A Colorado State University student is suing the City of Fort Collins and two police officers who he said wrongfully arrested him for driving under the influence just over a year ago.

On July 16, 2025, Nathan May, an incoming senior at CSU, was pulled over near South College Avenue and Boardwalk Drive by two Fort Collins Police Services officers for driving without his headlights on for a short period of time after he left a late-night movie screening.

According to the lawsuit, filed on his behalf by attorneys Sarah Schielke and Matthew Haltzman, Fort Collins police officers Trevor Cacciatore and Vince Hooley accused May of a DUI after he was stopped.

May presented no immediate signs of intoxication at the scene and had no criminal history and a clean driving record, the lawsuit said. May repeatedly told officers he had consumed no alcohol or used drugs that night. He also completed road-side sobriety tests, blowing a 0.0 on a portable breathalyzer test and performing roadside maneuvers with reportedly no sign of impairment. The officers searched May’s car and found no drugs, paraphernalia or alcohol within the vehicle. 

“From the outset, every objective indicator confirmed Mr. May’s sobriety,” the lawsuit reads. “He was calm, polite and fully coherent. His balance was normal. His driving was normal. His speech was normal. He carried on an easy, friendly conversation with one of the cover officers about the movie he had just seen and the route he had taken home.”

Despite no immediate evidence of intoxication, May was arrested by the officers and taken to UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital for a voluntary blood draw before being transported to Larimer County Jail, where he spent around eight hours in custody, according to the lawsuit. 

The blood test results later confirmed that there were no alcohol or drugs in May’s system that night, leading to May’s charges being dropped and the case being dismissed Oct. 29, 2025. Prosecutors reportedly said there was “no reasonable likelihood of success at trial,” the lawsuit states.

“It was a very terrifying situation to be in,” May said. “I wanted my story to be known by others because if this can happen to me as a CSU student, it can happen to anybody else. It just kind of shows that regardless of how good standing you are as a citizen, it just doesn’t really matter because at any time you could be falsely arrested for something you didn’t do.”

In the months that followed after the arrest, May was placed on pretrial supervision and subjected to repeated drug tests — all of which came back with no indicator of drugs or alcohol. FCPS reported May’s DUI charge to CSU, which placed May under a “lengthy student-conduct investigation,” according to the lawsuit. Investigations such as these are carried out by CSU’s Student Conduct Services, and can lead to probation, loss of good standing, suspension and expulsion depending on the incident.

Student-conduct processes are intended to be “a learning experience which can yield growth, behavioral changes and personal understanding of one’s responsibilities and the consequences and impacts of one’s actions,” according to SCS’ website. “This process balances the needs and rights of students with the needs and expectations of the University and larger community.” 

May said going through the student-conduct process and his ongoing DUI case negatively impacted his academic performance that semester. 

“I had a really strong GPA,” May said. “I was in really good standing with the school, and then now it’s like that was, like, my worst semester so far because I was constantly having to leave class (and) leave campus all the time to go take these drug tests.”

Beyond academics, May said his life has been severely impacted. May was required to pay all pretrial supervision and testing fees out of pocket, creating a significant financial burden. According to May’s lawyers, as a result of his pretrial supervision, he was forced to cancel a long-planned trip to Costa Rica, and in the aftermath of his arrest, May was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and has been undergoing therapy.

“Mr. May — a young man who has never used illegal drugs and does not consume alcohol — was forced to endure months of being treated as a criminal, subjected to invasive testing, reported to his university, investigated by student-conduct authorities and made to live under the constant shadow of criminal prosecution and potential academic expulsion, all because two Fort Collins police officers arrested him without probable cause based on fabricated and incompetent investigation,” the lawsuit reads. 

The lawsuit names the City of Fort Collins and the two arresting officers, Cacciatore and Hooley, as defendants. The Collegian reached out to the City of Fort Collins for comment to which a spokesperson, Amanda King, replied with a written statement declining to comment on the allegations, citing the pending litigation.

“We are aware of the filing, and as it is now before the court, we are unable to provide specific case details or comment,” the statement reads.

FCPS has not responded to requests for comment at the time of publishing. 

According to a LinkedIn post made by Haltzman, this is the sixth wrongful DUI lawsuit brought against FCPS in the last three years. According to reporting by the Coloradoan, The city has paid $650,000 to settle two previous wrongful DUI lawsuits. An additional lawsuit was dropped, but two more lawsuits are still pending as of July.

May’s lawsuit also cites former FCPS officer Jason Haferman, who the lawsuit claims “engaged in a documented pattern of stopping and arresting drivers for DUI without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.” 

“It’s a huge issue in Larimer County specifically,” Haltzman said. “I think it comes back to a lack of training (and) lack of oversight by the command of the Fort Collins Police (Services). These are good questions that need to be answered, ultimately, by the Chief of Police and the people who were supervising that night.” 

May said his experience convinced him that the problem extends beyond his individual case and that he hopes sharing his story will help drive systemic change within FCPS. 

“I would love to see some change within the department; … I think the issue is systemic,” May said. “There needs to be some sort of really big change because it’s very concerning now that we’ve seen multiple people getting falsely arrested for DUIs. It’s a recurring issue, and it kind of puts into question some of the practices that the Fort Collins Police (Services) takes when doing these DUI investigations.”

May’s lawsuit against the City of Fort Collins and the two arresting officers is pending litigation. No official court date has been set; however, the scheduling conference is set for Sept. 17 at 11:15 a.m.