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A Denver Police Department officer who refused to allow the victim of a possible hate crime to press charges will face disciplinary action.
On March 17, Nima Daivari, a 24-year-old law student visiting from New York, was strolling down the 16th Street Mall with friends. When a passing male called the part-time male go-go dancer a “faggot,” Daivari responded by saying, “Excuse me?” After that, the intoxicated man punched him in the face, and Daivari, an amateur boxer, began to fight back. Officer Richard Boehnlein arrived on the scene with another officer and detained both men. Boehnlein let the aggressor go without taking witness statements, filing an incident report or even getting the man’s name, despite the fact that Daivari repeatedly asked to press charges; instead, Daivari says Boehnlein kept telling him to “go home.” Daivari came out of the encounter with a black eye and bruises about his face and chest (“Fighting Mad,” March 22, 2007).
Last week, an investigation by DPD Internal Affairs concluded that Boehnlein, who has been with the department since 2006, should face disciplinary action for failing to follow proper procedure. In a letter sent to Daivari last week, police chief Gerald Whitman wrote that “appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against the officer and this incident will remain in his personnel file in the event of future similar conduct.” A records clerk with the department says that specifics on what disciplinary action the officer will face have not yet been made public.
Though Daivari is still angry that his attacker was allowed to escape, he feels vindicated by the department’s response. “They could have brushed it under the rug or denied that [Boehnlein] made a mistake,” he says. “I feel good that they have taken it seriously and that the department has admitted that the officer was negligent in doing his job.”
An unrelated hate-crime case involving Regis University student Alexander Robinson is finally scheduled for trial on October 10. In February, the 21-year-old was charged with criminal mischief and a bias-motivated crime, which falls under the city’s hate-crime statute, after he admitted to scratching the word “dike” into the dorm-room door of a lesbian student (“Love the Sinner,” March 22, 2007). It was the third time that property belonging to the female student had been vandalized in such a way on school grounds. Robinson has consistently refused to comment on the case, including at a plea hearing in May when his father repeatedly shouted at a Westword reporter to “step away!” Though Robinson had confessed the crime to police, he pleaded not guilty later that month. Robinson’s attorney, Thomas Mulvahill, has failed to return numerous phone messages seeking comment.
