Pubdate: Sun, 15 Oct 2000
Source: Denver Rocky Mountain News (CO)
Copyright: 2000 Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  400 W. Colfax, Denver, CO 80204
Website: http://www.denver-rmn.com/
Author: Hector Gutierrez

SUSPENDED OFFICER COULD WORK AFTER SENTENCING

Joseph Bini Signed Faulty Affidavit, But Says He Didn't Commit A Crime

Embattled Denver police officer Joseph Bini says he has cried for Ismael 
Mena, a Mexican national killed in a botched no-knock drug raid Bini helped 
set up.

And Bini said he feels that Mena's death will scar him for the rest of his 
life.

During an interview with KCNC-Channel 4 to be aired tonight, an emotional 
Bini maintained that he did not commit any crime when he signed an 
affidavit requesting a search warrant that led a SWAT team to storm Mena's 
house on Sept. 29, 1999.

Officers shot and killed Mena, 45, in his upstairs bedroom when he 
confronted them with a gun, police said. But police had raided the wrong 
house. The search warrant Bini helped prepare contained the address of the 
home where Mena lived but actually was meant for the house next door, where 
a police informant allegedly had purchased drugs.

"I did not lie, I did not perjure myself, I did not commit a crime," Bini 
told News4 reporter Brian Maass. "I made a mistake."

Asked if he ever cried for Mena, Bini said, his voice cracking: "I cry to 
this day. I don't know why it happened, but I do know that someone else 
decides our destiny, and my destiny was chosen and that was this was 
supposed to happen to Joe Bini for some reason, and I will live with this 
for the rest of my life.

" ... This will haunt me until the day I die. This will never go away."

Elsie Mecillas, one of Mena's relatives in Colorado by marriage, said Bini 
should never be rehired as a police officer and that his explanations did 
not soothe the family's emotional wounds. Mena left behind a widow and nine 
children.

"In my eyes, everybody in Canon City (prisons) ought to be set free, 
because everybody in prison makes mistakes," Mecillas said. "They all 
committed mistakes. Let them all be free."

Mecillas said Bini's actions in the case should not be viewed as a mistake 
because the shooting was deadly.

"It doesn't affect me, and he could cry and hurt all he wants," she said. 
"It doesn't bring Ismael back."

Bini's somber appearance during the News4 interview was in sharp contrast 
to the relief he displayed Oct. 5 after he agreed to plead guilty to a 
misdemeanor charge of official misconduct. In return, a special prosecutor 
dropped two felony perjury charges and one felony charge of deceiving the judge

who approved the search warrant.

Bini, 31, will be sentenced Dec. 1. He ultimately could regain his job with 
the department.

Police Chief Gerry Whitman will review the case involving Bini and the 
search warrant that was presented to the Denver district attorney's office, 
police spokeswoman Virginia Lopez said. Until then, Bini remains suspended 
without pay.

Bini told News4 he did not learn that the drug raid targeted the wrong 
house until six weeks after the incident. He said the Denver Police 
Department kept him and the public in the dark about revelations that 
officers killed an innocent man and that he learned the news from a prosecutor.

"I was devastated," he said. "In fact, I don't think I've lived a day in my 
life that I regret, or that I wish that I could take back. I wish that I 
could take that back."

Bini said he was not solely responsible for the faulty warrant that 
contained the wrong address. He said he approved a final draft of the warrant.

But he said an officer working the computer printed out a different draft 
that contained the error. Bini said he signed the document and didn't 
notice the mistake.

"The warrant that I signed was not the warrant that I read and approved," 
the officer said. "The warrant that was presented to the judge was a 
rough-draft version of a good warrant."

Bini said he accepts responsibility for signing his name but thinks that 
others also should be held accountable.

"But what I refuse to do is be accountable and accept responsibility for 
other people's mistakes."
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