Denver weighs Lobato payout
$900,000 settlement is pondered with family of man slain by police
By Christopher N. Osher
The Denver Post
Posted:12/14/2007 01:00:00 AM MST
Updated:12/14/2007 02:28:51 AM MST
The Denver City Council on Monday will consider paying a $900,000 settlement in the death of Frank Lobato, an unarmed 64-year-old man fatally shot in bed by a police officer.
The July 11, 2004, shooting reignited a controversy over the city's training and discipline of its officers and helped propel police reforms by Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
The money will go to the family's attorney, Kenneth Padilla, and Lobato's children: Francisco, Anthony, Barbara and Ramona.
"No amount of money can bring back a man's life that has been wrongfully taken," Padilla said. "The family has lived this ordeal for over three years now."
City Attorney David Fine did not return telephone messages seeking comment, but he released a prepared statement.
"Our goal was to reach a settlement that is in the city's best interest, treats Mr. Lobato's family fairly and allows all of us to move forward," Fine said in the statement. "We believe we have accomplished that."
The shooting of Lobato and an earlier shooting of developmentally disabled 15-year-old Paul Childs on July 5, 2003, gripped Denver in months of controversy.
The family of Childs received a $1.325 million settlement from the city in 2004 — the largest payout for a police shooting death in city history.
The proposed settlement in the Lobato case comes weeks after U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock issued a 32-page ruling clearing the way for a jury to hear the case.
In his ruling, Babcock said a jury should decide whether Denver failed to train its police officers on decisional shooting and use-of-force policies and whether the city failed to discipline officers for using excessive force.
"A jury could find that the city knew, or should have known, that its police officers were not being adequately trained regarding the use of deadly force," Babcock wrote.
Padilla said Lobato's children hope that the city will learn from the case.
"It's our fervent hope the city will take heed," he said, "and that the necessary changes would be made in the Denver Police Department so officers receive proper annual training in the use of deadly force and that a proper discipline system would be put in place to ensure officers are properly disciplined for misconduct and improper use of deadly force."
Officer Ranjan Ford Jr. shot Lobato after police went to the apartment of Lobato's nephew on a domestic-violence call.
Officers knew the victim, Cathy Sandoval, was safe but climbed a ladder and entered the second floor of the apartment where Lobato's bedroom was. They were searching for Lobato's nephew, Vincent Martinez. Martinez's girlfriend, Sandoval, had accused Martinez of holding her captive for 17 hours. She told the officers that Lobato was in the house and unarmed.
Lobato was in bed at the time. Ford said he believed Lobato bolted upright with a gun in his hand. But Lobato was unarmed. A soda can was found on the floor of his bedroom, which police said he may have dropped after he was shot.
No criminal charges were filed against Ford, and he served a 50-day suspension after Denver Safety Manager Al LaCabe, who oversees the Police Department, concluded Ford violated the use-of-force policy.
Since the Childs and Lobato shootings, the Hickenlooper administration has initiated a series of police reforms. The city hired independent monitor Richard Rosenthal to oversee the internal discipline of officers and complaints against them.
The city also overhauled its use-of-force policy and beefed up training of officers.
Still, LaCabe said in sworn testimony taken in connection with the Lobato lawsuit that he believes the way the city disciplines officers causes problems.
The city currently uses a "comparative discipline" system, which relies on past discipline decisions to guide how misconduct is handled.
LaCabe hopes to have a new discipline system in place by next spring that will call for presumptive discipline for specific offenses.