Denver Police Department “Knock And Talk”
BY Herschel Smith
10 years, 2 months ago
News from Denver, Colorado:
Denver is about to pay up again after a confrontation between civilians and police. This time, it’s a wrongful prosecution case.
A jury awarded a family $1.8 million Friday evening for a mistaken raid on their home back in 2009. While 9NEWS awaits the officers’ account of what happened, the family involved is speaking out about the events of that night.
Jan. 27 is a date Daniel Martinez, Jr. and his family have been reliving for five years. Martinez’s son, Daniel Martinez III, says at around 11 p.m., four Denver Police officers came pounding on their front door.
“They pushed through the door and pushed my dad against the wall. Then I saw them grab my little brother and saw them slam his head through the window. I screamed, ‘you can’t do that. You can’t do that, he’s a minor,'” Martinez said. “Then, they put me in a chokehold, had taken me outside, body-slammed me onto the concrete, put a knee in my back and handcuffed me right there.”
The family’s attorney, Kathryn Stimson, says that night DPD was conducting what law enforcement refers to as a “Knock and Talk.”
She says they were following up on a tip they received that two felons were selling drugs and running a brothel inside of a home located in the 1200 block of Stuart Street. Stimson said those tenants had moved out over a month before. About two weeks later, the Martinez family moved in.
Martinez says when the officers broke into his house, he was confused and afraid for his kids.
“I felt helpless, helpless and confused, scared. I didn’t know what was happening,” Martinez said.
Martinez was later charged with resisting arrest. His sons were charged with assaulting an officer. In 2010, all of them had either been acquitted or had their charges dropped. Stimson says that is when the family filed the lawsuit.
After being awarded the $1.8 million, Martinez says he’s glad that justice has been served, but still worries for his family.
“I’m constantly looking out the window, I’m still in fear,” Martinez said. ” I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Stimson says the jury upheld the claims of wrongful prosecution against the officers but not the claim of excessive force.
So let me get this straight. A “knock and talk” is where cops come and bust in your door and beat the hell out of the occupants of the home, and you have to fight it all in court, and you have the community ignore your bruises, and then the community has to turn around and pay for what the cops did while the cops go unmolested and without responsibility or accountability, as if it was all some sort of obscene, bizarre, reality-horror show that costs obscene amounts of money the community doesn’t really have?
Okay. I think I’ve got it now.
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On October 3, 2014 at 7:24 am, Inquiring Minds said:
Why is the family still living in Denver? I think I would find a way to move out of the city.
On October 3, 2014 at 9:25 am, Paul B said:
Knock and talk is PC for full on swat raid felony stop.
We are so far past 1 adam 12 that it is just a tale tail told around campfires by the really old men to the younger guys.
Where is Wyatt Earp when you need him?
On October 3, 2014 at 9:43 am, Ned Weatherby said:
Methinks the entire episode is indicative of “jury instructions.” The petit jury process had been usurped. It’s nothing like what was originally intended. Juries now take an oath to obey all instructions from the judge. A jury cannot rule on anything but what Mr. black robe lets them. So – if Mr. Robe tells the jury that “excessive force” was not proved by the plaintiff, the jury must rule that way, or beware of the fury of the Black Robed demigod.
Jury nullification is a great idea – check out FIJA. But jurors have been jailed for contempt for ruling on the facts AND the law, which was the original intent of the jury system.
Further, juries typically are populated by the lowest common denominator. If you’re “too intelligent” one side or other will remove you. It’s the hoi polloi who are usually on juries. There are, of course, exceptions. My brother sat on a jury, and is now an “expert.” Just ask him. Hoo boy.
We have a “legal system” – not a “justice system.” It’s broken. I could write a book on the years I worked within the confines of that toxic system.
Someday – if I detect some interest – I’m going to look on some old laptops and see if I can find what I wrote up as a proposition for “Herschel’s law,” and get it out there. It’s essentially the remedy, up front, for this type of thuggish behavior on the part of “only ones” and other government jackbooted thugscrum.
On October 3, 2014 at 11:35 am, Archer said:
Wasn’t I just the other day taking about limiting cops’ immunity in cases like this?
In this case, it’s not hard to check rental/lease records. A minimal amount of due diligence would have clued the officers that the suspects don’t live there anymore. A light stakeout might show the “traffic” (foot AND vehicle) around the home is not indicative of drug or human trafficking. Yet they still went forward with the raid (with a warrant, implicating the prosecutor and judge for providing insufficient oversight; and “Knock and Talk” is a cop-out term [no pun intended] – it’s still a f***ing SWAT raid).
Plus charges of resisting arrest and assaulting an officer, when the officers should never have raided the home. If you ask me, the officers should be thanking their lucky stars none of the occupants had a weapon.
Moreover, to hear the family’s account(s), the cops came in and didn’t even TRY to effect arrests until AFTER the beatings. When the department’s account is finally released, I have no doubt the internal investigation will find the officers were “following department training and protocol”.
And therein lies the two-fold problem: the public has no oversight of so-called “public servants”, and ANY police action can be forced to fit into “standard department protocol”.
I stand by my statements the other day. Limit immunity, allow the members of the legal system to be held personally and professionally liable for clear and obvious misconduct, and we’d see a lot less of this crap.