Liar, Liar, Denver Cops Get Fired

Denver and the state of Colorado is learning this week that its police force is not as honest and trustworthy as the public believes, and its overflowing prisons maybe filled with innocent men and women.
The Denver Post reported Sunday that according to city records one out of every 17 city police officers is listed as having a serious discipline problem that could affect their credibility when testifying in criminal trials.

According to the Post, "officers on the list have been found to have committed violations in at least one of the following categories: departing from the truth violating the law, making r false reports, making misleading or inaccurate statements, committing a deceptive act, engaging in conduct prohibited by law, engaging in aggravated conduct prohibited by law, soliciting or accepting a bribe, removing reports or recorder destroying reports or records or altering information on official document's.”

In the past 12 months officers on this list have testified in more than 1,100 criminal cases. Furthermore, seven officers fired for being untruthful were listed as witnesses in 60 different cases in the last year.

The city only started keeping a list of dishonest cops in 2008. The list is meant to comply with the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brady vs. Maryland that requires prosecutors to divulge evidence favorable to the defense - like the investigating officer has a history of lying.

Defense attorneys are rarely given access to police records or even notified if a testifying officer is on the list. According to Chris Baumann of the Colorado Public Defender's Office, "It's very frustrating. You know the information is out there, and you know it is in the possession of law enforcement.''

On Sunday, Colorado woke up to the black and white reality that many on the police force are dishonest, accept bribes, conspire to break the law, and falsify official documents...we already knew they beat innocent cell phone users and gang murdered elderly homeless men.

I have written before that cops lie, now we know that only one in 17 have been caught doing it - that is still a significant number, especially if you are one of the more than 1,100 defendants these cops testified against. How many of these defendants are really innocent is impossible to know. But look at the most recently publicized cases of police abuse; Michael DeHerrara only got justice because his father was a cop and knew that cops lie, he was part of the club. Marvin Booker was a nobody and four cops sat on him until he died then conspired to say the feeble street preacher was ''resisting.''

I applaud the Post for its brave investigative reporting, Denver is lucky to have a professional well funded journalism corps to do what journalists do - hold government accountable. But what about the rest of the cities and towns in the Rocky Mountain State?

Denver is not an anomaly; every other local police force is just as dishonest, just as corrupt. The problem is cultural, not geographic. District courts are filled everyday with these cops lying under oath and falsifying evidence. Prosecutors and judges know they do it and help keep the corrupt officers disciplinary files out of the hands of defense attorneys - everyone wins in a conviction, just ask the prosecutors and judges that helped a corrupt cop put innocent Tim Masters in prison for 10 years. It happens everyday in every jurisdiction, it is the system we created.

Unfortunately, in Colorado and the nation, our justice system has become a guilty until proven innocent, win at all costs, truth be damned system - the Post's findings prove this. Over 1.3 million Americans in prison is a testimony to this corruption.

In Colorado, one in 28 is under correctional control, almost twice the national average, but at one in 17 you are still more likely to run into a corrupt cop than the felon he helped send to prison.

Related News

The 10th Denver law enforcement officer in five months was fired this week for soliciting money from an inmate in county jail to help the man bond out of jail.

Sheriff’s Deputy Thomas Smith told inmate Davon Johnson it would cost him $ 1,000 for the officer’s assistance in helping Johnson bond out of the Denver Detention Center.

Smith later lied to investigators about his plan to extort the money from Johnson . Smith was fired by Denver’s manager of safety Charles Garcia for failing to provide a statement and commission of a deceptive act.

Independent Monitor Richard Rosenthal, who tracks and advises the city on police discipline, released a report this week indicating Denver cops look the other way when their brothers and sisters in blue break the law.

The report specifically looked at incidents of DUIS and the average ratio of DUI citations in relation to DUI collision accidents. The report indicates that police are only getting cited for DUI collisions that can't easily be overlooked by the responding officer. The data indicates that during nonresident related DUI stops the drunk officers are shown what's called “professional courtesy” and not ticketed for the crime.