NO-KNOCK RAIDS MAY BE PUT ON HOLD

No-knock raids by Denver police could become a thing of the past - at least
temporarily.

A panel reviewing the search warrant process Tuesday said it is considering
a temporary stoppage on no-knock raids.

"We don't want it said that we didn't at least consider it," panel member
Manager of Safety Butch Montoya said. "We're not limiting our thoughts to
any one thing, so it's still on the table."

The number of no-knock raids has decreased in recent months from a high
last year of about three or four a week to about one every three weeks.

Despite the news, however, members of the Justice for Mena Committee remain
upset that the five-person review panel doesn't include community members.
The committee met with the panel Tuesday, a gathering that committee
members characterized as "ceremonial at best."

"Their attitude is essentially to let us come in, let off some steam and
then we'll go away," Cynthia Gallegos said outside Montoya's office, where
the 90-minute meeting occurred. Gallegos is co-chairman of the Mena group.
"It was a sloppy attempt by this committee to bring in community people."

Montoya said Tuesday's meeting was an effort to "get as many voices as we
can in this process."

"From our perspective, we're looking to obtain input from different groups
so that we can get a different perspective," Montoya said before the panel
met with Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado.

Silverstein said the meeting allowed him to remind the panel that police
are obtaining search warrants based on evidence that's "thin on the facts."
Montoya said the panel's findings could be ready in about a month.

The panel was formed in February by Mayor Wellington Webb after a special
prosecutor charged a police officer with lying to get a noknock search
warrant. That warrant, served on Sept. 29, left Mexican national Ismael
Mena dead and the department admitting the house had been misidentified.

Webb originally named Montoya, District Attorney Bill Ritter and Denver
County Court Presiding Judge Robert Patterson to the panel. Two others were
added recently: Colorado State Public Defender David Kaplan and interim
Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman.

But that's not enough for the Mena committee, which wants a stronger
community voice in the review process. The panel "is fatally flawed at its
inception because of an inherent conflict of interest that will prevent it
from cleaning its own house," the committee said in a post-meeting press
release."