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From the Denver Post:

Denver Manager of Safety Alex Martinez on Tuesday criticized an internal affairs investigator who first interviewed Alexander Landau about his 2009 beating by three officers but said he won’t launch an investigation into claims that she tried to intimidate him and dissuade him from filing a complaint.

Martinez announced last week that there was not enough evidence to support Landau’s claims of misconduct by Cpl. Randy Murr and Officers Ricky Nixon and Tiffany Middleton. He said they would not face discipline for the beating, which stemmed from a traffic stop. Landau said the officers tried to cover up the Jan. 19, 2009 beating and called him a racial epithet.

He took his complaint to then-internal affairs Sgt. Virginia Quinones, who said within the first minutes of their conversation that he would be charged with a crime if his report was false.

“You know, right off the bat, if it turns out that there’s any mistruths, so to say, any lies, so to say, then you — it could turn around and you could be charged. …” Quinones said, according to a transcript of the intake interview.

When Landau suggested that the officers “were intimidated because I’m black or something,” Quinones told him, “Sometimes, it’s not a good thing to play the race card.”

At one point, she told him, “it’s important for us to stand up and admit and be a man…”

Landau said Tuesday he felt the interview was “an uphill battle” from the start.

“We agree it was a poor interview that would be addressed by training, but the interviewer was transferred from Internal Affairs shortly after the interview,” Martinez wrote in an e-mailed statement.

He said Quinones was never investigated or disciplined because of the interview. She now works in the ID bureau, but her transfer was unrelated.

“More importantly, Internal Affairs has been completely restructured with well-trained investigators; that type of interview is not tolerated,” Martinez wrote.

According to the U.S. Justice Department’s best practices on internal affairs interviews, “no threats or warnings of prosecution or potential prosecution for filing a false complaint should be made orally or in writing” to someone who files a complaint.

Independent Monitor Nicholas Mitchell said Landau’s complaint will not be settled until Landau’s claims that Quinones was biased are resolved.

Landau and his attorneys also said the decision not to discipline the officers ignored key evidence, including conflicting stories about a bloody handprint on Middleton’s gun. Officers had said the print got there when Landau reached for the weapon and that it was wiped away, but Middleton said she did not see blood and did not clean the gun.
Martinez has said his decision came after multiple reviews. The U.S. Justice Department also declined to prosecute the officers for lack of evidence.

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From the Denver Post:

The Justice Department on Friday informed a man who was beaten by three Denver police officers in 2009 that it will not charge any of them with civil-rights violations stemming from the case.

Alexander Landau, 23, said representatives from the department and the FBI called him at about 6:30 p.m. to inform him of the decision.

“They said they didn’t feel like they had enough evidence to bring federal charges against any of the officers who were initially involved,” Landau said.

The agents did not expound on the decision, he said.

“The gentleman was saying they just didn’t feel like they had sufficient evidence,” he said. “It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

The decision brought vindication to the officers and disillusionment to Landau, whose federal lawsuit against the city ended in 2011 with a $795,000 settlement, one of the largest payouts in city history to resolve a police-brutality case.

He said Cpl. Randy Murr and Officers Ricky Nixon and Tiffany Middleton tried to cover up the Jan. 19, 2009, beating that left him scarred and suffering “persisting neurological damage.” A photograph of Landau’s bloody face sparked outrage and community protests.

The lawsuit alleged that the officers hit Landau with their fists, flashlights and a radio, and called him a racial epithet during the incident, which started with a traffic stop.

Police said Landau reached for Middleton’s gun during the stop.

In June, the Justice Department informed the Police Department of its investigation. The Police Department’s internal-affairs bureau has completed its investigation into Landau’s allegations, but leaders delayed a discipline decision in light of the federal probe.

Given the federal government’s decision, Landau said he doubts the city will pursue harsh punishment.

Police Chief Robert White, through a spokesman, referred questions to Manager of Public Safety Alex Martinez.

Martinez’s spokeswoman, Daelene Mix, said earlier Friday that the office had not received official notice of the decision and declined to comment.

The officers involved are now vindicated, said Nick Rogers, president of the Denver Police Protective Association.
“It’s pretty simple: The officers did nothing wrong,” he said.

In a separate case, Murr was fired for lying on a police report about an April 2009 incident in Lower Downtown that was caught on videotape, showing officers beating Michael DeHerrera. Nixon was fired in 2011 for lying in a police report about a violent 2009 incident caught on video outside the Denver Diner. He has since been reinstated.

A Police Department roster shows that Middleton also remains on the job.

“Obviously, they’re relieved,” said Sean Olson, who represented Murr and Nixon in the Landau case. “They’ve been living under this cloud of suspicion since the investigation started. … We are happy to know the DOJ now sees what the evidence shows in this case, that no Denver police officers violated Mr. Landau’s rights.”

Landau said he’s not sure what course of action, if any, he might take next.

“I feel like this is unjust. They beat me half to death and then just joked about it,” he said. “I don’t know if there is anything else I can do from here.”

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