DENVER -- A professor of criminal justice at Metro State College has filed suit against the city and county of Denver alleging that some of its officers are involved in racial profiling and racketeering.

Deneen Gammons told 7NEWS that she was driving north on Peoria Street near 47th Avenue in June 2008 when an officer nosed his car out into her lane.

"I swerved to avoid him," Gammons said. "He flashed me (with lights) so I pulled over."

The professor said she handed the officer her license and registration.

"We had a five-to-seven-minute conversation," she said. "He did not issue me a ticket."

Gammons said she thought the officer was finished, so she went on her way.

Two weeks later she got a call to come see the officer.

"He makes a bogus reason for her to come see him," said Derek Cole, Gammons' attorney. "She goes and he arrests her, claiming she eluded him and ran over his foot."

When asked if she drove over Officer Steve Stack's foot, Gammons told 7NEWS, "I did not run over his foot."

Cole said, “The officer claimed that his foot was black and blue. The problem is that he never went to the hospital, never produced any medical records and never took any time off."

Gammons said Stack handcuffed her to a bench, and “then bragged to his colleagues, ‘Oh yeah, I got the fat (expletive) to come to me. It was like taking candy from a baby.’”

She said Stack confiscated her car, a new black Jeep Commander and had it sent to the impound lot.

She said he gave her a ticket for eluding and failure to signal a lane change.

Gammons said she believes the officer nosed his car in front of hers because she was driving a fancy vehicle with chrome and darkly tinted windows.

“When I rolled down my window, he thought I was a man,” Gammons said.

Gammons added that when she tried to get her car out of impound, she was told she’d have to sign a form admitting to the violations, limit who could ride inside and register with police so they could monitor her activities.

“I did not agree to that,” she said, “because I’m not a gangbanger. I’m not a drug dealer. You do not need to monitor me for two years. You do not need to tell me who I may or may not have in my vehicle. And why would I admit to anything when I hadn’t even had my day in court yet?”

Gammons said her finance company eventually got the car out of impound and that Chrysler sold it at auction.

Cole said to the best of his knowledge, another officer bought it.

“It’s unfair. It reeks of RICO, of racketeering,” Gammons said.

“We believe that the police are run amok,” Cole added. “There are a number of rogue officers who figured they can impound your car, and maybe buy it later on.”

He said, “I’ve had people call me telling me they’ve had stuff stolen out of their cars at impound. Property has been taken. Money has been taken. This is racketeering in any other city.”

Gammons said she was offered a plea bargain but refused to take it, so the prosecutor additionally charged her with interfering with a peace officer and assault on a police officer.

She said the eluding and assault charges were dropped and that the failure to signal and interfering with an officer were upheld.

She said, “A juror came up to me afterward and said, ‘We believe your story, not the officer's, but with the instructions we were given, we had to decide the way we did.’”

Cole said he has documentation showing that Denver impounded roughly 3,500 vehicles in 2008.

“If the city were to get $2,500 dollars in fees for each vehicle, that would be $8.7 million,” Cole said. “The nuisance abatement program allows the city to get away with it.”

7NEWS contacted both the Mayor’s office and the City Attorney. A spokesman returned a call for both offices and said, “We haven’t seen the lawsuit yet and won’t comment on it.”