Everett Martinez, the general counsel for Denver International Airport, is suing the city and a trio of bigwig mayoral appointees in a lawsuit that touches on several of the airport’s most debated issues of the past few years.
Named defendants include City Attorney Miko Brown, Chief Financial Officer Nicole Doheny and the Mayor’s Chief Strategist Jeff Dolan. Martinez is accusing them of racist discrimination and retaliation after he raised concerns about a slew of alleged misdeeds and refused to take illegal actions at their request.
Jon Ewing, a spokesperson for Mayor Mike Johnston, described the complaint as “40 pages of horses*** from a disgruntled employee.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court on Wednesday, alleged Mayor Mike Johnston’s trio of appointees conspired to push out DIA CEO Phil Washington.
Brown allegedly told Martinez to “get on board” with the ouster, or alternately, “get a noose and hang yourself with it.”
“There is no ‘plot’ to remove the head of the airport – and the defendant certainly wasn’t conscripted into one,” Ewing said of the allegations. “The City Attorney didn’t say the things listed here.”
The Park Hill Golf Course land swap
The lawsuit argues the city ignored Martinez’s “sound legal advice regarding serious legal problems with the Mayor’s Park Hill Golf Course Land Swap deal,” subjecting the city to potential “catastrophic” fines and legal troubles.
Martinez worried the city was violating a Federal Aviation Administration rule largely prohibiting cities that own airports from taking money or value from the airport for non-airport purposes.
But with the mayor pushing for the land swap deal for the so-called “Park Hill Park” in time for his State of the City address, the mayor’s appointees ignored the advice, according to the complaint.
Johnston announced the deal in January 2025, long before it was done. The city valued the land for far less than it was worth, according to the complaint, another potential violation of FAA rules.
The mayor’s team also allegedly ordered Martinez to conceal facts from the FAA and to not keep records regarding the land swap — something he refused to do.
“The Park Hill deal was and is entirely legal and followed all FAA obligations as well as federal law,” Ewing wrote.
Key Lime Airlines
Additionally, Martinez cautioned Denver City Council President Amanda Sandoval that canceling a contract with Key Lime Airlines, the company that was using its planes to deport people, could get the city in trouble with the FAA.
The agency prohibits cities from taking discriminatory or non-safety-related actions against airlines. Council canceled the contract anyhow.
After the vote, according to the complaint, the city attorney asked Martinez to drum up a fake investigation into the company as legal cover. He refused.
“If he would have followed some of their directives, he would have put his law license at risk,” his attorney Steven Murray said.
Retaliation and, eventually, legal action
The more he refused to disobey the instructions of the appointee, retaliation began. He was iced out of meetings and degraded by the trio.
The lawsuit alleges defendants accused Martinez of working against the city.
“Martinez has not been asked to violate the law or city policy,” Ewing wrote. “He has not been drawn into a conspiracy. What he has done is violate his ethical obligations to the city by taking personal positions that were in opposition to those held by his own client — which is the City and County of Denver — and by disclosing information protected by attorney-client privilege.”
But after years working for DIA and being paid by the airport’s funds, Martinez had never been under the assumption that he was representing the city as a whole. Instead, he believed he was representing the airport.
Martinez filed a human resources complaint in January and wrote the trio of mayoral appointees and the Office of Human Resources, making claims that they had violated his First and 14th Amendment rights.
By March, Martinez had added claims: the city had engaged in “race discrimination and retaliation.”
Two days later, he was put on administrative leave.
Martinez is requesting a jury trial in the case and seeking back pay and additional financial compensation.
“The goal would be to make all of this go away and let him continue in his job, because he loves his job,” Murray said.
