COPS ACCUSED OF HARASSING ASSAULT VICTIM

July 21, 2000 - Two Denver police officers charged with destroying evidence
in 80 drug cases also stand accused of retaliating against a woman after she
filed a complaint against an officer who sexually assaulted her.

One of the two officers, Technician Danny Alverson, is listed as a director
of a polygraph firm that tests candidates for the police and fire
departments.

Alverson, 49, and Officer Kurt Peterson, 37, were charged Wednesday with
destroying evidence in drug possession and drug paraphernalia cases. The
charges came as the police department investigates the disappearance of more
than $100,000 in cash from its evidence locker.

The 80 cases Alverson and Peterson are linked to occurred between September
1998 and May 2000.

Venita Allen filed suit in U.S. District Court against the city, Alverson,
Peterson and other officers in connection with her January 1998 assault by
Officer Daniel Pollack.

Pollack was sentenced to 12 years in the attack.

Allen named Alverson and Peterson because she says they forced their way
into her house the month after the assault without a search warrant, pulled
clothes out of the closets and threatened her with eviction.

The "retaliatory" raid left Allen in a state of shock, panic and tears, the
lawsuit states.

Allen had been assured by internal affairs officials that no officer could
approach her house without a supervisor while the criminal case against
Pollack was pending, according to Allen's lawyers.

Allen says officers harassed her a second time outside her house and
surveillance vans were set up across the street from her house.

Peterson, a member of the gang unit, said he went into Allen's house chasing
a gang member he had seen selling drugs. He said he quickly searched the
house and confiscated a bag of what turned out to be cereal.

He saw Allen, he said, but didn't know who she was.

Pollack was one of hundreds of officers who were given polygraph tests by
Alverson and Associates, of which Danny Alverson is a director, before they
were hired.

The firm has done about 1,500 polygraphs on police and firefighter
candidates since 1992 and has been paid by the city $148,305 since 1995,
said Michael Henry, acting executive director for the Denver Civil Service
Commission.

Alverson and Associates has been the only firm to conduct polygraphs on
recruits since late 1997, Henry said.

"We were not aware that a police officer was on the board (of the firm),"
Henry said. "We will very seriously study the issue of whether that should
or should not be an issue in who we contract with."

The charges do not prove any wrongdoing by Alverson and therefore no
decision can be made at this time, Henry said.

"We will evaluate whether a police officer was involved with the tests given
to potential candidates," Henry said. "We will see whether it does pose a
conflict of interest. We may look into finding another vendor that offers
similar quality."

Danny Alverson's father, Lew Alverson, is the owner and president of
Alverson and Associates. Lew Alverson retired as a 28-year veteran of the
police department before opening the firm in 1981. Danny Alverson completed
polygraph school in 1985 and has conducted several lie detector tests for
criminal cases in his role as an officer, his father said. Danny Alverson
never personally conducted tests on job candidates and has not done
polygraphs in general for several years, his father said.

He said his son expressed disbelief that he was charged in connection with
the missing evidence.