Calls City’s Actions A ‘Sham, Disgraceful’
Will A Federal Investigation Reach Up Into The City Attorney’s Office?
In Courtroom A802 in the Alfred A. Arraj Federal Courthouse an amazing battle is taking place in which longtime federal district court judge John L. Kane is taking on large portions of the government of the City and County of Denver. His actions make it abundantly clear that he believes that the Denver’s Sheriff’s Office is corrupt along with the Internal Affairs Bureau of the Police Department. He also appears to believe little that is told to him by the City Attorney’s Office of Scott Martinez and he clearly plans to do something about it.
The case before Judge Kane was brought by Jamal Hunter, a former inmate in the city jail against the city and two sheriff’s deputies he claims brutalized him and incited other inmates to beat and torture him. Hunter was in the city jail on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge when he was placed in a pod with a group of gang members from the Bloods organization. They decided that he must be a snitch and with the help of a shockingly corrupt sheriff’s deputy, Gaynel Rumer, they decided to viciously retaliate against him by beating and scalding his genitals with hot water. Hunter brought suit against the city and taped interviews by Hunter’s attorneys brought shocking, additional allegations against Sheriff’s Deputy Gaynel Rumer who it was alleged to be drunk on the job and helped gang members run a black market involving drugs and porn at the jail.
In response, the Denver Police internal affairs started an investigation ostensibly about the deputy’s misconduct although it is unclear why the Sheriff’s Department’s own internal investigation unit was not used. The tapes of the interviews of witnesses eventually made public appear to show that the police investigators were attempting to silence and intimidate the witnesses from testifying in the civil case and not to investigate wrongdoing by the deputies.
The City Attorney’s office and private attorneys hired by t
he city fought furiously to keep the jailhouse tapes and the taped interviews by Denver internal affairs officers from going public. Legal experts indicated that Denver’s legal pleadings to the court on the matter verged on the incoherent. The city also sought to go on a public relations gambit relating to the actions of its employees.
Police Chief Robert White told Channel 31 KDVR prior to any tapes being made public that “I feel very comfortable in saying I don’t think that there’s any improprieties on the part of our investigators as it relates to this particular incident.” It was widely assumed that he could only make such a statement from reviewing the tapes which were readily available to him for months. The statement would appear to imply, if not outright declare, that witness intimidation and witness tampering are a regular part of the pattern and practices of the Denver Police Department. His statement may in the end cost Denver large monetary judgments in the Hunter case and cases to come in the future.
Judge Kane swiftly brushed aside the legal arguments by Denver against public disclosure and quickly ordered the release to the public the tapes and other evidence. Judge Kane was evidently shocked by what he heard on the investigators’ tapes. He called the city’s investigation a “sham” and the police officers’ conduct “egregious.” He declared: “The recording and the transcript of it show a deliberate process of intimidation. …”
He strongly requested that U.S. Attorney for Colorado John Walsh start “an investigation of the pattern and practice of the Denver Police Department and the Denver Sheriff’s Office.” He noted that whether Walsh does so is not “entirely within his discretion” and he would require Walsh to appear before him in public on his decision.
He also took the extraordinary step of ordering all of the city’s depositions of inmates and former inmates to be taken in his courtroom which he would attend, to be sure the city did not again attempt to intimidate or tamper with witnesses.
Kane has had run-ins with the Denver City Attorney’s Office before as he noted “the measures I take to put a stop to this are certainly influenced by previous conduct of the City and County in other cases.”
In 2011 the City Attorney’s Office repeatedly claimed it was unable to provide excessive force complaints against the Denver Police Department pursuant to discovery requests. The city settled one case for $225,000 rather than produce all the records after Kane threatened to fine the city $5,000 a day. Another excessive force lawsuit was brought by a different plaintiff and the City Attorney’s office obstruction continued. In this subsequent case Judge Kane threatened to send federal marshals over to the Internal Affairs Bureau to seize all of its files on excessive force complaints. That case was also settled for purportedly a large sum.
Lawyers from the City Attorney’s Office are reportedly fearful of appearing before Judge Kane with arguments that are to many observers at best specious. The City Attorney’s Office now hires outside attorneys in cases before Kane at an enormous cost to the city based on dubious assertions of conflict of interest.
What is next? Many feel the city will now attempt to settle the Hunter case at almost any cost. It is said that both the City Attorney’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office fear the United States Attorney will look into their lawyers’ conduct in the Hunter case. Both offices were well aware of the criminal conduct of both the Sheriff’s Deputies and Denver police officers yet did nothing and repeatedly refused to bring charges against anyone or take any action whatsoever. Many believe that the corruption at the law enforcement agencies in Denver will never end until the city attorneys are investigated and brought to justice.
While the nexus of corruption may lie at the City Attorney’s Office most believe a whitewash will occur. They point to the 1960s “Robbers in Blue” scandal where over 50 Denver officers were convicted and incarcerated for robbing stores throughout Denver. Not a single ranking officer was brought to justice nor was the City Attorney’s role ever disclosed or even brought up. Historian David Johnson stated: “All the higher ups were protected which is what will likely occur once again and the corruption will continue on unabated.” Other observers note that the plaintiff’s attorneys firm, Rathod, Mohamedbhai, LLC, must negotiate with the City Attorney’s Office for settlements so they make sure that they treat those lawyers with kid gloves.
Jeri Jones, a local historian, declared that: “This is ‘High Noon’ meets ‘Shawshank Redemption.’ In High Noon, Sheriff Kane had to face the bad guys alone as the mayor and town officials leave town. That brings to mind if anybody has seen Mayor Hancock anywhere or making any input on the corruption of his Police and Sheriff’s Departments. In Shawshank Redemption the corrupt jailers beat and allowed prisoners to be tortured just like the Hunter case. Hopefully Judge Kane will bring to justice the many bad guys in this case including the higher ups.”
Judge Kane finished the June 6 hearing with a stirring declaration:
“All I want from them [the inmates and former inmates] is the truth. And I realize that many of them do not trust this institution any more than they do the others, but the fact of the matter is, is that this Court has done nothing to deserve the trust that they should have in it. So if they’ve got any place at all to be, this is it.”