Denver Police beating probe reopens amid outcry - The Denver Post

Denver Police beating probe reopens amid outcry - The Denver Post

The Denver Police Department is reopening an internal-affairs investigation into two officers implicated in the beating of a man in Lower Downtown.

Video of the incident and an earlier decision to keep the officers on the force have prompted an outcry, especially from Latino groups.

"Additional witnesses and new information has been made available to investigators," the department announced in a news release late Thursday. "As a result, the case has been reopened."

Department officials declined to reveal what new information was being investigated, but a person close to the investigation said witnesses had come forward who damaged the accounts of the two officers in the April 4, 2009, incident.

"We're trying to corroborate the evidence," said Safety Manager Ron Perea, whose original decision to keep the officers on the force had prompted calls for his resignation. "In any case, you can't discount evidence. You have to open it up."

The new information being probed included two people interviewed by 9News in a broadcast Wednesday night who said they saw Michael DeHerrera being beaten by an officer despite his re peatedly yelling that he was not resisting arrest.

Hasan Aoutabachai confirmed Thursday night that internal-affairs officers contacted him and his girlfriend, Vanessa Shaver. He said they were 2 feet from DeHerrera and saw an officer wrestle DeHerrera to the ground at 15th and Larimer streets.

"He did not do anything aggressive at all," Aoutabachai said of DeHerrera. "I know that for a fact. He was standing there not moving an inch, and he just got slammed to the ground like a rag doll."

Aoutabachai said he heard DeHerrera repeatedly yelling that he was not resisting arrest as the police officer pummeled him.

"He was just getting the (expletive) beat out of him," Aoutabachai recalled.

"I am completely ecstatic," DeHerrera told 9News on Thursday night. "I can't believe that the witnesses

Eric Brown, spokesman for Mayor John Hickenlooper, said in an e-mail that "the mayor completely supports police pursuing all leads and interviewing all witnesses in a case."