Hearing officer overturns discipline in Childs shooting

By Brian D. Crecente And Javier Erik Olvera, Rocky Mountain News
January 14, 2005

Overturning the most severe penalty ever leveled against a Denver cop, a hearing officer ruled Thursday that officer James Turney will not be disciplined for shooting developmentally disabled teen Paul Childs last summer.

Hearing officer John Criswell threw out the discipline, saying that the decision relied on a department policy that wasn't applicable to the case.

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Criswell's 46-page decision letter also called into question the police department's policies and the Denver district attorney's criminal review of police shootings.

"We are reviewing the hearing officer's extensive opinion and weighing our legal options, including a possible appeal," said City Attorney Cole Finegan.

The city has 15 days to file an appeal to the Civil Service Commission or Denver District Court.

Minutes after learning about the decision, Helen Childs sat in the living room of her new home, flipping the channels on her TV for news reports about the man who killed her son.

"I'm hurt - it's like the day it happened all over again," she said, turning up her TV's volume as her 1-year-old grandson, Aajaiveon Hall, played nearby.

"I can't believe it," she repeated as she fought back tears. "There hasn't been a day that I haven't missed my son. How can this decision be fair?"

Manager of Safety Al LaCabe's decision to suspend Turney for 10 months lumped together violations that stemmed from a threatening phone call Turney allegedly made to his former mother-in-law on July 4, 2003, and Childs' shooting a day later.

In his findings, Criswell broke the alleged violations apart, finding that two of the four violations, both stemming from the phone call, should be sustained, but that the discipline stemming from the shooting was not merited.

Criswell ordered that Turney, who has been on unpaid leave since April, be suspended five days and fined one day's pay for the two violations he upheld.

Turney and three other officers responded to the Childs home in 2003 after Paul Childs' sister called 911 to say her brother was threatening their mother with a knife.

When officers arrived, the 15-year-old came to the door with the knife in his hand.

Childs did not respond to police officers' orders to drop the weapon, and Turney opened fire, shooting the teenager four times.

In his original decision, LaCabe said Turney should have shut the door leading into the boy's home and backed away once he determined there were no other residents inside.

Criswell said that while the ideal tactic might have been to back away, "given the very few seconds that transpired, I am convinced that no reasonable Denver police officer with officer Turney's training and background would have thought of this tactic."

In the original ruling, LaCabe said the department's "efficiency and safety" rule requires, among other things, that a police officer utilize good judgment and tactics in making decisions in his or her police work.

But Criswell said neither Turney nor any other officer was ever told that the rule could apply to tactical decisions.

Criswell added that the department's new use-of-force policy, put into effect after the shooting, would allow officers to be disciplined under the policy in the future.

The decision letter also was critical of department policy, saying, in essence, that because the department's previous use-of-force policy didn't allow Turney to be penalized, LaCabe had to find another means to discipline him for his tactical errors.

Criswell also noted that Turney had not been disciplined, but instead was awarded a Medal of Valor, when he was involved in an earlier fatal shooting under similar circumstances.

Several times in the letter, Criswell pointed out a seeming connection between the decision to file criminal charges against an officer involved in a police shooting and the decision to reprimand an officer.

"In no case prior to the Childs incident was a Denver police officer ever disciplined for an excessive use of force under the department's policy in an instance where the district attorney has decided not to prosecute that officer under the Colorado statutes," he wrote.

Criswell went on to say he thinks the district attorney has historically failed to look at the circumstances leading to a police shooting when deciding whether to file charges.

Former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter, who was the DA at the time of the Childs shooting, was out of town and unavailable for comment Thursday.

Criswell's decision to overturn Turney's discipline drew mixed reaction from the community.

Former neighbor and Childs' family friend LaShon Hall couldn't contain her emotions after she heard the news late Thursday afternoon.

"Lord have mercy - this is devastating," said Hall, the mother of three children who lives two doors down from the Thrill Place house where Paul Childs was shot.

Hall's older two children, Christopher, 15, and Idaisha, 12, were friends of Paul Childs, spending most days playing together.

"I'm very outraged by this," she said. "To me, that just says to cops, 'Do what you want.' How can one day justify the life of a kid?"

Mike Mosco, of the Denver Police Protective Association, said the decision proves that the system works.

"Everybody has due process," he said. "Officer Turney has the right, as everyone else, to due process to the right to work. Once the facts are known, the correct decision is made."

"It goes back to the question that we had asked: What did he (Turney) do to deserve the 10-month suspension? The hearing officer's decision in this really answers the question."

Mayor John Hickenlooper said he is disappointed by the decision.

"One thing is clear: We will never be dissuaded in our efforts to make Denver's citizens and police officers as safe as possible," he said. "We have made enormous progress over the past 18 months to reform our public-safety system and improve its accountability, and we will not let today's ruling set us back."

Activist LeRoy Lemos, with the Justice for Mena Committee, said he was not surprised at the reversal of Turney's punishment.

"Until the issue of comparative discipline is dealt with, we will always have these travesties of justice," he said. "Until officers are disciplined in the manner appropriate to the circumstances, there will always be a family that will feel that they suffered a huge injustice at the hands of the police department."

Helen Childs remained in the house where her son was killed for 16 months. At her worst, she'd wake up crying from nightmares that made her relive the images of her son getting shot in front of her.

Nearly two months have passed since she moved into a new home in a Montbello neighborhood, where she struggles to move on from the death.

"It's a bit a easier in this house," she said. "I don't have to walk past the bullet hole in the wall or the blood stain on the floor anymore."

The reasoning

Hearing officer John Criswell's decision to overturn the discipline meted out by the city was based on several conclusions:

• It was reasonable and in accordance with Turney's training for him to go to the door in an effort to save the people whose lives had been reported in danger.

• The ideal tactic would have been to close the front door after the family had exited, but it would have been almost instinctive for an officer to keep the door open and order the suspect out.

• The ideal tactic when Paul Childs did not drop the knife would have been to close the door, but given how quickly the incident happened, no officer would have thought at the time to use that tactic.

• The policy used to discipline Turney was not applicable to the case.

What's next

• The city has 15 days to appeal the decision to the full Civil Service Commission or in Denver District Court.

There are four grounds on which to appeal:

• New and material evidence

•Erroneous interpretation of department rules

•Policy considerations that may have effect beyond the case

•Discipline is inconsistent with discipline received by others under similar circumstances

Once appealed, both sides have at least 120 days to file transcripts and briefs. The commission then decides whether to review the case. The commission's decision can then be appealed to district court.

crecenteb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2811 Staff writer Tillie Fong contributed to this story.

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