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June 26, 2009 04:37 PM UTC

Wait, What?

  • 39 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

A story in this morning’s Denver Post seems too creepy to ignore, even though it’s not directly related to politics–at least not yet.

The lawyer representing the family of a man shot by Aurora police last month says police have retaliated against him by towing his legally parked vehicle from in front of his office Monday morning.

Lawyer Derek Cole said he was on the phone with Police Chief Dan Oates on Monday morning, talking about setting up a meeting with his clients when Oates asked for, among other things, his work and home addresses.

By the time Cole got off the phone and made it back to his office, his Volvo had been towed by police for improper registration. Records showed his registration had expired, even though he had current tags…

Cole is the attorney for the family of Darius Murray, who was shot by police May 9.

Police at first reported that Murray, 19, accidently shot himself in the head, after officers investigating a car burglary shot him in the leg and shoulder. They later changed the story, saying an officer fired the shot to his head after Murray fired at them first.

Aurora police spokesman Bob Friel said the call and the towing were not related and there was no retaliation by the chief or the department.

“There is no connection between the car and the call,” Friel said. “As to the reason why we towed it, it was in violation of the law.”

After further investigation, police determined the registration record was not accurate and Cole’s registration was, indeed, current…

So, a lawyer involved in an excessive force claim against the Aurora Police Department gets asked out of the blue for his home and work addresses by the chief of police, then returns to find his validly-registered vehicle towed for bad registration? As indicated by some vaguely-described “record” later “determined” inaccurate? For one thing, how many times have you heard of police towing a parked vehicle for something so minor? Why did the police run a registration check on a legally parked vehicle with apparently valid tags in the first place? Just to be sure?

Is anyone out there so naive as to buy this for a minute?

Stinks to high heaven, folks, and somebody needs to be asking some very pointed questions about what really happened here. The first person who springs to our mind, of course, is Aurora city councilman and U.S. Senate candidate Ryan Frazier. As an official directly in an oversight role, we would expect him to be all over this–unless there’s some reason he doesn’t want to be…

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39 thoughts on “Wait, What?”

  1. I find this news extremely disturbing. Good to see the Post is on it. Does Aurora have an independent review board or commission that oversees complaints regarding police abuse? Does anyone know?  

  2. When I forgot to put my new stickers on, Denver wrote me a $30 ticket because the tags showed to be expired.

    If the lawyer’s car tags showed to be current (i.e., no visible evidence of expiration) then what “possessed” the Aurora PD to run a check on them?  Otherwise, how did they come across the “bad” record?

    Are the Aurora PD’s dispatching records subject to CORA?

    1. though they’d be foolish to do anything like this through dispatch. Officers carry cell phones.

      What the Post didn’t note, though, was the APD’s initial explanation for why Cole’s car was towed: During a struggle for a parking space, the attorney towed himself in the head.  

        1. “We need a better relationship between the commission and the police department,” Councilman Ryan Frazier said. “It comes down to the fact that we have to have the right makeup on the commission, to have a positive relationship to meet the city’s needs on the fire and police departments.”

          1. Maybe I can’t read between the lines, but it sounds like a criticism of fellow councilors.  Is that right?  I don’t know any of the people involved.  Or is the commission a different group?  Anyway, this quote sounds to me like he is saying the incident happened because the city doesn’t have a positive enough relationship with the police department.  Either there is a lot of backstory or that quote is mindless drivel.

          2. Didn’t come from the article, and I don’t think it has anything to do with this specific case. Since Libertine didn’t provide a link there’s really no way to know. Care to explain what this has to do with the post, Libertine?

            But I’ll say again: the right’s stupid charge that everything posted by this blog as somehow “Dem Party Spokespeople,” especially on a post like this, gets really fucking old.

            1. Frazier is talking about has to do with civil service hiring policies, not police review. Frazer ran the public safety committee for a long time and has plenty of quotes over the years. This one has nothing to do with what we’re talking about.

            2. Pols knows there is more spin left in this dog … time to go hunting JeffcoBlue.  Even Pols has expectations and one of them is to not have to hand feed you.

              hint for JeffcoBlue: oversight

              Too bad for Pols, Voltaire probably has the right read on this caper.  Plus, where the hell has Pam “a candidate” Bennett been on this issue?  

  5. Thanks for the post and I want to add that the point of politics is the creation and articulation of community concerns.  Water, sewer?  Basic health and safety.  Police and fire protection?  Same thing.  This is true rubber hitting the road politics.  If the elected officials in Aurora don’t respond to this, what will they respond to?

    This issue isn’t about political parties, it’s about basic fairness and community protection.  If I contact the local police with a safety concern and they retaliate, I will be less likely to contact them in hazardous situations.  (Don’t go all hyperbolic on me here, I’m saying less likely, not absolutely.)

    I hope this issue is being discussed at city hall today and for the next several weeks.  Of course, what are the proper procedures that can be put in place to prevent this apparent abuse?  Is that a no-brainer question?

  6. Suppose you’re an Aurora police officer, who enjoys abusing your powers.  You choose to victimize an attorney, who has specific expertise in prosecuting police abuse of powers?  Is there some kind of IQ test to be an Aurora police officer?

  7. It isn’t uncommon for a car that doesn’t put stickers on the plate but actually has a current registration to get a ticket.

    Getting a tow truck guy to tow a car for bad registration when the stickers are right there on the plate (and the stickers have anti-counterfeiting features no less) is practically impossible.

    Dan Oates needs to be investigated by the public integrity section of the FBI, or perhaps brought before the judge in the Murray case on suspicion of contempt of court and obstructing justice.

        1. you’d have received your VIP clearance already, sxp. Maybe one of the former front-page editors has put a “hold” on your elevation?

  10. They asked for his address? They almost certainly had his work address as he has filed a lawsuit against the city. And they could look up his home address on their computers.

    Why did they need to ask?

    1. Cole hasn’t “filed a lawsuit against the city,” he’s representing the family of a man shot by police just over a month ago.

      Also, why would Aurora police “computers” have Cole’s home address? If he’s not in the phone book (he’s not), there’s no reason the police would have his address listed. Remember, that’s Denver cops who kept extensive files on troublemakers, but they’ve apparently stopped doing that.

    2. …is a lawsuit against a city typically delivered to the police?  I would think the city or county attorney would be the more appropriate recipient.

      2. though the Aurora city attorney who handles cop lawsuits has an office near the chief’s.

        Another question is what possible reason Oates could have had to ask Cole’s home address. Other than a whiff of intimidation.

    3. Normally, one does not ask an attorney representing someone who is suing you for a home address.  Why would you need to know it?  And, business addresses for every lawyer in the state are a matter of public record — almost every lawyer in the state has a copy of the statewide bar directory, and it is listed on every document that a lawyer files in court.

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