Pubdate: Tue, 04 Apr 2000
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2000 The Denver Post
Contact:  1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202
Fax: (303) 820.1502
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Forum: http://www.denverpost.com/voice/voice.htm
Author: Mike Soraghan

OUTCRY WATERS DOWN NO-KNOCK MEASURE

April 4 - State legislators have decided not to make it so tough for police 
to get no-knock search warrants.

Sen. Jim Congrove, R-Arvada, had proposed jacking up the legal standard 
that officers had to meet to get the warrants. That drew howls of protest 
from the state's prosecutors. On Monday, Congrove backed off.

Congrove, a former undercover narcotics officer, said he didn't want good 
cases being thrown out on technicalities because of questions about a legal 
standard.

"It makes it difficult to use that tool," Congrove said.

In watering down his bill, Congrove won support from prosecutors, police 
and Gov. Bill Owens for the measure. The bill's main focus now is to order 
police to get prosecutors' approval before obtaining a no-knock warrant. 
"It protects both law enforcement and the citizenry," said Owens, who took 
the unusual step of holding a news conference to announce his support for 
SB 208.

Congrove's legislation has drawn intense interest because it was introduced 
in the aftermath of a botched no-knock raid by Denver police that left 
Mexican national Ismael Mena dead. Police have admitted they went to the 
wrong house. Mena was shot and killed by SWAT officers who said he drew a 
gun on them.

Denver police said the legislation probably would not have prevented the 
Mena tragedy, though the department supports the bill. The department's 
lobbyist noted that Denver police already consult with prosecutors before 
seeking a no-knock warrant.

"We already do what this law is going to mandate," Denver police Sgt. Tony 
Lombard told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.

The panel passed the bill on a unanimous vote Monday; it now goes to the 
full Senate.

Instead of raising the legal standard for a no-knock search warrant to 
"clear and convincing" evidence, Congrove's bill would commission a state 
study to set model standards for no-knock raids.

The standard for search warrants is "probable cause." To get a no-knock 
warrant, police are supposed to prove that if they knock, evidence will be 
destroyed or officers could be in danger.

But in the wake of the Mena shooting, critics have warned that Denver's 
no-knock warrant process is littered with oversights and omissions that 
could lead to a fatal tragedy. A Denver Post review of 162 warrants earlier 
this year found that judges rarely denied requests for no-knock warrants 
and that police usually found no guns where they said guns would be.

Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant said about 50 to 60 no-knock raids 
are carried out his county every year, and about 90 percent of those are in 
drug cases.

Sen. Ed Perlmutter, D-Golden, questioned whether police should use the 
extreme step of a no-knock warrant for drug cases as opposed to violent 
crimes, such as kidnapping.

"How far are we going to go to go after drugs?" Perlmutter asked. "We're 
stepping all over the Constitution for a really questionable goal." Jack 
Woehr, an opponent of the "war on drugs," came to the hearing to support 
the bill, though he said the current draft simply "re-arranges the deck 
chairs on the Titanic."

But Ari Zavaras, Owens' chief of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, 
said it is often the "small dealers" of narcotics who cause the most misery 
for neighborhoods.

"It's really that little dealer who affects the quality of life even more, 
sometimes, than the big dealer," Zavaras said.
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