MENA GROUP TO SUE POLICE

They Claim Rights Violated When Cops Broke Up Protest

A group demanding justice for a man slain in no-knock raid said Tuesday it
will file a lawsuit against Denver police after officers disrupted a
protest a day earlier.

The Justice for Mena Committee, which had gathered to pass out leaflets to
a noon-hour crowd in front of the World Trade Center on the 16th Street
Mall, claimed its civil rights and freedom of speech rights were violated
when police ordered the protesters to disband Monday.

The group said the First Amendment lawsuit will charge the Denver Police
Department trampled the protesters' rights in a attempt to squash criticism
surrounding the killing of a Mexican national during a no-knock raid last
fall.

"This was obvious harassment," said LeRoy Lemos, the group's spokesman.
"They talk about some bogus complaint and then threatened to incarcerate us."

Police spokeswoman Detective Mary Thomas denied the allegations. Police
action, she said, was taken after World Trade Center security lodged a
complaint against the group for illegally protesting on private property
and disturbing the peace by shouting into a bullhorn.

"We were called there. We just didn't show up," Thomas said.

The group of about 100 members was formed to champion the cause of Ismael
Mena, who was shot and killed Sept. 29 in a no-knock raid when Denver SWAT
officers targeted the wrong house.

Andrew Hudson, spokesman for Mayor Wellington Webb, called the latest
incident unfortunate, but said police did not order the group to disband,
just to tone down their protest.

World Trade Center officials said building security called Denver police
after several of its tenants complained.

"As a private property owner, we don't give permission to groups or
organizations to stage protest or rallies outside our building," said Joyce
Brady, spokeswoman for the building owner.

Lemos said security told members that they had to stay on one side of a
crack in the sidewalk that marks the property line but did not say anything
about the bullhorn.

Said Tom Kelley, a First Amendment attorney: "Given the rareness of police
intervention of any kind of demonstration on the 16th Street Mall, this
particular incident doesn't pass the smell test."