Michael DeHerrera Video Casts More Doubt On DPD Letter

Video From Police Beating Casts More Doubt On DPD Statements

New video of a controversial police beating is casting doubt on certain details of a letter sent by the Denver Police Department to the victim.

The 46-minute video, obtained by Complete Colorado, shows the entirety of an April, 2009 episode during which Denver police beat an two unarmed men outside a downtown nightclub.

Despite public pleas from one of the victims, Michael DeHererra, and his family, Denver's Manager of Safety ruled in 2010 that there was insufficient evidence to discipline the officers involved for excessive force. The officers were only disciplined for filing inaccurate reports of the incident. The Manager of Safety's ruling came despite a recommendation from the Independent Monitor that the officers be fired.

Although the latest video does not provide definitive proof of further innacuracies in official police statements, it does raise more questions about the veracity of police reports.

As Complete Colorado notes, the Denver Police Department--in a letter to DeHerrera's father (embedded below)--claimed that "there was no indication that the involved officers had knowledge of the existence of a cell phone at the time this incident took place."

The video shows DeHerrera talking on a white cell phone before police grabbed him and began beating him. As DeHererra is being handcuffed, the video shows a similar white object on the ground nearby. Just after that, an officer is seen picking up the white object and placing it on the dash of a patrol car.

The Denver Police Department will not address the incident, citing an ongoing internal affairs investigation.

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