The family of a woman found beaten to death six hours after a neighbor called 911 has sued Denver police, claiming that a pattern of slack response practices led to her death.
Loretta Barela’s family filed the lawsuit in federal court on Monday seeking redress for the “shocking preventable death.”
The lawsuit says that Barela was strangled and beaten to death in the early morning hours of Nov. 18, 2012 six hours after a half-naked woman pounded on a neighbor’s door on the 1500 block of South Carlan Court.
The lawsuit filed by Denver lawyer David Roth on behalf of Barela’s parents and children seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
The lawsuit says that at 1:56 a.m. Rita Espinoza awoke to Barela banging on her front door topless and wearing only jeans. She ran back into her home to get a shirt and call police.
“…Her boyfriend came out and was pulling her across the street. He locked the door and (was) hitting her. And she’s a very small woman and he’s a pretty big man.”
When she called a second time at 2:45 a.m., a dispatcher replied to Espinoza’s concerns by saying “We haven’t forgotten about you. We’ve just been extremely busy tonight…We do have a call for officers to head out and check on them – or check her I should say.”
But police were not dispatched to the home until 3:07 a.m., records indicate. Police went and knocked on the front door of the home and when there was no response they left.
At 8:15 a.m., Espinoza called a third time to tell police that Barela was dead.
Perea was convicted of first-degree murder and kidnapping and was sentenced to multiple life prison terms.
The lawsuit cites two other murders that happened since April of 2012 in which Jimma Reat and Kristine Kirk died because of breakdowns in Denver’s 911 system.
Reat, a 25-year-old Suddanese refugee, was instructed by a dispatcher on April 1, 2012 to drive to Denver to report harassment when he was shot to death.
Kirk was fatally shot in her on April 14 after another 911 call was not immediately answered. The woman’s husband, Richard Kirk, has been charged with murder.
In all three cases dispatchers were placed on administrative leave but later resigned pending the completions of their cases.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, kmitchell@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kirkmitchell, denverpost.com/coldcases
