Pubdate: Sun, 21 Sep 2003
Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
Copyright: 2003, Denver Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.rockymountainnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/371
Author: Tillie Fong

EXCESSIVE FORCE SEEN AS POSSIBLE IN '97 ARREST

Investigator Suggests Letter Be Sent To Chief In Fatal Drug Incident

An investigator for the Denver Public Safety Review Commission said 
Thursday she found evidence that Denver police used excessive force in the 
1997 arrest of Robert D. Murphy, who later died.

"No one is saying that he died from the blows," said Denise DeForest, 
former chair of the commission. "But he was choking, and whether he was 
conscious or unconscious, (the police officer) did not have to go there."

DeForest presented her conclusions at the commission's meeting Thursday 
night and suggested that a letter with her findings be sent to the police 
chief.

Detective Teresa Garcia, police spokeswoman, said she wasn't aware of the 
report and could not comment on it.

Murphy's brother, Jack, requested the investigation by the commission. He 
could not be reached for comment Thursday night.

On Oct. 31, 1997, three police officers - Mike Rossi, Marco Martinez and 
Gary Hise - tried to arrest 37-year-old Murphy after they saw him 
swallowing suspected drugs.

Officers used pepper spray and a sap - a short club - to subdue Murphy as 
he resisted them, and he later stopped breathing. He died Nov. 3. 1997, 
after he was taken off life-support.

Witnesses who lived nearby said they saw the officers beat Murphy on the head.

A coroner's report found that Murphy died of a combination of cocaine 
intoxication and suffocation brought on by a pill bottle and plastic bags 
he tried to swallow.

The district attorney exonerated all three officers and they are still on 
the force.

The results of an internal police probe on the incident, requested in 1997 
by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the family, have yet to 
be released.

The Public Safety Review Commission is an independent civilian group that 
investigates complaints against law enforcement officers. Its probe is 
separate from the others, and the commission has no enforcement power.

Thursday, DeForest said she interviewed a man who lived near the scene of 
the incident. He heard the chatter about the arrest on his police scanner.

"He was looking for it because he wanted to know what the police were 
doing," she said.

The first time the man looked out his window, he saw Murphy struggling and 
the police trying to subdue him.

The witness was interrupted during his observation, but when he looked 
again, "the man was still, and the officers were 'doling out punishment' at 
that point," DeForest said of the man's testimony.

DeForest said one of the officers said he had used a sap four or five times 
on Murphy's right wrist and once on his left.

But witnesses said Murphy was beaten 20 to 35 times on the head and two 
officers stepped on his wrists as they subdued him.

"It's a case of who do you believe - the civilian witnesses or the three 
police officers?" DeForest said.

"Did the coroner's report support that he was beaten in the head?" 
commission chair Roxane D. Baca said.

"Yes indeed," DeForest replied. "The coroner's report had 47 cases of 
contusions. There were bruises and contusions on his face, jaw, eyes, and 
hemorrhaging in his eyes - all signs of blunt-force trauma."

She said that some of the bruises were probably from the sap, but that many 
others were questionable.

"Even if some of the bruising were from being moved around at the hospital, 
there was bruising and hemorrhaging not explained by any other means," she 
said.

Baca said the commission will need some time to review DeForest's findings 
before it decides whether to make recommendations to the police department 
about the officers' conduct.
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