The Denver Postjim spencer
Slap on wrist for cop, slap in face to city
Sunday, March 07, 2004 -
In December, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper promised the most comprehensive police reform in the city's history.
On Thursday, that reform took a strange twist. The Denver Police Discipline Review Board recommended a slap on the wrist for a cop who shot to death a disabled teenager. The Discipline Review Board decided that officer James Turney didn't deserve any time off the force for killing Paul Childs, a developmentally disabled, legally blind 15-year-old with a seizure disorder. Turney needed only a letter of reprimand for killing Childs as Childs shuffled toward Turney and refused to drop a knife, the board said. For this to make sense, you must overlook several things: Childs never made a move to attack Turney. He had three other cops backing him up. One of those cops had a nonlethal Taser aimed at the teenager. A step backward would have taken Turney out of harm's way. Childs' death drove the reforms the mayor announced in December. Knowing all that, the six-member discipline board still found that Turney should stay on the job. The board, composed of four police officials and two citizens, did say Turney used improper force. But not so much that he needed even one day off as punishment. Denver police officers have been suspended for a day for missing training. That's apparently a big deal. Kill a retarded kid? No problem. Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter has already ruled that Turney committed no crimes in killing Childs. Now the discipline board determines he barely bent police rules. So far, this whole thing has been a slap in the face of community leaders who kept the lid on the city last summer. Rage over Childs' killing easily could have boiled into riots. "We can certainly understand people's frustrations," City Attorney Cole Finegan said Friday. "But there's a procedure that's mandated. We're now almost at the end of that process." The end result matters more than timing. Thank goodness, the Discipline Review Board only makes recommendations. This steaming pile now rests in the laps of Police Chief Gerry Whitman and Manager of Safety Al LaCabe. They'll consider it over the next two weeks, along with a recommendation from the police Firearms Discharge Review Board. Last month, the firearms board recommended that the department suspend Turney for 30 days without pay for killing Childs. A month off. A few thousand bucks lost. Childs' mom, Helen, has said she will sue the city for more than $5 million. Maybe it's too much. After all, Helen Childs asked her daughter to call 911. She couldn't get Paul to drop the knife, either. But Helen Childs never tried to escape her son. Neither did anyone in her home on July 5. They locked themselves in with Paul. They wanted to keep him from running away. Helen Childs expected the police to calm her son down. Instead, she watched Turney shoot him within seconds of confronting him. Whitman didn't return a call to talk about the case. "At this point, we're not commenting, because the case is in pending litigation and still in the process (of being reviewed)," police spokesman Sonny Jackson said Friday. LaCabe, who ultimately will decide Turney's fate, was also incommunicado. Michael Thompson, Paul Childs' uncle and a family spokesman, said the discipline board's recommendation shocked him. "I don't know how any board can look and say (Turney) didn't do anything wrong and just bring him back to work with a letter of reprimand," said Thompson. "It's not just Paul's case. Look at Gregory Smith. Look at (Turney's) threat to his mother-in-law." Turney and another officer shot to death a deaf teenager named Gregory Smith 18 months before Turney shot Childs. Authorities in Iowa charged Turney with threatening to shoot his former mother-in-law in a phone call made the day before he shot Childs. Turney will not be extradited to face that charge. What's left for Turney and the folks whose lives he ruined is the police discipline system. So far that system has fueled the wheels of justice like a gas tank full of sand. Thompson, a preacher, still hopes to "walk like Martin Luther King Jr. walked." He's not ready to say the system has failed. "I've met the mayor on a number of occasions," Thompson said. "I don't think he will approve this. If he does, then the system doesn't work." If it doesn't, Thompson knows a fundamental trust will shatter and anger will once again swell. "From my point of view," said Thompson, "Turney cannot stay. He cannot. "If it's all said and done and Turney's still there, I don't know what will happen." Bet on more tragedy. |