Cop gets job back in no-knock killing

'I think what we're doing here is fair to the officer,' city's safety manager says

By John C. Ensslin
Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Joseph Bini, the Denver police officer whose botched search warrant led to a fatal SWAT team shooting, will get his job back.

He will also get nine-months back pay for part of the time he was on administrative leave.

Bini has been on leave from the department since the Sept. 29, 1999, no-knock raid in which police killed Ismael Mena after they went to the wrong house.

Bini drew up the search warrant that listed the incorrect address.

On Monday Police Chief Gerald Whitman and Manager of Safety Ari Zavaras confirmed that Bini will be re-instated.

His penalty will be a three-month suspension that he has already served.

Zavaras said he realized that his decision would be criticized by those who feel that Bini should have been kicked off the force.

"I think what we're doing here is fair to the officer," he said. "I think the agency has to step up and accept it's share of what happened."

Zavaras said that he knew he might be more likely to avoid a public outcry if he made Bini turn in his badge.

"Politically, it would be very expedient for us to terminate Officer Bini," he said. "I have never operated that way in 35 years and I'm not going to start making someone a scapegoat now. We're going to do what's right."

But Zavaras said he hopes the public won't overlook the severity of the punishment.

"This discipline is way off the charts for similar situations," he said.

News that Bini will come back to duty outraged a lawyer for the Mena family and the Justice for Mena committee.

Earlier on Monday, the committee members had carried signs in the Martin Luther King Day marade that read "Fire Joe Bini".

"Ismael Mena and his family have gotten a final slap in the face," said Leroy Lemos of the Justice for Mena committee.

Lemos blamed the outcome on "an incestuous relationship" between the judicial, executive and enforcement branches of the criminal justice system.

"That created a situation where a man can literally get away with murder ... and no one is to be held accountable."

Robert Maes, who represented the Mena family in a lawsuit the city settled for $400,000, called Bini's pending re-instatement, "quite tragic."

"The punishment is quite minor," Maes said. "He caused the death of a man by misrepresenting directly."

Mena, a 45-year-old father of nine children, was killed in an exchange of gunfire with SWAT officers who were looking for drugs.

However, the search warrant signed by Bini had led officers to the wrong house.

In December, Bini was sentenced to one year of probation and 150 hours of community service for his guilty plea to one count of official misconduct, a misdemeanor.

Whitman decided on the 90-day suspension after a Jan. 3 disciplinary hearing with Bini. He recommended the punishment to Zavaras, who had to give final approval.

"When you look at all the facts and the volumes of information, I think the discipline is appropriate," Whitman said.

Whitman pointed out that the tragedy led to a change in the department's procedures on no-knock raids.

That, in turn, led to a dramatic drop in the number of those warrants issued. Denver police got 129 no-knock warrants in 1999. In 2000, after the shooting, that number dropped to 42.

In addition to tougher standards for getting the special warrants, district attorneys must now also sign off on the request prior to approval by a judge.

In the past, district attorneys only gave legal advice to police officers requesting approval.

Whitman said that Bini will not be able to go directly back to active duty because he has been on suspension for more than a year.

Instead, Bini will have to go through mandatory retraining and testing before he can start work.

John Wyckoff, a spokesman for the Denver Police Protective Association, said the three-month suspension was appropriate punishment.

"This is a tragedy for the Mena family and the police department," Wyckoff said. "But Mr. Mena would still be alive today if he didn't have a gun and if he had not fired it."

January 16, 2001