MENA RAID 2ND OF DAY TO FIND NO DRUGS

Both Were Based On Tips To Officer Who Was Suspended On Perjury Count

The "no-knock" raid in which Denver police shot and killed Mexican national
Ismael Mena on Sept. 29 was the second raid that day based on informant tips
to suspended policeman Joseph Bini.

As in the Mena raid, police found no drugs after they raided 71-year-old
Minnie Clarke's house in the Skyland neighborhood in northeast Denver,
according to search warrant documents.

Clarke said police found two pipes that could be used to smoke crack
cocaine. She said they belonged to her daughter, Emma, who has an extensive
record of arrests for drug and other offenses.

Clarke said police have raided her Josephine Street house several times.

"They've been here six times," she said. "They said somebody snitched, but
they ain't never found no drugs."

Senior police officials would not comment Wednesday on Clarke's allegations.

Capt. Marco Vasquez, who at the time was commander of District 2, where both
houses are located, said he doesn't recall that the Josephine Street house
was a particular trouble spot and doesn't remember any raids there.

But without specifically commenting about Clarke's house, he said it often
takes more than one raid to "eradicate a problem house."

In the Mena raid, police have acknowledged they raided the wrong house. Drug
dealing actually was occurring one door north, in a now-vacant house police
raided Dec. 7. A 24-year-old man and 12-year-old boy were inside, along with
an unspecified amount of cocaine.

Bini was suspended Feb. 4 after being charged with perjury for allegedly
lying in the sworn affidavit he used to obtain the search warrant on Mena's
house.

The Mena raid contributed to this month's forced resignation of Police Chief
Tom Sanchez. Mayor Wellington Webb has called for a review of the "no-knock"
raid policy.

Webb wants the review to address the criteria used in requesting, reviewing
and granting warrants; how often the warrants are used and their
effectiveness.

Clarke's house at 2817 Josephine St., 14 blocks from where Mena lived, was
raided at 11:45 a.m. Sept. 29. Two hours later, police burst into 3738 High
St., where Mena was sleeping after working the graveyard shift at a
Coca-Cola bottling plant.

Police said Mena, 45, pointed a gun at them. It is unclear who fired first.

SWAT officers were cleared in the shooting because, a special prosecutor
said, they were under immediate threat of injury.

It is unclear whether the same informant for Bini was involved in both
search warrants executed Sept 29. The affidavits used identical wording,
saying they were based on the word of an informant who had given Bini
reliable information "on 10 previous occasions in the last six months."

Both affidavits were written six days before the twin raids. Denver County
Judge Raymond Satter signed both warrants at the same time, 12:35 p.m. Sept.
23.

Bini wrote the affidavit for the search warrant in the Mena raid. His
partner, Dan Andrews, wrote the affidavit about Clarke's house.

Recalling the Sept. 29 raid, Clarke said police swarmed into her house and
didn't identify themselves as officers but instead yelled at her to "get
down."

Police tossed her clothing in a pile and poured out a bucket of paint,
Clarke said. On a previous raid, she said, an officer knocked her down as
she emerged from the bathroom. She said police offered to call paramedics
but she declined.

In one raid, she said she saw "15 police cars out here."

Asked why police would keep targeting her house, she answered, "Don't ask
me."