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Fear and loathing in Denver
"They look like two guys guilty of committing murder," Hunter explains during a late-night phoner while poring over the Denver Post. "If I were someone who looked as guilty as them, I’d want to leave town quick." Last month at the Doctor’s Woody Creek ranch, I was doing a follow-up interview to finish another story I’ve been working on. At the time, his latest feature was on the racks in the June issue of Vanity Fair, titled "Prisoner of Denver"–the most comprehensive story ever written on the Lisl Auman case (now in appeal before the Colorado Supreme Court), backed by arguably the most scathing verbal assault ever printed about Denver’s cops and Bill Ritter, the man ultimately responsible for keeping them on a tight leash. Auman is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of a police officer that occurred while she was in handcuffs in the back of a cop car. "Maybe we can help each other out," Hunter suggested with a conspiratorial "heh-heh" as I was getting ready to leave. "I’d like to know from Ritter exactly what these ‘false statements’ are. Just call him up and get the interview. Tell him you’re with Rolling Stone. I’ll back you up on that." Thomson was referring to Ritter writing on his website that Thompson’s article contained "false statements." Little did either of us know that only three days after I would interview Ritter, a Denver cop would sink a lethal bullet into the chest of bed-ridden, elderly Frank Lobato, the latest casualty in a growing toll that not only ranks Denver as sixth in the nation for fatal police shootings per 100,000 residents, but is costing Denver taxpayers millions of dollars in wrongful death suits. During the past 11 years of Bill Ritter’s term as the DA, more than 80 people have been killed in fatal police shootings by Denver police. In that time, not once has Ritter filed criminal charges against an officer involved in a wrongful death. "In your term have there been any police charged?" I ask Ritter during our interview. "Yeah," says Ritter. "In the last few years." "I’m specifically addressing fatal police shootings." "No, that’s a different story," he says. "I haven’t charged a police shooting case." What’s more, only one officer in that time has been suspended–Kenneth Chavez, who shot Jeff Truax 26 times outside a Denver nightclub in 1996. A year later Chavez was promoted to Sergeant. "Quite frankly," says Ritter, "we have invited the press to [look at our police shooting files], and I have not had a member of the media come back to me and say, ‘You should have filed Paul Childs. You should have filed the Truax case.’" Thompson believes that Ritter won’t file against cops in order to appease the police union (which Hunter calls a mafia) because, "The police union needs a cooperative DA, and the DA needs a cooperative police union." Not to mention, some might say filing would hurt Ritter’s post-term ambitions of attaining another public office. Perhaps even State Attorney General. "God forbid that would happen," says Thompson. "A Denver police sergeant was up [in Aspen] talking about the Lisl Auman case two weeks ago, and he went off on some tirade, saying, ‘That dirty little bitch. We’re going to use all the power at our disposal to make sure she stays in prison the rest of her life.’ And he denounced me… and Vanity Fair. A local law enforcement official was there, and he was shocked. This happened at a dinner table, with about eight other people present." Ritter prosecuted Auman in 1998. Thompson took on her case in 2001 after receiving a prison letter in which she explained how much she enjoyed reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in the Denver County jail. Since then, Hunter’s ongoing battle for Lisl’s freedom has attracted more than 750,000 visitors to her website. "You’re not allowed to abuse power just because you have a gun and a badge," says Thompson. "It’s savage behavior. It’s uncivilized. It goes back to the law of the tooth and the fang, and it’s a bad advertisement for Denver to say the least. But the whole country is that way. The American judicial system, the whole idea of fairness, is being traded away for what’s defined in biblical terms as ‘a mess of pottage.’" In "Prisoner of Denver" he wrote, "When you think of Denver you think of cowshit and gunfights, small brains and big guns, dumb brutes and wild whores with hearts of cheap gold. Yes, sir, that is Denver in a nutshell–a cowboy town with cowboy rules and cowboy justice." Calling the Denver cops "stupid, dishonest and greedy in a way that would shame even the Hell’s Angels," Thompson’s story enraged Denver law enforcement–as intended–and even inspired an angry Bill Ritter to respond viciously on his website (www.denverda.org) in an attempt to swing public opinion back toward the side of the cops. "I was outraged by it," Ritter says about the article. "I thought it was an incendiary take on the whole thing. And I thought that Hunter Thompson used the kind of inflammatory language that wasn’t befitting Vanity Fair. What the letter to the editor has tried to do is steer people to the statement of facts filed before the court of appeals. It’s based in the trial transcripts and not in Hunter Thompson’s wild imaginings." Ritter admits that it is "highly unusual" for him to comment on a case pending before the Colorado Supreme Court. He explains that he doesn’t want to appear as trying to sway the court’s upcoming decision. Ritter’s letter will be published in the next issue of Vanity Fair, along with Thompson’s response. "He has insulted the court by discussing this case in public, and it may even be contempt," says Thompson. "Bill Ritter is in an untenable situation as a lame-duck DA. Why he insists on arguing this case publicly I can’t quite understand. It must be pressure from the Denver Police Protective Association. He should choose his battleground a little more carefully... If this goes on, the gloves are coming off."
For more information on Lisl Auman, visit www. lisl.com. Auman’s next day in court is Sept. 13. Thompson’s new book, Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness will be released Aug. 1. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com |
The plot thickens in the Denver PD. Among those getting very little sleep this week are Chief of Police Gerry Whitman and his point man, Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter. In the news photos, both look exhausted and nervous, like Bush and Cheney when the Enron scandal went public. But this is no surprise. At least not for some of us. And especially not for Hunter S. Thompson, whose antennae are tuned to judicial corruption.
