The widow of a man shot to death by a Denver police officer wants access to the internal-affairs file of Police Chief Gerald Whitman in an effort to determine whether his department has a pattern of lax discipline toward its officers.
On Wednesday, lawyer Kenneth Padilla will ask U.S. Magistrate Judge Kathleen Tafoya to compel the city to turn over Whitman’s file to his client, Vicki Lynn Trujillo.
Whitman declined to comment Monday on Padilla’s attempts to access his file because litigation is pending, said his spokesman, Sonny Jackson.
Padilla is trying to find out whether Whitman, who has been with the Denver Police Department since 1982, has complaints in his file and whether he was disciplined appropriately. If not, Padilla said, a jury could determine that Whitman has established a lax approach to discipline based on his own experience.
“It sets the tempo for them on what is right and what is wrong,” Padilla said.
In 2005, Padilla hired Louis Mayo, a expert in policing and excessive force, to analyze the police department’s use-of-force complaints for a lawsuit Padilla filed on behalf of Frank Lobato, who was fatally shot while lying in bed by a Denver police officer who thought he had a weapon.
Mayo determined that fewer than 1 percent of the department’s use-of-force complaints from residents were sustained by internal-affairs investigators during a 10-year period.
About 15 percent of use-of-force complaints in other cities of similar size, such as Albuquerque, were sustained, Padilla said.
During the Lobato case, city attorneys argued that Mayo’s statistical data was flawed and unreliable because it did not take into account the nature of the complaints.
Padilla settled the Lobato case for $900,000 in 2007.
In Trujillo’s case, the Padilla intends to use a similar strategy of attacking the police department’s record on use-of-force training and disciplinary actions.
In December, Trujillo filed a $10 million lawsuit against Officer Timothy Campbell and Whitman individually, along with the city and county of Denver, claiming that the 2007 fatal shooting of her husband, Jason Gomez, was unjustified.
The lawsuit claims Whitman and other police officials should have known that Campbell had “dangerous propensities to shoot and kill without justification.”
Padilla said an early-warning system for officers that Denver police has in place had flagged Campbell, but he was excused from further inquiries because he was considered a pro-active officer who initiated actions on his own.
Padilla said 15 complaints have been filed against Campbell since 2002, six of them involving use of force. None was sustained.
“The defendants . . . failed to sanction, discipline or otherwise instill corrective actions against police officers, including Campbell, for committing acts of unjustified use of deadly force resulting in shooting and killings and denial of civil rights, but instead have condoned such violations,” the lawsuit says.
Gomez was shot six times on Dec. 19, 2007, near West Ada Place and South Hazel Court. Campbell said he tried to stop Gomez, who was driving erratically.
Gomez got away from Campbell, but a short time later, the officer spotted Gomez in the car parked in a driveway. When Campbell approached the car, Gomez jumped out and ran. During a foot chase, Campbell said, Gomez shouted threats and acted as if he had a gun.
After the shooting, it was determined that Gomez, who had a lengthy criminal record, was in possession of only a cigarette lighter.
Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey determined the shooting was justified and declined to file charges,
“The fact that Gomez made his verbal and physical threats to kill Technician Campbell while possessing a lighter, rather than a firearm or edged weapon, is of no consequence under the facts of this case,” Morrissey wrote. “It was clearly reasonable for Technician Campbell to believe that Gomez was armed with a firearm and about to shoot him.”
