POLICE PAVE WAY FOR BINI'S RETURN

Jan. 16, 2001 - Denver police officer Joseph Bini has been suspended for
three months without pay for providing the wrong address on a search
warrant that led to the 1999 shooting death of Mexican immigrant Ismael
Mena, officials said Monday.

Bini is eligible to return to the force immediately, pending administrative
procedures, because he has already served a 12month suspension, according
to Police Chief Gerry Whitman and Manager of Safety Ari Zavaras. He will
not be returned to his old posi tion, Whitman said.

Community activists were furious, saying the discipline was too lenient.
But both officials said the police department was to blame for putting Bini
in a situation that he was not properly trained to handle.

"There was no policy in place for what happened," Whitman said. "It was a
huge error." Zavaras, who reviewed the decision made by Whitman and the
department's division chiefs, concurred.

"The issues of training created this situation," he said. "We had problems
here. There was a lack of a clear policy. As an agency, we have to stand up
and take the responsibility.

"Politically, we could have just gotten rid of Bini. But that's not the
right thing to do. He was put into a position he shouldn't have been put
in. And I won't make a scapegoat out of anyone."

Mena, 45, was shot dead in his bedroom by a SWAT team on Sept. 29, 1999.
Police had used a wrong address on a search warrant issued for a drug raid.
Mena, the father of nine children who was in the country legally, had
pulled a gun, police said. Bini, 32, will be reimbursed for the 12 months
he was suspended without pay minus the three months for the disciplinary
suspension, officials say. Bini makes about $53,000 a year.

The officer was suspended without pay in December 1999 when he was charged
with three felonies. He later pleaded guilty to first-degree misconduct, a
misdemeanor, and was ordered to do 150 hours of community service and pay
court costs. He has been back on the payroll, but not on duty, since his
Dec. 2 sentencing.

Activists, who will meet today with police officials about Bini, said the
punishment was an insult. "This is the ultimate and apparently the final
slap in the face to the family of Ismael Mena and to the community," said
LeRoy Lemos, head of the Justice for Mena Committee. "It's obvious now that
a person in the criminal justice system can get away with murder and there
will be no ramifications.

"Everyone in the city now has to fear for their lives because Joe Bini and
his incompetence could put their lives at jeopardy," he said. Steve Nash, a
community activist who monitors police actions through the Denver group
CopWatch, had a similar reaction. "This is an indication that the manager
of public safety and the mayor's office are not interested in meaningful
reform or police accountability," he said. "It's a slap in the face to the
community and it's especially insulting to expect the taxpayers to put up
the back pay for Bini."

Bini was unavailable for comment. His lawyer, David Bruno, said he wasn't
aware of the department's decision.

The wrong-address mistake was made while Bini was in charge of training two
officers on how to use an informant to make controlled drug buys. The
informant miscounted houses while determining where a crack dealer had
exited a home on High Street, giving Mena's address, 3738 High Street,
instead of the right one, 3742, police said. Bini and the two other cops
took the inaccurate information back to District 2, and wrote out a search
warrant that Bini signed, police said. Denver County Judge Raymond Satter
signed the warrant as a routine matter, police said.

A five-member committee set up to review the police department's no-knock
raid policy recommended stiffer standards for requesting a no-knock raid
and a much greater reliance on announced raids.

It also called for much stricter screening of search warrants, including
the input of a seasoned narcotics investigator and seasoned command
officer, and second buys from drug dealers.

Whitman said that under the recommendations, which will be adopted, any
no-knock raid must be based not simply on evidence of the presence of
drugs, but on other factors such as the presence of weapons or the
likelihood of being met with violence.

Only the SWAT team will conduct no-knock raids and no narcotics officers
will be allowed to participate due to safety concerns and the SWAT team's
superior training, he said. Whitman said the department doesn't know
exactly when noknock raids are justified. He admitted that police may have
relied too heavily on them.

The department drastically reduced no-knock raids from 129 in 1999 to 42
last year.