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Thread: Jury awards $1.8 million to wrongly raided Denver family

  1. #1

    Exclamation Jury awards $1.8 million to wrongly raided Denver family

    Jury awards $1.8 million to wrongly raided Denver family

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/t...denver-family/

    Here’s the Westword, describing the initial lawsuit in 2011:

    Qusair Mohamedbhai, an attorney who defended the family against the assault accusations and is handling the suit in conjunction with Lane, describes the Martinezes as “a family Mexican band. They’ve even done fundraising for other law enforcement, like in Adams County. They’re good people. Nobody’s got criminal records.”

    Here’s how Mohamedbhai lays out the facts of the case.

    “The Martinez family moved into a house at 1263 Stuart Street in December of ’08, about a month before the incident went down,” Mohamedbhai says. “The police were, I suppose, working on stale information about the former tenants presumably being into drugs and prostitution and some bad stuff. But those guys had been gone for a while. According to the landlord, the house had stayed empty for five or six weeks prior to the Martinez family moving in.

    Cut to January 27, 2009, just past 11 p.m., when members of the District 1 Special Crime Attack Team, better known as SCAT, arrived at the Martinez home. “They had no warrant, no application for a warrant, nothing,” Mohamedbhai allows. “They come in hard, kind of expecting to come into a drug den. The father [Daniel Martinez Jr.] opens the door a crack and cops rush in and engage three of the Martinez family — the father and three of the kids [Jonathan, age sixteen at the time, Nathan, nineteen, and Daniel III, 21]. They punched first, asked questions later. One of the kids [Jonathan] got his head put through a window, and another one [Nathan] got punched so hard that he was launched into the air and staggered back. Then two of them got body slammed outside.”

    Once everyone was cuffed, Mohamedbhai says the officers assembled everyone on a couch inside the house — “and they look around and realize they’re in a little family house, not a drug den. Then they ask everyone for their socials, and they’ve all got them; they’re all citizens. So they trump up this story that the kids attacked them once the police came in the house upon consent. That’s their version — that the dad let them in and the kids started swinging on these huge cops.”

    Mohamedbhai insists that this last descriptor isn’t hyperbole. “One of the cops is six-five, another one is six-four. And Jonathan Martinez, he’s something like 120 pounds.”
    Color me shocked that a unit called the “Special Crime Attack Team” would find itself accused of abuse. This week, a federal jury awarded the family $1.8 million.

    After the raid, two of the Martinez sons were charged with third-degree assault on a police officer, a crime that carries a mandatory two-year jail sentence. It isn’t exactly clear why two young men with no criminal record and who had done nothing else wrong would knowingly assault the armed cops who had just raided their home. Perhaps that’s why the jury acquitted them. Two subsequent investigations, both conducted by other police agencies, found the family’s complaints to be “unfounded.” Which can only mean that these police agencies don’t consider subjecting innocent people to violent police raids a form of abuse.

    If Denver officials had simply left it at that, it’s unlikely that the Martinez family would have received any compensation at all. The jury in the family’s civil case didn’t find the raid itself to be abuse. It was the decision to prosecute the boys that was apparently too much. But the family won’t be collecting any time soon. The state plans to appeal. But at best, once again, the party that will be punished for the abuse of innocent people by police and prosecutors won’t be the police and prosecutors who committed the abuse, but Denver (and probably Colorado) taxpayers.
    Another mark of a tyrant is that he likes foreigners better than citizens, and lives with them and invites them to his table; for the one are enemies, but the Others enter into no rivalry with him. - Aristotle's Politics Book 5 Part 11



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  3. #2
    The jury in the family’s civil case didn’t find the raid itself to be abuse.

    well, some people(I'm not one) didn't find the murder of a cop by Eric frein itself to be a bad thing.
    "IF GOD DIDN'T WANT TO HELP AMERICA, THEN WE WOULD HAVE Hillary Clinton"!!
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  4. #3
    District 1 Special Crime Attack Team, better known as SCAT
    Well, at least they're honest about who and what they are.
    I have an autographed copy of Revolution: A Manifesto for sale. Mint condition, inquire within. (I don't sign in often, so please allow plenty of time for a response)

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by invisible View Post
    Well, at least they're honest about who and what they are.
    Know $#@!.

  6. #5
    Wow, fascinating story; thanks, AF. It's good in a way, but obviously not as good as we'd like. As you say, if they hadn't pushed the envelope by prosecuting the victims, the victims would have been out of luck.

  7. #6
    Police $#@! up and get to have fun roughhousing and tossing around a family, and then the taxpayers foot the bill, not just for the $#@!ing lawsuit, but for their paychecks as well.

    JUST. SOCIETY.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sister Miriam Godwinson View Post
    We Must Dissent.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Spikender View Post
    Police $#@! up and get to have fun roughhousing and tossing around a family, and then the taxpayers foot the bill, not just for the $#@!ing lawsuit, but for their paychecks as well.

    JUST. SOCIETY.


    "Every attack on an officer of the law is an attack on our state, our country and civilized society," Corbett said in a statement.
    "IF GOD DIDN'T WANT TO HELP AMERICA, THEN WE WOULD HAVE Hillary Clinton"!!
    "let them search you,touch you,violate your Rights,just don't be a dick!"~ cdc482
    "For Wales. Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world. But for Wales?"
    All my life I've been at the mercy of men just following orders... Never again!~Erik Lehnsherr
    There's nothing wrong with stopping people randomly, especially near bars, restaurants etc.~Velho

  9. #8
    1.8 million?


    not enough.



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  11. #9
    Everything cops do needs to be on video sent realtime into the cloud with full public access and penalties for any cop interfering in any way with the coverage. I think that is the number one best move we can make to start rolling back this insanity. They have no good argument against it, the cost is minimal (even negative if you believe the cops that all the excessive force cases they lose are wrong decisions), and once every act of brutality and heavy-handed police-state tactics goes online, people are going to start demanding change. Their ability to do everything in secret allows them to lie their way out of any trouble as it is now.
    The proper concern of society is the preservation of individual freedom; the proper concern of the individual is the harmony of society.

    "Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow." - Byron

    "Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe." - Milton

  12. #10
    So how much of it comes out of the cop's salary?

  13. #11
    lol....SCAT....
    There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.
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    Two-Time Congressional Medal of Honor Winner
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  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Acala View Post
    Everything cops do needs to be on video sent realtime into the cloud with full public access and penalties for any cop interfering in any way with the coverage. I think that is the number one best move we can make to start rolling back this insanity. They have no good argument against it, the cost is minimal (even negative if you believe the cops that all the excessive force cases they lose are wrong decisions), and once every act of brutality and heavy-handed police-state tactics goes online, people are going to start demanding change. Their ability to do everything in secret allows them to lie their way out of any trouble as it is now.
    A man with some sense.

    (considering the outright abolition of such an institution is unfeasible at this point in time)
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  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by aGameOfThrones View Post
    "Every attack on an officer of the law is an attack on our state, our country and civilized society," Corbett said in a statement.
    America's Largest Street Gang.

    COP4LYFE.

    *Throws up gang signs AKA badges*
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    We Must Dissent.

  16. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by alucard13mm View Post
    So how much of it comes out of the cop's salary?
    Likely none.
    The proper concern of society is the preservation of individual freedom; the proper concern of the individual is the harmony of society.

    "Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow." - Byron

    "Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe." - Milton

  17. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Acala View Post
    Everything cops do needs to be on video sent realtime into the cloud with full public access and penalties for any cop interfering in any way with the coverage. I think that is the number one best move we can make to start rolling back this insanity. They have no good argument against it, the cost is minimal (even negative if you believe the cops that all the excessive force cases they lose are wrong decisions), and once every act of brutality and heavy-handed police-state tactics goes online, people are going to start demanding change. Their ability to do everything in secret allows them to lie their way out of any trouble as it is now.
    Excellent idea. I can get behind this.

  18. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by invisible View Post
    Well, at least they're honest about who and what they are.
    My thoughts exactly.
    “Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?” - Oxenstiern

    Violence will not save us. Let us love one another, for love is from God.



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  20. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by alucard13mm View Post
    So how much of it comes out of the cop's salary?
    Until the day government employees are made personally liable for the damage and abuse they cause to citizens and their property, things are only going to get worse and worse in this country. And as there's basically zero chance of that happening any time soon, well... things look grim.
    “Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?” - Oxenstiern

    Violence will not save us. Let us love one another, for love is from God.

  21. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Inkblots View Post
    Until the day government employees are made personally liable for the damage and abuse they cause to citizens and their property, things are only going to get worse and worse in this country. And as there's basically zero chance of that happening any time soon, well... things look grim.
    I believe that there is actually a very clear and realistic way that this could happen in the very near future. That is: to get a large enough group of committed libertarians to move into a small town or county and proceed to vote in libertarian reforms. 100% personal liability for police officers and other government employees could be a relatively early reform and an easy one to implement.

    See my thread here: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...78#post5597278

    Here is an eloquent presentation of the kind of thing I am envisioning, starting at 1:00:30 and going for a few minutes:



    1:00:30

  22. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by helmuth_hubener View Post
    I believe that there is actually a very clear and realistic way that this could happen in the very near future. That is: to get a large enough group of committed libertarians to move into a small town or county and proceed to vote in libertarian reforms. 100% personal liability for police officers and other government employees could be a relatively early reform and an easy one to implement.

    See my thread here: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...78#post5597278
    It's an interesting concept, and you draw some great lessons from the failure of FSP. I hope you and others pursue this idea further. I'll keep an eye out for more in that direction.

    As for the video, can't watch it now, but I'll take a gander at it this evening.
    “Do you not know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed?” - Oxenstiern

    Violence will not save us. Let us love one another, for love is from God.

  23. #20
    Cut to January 27, 2009, just past 11 p.m., when members of the District 1 Special Crime Attack Team, better known as SCAT

    You cannot make this stuff up!
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