POLICE CHIEF CURTAILS HAWAII TRIP

Sanchez Is Planning To Return Today After Criticism
For Leaving During Shooting Case

Police Chief Tom Sanchez will be back in Denver today, cutting short
his trip to Hawaii in light of criticism over his going to a
convention on the heels of perjury charges against one of his officers.

The decision to return followed a conversation with Manager of Safety
Butch Montoya.

"I discussed the issues involved with the chief, and we thought it was
best for the chief to return," Montoya said Monday.

Sanchez defended his trip to attend the Major Cities Police Chiefs
conference as beneficial to the residents of Denver, and was
bewildered that critics such as Councilman Ed Thomas questioned it.

"There seems to be some major hue and cry over this Major Cities
Chiefs conference, and I need to come back and address those issues,"
Sanchez said in a phone interview from his room in the Sheraton
Waikiki in Honolulu.

On Friday, Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas, acting as a
special prosecutor, charged Officer Joseph Bini with perjury. Bini
prepared the affidavit for a search warrant that was carried out by a
Denver Police SWAT team on Sept. 29 in northeast Denver's Cole
neighborhood.

The affidavit targeted the wrong house, and resident Ismael Mena, who
had been sleeping upstairs after working a graveyard shift, was killed
after police said he threatened them with a gun.

"The Mena thing is in litigation," Sanchez said. "I wouldn't be
commenting on it anyway."

In addition to the criminal case against Bini, Mena's family and an
attorney are due to meet today with city attorneys to discuss a civil
claim that may be filed for wrongful death.

Councilman Thomas has been the most critical of Sanchez's trip -- a
regular law enforcement conference Denver police leaders usually
attend, but which even strong police backers such as Councilwoman
Cathy Reynolds say was poorly timed.

A former Denver police officer, Councilman Thomas said it showed
arrogance for Sanchez to take the trip while public confidence in the
department and morale among officers is shaken.

"He should have gone out to the roll calls Monday morning, saying
things like, 'We've got some things we're going through but we're
going to do it together,"' Thomas said.

Reynolds said canceling the trip would have been symbolic but would
have been a good idea.

"Probably his timing was bad, but I wouldn't call him arrogant for
it," she said. "The chief didn't pick the schedule for the conference.
I'm not sure what it is he should do here for the six or seven days
instead of being at the conference."

Councilwoman Susan Barnes-Gelt noted that Sanchez is the only one of
Mayor Wellington Webb's Cabinet and department heads who has not been
officially reappointed following last May's election. Webb spokesman
Andrew Hudson said the mayor would have no comment.

"There is a crisis of confidence in the police department, and it
doesn't seem to me that the chief gets that," Barnes-Gelt said. "Of
course, if the conference had been in Cleveland there wouldn't have
been this much attention over it."

The city is paying $6,300 for Sanchez and three colleagues to attend.
The other three will remain at the conference.

Montoya defended sending four people to the conference, even though
some other cities equal in size or larger than Denver sent fewer.A
check by the Denver Rocky Mountain News showed that Seattle sent its
assistant chief of staff; Portland sent its assistant chief for
investigations.