The Denver jail abuse scandal that resulted in a $3.25 million settlement this week with one former inmate has stung public-safety officials and Mayor Michael Hancock.
Yet those same officials are the ones now taking on the task of deciding who will conduct required independent reviews of the city attorney’s office and the sheriff’s department — a role some said might better be taken on by the city’s independent monitor to ensure the public’s trust in the results.
On Wednesday, the mayor’s office said it’s up to the job and offered as evidence the hiring of a big name in local law enforcement.
Officials said they have signed on James H. Davis, a former FBI agent-in-charge in Denver and a public-safety expert, to advise the Hancock administration as it reforms the sheriff’s department.
The mayor’s office also has created an executive committee of senior administration staff members and appointees to hire the independent investigative firm for the comprehensive review; to oversee four existing sheriff’s department task forces, which are reviewing policies, procedures, discipline and staffing; to monitor an efficiency review; and to spearhead a national search for a new sheriff to permanently replace Gary Wilson, who resigned last month.
“Everything is on the table,” Hancock said in a statement. “This team will create a full action plan by year’s end to turn around this department and make it one we can all be proud of.”
“True independence”
After a 26-year career in the FBI, Davis oversaw the state Department of Public Safety for Gov. John Hickenlooper and served as the governor’s Homeland Security adviser.
Now a security and risk management consultant, Davis is founder and CEO of Ascent Risk Solutions in Denver.
The mayor’s announcements came on the same day some had questioned whether his administration should oversee the independent probes, which are required by former inmate Jamal Hunter’s settlement.
Handing that duty to the Office of the Independent Monitor would be better, said a spokesman for Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher.
“It’s from a public-perception standpoint of true independence,” said Denis Berckefeldt, Gallagher’s spokesman. “That’s what the independent monitor was really brought on to do,” because the civilian office is charged with investigating problems in Denver’s safety agencies.
Independent Monitor Nick Mitchell, who has been suggesting qualified consulting firms to other city officials, said he would welcome the task of reviewing the sheriff’s department.
“We could ensure that the review is fully independent and addresses the root of the problem, not just the symptoms,” Mitchell said, although he probably would need a boost in staffing to perform the review.
Or, as Berckefeldt suggested, Mitchell could oversee contracts for outside investigators, the task now being taken on by the mayor’s office, Department of Safety executive director Stephanie O’Malley and other administration officials.
But the idea of handing off oversight of the reviews has found little favor with city officials.
From top to bottom
Mayor’s office spokeswoman Amber Miller and City Attorney Scott Martinez said those taking responsibility for hiring outside firms are committed to robust, top-to-bottom reviews of the sheriff’s department and of Martinez’s office.
“It is important to the administration that we allow the independent monitor to remain objective as his position prescribes,” Miller said. “In the meantime, we are conducting a national search for consultants that will bring correctional expertise and out-of-the-box thinking to the table in order to effect the change we are all working toward.”
Martinez said the reviews will be “independent of the city attorney’s office, but the city has to be the client. … You don’t need an independent organization (to choose an investigative firm).”
The mayor’s office this week announced it had selected law firm Lewis Roca Rothgerber to complete the review of the city’s legal protocols, policies and attorney training. Rothgerber, which was selected based on its expertise from a pool of about 25 law firms, also will look into the conduct of assistant city attorney Stuart Shapiro. He was accused of interfering in an investigation during the Hunter case, and he has been placed on leave.
The outside reviews of city legal and the sheriff’s department are required by terms of the city’s $3.25 million settlement with Hunter, approved Monday by the City Council. It’s the largest pretrial settlement in city history.
Hunter was tortured by other inmates in a 2011 attack that he claimed was facilitated and encouraged by Deputy Gaynel Rumer. Later that same year, he said Deputy Edward Keller choked him.
Rumer served a 40-day suspension, but a disciplinary investigation against Keller was put on hold during the civil case. That will resume.
Other inmates have accused deputies of misconduct and abuse.
Keeping an eye on the fallout is Gallagher, the city auditor, whose office has begun its own previously scheduled audit of the sheriff’s department’s policies and procedures. He expects results in early 2015.
Four areas to review
Critics say a gaping hole in the Hunter settlement is the failure to require a review of the jail’s use-of-force policies and training.
The settlement specified only four areas that the independent investigation must review: deputy hiring and disciplinary practices, police internal-affairs protocols and inmate-classification policies.
“It’s already obvious the deputies’ use of force should be an area of review, but that’s not one of the four issues,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado.
But Miller, the mayor’s spokeswoman, said the “top to bottom” outside review would include use-of-force policies, which also are being examined by one of the department’s internal task forces.
Hunter and his attorneys agreed to a provision that they would not release any documents or other evidence they received from the city in July or any evidence connected to the investigation of Deputy Keller.
Such a provision protecting evidence is common in pretrial settlements. It keeps embarrassing information from reaching the public.
This case was unusual, though, because much of the most critical information released by the city had been discussed publicly in court hearings.
Could that part of the agreement hamper the city’s effort to learn from its mistakes in the Hunter abuse saga by keeping some facts secret?
“To my knowledge,” said city attorney Martinez, “the city hasn’t produced any more documents (to Hunter’s attorneys) that weren’t already made public through the course of this litigation.”
City Council members told The Denver Post that they
received a closed-door briefing on the likely evidence that would come out at trial.
In particular, Councilman Paul Lopez recalls a series of searing images that showed Hunter’s injuries, including burns to his groin area. City attorneys were fearful of the effect those images would have on a jury.
“It made it real,” Lopez said of the evidence shown to council members. “It made it real in a way that you understand a bit better the context — the severity — of the accusations in the case and what it means for the city. And that we need strict reform. The department needs to be accountable.”
