attorney, deputies or internal affairs policemen getting on the stand in court and invoking their constitutional rights against self-incrimination for possible crimes.

“If anything, the ridiculous statement by the city attorney that the settlement for millions of dollars is not an admission of guilt will alert the Department of Justice that he is either delusional or there are some very serious problems in Denver,” Lane said.

“If I’m DOJ and I’m watching the city of Denver paying out millions of dollars in settlements because deputies are roughing up inmates, I’m thinking there are major problems in Denver. Cities who are not abusing inmates don’t pay million-dollar settlements.”

Mitchell said the Hunter case is what tipped him off about potential systemic failures by Denver police and deputies to investigate abuse complaints by inmates against staff.

In late 2012, he said he noticed something odd when he reviewed a lawsuit filed by Hunter’s attorneys in federal court. It said Hunter had filed two separate grievances in the months after his arrest in April 2011 on misdemeanor domestic violence charges.

In the first one, Hunter mentioned an inmate beatdown. On July 31, 2011, Denver jail Deputy Gaynel Rumer allegedly encouraged and facilitated an attack by several inmates on Hunter by telling them Hunter was a snitch, the grievance indicated. On that day, Hunter’s nose was broken in a beating, and he was severely burned in the genitals. Hunter said Rumer ignored his screams for help. A grievance about that incident had been referred to the independent monitor’s office.

But the lawsuit said Hunter also wrote another grievance the following month after Deputy Edward Keller choked Hunter in his cell after the inmate asked to see a nurse about a possible infection of his genitals. That grievance had not been sent to his office.

“It prompted me to wonder whether this case was indicative of a broader problem,” Mitchell said. “I was mostly concerned about cases slipping through the cracks.”

A staff of seven people from Mitchell’s office reviewed all grievances by Denver jail inmates over the past 2½ years. They narrowed their search of nearly 6,000 grievances to the 861 in which inmates complained about deputy misdeeds. Mitchell read each one and concluded 54 cases were severe and needed to be investigated and referred to his office. Only seven had been.

“Why the heck don’t I know about these cases,” Mitchell said he asked himself. “The grievance issue was the elephant in the room that no one could see.”

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kirkmitchell

Staff writer Noelle Phillips contributed to this report.

Prominent Denver settlements

• $3.5 million paid in 2001 and 2002 to the estate of Randy Bartel, killed in a car crash with a police officer who ran a red light during a call.

• $1.33 million paid to the estate of 15-year-old Paul Childs, a mentally disabled teen who was armed with a knife, in 2004.

• $3 million paid to the estate of Emily Rice, a 24-year-old woman who died in the Denver jail in 2006 after her complaints about severe car crash injuries were ignored.

• $900,000 paid to the estate of Francisco Lobato, an unarmed 64-year-old man fatally shot in bed by a police officer on July 11, 2004.

• $3.25 million proposed settlement with Jamal Hunter, who was scalded in July 2011 and choked by a Denver jail deputy in August 2011.