The American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado and two of the original plaintiffs from the so-called “spy files” case have filed a new lawsuit against the Denver Police Department.
The suit, filed Tuesday on behalf of the ACLU as well as Steve and Vicki Nash, longtime Denver activists, asks for the results of three internal police investigations prompted by the “spy files” controversy that the department has refused to disclose.
“The police basically say, ‘Trust us. We investigated ourselves, and we’re satisfied with the outcome,”‘ said the ACLU’s Colorado legal director, Mark Silverstein. “But the public gets no reassurance.”
In a statement, the Denver city attorney’s office said that “disclosure of this information would be contrary to the public interest and could infringe upon the police officers’ privacy interests.”
The statement also said that a Denver ordinance prohibits release of such information except in extraordinarily limited circumstances, and a court order issued in 2004 precludes disclosing many of the documents being sought.
The original “spy files” suit, filed in 2002, claimed that Denver police were keeping illegal intelligence files on those exercising their First Amendment rights. The 2003 settlement requires police to keep files only on those “reasonably suspected” of criminal activity.
In 2002, before the suit was settled, the Nashes filed a complaint with the Public Safety Review Commission, asking for an investigation of the officers who kept a file on the Nashes, calling them “criminal extremists,” although they have no criminal history.
In a letter dated March 16, 2004, Denver Police Chief Gerry Whitman said a “preponderance of evidence” supported the Nashes’ complaint, and that as a result, “changes have been made.”
When the ACLU asked for the investigative records, the suit says, Whitman declined, saying their disclosure would be “contrary to the public interest.”
Denver Post researcher Barbara Hudson contributed to this report.
Staff writer Amy Herdy can be reached at aherdy@denverpost.com or 303- 820-1752.
