A Denver Police officer accused of assaulting a teenager has been cleared of wrongdoing by a jury.
But Denver Police say they have a lot more investigating to do in the case of Juan Vasquez, the teenage boy who was seriously injured last April after a foot chase with police.
The officer accused of the beating, 13-year veteran Charles Porter, was cleared of first-degree assault March 12 by a jury that heard conflicting stories from officers about what happened the day Vasquez was beaten.
Now the department is trying to figure out who lied.
"We know that this kid was assaulted by a Denver police officer, and we know that at least one Denver police officer committed perjury in this trial," independent police monitor Richard Rosenthal told The Denver Post.
The case started last April when Vasquez, who was 16 at the time, ran from three officers pursuing him for a possible open-container violation.
During the resulting scuffle, one officer repeatedly jumped on the boy's back, causing serious internal injuries. The city of Denver ended up paying the boy $885,000 to settle a lawsuit over the beating.
In Porter's trial, the three officers gave different accounts of what happened.
Porter, 41, testified that he fell behind during the foot chase and that by the time he arrived, Officers Luis Rivera and Cameron Moerman had Vasquez on the ground, complaining he couldn't breathe.
"I don't know what happened that night. By the time I arrived, the juvenile was handcuffed and in custody," Porter testified.
The other officers, Rivera and Moerman, testified that they saw Porter jump on Vasquez and Rivera heard him say later the beating was "just something I do lately."
Vasquez gave conflicting testimony and seemed unsure which officer jumped on him.
Detective Rufino Trujillo, past president of the state chapter of the National Latino Peace Officers Association, told the newspaper that conflicting stories from the officers led to Porter's acquittal.
Trujillo said that with no clear physical evidence, prosecutors were relying on the credibility of officers Rivera and Moerman. Neither Moerman nor Rivera blamed Porter for the beating until they talked to internal affairs investigators six days after it happened.
"Their credibility was in question, and you were not going to get a conviction," Trujillo said.
Denver Assistant District Attorney Doug Jackson said the other two officers waited to come forward out of loyalty to a fellow officer, not because their story wasn't true.
"They didn't want themselves to be looked on unkindly by other officers for ratting out one of their senior officers," Jackson said.
Porter, who was suspended without pay, remains on suspension but is back on the department payroll. He will also recover salary withheld since he was arrested for assault last May.
Moerman and Rivera remain on duty.
The newspaper reported that the police department plans to continue investigating the beating, and that the FBI may intervene and bring federal civil-rights charges if a review turns up wrongdoing.
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Information from: The Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com
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