A hearing to determine whether to dismiss a case against a Denver cop accused of rape continues this morning in Denver District Court.
Audio files of Denver internal affairs investigators’ first contacts with Officer Hector Paez’s accuser vanished for more than a year, turning up as his trial was scheduled to begin in September.
Defense attorney Gary Lozow has used the mishandling of evidence — called “sloppy police work” by the judge — to call for the kidnapping and sexual assault charges against Paez to be dismissed.
Lozow pointedly questioned the actions of involved police officers Monday, leading to some contentious moments that included a sustained objection for badgering a witness.
Judge Robert McGahey, who delayed the start time Monday when he had to return home for blood-pressure medicine, seemed visibly frustrated during parts of the proceedings. “If there was any case I’d want to be on my meds for, this is it,” he quipped as proceedings began.
The alleged victim in the case claims Paez coerced her into his squad car, drove her to an undisclosed location and then coerced her into sex following a May 16, 2010, traffic stop.
The most crucial of the lost tapes is a recording Sgt. Kim Hull made in May 2010, when the alleged victim drove around with Hull and lead investigator Sgt. Jaime Lucero, pointing out where alleged crimes took place.
Hull testified she had the recorder visible in the front seat, but said Monday she wasn’t sure whether Lucero knew about the recording until just before the trial. She ultimately left the internal affairs bureau without turning over the audio files.
She told Lozow on Monday that she had forgotten many of the details related to who knew about recordings, when they knew and what was done to find the lost files.
Another Denver police officer testified Monday it took her only a few minutes to find Hall’s lost files on a shared computer network.
