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| NEWS > 11 September 2009 |
Other related articles:
Cheektowaga police officer acc
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The Erie County district attorney’s office has been informed, Holtz said, although town police Capt. John Glascott said there are no criminal charges pending.
The Tow... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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Denver Post
11 September 2009
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Denver Police Department, CO
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Denver cops planted bag of pot
A defense attorney for Leo Cisneros accused the Denver police this morning of planting drugs in a child's pocket and of conducting sloppy investigative work, and criticized them for focusing on the victim of a crime rather than the perpetrators.
Cisneros is charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death of his 10-year-old daughter, Auralia Cisneros, and possession of marijuana with intent to sell. He faces more than 50 years in prison if he is convicted.
The Denver District Court jury began deliberating at 11:30 a.m. after defense attorney Laura Menninger and prosecutor George Poland finished their closing arguments in the two-week trial.
Auralia was shot in the face about 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 26, 2007, during a shootout between her father and three men who tried to break into the front door of their west Denver apartment.
The robbers — Trivi Trujillo, Joshua Rojas and Juvencio Hernandez — have all pleaded guilty in the case and are serving or are expected to serve between 16 and 24 years in prison.
Jurors do not have to decide whether Cisneros was allowed to shoot at the robbers because under Colorado's "Make My Day" law, he has a right to defend his home. The jury also does not have to decide whose bullet killed the girl.
Prosecutors believe the fatal shot came from Cisneros' gun, a point contested by the defense, who criticized Denver police for not investigating the path of the robbers' bullets.
"We'll never know because guess what? Nobody tested the bullet and took those measurements," Menninger said. "Is that the kind of investigation you would want or you would expect if someone came into your home and fired into your home and your daughter was killed?"
The prosecution also believes the men went to Cisneros' apartment because they knew he was a marijuana dealer and had drugs and cash that they could steal. Poland told the jury that Cisneros placed his child in danger because of his drug business.
"So, every five days or so, he is going through a pound of marijuana and 16 to 32 customers — conservatively — are at the door where his family is, where his kids are, where 10-year-old Auralia is," Poland said.
Police asked Cisneros why he didn't stop dealing marijuana after the apartment had been burglarized a couple of months before the shooting.
In that burglary, the thieves took a PlayStation game console and some marijuana.
"If I moved, I would have lost everybody because I mainly sell weed to people who live around here," Cisneros told police.
"Was he aware of the risk and did he consciously disregard it? Absolutely," Poland told the jury.
But Menninger told the jurors Cisneros couldn't have predicted that three sociopaths with guns would rob his family because he didn't sell very much marijuana, only about a pound every 10 days and only to friends in the neighborhood and to family members.
She also told the jurors the robbers admitted they didn't know whether Cisneros had drugs to steal before they broke in.
Police have testified that Auralia had a baggie of marijuana that she was clutching in her hands, inside her pants pocket at the time of her death.
Menninger told the jury that Auralia's mother, a Denver police officer who was one of the first on the scene, and a neighbor who helped give Auralia CPR, all testified that Auralia's hands were across her chest when she died and were not in her pocket.
By the time the coroner got on the scene, he testified that he pulled Auralia's hand out of her pocket and found the baggie.
"The prosecution said they were going to prove these red flags. Unfortunately for them, the truth got in the way," Menninger said. "Use your common sense, you know what Denver police officers do when they encounter people with a Coke can or a lighter? They unload."
Poland objected and denied any police misconduct during his rebuttal argument.
Menninger argued that police focused their investigation on Cisneros from the beginning and seemed more concerned about convicting him than going after the robbers, who were given plea bargains.
"What kind of world do we live in when they are giving benefits to the armed robbers who carried out an armed attack on this family's home? What kind of world is that?" she asked.
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