DENVER
(CBS4) – Denver’s independent monitor, who oversees Denver law enforcement and
safety agencies, says the Denver Police Department and Manager of Safety made
the wrong call in not disciplining a female officer for her use of force on an
intoxicated woman in a 2012 case that is just now coming to light.
A
CBS4 investigation obtained surveillance videotapes, photos and interviews from
the case which stemmed from a police call at the Renaissance West End Flats
located at 1490 Zenobia Street on Dec. 28, 2012. Police say they received a 911
hang up call from apartment 315.
When
two officers arrived to follow up on the 911 call, officers said they heard
loud arguing emanating from the apartment. The occupants, identified as
Patricia Lucero and Nickie Penaflor, had both been drinking and fighting.
Officers
found Penaflor had an outstanding warrant so they arrested him. Lucero,
however, was not wanted and was not arrested for a crime. But one of the two
officers, Marika Putnam, decided to take Lucero to detox due to her inebriation
and aggressiveness.
“That
was a judgment call and a good call based on how aggressive the lady was,” said
Police Chief Robert White. “Apparently the officer felt she (Lucero) was a harm
to herself or others and that’s why they took her to detox.” Lucero
admitted having six beers that evening.
But after being handcuffed, surveillance videotape from interior cameras at the
apartment complex, reviewed and aired by CBS4, show Lucero twice crashing into
walls headfirst while handcuffed and under the control of Officer Putnam. In
written reports, police blame Lucero for causing herself to crash into walls.
In one police account, summarizing Putnam’s actions, it says, “This redirecting
action (by Putnam) caused Lucero to stumble forward and strike her head on the
elevator alcove wall.”
In
a statement, Putnam said that in the first crash into a wall, “I spun her
around to move her to a safer position.” On the second time that Lucero ran
into a wall, the officer said, “I believe that she stumbled due to her high
intoxication level.” Asked if she had intentionally run Lucero into a wall,
Putnam responded, “No.”
By
the time Lucero reached the lobby of her apart ment building she was bleeding
profusely from a head wound. She was hospitalized and received stitches.
“She
had no reason to hit me that hard,” Lucero later told a police sergeant in a
videotaped interview. “We were walking to the elevator and she banged my head
against the wall.”
Lucero
complained she was a victim of excessive force. But a Denver police internal
review of the incident exonerated Officer Putnam of unnecessary force. Chief
White signed off on that recommendation.
“When
I look at the totality, I think the officer’s actions were reasonable given the
circumstances they were confronted with,” White said. “I think we came to the
right decision. I don’t think the officer was excessive or malicious in her
actions in dealing with the lady."
“As
a result of her (Putnam’s) attempt t o gain control, one time she (Lucero) hit
her head on the wall and the other time hit her head against the elevator. I am
convinced both those bumps were the result of the officer’s attempt to gain
control, not intentional acts on the officer’s part.”
However,
in a report released Thursday, Denver’s independent monitor, Nick Mitchell,
took the opposite view, writing that Lucero was a victim of excessive force.
“One
of the officers twice maneuvered the woman head-first towards walls in a manner
that risked serious injury,” wrote Mitchell. “When taking individuals into
protective custody, officers have an affirmative obligation to ‘make every
reasonable effort to protect the detainee’s health and safety.’“The
Office of the Independent Monitor recommended that the officer be disciplined
for using inappropriate force and failing to protect a detainee who was
handcuffed and otherwise vulnerable, but the Manager of Safety’s Office did not
accept our recommendation.”
