Denver, Co. - Some police officers have discipline issues serious enough that their courtroom testimony may be suspect.

City officials have identified one out of every 17 Denver police officers as having discipline issues serious enough that their courtroom testimony may be suspect.

Those officers were listed as witnesses in more than 1,100 cases in the past 12 months, a review of court data maintained by the Police Department shows.

The names of the officers show up on a list maintained by the offices of the city attorney and Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey. Prosecutors use the list to alert defense lawyers anytime one of the officers might be called as a witness on a criminal case.

But despite safeguards put in place that are meant to ensure defense lawyers know which officers have a history of deception or lawbreaking, the system is not always effective or efficient.

Attorneys say judges are inconsistent when it comes to letting them see the personnel files of officers on the list so they can determine how best to cross-examine them.

And no system is in place to alert defendants when an officer is under investigation for what the Police Department calls "departing from the truth," and notifications also aren't sent alerting a defense lawyer if an officer gets fired for such a violation. As a result, defense attorneys never learned about the seven officers who were ultimately fired this year for being untruthful. Meanwhile, even while under investigation for being untruthful, those officers were listed as witnesses in nearly 60 cases in the past 12 months and jurors were never told about the allegations.

Anytime a defense lawyer tries to use the list to subpoena the personnel files of an officer listed as a witness, the city attorney's office will fight back and argue the officer has privacy rights, Baumann said. Prosecutors also will seek to block release, saying that the information is irrelevant, he added. Police officers also can have their own personal lawyers fight the subpoena. It is left up to the judge to determine whether the personnel files see the light of day, Baumann said.

"Judges across the board are reluctant to release these personnel files," he said. "Some of them will release the files. Others are very reluctant to do so, and they will ask us to make certain records to justify our request that we simply can't make."


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