Albuquerque Journal, N.M., Upfront column

Source: Albuquerque Journal, N.自存倉M.Sept. 06--I recently read a 29-page investigative report by the Albuquerque Police Department on the death of an 11-year-old girl who was found hanging by an extension cord from the garage rafters.The girl appeared to have committed suicide (she left a note saying she did not like the world), but no one, least of all the two APD officers, three detectives and two sergeants who arrived at the girl's Northeast Heights home in May, took that for granted.For the next five weeks, detectives diligently investigated the death, going so far as to obtain Wal-Mart surveillance video to confirm that the girl's family had been shopping there as she hanged herself.In the end, the case was closed as a suicide. The autopsy, performed by the state Office of the Medical Investigator, concluded that as well.The thoroughness of that investigation stands in stark contrast to the one conducted in the death of prominent civil rights attorney Mary Han in November 2010.In her case, too many assumptions were made and not enough questions were asked, mostly because APD's top brass and city officials were too busy tromping around her North Valley townhouse and, according to a lawsuit filed by Han's family, mucking up the evidence.Many things about the way Han's death was dealt with upset her family -- the behavior of APD and city honchos that day, for one -- but perhaps the most galling was the rush to conclude that this spirited, fearless woman had killed herself with carbon monoxide, evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.Last month, Attorney General Gary King said his review of the case had determined that Han's death was "mischaracterized" as a suicide because the OMI had been hampered by APD's hasty and inept investigation."The real cause of death for Albuquerque attorney Mary Han may never be determined because of the puzzling police investigation," King said in a news release. "However, the evidence does not definitively indicate she took her own life."King, in an interview with the Journal , said he was not implying that any criminal charges were likely, at least for now.You'll recall that Paul Kennedy, Han's longtime law partner who found her dead in the front seat of her car parked in the garage of her North Valley townhome, told the 911 operator that he assessed her death as an "accidental suicide."A lawsuit filed by the family said Han had texted Kennedy the night before she died and said she wanted out of the partnership.Paul Feist, then a deputy chief and the commander of APD's Scientific Evidence Division, followed suit and declared Han's death a suicide less than five minutes after arriving at the home, according to a lawsuit filed by the Han family.That was pretty much the end of the "investigation."City Attorney David Tourek, in response to the criticisms, has said Han's death was investigated by "the independent, professional and nonpolitical state Office of the Medical Investigator, which was on scene and reached its own conclusion base迷你倉新蒲崗 on scientific finding."Kennedy has repeatedly declined to comment on the matter.King's report gave Han's family members hope that they could at least have the stigma of suicide wiped away by having the OMI change the manner of death on her autopsy report to "undetermined," as King recommended.But hours after King released his findings, Dr. Ross Zumwalt, the OMI's chief medical investigator, told me in an email that he had not seen the report, nor had he been contacted by the AG's Office."That was just their conclusions," Zumwalt said. "I would need to see the additional information they reviewed in coming to their conclusions."Yet this week, AG spokesman Phil Sisneros said Zumwalt had been presented with "extensive investigative files" in the Han case in early July but that Zumwalt was unmoved."He did not express a great deal of interest in what was contained in them at the time," Sisneros said.Zumwalt did not respond to an additional request for comment on Sisneros' assertion.Meanwhile in the small southwestern New Mexico town of Bayard, family members of Max Joe Gutierrez, like the Han family, are similarly upset. They contend his death, at the end of a shotgun to his temple in 2010, was wrongly declared a suicide by OMI because of the influence of police officers at the scene.And let's not forget Tera Chavez, the beleaguered wife of former APD officer Levi Chavez. In 2007, OMI forensic pathologist Dr. Patricia McFeeley ruled that Tera had committed suicide by firing her husband's service pistol into her mouth.McFeeley based her findings in part on what had been passed along to her by law enforcement -- which included Levi Chavez and his APD buddies.McFeeley later changed her report from suicide to "undetermined," and Levi Chavez later was charged with first-degree murder.This summer, a Sandoval County jury found him not guilty, though his own defense attorney now suggests Tera Chavez may have been murdered, just not by his client.We'll never know because of the way the investigation was initially mishandled.So this is how it's supposed to work. An unattended, unexplained or suspicious death is investigated. Facts are checked, witnesses interviewed, tests performed. Red flags are heeded. Questions are asked. Evidence is preserved. Nothing is taken for granted -- not even if it comes from the mouth of a law enforcement officer or a high-powered attorney.As for the Han case, Sisneros said the AG's Office expects to reach out again to Zumwalt, files in hand."AG King is hopeful that the OMI will at least take a look at the information this time," he said.At least.UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to .abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.) Visit the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.) at .abqjournal.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉出租