MENA'S DEATH OFF-LIMITS IN BINI CASE

Sept. 2, 2000 - A Denver judge on Friday sharply limited the evidence
prosecutors can present against the police officer who sent SWAT
officers to the wrong house in a botched no-knock raid that ended in a
man's death.

"It was a good day," attorney David Bruno said as he and his client, a
smiling Officer Joseph Bini, left Denver District Court.

Judge Shelley Gilman barred prosecutors from mentioning at Bini's
upcoming perjury trial that the Sept. 29 drug raid ended with the
shooting of 45-year-old Ismael Mena and that no drugs were found in his
house.

She also prohibited prosecutors from bringing in evidence that Bini had
been warned before about putting a wrong address in a request for a
search warrant.

The trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 10. Bini faces two counts of
felony perjury and one count of trying to influence a public servant.

After supervising a drug buy by one of his informants on Sept. 21, Bini
presented a search warrant affidavit requesting a raid at 3738 High St.
The drug deal actually occurred at 3742 High St., however, and SWAT
officers raided the wrong house.

They killed Mena after he pointed a .22-caliber handgun at them and
fired. The shooting was deemed justified, but Denver officials paid the
Mena family $400,000 in March to avoid a lawsuit.

Prosecutors Charles Tingle and Mark Randall declined to comment after
Friday's hearing.

Bruno argued during the hearing that if Mena's death came up at trial,
prosecutors literally would be trying Bini for his killing. That would
be grossly unfair, he said.

To counter such testimony, Bruno would have to call SWAT officers as
witnesses to explain why they killed Mena.

Gilman agreed, calling any evidence about Mena's death irrelevant to
the charges against Bini.

She ruled prosecutors can't present evidence that:

Fifteen months before the Mena raid, Bini made a similar error in
another search warrant and was warned by his lieutenant to exercise
greater care in his affidavits.

Police searched Mena's home at 3738 High St. after the shooting and
found no drugs. Prosecutors Tingle and Randall claimed that evidence
reinforces the seriousness of Bini's error.

In December 1999, the vice and narcotics unit of the Denver Police
Department searched the correct home, 3742 High St., and found crack
cocaine.

During the Sept. 29 raid on Mena's home, the occupants of 3742 High St.
were laughing and jeering at police.

Bruno says that although there were mistakes in the search warrant,
they weren't all attributable to Bini.

And Bruno claims they were simply mistakes, and that when Bini
presented the search warrant affidavit to Judge Raymond Satter for
approval, he believed the affidavit was true.

Prosecutors said that while Bini originally accepted responsibility for
the mistake, he now blames his lack of training and supervision by the
Denver Police Department for the mistakes.

Bini also is blaming two other officers, partners Kelly Ohu and Reyes
Trujillo, whom he was training, for some of the errors, they added.