LAWYER INVESTIGATING MENA SLAYING FIRES EX-FBI AGENT

Attorney Says Kearney Held Back Results But Claimed Cover-up By Police In
Shooting Case

The lawyer for the family of a man shot to death during a drug raid said
Thursday he fired a retired FBI agent who claims there was a police
cover-up in the case.

"I terminated him because he refused to turn over the work product,"
attorney Robert Maes said referring to investigator Jim Kearney.

Kearney, who Maes said was fired Monday, couldn't be reached for comment
late Thursday.

Kearney has said he turned over to the FBI two sections of a bullet-riddled
wall from the bedroom where Ismael Mena was killed in the Sept. 29 raid.

Maes said he hired a ballistics expert to examine that and other evidence
but has been hampered by Kearney's refusal to cooperate.

Meanwhile, the police union and a special prosecutor handling the
investigation urged people not to rush to judgment until the final report
becomes public in about two weeks.

"The public is being treated to a cruel disservice of the misinformed
speculation surrounding the shooting," the Denver Police Protective
Association said in a prepared statement.

The press release came in response to remarks made earlier Thursday by
Kearney during a discussion of the shooting on Peter Boyles' radio show on
KHOW-AM.

Kearney accused police of a cover-up. He has also claimed that Denver
homicide investigators failed to remove and secure evidence from the scene,
such as the door Mena stood behind when he was shot to death during the
Sept. 29 raid.

Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas, who is acting as special
prosecutor in the case, acknowledged that police did not remove the
bullet-riddled door from the shooting scene. He would not comment on
whether that should have been done.

Kearney contends the physical evidence plus witness statements he has
obtained support his theory that SWAT officers did not see Mena before they
shot him.

Denver police have sharply disputed this point. They contend Mena refused
their orders to drop his handgun and fired on the officers as he hid behind
the partially opened door.