Posted by Peyton Adams.
The Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment have been overlooked by authorities many times in the past. The Martinez vs Denver Police case is yet another time this has occurred.
The Denver police forcefully entered the Martinez house on January 27, 2009. Instead of allowing Mr. Martinez to fully open the door to determine why the District 1 Special Crime Attack Team (SCAT) was at his door, SCAT forced their way into the house, without a warrant, after receiving information about this home being that of a drug dealer. This Crime Team failed to realize that a new family had taken over the home since the tip was received.
The Denver police were apparently working on “stale information about the former tenants presumably being into drugs and prostitution and some bad stuff.” The police failed to do their background checks; failed to do some investigation; failed to show any respect; and, failed to handle the situation in a proper manner. Instead, the police asserted their power, entered the house, abused their power, and assaulted a family of a mariachi band.
The Martinez family were wrongly accused, but does the Denver police care? The Denver police instead ignored it and didn’t punish anyone on this raid. They merely overlooked the fact that their team did not do their job.
The jury, however, came to a conclusion. The Martinez family sued on two accounts: one, for excessive force, and two, for wrongful prosecution. The jury did not see enough information to determine if the officers entered the house and abused their power, although there were broken windows and injuries sustained by the family. Nonetheless, the jury found that the Martinez family was wrongfully prosecuted and awarded the Martinez family a monetary value of $1.8 million.
The officers planned on appealing the case.
Peyton is a marketing major with a minor in nonprofit studies and business law at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2019.