BETTER LATE THAN NEVER

July 19, 2000 - What's troubling about the revelation that Colorado Rockies
second baseman Mike Lansing was present during a fatal no-knock raid by
Denver SWAT officers last September is that the cops forgot to mention he
was there. For 10 months.

Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas' office, which handled the
case to avoid possible interest conflicts with the Denver DA's office, said
Thomas hadn't been told the baseball player had been on a citizen
"ridealong" to the scene where Ismael Mena, 45, was shot dead.

Failing to mention Lansing is a curious omission, although it's possible
police may have wanted to protect the privacy of a public figure. It
wouldn't be the first time Denver cops have behaved solicitously toward a
celebrity.

Lansing, friends with a Denver SWAT officer, had requested the ridealong,
as any ordinary citizen can do. According to police, Lansing stayed in a
van during the raid, and an officer on the scene determined the ball player
didn't "see or hear anything that would be relevant" to the case.

Mena, a Mexican national, was shot after firing at SWAT officers who
stormed the home where he lived. Later, it was learned that the SWAT team
raided the wrong house.

Lansing himself gave an account worthy of the "I-know-nothing!"
declarations of Sgt. Schultz, the roly-poly POW camp guard in the old
"Hogan's Heroes" TV series.

Thomas' office now wants to interview Lansing, and that should happen
immediately. It's unlikely that police radios in the van where he sat were
turned off during the raid. Whether Lansing heard anything pertinent to the
probe should have been Thomas' call, not the DPD's.

Such omissions harm the already battered credibility of the police.