MENA FAMILY LAWYER RIPS BINI PLEA DEAL

Oct. 5, 2000 - The lawyer who represented the widow and nine children of
Ismael Mena, killed in a Denver no-knock raid, criticized prosecutors and
police Wednesday following reports that officer Joseph Bini will plead
guilty today to a misdemeanor.

Lawyer Robert Maes said there is more than enough evidence and witnesses to
pursue felony charges against Bini. And Maes claimed that prosecutors
aren't interested in holding Bini accountable. The Denver Police Department
doesn't want its internal problems aired publicly in a courtroom, he said.

The special prosecutors in the case have complained that a ruling by Denver
District Judge Shelley Gilman sharply limiting trial evidence has hurt
their ability to try Bini, scheduled for trial next week.

But Maes said Gilman's ruling isn't "that much of a problem." Bini faces
two counts of first-degree perjury and one count of trying to influence a
public servant in connection with a September 1999 search warrant that sent
a SWAT team to a wrong address.

SWAT officers were confronted by a gun-wielding Mena and shot and killed
him in what later was ruled a justified police shooting.

The perjury counts against Bini accuse him of lying in a search warrant and
to Denver County Judge Raymond Satter - who approved the search warrant -
about the circumstances surrounding a drug buy. A third charge, attempting
to influence a public servant, alleges that Bini attempted to deceive Satter.

Those felony charges would be dismissed and Bini would plead to a
misdemeanor, which might allow him to stay on the police force, under the
reported plea bargain.

Maes negotiated a $400,000 civil settlement for the widow and her children
with the city after Mena's death.

Maes said that among key witnesses prosecutors can call are Satter, other
police officers and occupants of the house that was raided.

"I don't think the prosecution is interested in bringing accountability to
this case," he said. "I don't think the Police Department wants it tried.
It would bring out that Police Department policies are really flawed." Maes
said that if the case went to trial, it would reveal that Bini was
inadequately trained, that SWAT teams are used too frequently in no-knock
situations and that there were no Spanish-speaking officers at the raid in
which Mena died. Mena couldn't understand the officers, and the officers
couldn't understand him, Maes said.

Maes said he hopes police administrators take a hard look at Bini to
determine whether he is fit to be a police officer.

Detectives Virginia Lopez and Mary Thomas, responding for the Police
Department, said they couldn't comment because nothing has formally
happened in court and the trial is still set next week.

Pam Russell, spokeswoman for special prosecutors Charles Tingle and Mark
Randall, said she couldn't comment for the same reasons. Bini and his
lawyer, David Bruno, didn't return phone calls.