Manager of Safety Charles Garcia has terminated two officers, Kevin Devine and Ricky Nixon, for lying about details in an excessive force case.
The two were accused of excessive force during an incident caught on camera outside the Denver Diner in 2009.
The videotape shows an officer with a club pushing several women to the ground. A second officer is seen spraying mace into the face of a woman who is kneeling after being brought to the pavement by the first cop.
The two officers are the third and fourth terminated by Garcia, who took office last month.
He fired Officers Devin Sparks and Randy Murr for “deceptive acts” in the case of Michael DeHerrera, who Sparks threw to the ground as he talked on a cell phone in LoDo.
In a statement, Garcia said: “The decision today to terminate Officers Devine and Nixon was reached following a very fair, thorough and complete review of the case and reliance on the discipline matrix. We continue to hold the Denver Police Department to the highest standards of professionalism and will not tolerate untruthfulness or inappropriate force It is our hope that by restoring public confidence in the disciplinary process, we will restore confidence in the department and all of our fine officers.”
In an interview with CBS4, police union president Nick Rogers defended the officers, saying there’s “no pretty way to arrest someone.”
Denver Mayor Bill Vidal said in a statement that he believes Garcia reached a “sound and justified” decision.
“I am also confident that our disciplinary process has the right checks and balances to guarantee impartial and transparent outcomes. Our citizens trust that our police officers model truth and decency, and when an officer departs from the truth, the excellent reputation of our police force as a whole is damaged. We cannot and will not tolerate this behavior.”
Prosecutors say Julian Archuleta, 48, resigned from the Denver Police Department on Friday immediately after admitting to charges in the case. He pleaded guilty to first-degree official misconduct and second-degree theft, both Class 2 misdemeanors.
Archuleta, who had been on the force since 2004, was arrested Oct. 27, 2016. His case was the first in which criminal charges were filed against a Denver police officer based on his body-camera footage.
On Oct. 7, Archuleta, a patrol officer in northwest Denver, assisted in the investigation after two suspects in a vehicle fired shots in the direction of two police vehicles parked at a 7-Eleven store. A short pursuit ensued, investigators say, ending with the suspects’ vehicle rolling over near the intersection of East 50th Avenue and Washington Street.
The driver took off on foot and a passenger was left unconscious in the vehicle, police said.
Archuleta’s body camera recorded as he searched a suspect’s clothing and took pictures of the wrecked car, according to his arrest affidavit.
In the footage, Archuleta picked up a stack of cash with a $100 bill on top. He removed that bill, and the footage showed him shuffling papers and cash in his patrol car, the affidavit said.
A detective who later reviewed the body camera footage noticed the $100 bill and questioned why only $118 had been logged into evidence. Archuleta later produced $1,200 and told another detective that it must have fallen into his bag, the affidavit said.
The affidavit noted that Archuleta’s actions also violated Denver Police Department policy on handling evidence and/or personal property.
“Officer Archuleta’s actions at the scene … were a contributing factor in the decision by the District Attorney’s Office to decline the filing of formal charges on the aggravated assault case,” the affidavit says,
Archuleta was suspended without pay after his arrest. He was initially charged with tampering with physical evidence, a felony.
Widely-circulated videos showing Denver police confiscating blankets and tents from the homeless in freezing temperatures are shining a spotlight on the national issue of policing homelessness.
The two videos, posted on Facebook on Nov. 28 and Nov. 29, show police officers taking away survival gear, including blanks and tents, from homeless individuals in Denver and issuing citations for unauthorized camping. The Denver Police Department released a statement Thursday defending its officers and explaining the situation shown in the videos, saying the blankets were collected as “evidence.”
“The situation in the video occurred after individuals chose to illegally camp on the public right-of-way outside of the Denver City and County Building as a means of protest after being cited for unauthorized camping at a separate location. In both cases, officers on scene offered services and shelter to those individuals. After they refused the police officers’ assistance, the individuals were advices that they were violating the law and needed to move,” the Denver Police Department said in the statement. “After several warnings, during an approximately four-hour period outside the Denver City and County Building, three protesters chose to remain and were therefore cited. Officers collected items as evidence of the violations.”
The department’s statement comes just days after Denver mayor Michael Hancock announced that he had directed police to stop taking camping equipment when enforcing the city’s unauthorized camping ordinance. The mayor’s office also insisted that homeless shelters in Denver “absolutely have space open.”
“Urban camping -- especially during cold, wet weather -- is dangerous and we don’t want to see any lives lost on the streets when there are safe, warm places available for people to sleep at night. Every night, we have beds open for people to sleep and every day we have safe places and resources to help people experiencing homelessness,” Hancock said in a statement on Dec. 10. “Every step we take is intended to connect people with safe and warm places and critical supportive services. We never intended to take the belongings that people need to keep warm.”
According to the mayor’s office, the people who were shown in the videos last month are the only individuals who have had blankets or tents taken from them. The city of Denver and its partners have placed 995 homeless people into housing over the past 24 months and police have issued nine citations to seven people when enforcing the urban camping ban over the past two weeks, the mayor’s office said.
Homeless people remove their belongings as Denver Police and Sheriff deputies oversee their progress and enforce the law at the intersections of Broadway and Park Ave West in Denver, Colorado, March 8, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
The videos shared on social media have triggered outrage from rights groups and advocates calling for an end to the criminalization of homelessness. A day prior to the mayor’s announcement, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Colorado responded to the videos by sending a letter to Hancock and the Denver City Council, urging them to repeal the city’s urban camping ban or, at the very least, suspend it through the winter months and direct police officers to cease confiscating survival gear from the homeless.
“The City of Denver is exhibiting a level of cruelty that should bring deep shame to Mayor Hancock and other city officials,” Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, executive director of ACLU of Colorado, wrote in the letter dated Dec. 9. “Denver’s shelters are simply unable to serve all people in the Denver area experiencing homelessness, even in the short term, much less as a long-term solution. Until real solutions become Denver’s priority, the city’s ongoing policing-first approach to homelessness is a cruel waste of funds, curtailing fundamental constitutional rights, causing deep human suffering, and endangering lives.”
There were 5,728 homeless individuals counted in the greater Denver area on a single night in January 2016, according to a report by the Metropolitan Denver Homeless Initiative. But the issues of homelessness and policing these individuals, particularly during the colder temperatures, isn’t unique to Denver.
In March, attorneys in Los Angeles filed a lawsuit on behalf of four homeless people whose property was allegedly confiscated and destroyed by the city without a warrant. One plaintiff, Judy Coleman, was hospitalized for pneumonia after her tent, blanket and other items to protect her from the elements were confiscated, according to court documents obtained by ABC News. The Los Angeles City Council is now considering a revised ordinance that would allow a homeless person to keep some possessions during an encampment cleanup on the city streets, according to ABC affiliate KABC.
According to a survey of homeless Hawaiian residents conducted in June 2015 by the University of Hawaii-Manoa's Department of Urban Planning, almost 60 percent of homeless individuals reported losing personal identification, 40 percent reported lost tents and 21 percent said they lost medicine during city sweeps of homeless encampments.
Citywide bans on camping have increased 69 percent in the last decade, according to a report released this year by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty that surveyed 187 U.S. cities.
“Laws that criminalize homelessness are expensive, counterproductive, potentially unconstitutional – and just plain wrong,” said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the law group headquartered Washington, D.C. “Any government that is serious about ending homelessness will focus its energy and resources on housing homeless people, not criminalizing them.”
Denver police hand out information to homeless before crews began to sweep the homeless camps on Lawrence Street near Samaritan House, Nov. 14, 2016.
According to an annual report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 549,928 people were homeless on a single night in 2016, with 32 percent of those living without shelter. The figure is widely deemed to be an underestimation.
Individuals living without shelter are in danger of hypothermia when external temperatures fall below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s a leading cause of injury and death among those experiencing or at risk of homelessness. An estimated 700 people experiencing or at risk of homelessness die from hypothermia each year in the United States, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. Hypothermia happens when a person’s core body temperature drops below 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Homeless service providers and governments have the responsibility to protect their homeless citizens through state and citywide winter plans and increased shelter availability,” the National Coalition for the Homeless said in a 2010 report that included interviews from homeless coalitions and shelters nationwide about cold-weather services offered in each area. “Though many of the providers we interviewed had impressive winter services, many others were inadequate in some way. In some cases, this is a challenge that must be met by providers themselves; in others, it is the result of a lack of funding.”
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless spokeswoman Cathy Alderman said the Denver-based organization is "disappointed in the aggressive enforcement actions taken" throughout the city, leaving many members of the homeless community without their belongings and no place to go.
"We agree with the city that no one should be forced to sleep on the streets but simply moving people along is not a solution. The city needs to immediately invest in adequate and appropriate shelter space and services to compassionately help those people experiencing homelessness and find more robust ways to address our affordable housing crisis," Alderman told ABC News. "Housing, not police enforcement, is the only solution to homelessness."
Philadelphia – Community members are searching for answers after an unarmed man was shot and killed by two police officers in an unmarked car who are claiming that they opened fire because he had his hand in his pocket.
The incident started around 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 27 when officers claimed they spotted a 2013 Hyundai that was wanted in connection with a homicide investigation, according to a report from NBC Philadelphia.
The officers pulled over Dennis Plowden, 25, who was driving the vehicle with a female passenger in the front seat. During a press conference, First Deputy Commissioner Myron Patterson said that when the two officers, who were wearing plainclothes, got out of their unmarked car, “Plowden accelerated the Hyundai, striking the police car and ‘contacting the officer.’”
The officer who was hit by Plowden was identified as Officer Eric Ruch, a nine-year veteran of the Philadelphia police. He proceeded to follow the car, even after he said he was struck by it.
Police claimed that Plowden then went on to plow the Hyundai into two other parked cars before he “got out of the car and tried to run away.” A report from WPVI-TV claimed that when Plowden exited the car, he had “his hand in his pocket.”
While other officers arrived at the scene who were in uniform, Ruch was the one who “gave repeated commands for the man to show his hands” and then opened fire when he claimed Plowden did not comply. Ruch struck Plowden in the head, and he was pronounced dead several hours later at a hospital.
“Investigators have determined that while the vehicle may have been connected to that December 21 homicide, Plowden himself was not,” WPVI-TV noted, confirming that Plowden was not armed at the time of the incident.
Police claimed that the female passenger in the vehicle “suffered minor injuries,” and confirmed that the officer-involved shootings investigations unit is now handling the case. “We want to assure a very objective, transparent, and comprehensive investigation is conducted,” Patterson said.
Plowden left behind a wife, a six-month-old son, and two step-daughters. Tania Bond told NBC Philadelphia that she does not understand why her husband was killed by police. “Why did you shoot this man in his head? He was unarmed. He was not dangerous,” she said.
Plowden’s grandmother, Stacy McCoy, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Dennis is her second grandson who has been murdered in the last two years. His brother Darryl was shot and killed in August 2016 at the age of 20. His homicide is still unsolved.
McCoy said she also does not understand why police shot and killed Dennis Plowden.“He was unarmed,” she said. “They shot him like a god damned dog.”
“They could have stun-gunned him. They didn’t have to do a kill shot. They murdered my grandson like all the other black kids out here,” McCoy said. “I want justice for my grandson. They [the officers] need to be charged with something. … They didn’t have to shoot my grandson in the head. … They just killed another little black kid, unarmed. That’s the way I see it. It’s horrible.”
Police have yet to release Body or Dash Camera footage from the incident. Plowden, who had no warrants at the time of the initial stop, is survived by his wife and six-month-old son. The family has setup a GoFundMe account to raise money for the funeral.
