The Denver Post

Their broken badge
By Dani Newsum
DenverPost.com Blogger

Saturday, April 24, 2004 - We’ve all had our job performance second-guessed, and at some point most of us have come up wanting.

I “came up wanting” just yesterday – but in my case nobody died. Denver cop Jim Turney’s job performance – a death threat made by Turney to a former relative; a shooting that resulted in the death of Paul Childs; and 147 minutes spent on his personal cell phone while on the job - has also been reviewed and found wanting. His boss, Denver Manager of Safety Al LaCabe, a former federal prosecutor and New Orleans cop, has suspended Turney for 10 months for exercising poor judgment and conduct unbecoming a Denver police officer. And that’s being kind.

In a written statement, LaCabe explained his decision to suspend Turney, not for shooting Paul Childs dead – but because Officer Turney failed to see that he could secure his own safety and the safety of the other officers on the scene and Childs’ family members simply by stepping out of the doorway he had placed himself in and closing a security door:

“In this case, officers, including Officer Turney, were aware that Mr. Childs was behind the door armed with a knife. In that position, he was no longer a threat to anybody…The barrier between Mr. Childs and everyone else was formidable. It could have been increased substantially without exposing the officers to harm by simply closing the security door. By containing the threat, officers would have had the time, distance and barriers necessary to interact with family and gain more information to determine how to proceed. By immediately forcing a confrontation with Mr. Childs, Officer Turney exposed himself and others to an immediate risk of harm, placing Mr. Childs only six to seven feet away from Officer Turney, and creating a likely deadly force situation. By virtue of these tactical and judgment errors, I find that Officer Turney violated the ‘efficiency and safety’ rule.”

A security door separated Turney and other officers on the porch of the Child’s home, and Child’s family members who were on the lawn, from the knife-holding teen inside the house. Instead of putting four bullets into the 15-year old, Turney could have closed that door.

But he didn’t, and because he didn’t, safety manager LaCabe concluded that Turney violated the police department’s rule that requires a police officer to use “good judgment and tactics in making decisions in his or her police work…and to strive to protect the safety of himself, other officers, and the public.”

Turney’s threat to shoot his ex-mother-in-law in the head while ON DUTY on July 4 (one day before he shot Paul Childs) also figured in to LaCabe’s decision, as did the fact that Turney spent almost 2 ½ hours on his personal cell phone while on duty that day – including the time he spent threatening to off his ex-wife’s mom. I’d think that making personal death threats against a relative – or anyone - while on duty as a Denver police officer would get you thrown off the force for good, not just for ten months.

Turney’s judgment showed no improvement the next day when instead of opting to preserve a life – by closing a door – he chose to end one by pumping four bullets into a 15-year old kid with severe developmental disabilities.

But Denver’s policemen and women are mad as hell. They think Jim Turney deserves no punishment, and that his suspension is a cave-in to political pressure put on the mayor’s office by “activists”:

From Thebrokenbadge.com: “Ten month’s (sic) !! Suspended for doing his job, putting his life in danger to protect you the public! As a police officer, I am afraid to do my job knowing that I do not the support of our Police Administration, the Mayor, Manager of Safety and certain members of City Council.”

The Denver Police Protective Association says: “The main issue for our member officers is that they are confused as to what Officer Turney did wrong to deserve this punishment. Manager LaCabe…cited the use of bad tactics but did not specify what these tactics were…The members of the PPA strongly feel that Officer Turney acted appropriately, and within the policy in place at the time of the incident, and that the discipline received is inappropriate and politically motivated.”

And Officer Trista Turney (Jim’s wife): We all know this is nothing but a political issue…the chief and the mayor are sending us the message that that it would have been much easer for the city to pay for a cop’s funeral…then (sic) to stand up in public and say that Jim did the right thing.”

David Pridemore (Trista’s dad), is blaming the mayor for the death threats he says his daughter and son-in-law have received: “Not only have you endangered your own employees by this response, you have personally endangered my children and thus my entire family I have seen no effort by the government of the city to ensure the personal protection of my son and daughter. I know death threats have been issued.”

Hello!? Makes me wonder what Mr. Pridemore thinks about his own son-in-law-the-cop? After all, Jim Turney knows a thing or two about making death threats. I’m also scratching my head wondering why Pridemore doesn’t seem to any qualms about his own daughter’s safety.

Regarding the allegations that LaCabe and Mayor Hickenlooper caved in to political pressure: of course Paul Child’s killing was followed by cries of outrage from various communities – not only black “activists” – but no more so than when two Denver cops blew Jeff Truax away with 25 bullets in the parking lot of a nightclub in 1996.

And certainly no more so than when Denver SWAT members iced Ismael Mena in 1999 in a fusillade of bullets after the cops broke into the WRONG house on a no-knock drug raid and killed Mena, an innocent man, in his own bedroom; or in 1998, when a Denver police officer shot 12-year old DeShawn Hollis, severing his spinal cord and paralyzing him. The city paid “go away” money to the Truax family ($250,000), the Mena family ($400,000) and the Hollis’ family (a record $1.2 million). And the police just walked away – swearing they’d done nothing wrong.

So what’s changed?

For starters, Denver finally has a safety manager who knows that cops make mistakes too.

Some Denver cops may think LaCabe is a sob sister – but he’s been in their shoes. As a former cop and federal prosecutor, LaCabe’s got the kind of credibility with the public that can only be earned through experience. And LaCabe has a boss who will back him up.

A police officer answering a distress call experiences fears and pressures that I’ve never had to face, and don’t want to either. But that extraordinary pressure doesn’t mean a cop is justified every time he or she decides to pull the trigger.

If he (or she) doesn’t have the fortitude and good judgment to do the job – one that most people, including myself, aren’t psychologically, emotionally or physically fit to handle – then he’s a danger to himself and everyone else, and shouldn’t be holding the job. No excuses.