Papers Please, continued.

[kbr80]

In the thread, http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=153350

Most are upset at the lack of options we citizes have against LE. This article is a prime example. It will be interesting to watch it to see what happens to the officers involved, especially the Detective. If it is true, someone, IMO is guilty of kidnapping. I believe in Color of Law, but Color of Law is being used to cover up way too much nowdays. It needs to be limited.



Nursing Mother Handcuffed, Hauled Away During Traffic Stop
Sloppy Detective Work Implicates Wrong Woman

POSTED: 4:33 pm MDT August 25, 2005
UPDATED: 9:44 am MDT August 26, 2005

A nursing mother was separated from her baby, handcuffed, and abruptly taken to jail and now, the state patrol and the Lakewood Police Department are investigating.

The mother told 7NEWS' John Ferrugia that she was terrified and humiliated by police mistakes.

It all began when the woman and her husband were pulled over during a routine traffic stop.

"I doubled up kids in the back seat in belts. So they were restrained, but not properly. But ... it was my fault for not having them in there properly," said father Ricky Archuleta.

Ricky expected a ticket but was surprised when the trooper told him he couldn't even drive.

"He ran my license. He came back and said it had been rescinded for an unpaid traffic ticket. I knew I had paid the ticket," Ricky said.

The fact is, he had and the computer got it wrong. Then, the officer said Ricky's wife, Mercedes, had to drive. While the trooper checked her license, she nursed her baby in the front seat. Suddenly, the officer was at Ricky's door.

"He said, 'Take the baby from your wife.' I said, 'Why?' He goes, 'Take the baby from your wife, now,'" Ricky said.

The officer didn't explain why he wanted Mercedes out of the car, the couple said.

"I took the baby off and started to cover up a little bit. When I started to step out of the car, he just told me put my right arm in back of me," said Mercedes. "He grabbed my left arm, put it in back of me, cuffed me and then I was thrown against the car. And my kids were crying."

"She got out of the car. He just kind of shoved her against there, and her blouse is undone. And all my kids see her just up against (the car). Immediately, they're like, 'What are they doing? What are they doing to Mom?'" Ricky said.

"I turned to him and said, 'Excuse me, why am I being arrested?' And he goes, 'You need to be silent,'" Mercedes said.

"I'm in shock. The baby's screaming. The kids start crying and screaming and I don't know what to do. I actually don't know what I said. I said something and he just yelled in the car and said, 'You need to be silent,'" Ricky said.

"He said, 'There's a warrant for your arrest.' I said, 'No, there's a mistake.' I said, 'There's no warrant for my arrest ... I've never been in trouble for anything in my life,'" Mercedes said.

"He was rude. I think he was overzealous," Ricky said.

"I thought I was going to get sick. I felt like I was going to faint. I was humiliated because I was there with this stranger and here I am with my blouse undone and he didn't give me a chance to tie it up, and I was just so worried for my baby," Mercedes said.

At the Jefferson County Jail, Mercedes was strip-searched and said it became clear to officers that she didn't match the description of a suspect who had tattoos and scars. She had neither.

"(The female officer) says, 'I know this isn't you.' And I said, 'Can you call someone? Can they release me?' She said, 'Nope, I can't do that,'" Mercedes said.

Mercedes and her husband were unaware of what got her there -- sloppy work by the Lakewood Police Department. A detective had substituted the innocent woman's information for a suspect with a lengthy police record.

Lakewood Division Chief Clarene Shelley said the detective made a big mistake. She said the Lakewood detective was trying to identify a woman involved in a domestic violence issue and when the detective pulled the name, Mercedes Archuleta, on the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's crime computer, the name came up as an alias for Phyllis Rivera.

But instead of investigating whether Rivera was involved in the domestic violence dispute, the detective issued a warrant for the phony name Rivera had been using -- Mercedes Archuleta.

Shelley said the detectives never called Mercedes to ask her, 'Are you this person?' and she never checked Mercedes' address to see if it matched the address of the suspect.

What's more, the detective never pulled a photo of either person to verify identity.

"She just pulled my name up because I was the only one she could find about my age," Mercedes said.

While the police department has admitted its mistake and offered to meet with the family to apologize personally, Mercedes has declined. She said she is embarrassed and humiliated.

"If (the detective) had to spend a day in jail like I did and be scared, not knowing what's going to happen, and have her family crying and worried about her, then I think she would understand where I'm coming from," Mercedes said.

The Lakewood officer involved has been reprimanded, but not suspended.

The Colorado State Patrol has begun an internal investigation of the conduct and procedures of the trooper who made the arrest.

Meanwhile, Lakewood police and the city attorney have initiated steps to remove the arrest and any mention of the innocent woman from public records.

But clearly that has not yet been successful. Mercedes' arrest is still listed on the CBI database.

Have a comment on this story or a news tip? E-mail 7NEWS Investigators.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news...0484&qs=1;bp=t

[gc70]

Wow!

A detective contaminates the system with sloppy information.
A state trooper is possibly overzealous.
A jailer shows an incredible lack of initiative (or may be prohibited from exercising any initiative).

This should be an intersting story to watch unfold.

[Joejojoba111]

It just seems like the police officers don't understand how citizens feel about this, because the police have been following their procedures for decades. And it seems that ordinary civilians didn't really give a hoot what police procedures were for those decades. Now that procedures are used more and more often, as the old officers retire and are replaced, more and more middle-class people are being humiliated and abused.

It was OK when it was used in ghettos, but now it's Mr and Mrs Smith...

But it does make sense why police officers are befuddled by complainers on these forums, from their point of view they're doing nothing wrong, nothing that hasn't been happening for years and years. From civilians point of view it's all new and rough and scary.

I still don't quite believe all the stuff I hear from friends with links to lower class areas, but the general overtones are pretty consistent.

[Sindawe]

There are no words in our language that adequately describe my reaction to this, this...injustice. Perhaps words alone cannot capture the heart of it, since it originates from a time before we had words, but the recognition of wrongness and tyranny plain before my eyes still remains.

"(The female officer) says, 'I know this isn't you.' And I said, 'Can you call someone? Can they release me?' She said, 'Nope, I can't do that,'" Mercedes said.

How fit the boots, Fraulein?

Meanwhile, Lakewood police and the city attorney have initiated steps to remove the arrest and any mention of the innocent woman from public records.

But clearly that has not yet been successful. Mercedes' arrest is still listed on the CBI database.

Ten lashes while in the stocks, followed by molasses and feathers for those responsable, and expulsion from their profession for all time. That might suffice....

It would seem to me that the signs of things to come lay plain before our eyes, yet still we refuse to see.

------------------------------------------------------------
So I say to all you spooks and spies, all you who watch and catalog and make lists. Leave my fellows and I in peace and we shall all enjoy a long life. Do it not, and all your days are numbered. No writ of law, no force of arms, no tyrants boot can forever subjugate a people who's birthright is LIBERTY! We taught this lesson to our supposed betters once more than 200 years ago, and if need be we shall teach it to you again.

[CARRY'IN]

Control group and his brother controllers will be along shortly to explain all of this away in a comforting mannner. Dont worry, everything is OK.

[Standing Wolf]

Well, yeah, but we're not a police state. After all, nobody was killed, right?

[Pilgrim]

While the police department has admitted its mistake and offered to meet with the family to apologize personally, Mercedes has declined. She said she is embarrassed and humiliated.

"If (the detective) had to spend a day in jail like I did and be scared, not knowing what's going to happen, and have her family crying and worried about her, then I think she would understand where I'm coming from," Mercedes said.

The Lakewood officer involved has been reprimanded, but not suspended.

As I recall, not long ago, a year or two, a woman was wrongly arrested in Fresno County, CA on a warrant issued on an alias. She was elderly and was deprived of her medications during her few days in jail. Eventually the sheriff realized his mistake and released her.

The woman suffered a heart attack after her release.

During the civil suit, it was discovered that the deputies who arrested the woman were aware of a number of physical description differences between the person described on the warrant and the woman they arrested. They pressed on with the arrest instead of taking the time to get further information.

The woman received a sizable money judgment against Fresno County.

Pilgrim

[Joejojoba111]

Compensation is only 1/2 of justice! Compensate for harm done, and prosecute those who do the harm!!!

Darn it's never going to happen, but if people stop demanding it, then we lose everything.

[Baba Louie]

Just doing my job ma'm. Nuthin personal

[lysander]

I like Sindawe and Standing Wolf.

Joejojoba +1....

There must be consequences for overstepping boundaries. It is not enough for the State to simply redistribute some wealth in order to grease a wheel made squeaky by the State in the first place. In the end....the average citizen pays for the whole damnable incident. Joe Taxpayer foots the bill for the cops salary, foots the bill for the subsequent legal battle, foots the bill for the settlement...and worst of all...gets his liberty taxed just a little bit along the way.

[Zundfolge]

The Colorado State Patrol has begun an internal investigation of the conduct and procedures of the trooper who made the arrest.

Yeah, right ... that will amount to squat.


Out of all the police departments here in Colorado, the only one I trust LESS then the CSP is the Denver PD.

One of the guys I work with was a CSP officer ... based on listening to him talk about his time in the patrol (and in particular his training) I can't imagine how they DON'T end up with mostly JBTs

[CARRY'IN]

In the end....the average citizen pays for the whole damnable incident. Joe Taxpayer foots the bill for the cops salary, foots the bill for the subsequent legal battle, foots the bill for the settlement...and worst of all...gets his liberty taxed just a little bit along the way.

Well, said. Man! That really gets my blood boiling.

[TallPine]

nothing high road I can say about this ...

My definition of a "police state" is when you have more to fear from cops than from criminals.

[Logistics]

>>>My definition of a "police state" is when you have more to fear from cops than from criminals.
<<<<

Give it a few more years, they're workin on it. The Police Staters involved in this unfortunate incident need to be fired on the spot after and have pensions taken away as well asap. Precident needs to take place so other Police Staters think twice in the future.

[svtruth]

I have no background in law enforcement, and would be interested in comments from the LE community about their feelings about both the unprofessionalism of false arrests such as this, but also the fact that the false arrest may close the case oficially, but the real miscreant is still on the street, eg the Central Park Jogger case.

[dasmi]

While the police department has admitted its mistake and offered to meet with the family to apologize personally, Mercedes has declined. She said she is embarrassed and humiliated.

As long as that apology includes a sizeable check, and the heads of the officers who did this on a platter, I say take it.

[Grey54956]

Do you trust the thin blue line? Not me.

While I understand that there are surely a great number of officers out there who are the very epitome of professionalism, I suspect that they are largely outnumbered by incompetent buffoons. This is largely the way it is with any profession. I am an engineer, but roughly 3/4 of the engineers that I have ever dealt with are completely and utterly unfit in their duties. People of other professions that I have talked to are convinced that the same holds true in their fields. So, I can only assume the same holds true in law-enforcement.

This is probably how these sorts of stories come about. Slovenly police work, followed by more slovenly police work, followed by more. Eventually, by luck (or probability) you eventually encounter someone who is mostly competent, and they might help you out if procedure allows it.

Disgusting.