By Sarah Langbein, Rocky Mountain News
December 8, 2004

If Denver police officer James Turney made tactical errors in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy in 2003, so did three other officers on the scene, his lawyers argued in filings made public Tuesday.

Lawyers for Turney made their final appeal to have his 10-month punishment modified for the shooting death of Paul Childs, a developmentally disabled teen, and for an alleged threat against his ex-mother-in-law.

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In written closing arguments, made more than a month after Turney's appeal hearing ended, lawyers Doug Jewell and Jeff Clayton asked that the officer's unpaid suspension be reduced to one day.

Four officers were on the scene yet Turney was the only one disciplined, they argued.

"If the force used by Officer Turney was justified, but the tactics not, there is no rational reason other officers on scene were not considered for discipline," his attorneys wrote in a 74-page brief.

Turney's lawyers said city attorneys failed to prove that the officer acted in violation of the department's standards when he shot and killed Childs on July 5, 2003.

"The (city) put on a case for eight days that established that there were other possible options that, in the comfort of the City Attorney's Office and with the help of 20/20 hindsight, could have been employed by Officer Turney," his lawyers wrote in the brief filed late Monday.

Turney is seeking to overturn the suspension issued in April by Manager of Safety Al LaCabe, who said the officer made "tactical errors" leading up to the death of Childs. Specifically, LaCabe said Turney could have closed a security door between him and the knife-wielding teen to slow down the situation.

In a much shorter closing argument, just 20 pages, city attorneys maintained that Turney's punishment was "fair and reasonable."

"In this case, the tactics used by Officer Turney were not reasonable and not in accordance with his training," Assistant City Attorneys Karla Pierce and Jack Wasoky wrote. "Worse yet, those tactics resulted in the unnecessary death of a frightened and confused teenage boy with limited mental abilities, as his mother and sister looked on."

The city attorneys reasserted that Turney failed to "de-escalate" the situation and forced a deadly ending.

Hearing officer John Criswell has until mid-January to make a ruling in Turney's appeal.

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