Pubdate: Fri, 11 Feb 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
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n190/a04.html

MENA FAMILY SEEKS $5 MILLION FROM CITY

Consul Says Relatives Of Man Killed By Police In 'No-Knock' Raid Base Claim
On California Case

The family of a Mexican immigrant killed by Denver police in a faulty
"no-knock" drug raid has asked for about $5 million to compensate the
victim's widow and his nine children.

Mexico's consul general in Denver, Carlos Barros, said the $5 million
request was partly based on a California case that he said was similar to
the Sept. 29 shooting death of 45-year-old Ismael Mena, a Mexican national,
by a Denver SWAT team.

The family of a reclusive California millionaire settled last month with
Los Angeles County and the federal government for $5 million after a
sheriff's deputy shot and killed the victim in his bedroom.

Asked if the Mena family also has requested $5 million, Barros said: "It's
somewhere around there."

Barros is advising Mena's family while attorneys for the city and the
victim's survivors negotiate a settlement.

Barros said it's fair to ask for $5 million because Mena was relatively
young when he was killed, provided income for his family and left a wife
and nine children. Mena's widow and seven of his youngest children still
live in Jalisco, Mexico.

"Let's hope the city is willing to find a fair settlement and if it's not,
I'm going to advise the family not to settle," Barros said.

"Certainly, I saw what happened in California, but there are other states
that have made similar settlements for the loss of human life at the hands
of the police. I hope the value of human life in other states is
appreciated here in Denver as well."

Barros declined to discuss the case further.

Robert Maes, the Mena family's attorney, and Mena's relatives could not be
reached for comment.

"It's in mediation, and we're hoping to negotiate a settlement. But I have
no comment on that figure," said Andrew Hudson, spokesman for Mayor
Wellington Webb.

State law caps the city's liability at $150,000 in wrongful-death cases.
However, the city can negotiate a larger settlement, as it did last year in
connection with a 1996 police shooting, to avoid going to trial.

In the California case, Los Angeles County agreed last month to pay $4
million to the survivors of the 61-year-old man killed by a deputy in a
drug raid at his isolated ranch. The federal government agreed to pay $1
million for the Drug Enforcement Administration's role in the raid and
shooting.

The 1992 California raid and shooting by sheriff's deputies and DEA agents,
and other allegations resembled the Mena slaying in a couple of ways:

The district attorney in neighboring Ventura County, where the shooting
occurred, concluded that the deputy who planned the raid used false
information to obtain a warrant to search the man's ranch for marijuana
plants.

In Colorado, Jefferson County District Attorney Dave Thomas charged Denver
officer Joseph Bini with felony perjury. Bini, who was suspended Friday, is
accused of lying in an affidavit used to obtain the warrant that eventually
led to Mena's slaying.

No illegal drugs were found at the 200-acre California ranch nor were any
found in the two-story, northeast Denver house where Mena lived with eight
other renters.

Both shootings were ruled justifiable because the law enforcement officers
in both cases thought they were in fear of their lives.

Both killings occurred in bedrooms, and both the victims were believed to
have been sleeping at the time authorities raided the dwellings.

Both raids were based on information supplied by an informant.

In both cases, the victim was shot after pointing a handgun at law
enforcement personnel.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D