Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Two and a half years ago, just about a tragedy
struck just outside of East High School in Denver, when
sixteen year old Luis Garcia, leaving school in his car,
was shot eight times, and two weeks later, I think
it was two weeks was passed away killed. We do
(00:24):
not know, at least publicly, who the suspect is. There
has been no arrest made. Denver Public Schools was sued
by Luis Garcia's family, and last week that lawsuit was
dismissed in court. An appeal has been filed in the
(00:45):
case in the quest to hold Denver Public Schools accountable,
and there are so many quests right now to hold
them accountable for dramatic failures time after time and ensuring
safety for students. That's why I'm very pleased to be
joined here in studio by Matthew Bearringer of the Behringer
(01:06):
Law Firm, the attorney representing Luis Garcia's family in this case,
is right here in studio.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Matthew.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Welcome to the show, Welcome to Koa, and good afternoon,
and thank you for having me this afternoon. I know
the res cycle is crazy and there's always things going on,
and I really.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Appreciate and the family appreciates us.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Appreciates you for giving us a platform to talk about
these Matt, I am.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Happy to do it for two reasons. One, because it
is not getting nearly enough attention. I have seen next
to no coverage about this case, and to me, that
is a failure of the media and we need to
see a lot more coverage of that, and I will
probably do a column in the Denver Is that on
this as well. Number two, because we need as much
(01:55):
attention in spotlight and efforts for accountability upon Denver Public Schools,
which has failed its students time and time again. Now,
I do want to remind our listeners that a month
later after Louis Garcia, all of sixteen year old sixteen
years old was shot outside East High School. Inside East
(02:15):
High School, there was shooting of two deans by a
seventeen year old student, and of course that led to
some shake ups on the school board in conjunction with
what happened to Luis Garcia.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
That's a little bit of context. But let's talk about this.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Lawsuit and what your claims were in the case, and
then we can get to what the judge decided. At
a moment well, and thank you for that and the
facts of the matter what happened.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, So, as you said.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Louis was leaving school to go to a birthday party.
There's no evidence throughout the litigation nor prior to the
show that Luise was up to any sort of nefarious
activity of any sort and getting into his car about
to drive away, he was gunned down, cold blood, shot
in the face.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Several months past.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
We talked to Garcia's and there is a law that
allows a plaintiff, the Claire Davies Act, that allows for
a lawsuit because in general terms, there's this doctrine called
sovereign immunity. The state can do no wrong, but there
are certain carveouts, and that was in response to the
tragedy that happened several years ago to Claire, and it
(03:29):
allows a family to seek address with the cord for
what in our lawsuit was that we believe that the
district had been negligent in not continuing to have Security
Resource Officers SROs after the wake of the tragedy of
George Floyd and the whole array of other changes that
(03:53):
for today we won't get into, and so we filed
suit sounding in that exception, we had some litigation.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
The district then filed the motion to dismiss.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Before we get to the dismissal, Matthew Baringer, let's talk
for a moment about the Claire Davis Safety Act School
Safety Act and this carve out and why you believe
that the district is legally responsible for what happened in
February thirteenth, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, in summary, again, as I said, the removal of
those SROs is the first prong that we alleged.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Secondly, that this happened.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
On school grounds or within quote unquote's a facility that
is part and parcel with the Claire Davies Act now
referenced in the order. There is not a lot of
case law, so legislators make law. Judges interpret that law
because obviously legislature can't hit every factual scenario. And in
this case, by virtue of where this happened, and we
(04:58):
have asserted that it happened on Esplanade as.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
He was going north. He was murdered on Esplanade, and
then his car then lurched because he was dying on
to seventeenth Avenue.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Matthew, talk to me about sort of paint a picture
of the campus if you could, so that we can
have an understanding, because when we get to the dismissal
lear in just a second, the judge concluded that no,
this is not on district property and therefore the Claire
Davies Act exception does not count.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Absolutely. So East High School faces west. The front of
the school, it faces the mountains in front of Just
past that there are two lanes Esplanade, one going just north,
the other one just going south one way.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
There are several.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Students, several almost everybody that can get a spot park
on Esplanade as well as then just if you continue
to go west, there is also soccer field across multi
use astro turf, and then past that is student parking
for seniors and juniors. Okay, if you are unable to
(06:11):
get a spot there, then you are then set to
as many do, to park overn City Park or on
the would that be the west side, the east side
excuse me of East High School? And so where mister
Garcia or Luis was shot, was traveling northbound on that
northbound one way to if things wouldn't have happened, he
(06:33):
would have made a right turn to go on to
seventeenth Avenue and travel east.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So the judge in her dismissal last week said, no,
this is not on it doesn't have that qualify as
school facility. What did the judge determine and where do
you stand on that decision?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Well, in summary, the court held that by virtue of
where the murder had happened, that in reference other public
transit that was near in the court's estimation it was
a thoroughfare, a public thoroughfare and some other items, that
it wasn't within a school facility.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Now, obviously, while.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
We respect the court's order, we disagree with that and
therefore that's why we follow the notice of appeal. Now
we would assert that logically speaking, where does the duty
of them to protect students end? Is it if you're
down the road on Esplanaut, And as I reference, there's
other school facilities vis a vis the soccer fields, the
(07:40):
parking lot, So where is it is it when you
step out of the school, they don't have a duty anymore.
Does it have to happen within the school? Where does
that start? And where does that end?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And the judge, as I as I understand it, said
that it was that the intersection where the shooting had occurred.
The murder consists of public roads that includes an RTD
bus stop and therefore.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
That signals it's not within school facility.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
And again that was a ruling by the court. We
respect that, but we utterly disagree with that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And you have filed the appeal. Correct. Talk to me
about that well in that appeal.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So what we have filed thus far, to be clear,
we filed a notice notice or per you know, usually
have to give notice and then there's other processes before
the Court of Appeals, and at that time we're going
to make further argument as to why we believe that
the decision by the district court was incorrect.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Matthew Behringer of the Barringer Law Firm joining us here
in studio. He is the attorney for the family and
the state of Luis Garcia. Again, sixteen years old, shot
in cold blood, murdered outside of East High School, and
i'd understood from the location it just seems like it
(08:56):
is something that qualifies for the school respond to be
held responsible. So I wish you luck in the appeal.
But let's talk for a moment as well about the
criminal case that has never come about because, as I
understand it, there has been an investigation. I believe that
they've identified a suspect who was responsible for shooting Luis
(09:19):
Garcia eight times in cold blood as he was in
his car leaving campus.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
What's going on here? Why has there not been an arrest? Well,
that is something that we're all wondering. It's been nine
hundred and four days since Luis was murdered. The Denver
Police Department, through their detectives, who I think have done
a fantastic job. They had investigated this horrific crime. And
(09:50):
yes they have a suspect. They've had a suspect for months,
and they know this suspect because they've been in contact
with this suspect before. Not only well, the detective has
done what detectives do, very linear, meaning we start from homicide,
(10:16):
they look at the scene, they continue to investigate, they
rule out. So, for instance, there was a lot in
the media about the two individuals that were contacted. They
were eliminated as suspects. They be in the Denver Police Department.
The detective also issued certain subpoenas, has done, has gotten
(10:37):
Facebook posts, witness accounts, pretty much anything and everything, photographs.
The thing that the listeners have to understand about me.
I have been defense counsel for eighteen years. Part of
what I do and I've handled everything from traffic tickets
to first agree homicide.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
So I have seen an affidavit or.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Two in my life in the aid David that was
prepared and presented to the District Attorney's office under the circumstances,
was quite quite strong, certainly in our view, enough to
charge and allow that.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
To go through the legal process.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
For whatever reason, after I have had with the family
meetings with then DA McCann and other attorneys within her office,
their investigator, for whatever reason which I cannot understand, refuse
(11:40):
at least to this point, to file criminal charges in
this matter.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
So to be clear, Matthew Berenger, this is on the
way you're describing it to the police department did their job.
The detectives did a phenomenal job and have identify the suspect.
They have somebody who could and should be arrested, and
yet the charges, charges have not been filed. It's the
District Attorney's office that has, it seems, dropped the ball.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
There is nothing that we have ever said through any interview,
filing anything where we have said the Denver to Police
Department dropped the ball.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
They are frustrated. They want this to be filed.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I have talked to the lead detective on several occasions.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
They have done their job. I know that they're frustrated.
I know for a fact.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
And something I think that ought to be just as
important in those interactions that I had with the detective
is that he said to me specifically, I have been
a detective for however many years, and he said, I
can count on one hand of how many people are
truly innocent when they were murdered, killed because of you know,
they might be involved with drugs.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Mister Garcia, with Luise Nothing, was truly someone that had
absolutely nothing to do with anything that would have led
to his murder.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, tell us a little bit more about Louis Garcia.
Seems like he was a great kid. He was a
great kid.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
He had He was playing for East High School for soccer,
he was playing for for Rapids. I believe he was
playing in the for e CNL, which is not easy
to do. I think he I knew he had aspirations
to hopefully play in college at some point I would
assume if I wouldn't the first in his family to
do so. Uh, there's no evidence whatsoever, as I said beforehand,
(13:37):
where there was any sort of behavior that he had
that would have contributed to this. He was going to Uh,
he was working while he was playing and going to school. Wow,
he was very close to his family's It's unbelievably a
parent in all the past nine hundred day that I've
(14:00):
gotten to know the family, They're a tight family, They're
a good family. And his brother specifically, I know, has
taken this. They all have, but I know that the
brother has taken it very hard. Well.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I was gonna ask you to tell us a little
bit about how, with everything that has happened over the
past nine hundred four days, how the family is holding up,
especially with legal defeat and with a refusal that seems
I mean, it's the only word that's right for the
District Attorney's office to not file charges here, it seems
(14:35):
like there has to be an absolute.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Refusal to do so. How's the family holding up? Well?
How can you expect him?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Know? They you know, it's it's amazing how well they
have been able to hold up.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I know Luisa's mother. It's her.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
It's hit him all. Santo's the father. He's very stoic.
He's a very smart man. And you know, in fact,
when we were waiting to talk to DA McCann, he
was looking at all the pictures on the wall and
he saw all the different das and he saw miss
McCann and you know, looked like she was one of
the first women to be a DA for Denver. And
(15:14):
he was talking to me about that and said to
you know, that's so cool that she did that band.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
She must have really had to work hard, extra hard.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Gosh, that's just such a it's so cool in a
country like this you can do something like that. Then
he continued to look around and saw the DA's offices
has moved from the Wellington Web building. It's on the
top floor. It's a very nice office. And he looked
around and he said, boy, there's a lot of money here.
It must be a lot with all the resources. How
is it they can't find who killed my son? And
(15:46):
then we go into the meeting. Then we go into
the meeting and they gave the family the same line
that they gave the family seven eight months ago. And
I wasn't there for that first inn, so I didn't
know it. At Luis Santo's part of me looked over
at me, he says, Matthew, this is all the things
they asked us the first time. Why are they asking
(16:06):
us the same questions again? We already gave them this information.
I guess I'll give it to him again.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I just I have to say, on the one hand,
I'm not entirely surprised because they're time and time again
where for political reasons or what have you. It seems
like certain prosecution decisions were made under Beth McCann that
absolutely should not have done. So I reminded folks in
a recent column in the Denver Gazette about a couple
instances of that. But now you have a different district
(16:37):
Attorney in Denver, and you would hope that John Walsh
might re look at this, take it seriously, say hey,
let's go ahead.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And file charges on this case. What are we doing?
Has not happened? Has not?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And I have not spoken to mister Walsh.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Certainly his office inherited this matter. But again, and it's
the same frustration in.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
That if media or whomever contacts DPD and again I
think they've done a fantastic job.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
But the line is, well, it's still under investigation.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And then I saw the response to other things earlier
this weekend and it was, well, we're hopeful that this
has come to I can't remember the exact language, but essentially,
we're hopeful that something will happen.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And it's like, as defense counsel, you know that nothing
gets better for the prosecution with a passage of time.
Time is a defense lawyer is one of their best friends. Yeah,
And the idea, especially when you have a detailed affidavit,
that you're going to get something new now is insane.
(17:46):
There's something else I think the listeners ought to know too,
that I want to make sure that we hit back
to the civil suit when we had filed. There is
a way in which that a defendant can say this
case DPS, he's high school, say well, we're not liable
for just the general defenses. In addition to that, there's
these other people. They're the ones that did it, so
(18:09):
we're not on the hook, right. So they designated these
other individuals, these other co conspirators or others that aided
the individual who committed the crime, and the lawyers for
the district. They never challenged that this person was the shooter,
(18:29):
not once. They didn't say it wasn't. The defense wasn't, Well,
we had this random person. How can we defend against that?
How could we how could we protect Louise? This was something.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
No, they said, we agree, that's who did it. That's
the one.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Wow, that's astonishing. And so let's we just a couple
of minutes left with you, Matthew Bearinger. But let's go
back and go back to DPS in particular and the
bigger picture. We had the murder of Luis Garcia. We
had the shooting of two deans just over a month
later at East, also at East High School inside the
(19:05):
campus by a seventeen year old who had previous weapons
issues and had been expelled from Cherry Creek schools prior
to that. We had mccauliffe International School. You had former
principal Kur Dennis who blew the whistle similarly saying, Okay,
this is a student that we were trying to remove
from the school and give other educational opportunities to protect
(19:27):
the safety of students because he had particular issues of
violence and so forth. How do you look at Denver
Public schools and the fact that they have seemingly been
able to dodge accountability time and time again for years.
Whether it's from the SROs, which they did bring back
in the wake of these shootings, be very clear, or
(19:48):
to the discipline matrix which they resolved to or fixed
a little bit but is still woefully act on to teachers,
just woefully inapt go ahead, please.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Everything you just said I cannot agree with more. This
is my take on that group as a whole. They
have an agenda, and that agenda is that we are
going to have.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
These certain policies.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
And I can know the politics and all those things,
but they have this certain policies, this certain bent on
how a school ought.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
To be ran, and so be it. If a kid gets.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Shot, Dean gets shot, well, so be it. As the
listeners may know. And I know you know that when
they had when they all got together the board and
it was made public because they tried to keep it sealed.
They were more mad at Superintendo Marero for going to
the mayor and getting SROs back in without consulting with
(20:44):
all of them. They were more ticked off about that
then the fact that two of their deans have been
shot and one of their students. And one other thing
I want to make very clear for the listeners too.
When Luis was shot, the narrative was gun control. Okay,
you can have that argument, you can have that debate.
That's for another day. But they did not put SROs
(21:05):
back in. Let's let's gin up all the kids. Let's
have them go down to the to and exercise their
first minute right, which I agree with one. But we're
not going to do anything that is of substance to
protect you.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
So you, if I'm a kid, I.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Look at each other and I go, wait a second,
who's are we going to be?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And then finally they bring in SROs after the dean's
having shot, as they should have believe.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Just imagined a police car in that parking area. That's Soro.
I mean that the message that signals is don't commit
crimes here, and that it's not perfect, but it at
least will help as a deterrent, especially for something in
that case outside of school.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Oh you see the police car there, Maybe.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You shouldn't agreed, And Santo said to me specifically, Louise Matthew, Yes, Lois,
is that pardon me?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Louis said.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
He said, Matthew, if there would have been an SRO there,
my kid would be alive today.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Sad, really sad. Matthew Barringer, thanks for what you're doing,
Thanks for joining us on k away again. Thank you
for having me today
Two and a half years ago, just about a tragedy
struck just outside of East High School in Denver, when
sixteen year old Luis Garcia, leaving school in his car,
was shot eight times, and two weeks later, I think
it was two weeks was passed away killed. We do
(00:24):
not know, at least publicly, who the suspect is. There
has been no arrest made. Denver Public Schools was sued
by Luis Garcia's family, and last week that lawsuit was
dismissed in court. An appeal has been filed in the
(00:45):
case in the quest to hold Denver Public Schools accountable,
and there are so many quests right now to hold
them accountable for dramatic failures time after time and ensuring
safety for students. That's why I'm very pleased to be
joined here in studio by Matthew Bearringer of the Behringer
(01:06):
Law Firm, the attorney representing Luis Garcia's family in this case,
is right here in studio.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
Matthew.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Welcome to the show, Welcome to Koa, and good afternoon,
and thank you for having me this afternoon. I know
the res cycle is crazy and there's always things going on,
and I really.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
Appreciate and the family appreciates us.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Appreciates you for giving us a platform to talk about
these Matt, I am.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Happy to do it for two reasons. One, because it
is not getting nearly enough attention. I have seen next
to no coverage about this case, and to me, that
is a failure of the media and we need to
see a lot more coverage of that, and I will
probably do a column in the Denver Is that on
this as well. Number two, because we need as much
(01:55):
attention in spotlight and efforts for accountability upon Denver Public Schools,
which has failed its students time and time again. Now,
I do want to remind our listeners that a month
later after Louis Garcia, all of sixteen year old sixteen
years old was shot outside East High School. Inside East
(02:15):
High School, there was shooting of two deans by a
seventeen year old student, and of course that led to
some shake ups on the school board in conjunction with
what happened to Luis Garcia.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
That's a little bit of context. But let's talk about this.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Lawsuit and what your claims were in the case, and
then we can get to what the judge decided. At
a moment well, and thank you for that and the
facts of the matter what happened.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, So, as you said.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
Louis was leaving school to go to a birthday party.
There's no evidence throughout the litigation nor prior to the
show that Luise was up to any sort of nefarious
activity of any sort and getting into his car about
to drive away, he was gunned down, cold blood, shot
in the face.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Several months past.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
We talked to Garcia's and there is a law that
allows a plaintiff, the Claire Davies Act, that allows for
a lawsuit because in general terms, there's this doctrine called
sovereign immunity. The state can do no wrong, but there
are certain carveouts, and that was in response to the
tragedy that happened several years ago to Claire, and it
(03:29):
allows a family to seek address with the cord for
what in our lawsuit was that we believe that the
district had been negligent in not continuing to have Security
Resource Officers SROs after the wake of the tragedy of
George Floyd and the whole array of other changes that
(03:53):
for today we won't get into, and so we filed
suit sounding in that exception, we had some litigation.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
The district then filed the motion to dismiss.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Before we get to the dismissal, Matthew Baringer, let's talk
for a moment about the Claire Davis Safety Act School
Safety Act and this carve out and why you believe
that the district is legally responsible for what happened in
February thirteenth, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Well, in summary, again, as I said, the removal of
those SROs is the first prong that we alleged.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
Secondly, that this happened.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
On school grounds or within quote unquote's a facility that
is part and parcel with the Claire Davies Act now
referenced in the order. There is not a lot of
case law, so legislators make law. Judges interpret that law
because obviously legislature can't hit every factual scenario. And in
this case, by virtue of where this happened, and we
(04:58):
have asserted that it happened on Esplanade as.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
He was going north. He was murdered on Esplanade, and
then his car then lurched because he was dying on
to seventeenth Avenue.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
Matthew, talk to me about sort of paint a picture
of the campus if you could, so that we can
have an understanding, because when we get to the dismissal
lear in just a second, the judge concluded that no,
this is not on district property and therefore the Claire
Davies Act exception does not count.
Speaker 3 (05:33):
Absolutely. So East High School faces west. The front of
the school, it faces the mountains in front of Just
past that there are two lanes Esplanade, one going just north,
the other one just going south one way.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
There are several.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Students, several almost everybody that can get a spot park
on Esplanade as well as then just if you continue
to go west, there is also soccer field across multi
use astro turf, and then past that is student parking
for seniors and juniors. Okay, if you are unable to
(06:11):
get a spot there, then you are then set to
as many do, to park overn City Park or on
the would that be the west side, the east side
excuse me of East High School? And so where mister
Garcia or Luis was shot, was traveling northbound on that
northbound one way to if things wouldn't have happened, he
(06:33):
would have made a right turn to go on to
seventeenth Avenue and travel east.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
So the judge in her dismissal last week said, no,
this is not on it doesn't have that qualify as
school facility. What did the judge determine and where do
you stand on that decision?
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Well, in summary, the court held that by virtue of
where the murder had happened, that in reference other public
transit that was near in the court's estimation it was
a thoroughfare, a public thoroughfare and some other items, that
it wasn't within a school facility.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Now, obviously, while.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
We respect the court's order, we disagree with that and
therefore that's why we follow the notice of appeal. Now
we would assert that logically speaking, where does the duty
of them to protect students end? Is it if you're
down the road on Esplanaut, And as I reference, there's
other school facilities vis a vis the soccer fields, the
(07:40):
parking lot, So where is it is it when you
step out of the school, they don't have a duty anymore.
Does it have to happen within the school? Where does
that start? And where does that end?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
And the judge, as I as I understand it, said
that it was that the intersection where the shooting had occurred.
The murder consists of public roads that includes an RTD
bus stop and therefore.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
That signals it's not within school facility.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
And again that was a ruling by the court. We
respect that, but we utterly disagree with that.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And you have filed the appeal. Correct. Talk to me
about that well in that appeal.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So what we have filed thus far, to be clear,
we filed a notice notice or per you know, usually
have to give notice and then there's other processes before
the Court of Appeals, and at that time we're going
to make further argument as to why we believe that
the decision by the district court was incorrect.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Matthew Behringer of the Barringer Law Firm joining us here
in studio. He is the attorney for the family and
the state of Luis Garcia. Again, sixteen years old, shot
in cold blood, murdered outside of East High School, and
i'd understood from the location it just seems like it
(08:56):
is something that qualifies for the school respond to be
held responsible. So I wish you luck in the appeal.
But let's talk for a moment as well about the
criminal case that has never come about because, as I
understand it, there has been an investigation. I believe that
they've identified a suspect who was responsible for shooting Luis
(09:19):
Garcia eight times in cold blood as he was in
his car leaving campus.
Speaker 3 (09:26):
What's going on here? Why has there not been an arrest? Well,
that is something that we're all wondering. It's been nine
hundred and four days since Luis was murdered. The Denver
Police Department, through their detectives, who I think have done
a fantastic job. They had investigated this horrific crime. And
(09:50):
yes they have a suspect. They've had a suspect for months,
and they know this suspect because they've been in contact
with this suspect before. Not only well, the detective has
done what detectives do, very linear, meaning we start from homicide,
(10:16):
they look at the scene, they continue to investigate, they
rule out. So, for instance, there was a lot in
the media about the two individuals that were contacted. They
were eliminated as suspects. They be in the Denver Police Department.
The detective also issued certain subpoenas, has done, has gotten
(10:37):
Facebook posts, witness accounts, pretty much anything and everything, photographs.
The thing that the listeners have to understand about me.
I have been defense counsel for eighteen years. Part of
what I do and I've handled everything from traffic tickets
to first agree homicide.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
So I have seen an affidavit or.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Two in my life in the aid David that was
prepared and presented to the District Attorney's office under the circumstances,
was quite quite strong, certainly in our view, enough to
charge and allow that.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
To go through the legal process.
Speaker 3 (11:18):
For whatever reason, after I have had with the family
meetings with then DA McCann and other attorneys within her office,
their investigator, for whatever reason which I cannot understand, refuse
(11:40):
at least to this point, to file criminal charges in
this matter.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
So to be clear, Matthew Berenger, this is on the
way you're describing it to the police department did their job.
The detectives did a phenomenal job and have identify the suspect.
They have somebody who could and should be arrested, and
yet the charges, charges have not been filed. It's the
District Attorney's office that has, it seems, dropped the ball.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
There is nothing that we have ever said through any interview,
filing anything where we have said the Denver to Police
Department dropped the ball.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
They are frustrated. They want this to be filed.
Speaker 3 (12:23):
I have talked to the lead detective on several occasions.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
They have done their job. I know that they're frustrated.
I know for a fact.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
And something I think that ought to be just as
important in those interactions that I had with the detective
is that he said to me specifically, I have been
a detective for however many years, and he said, I
can count on one hand of how many people are
truly innocent when they were murdered, killed because of you know,
they might be involved with drugs.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 3 (12:56):
Mister Garcia, with Luise Nothing, was truly someone that had
absolutely nothing to do with anything that would have led
to his murder.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, tell us a little bit more about Louis Garcia.
Seems like he was a great kid. He was a
great kid.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
He had He was playing for East High School for soccer,
he was playing for for Rapids. I believe he was
playing in the for e CNL, which is not easy
to do. I think he I knew he had aspirations
to hopefully play in college at some point I would
assume if I wouldn't the first in his family to
do so. Uh, there's no evidence whatsoever, as I said beforehand,
(13:37):
where there was any sort of behavior that he had
that would have contributed to this. He was going to Uh,
he was working while he was playing and going to school. Wow,
he was very close to his family's It's unbelievably a
parent in all the past nine hundred day that I've
(14:00):
gotten to know the family, They're a tight family, They're
a good family. And his brother specifically, I know, has
taken this. They all have, but I know that the
brother has taken it very hard. Well.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
I was gonna ask you to tell us a little
bit about how, with everything that has happened over the
past nine hundred four days, how the family is holding up,
especially with legal defeat and with a refusal that seems
I mean, it's the only word that's right for the
District Attorney's office to not file charges here, it seems
(14:35):
like there has to be an absolute.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Refusal to do so. How's the family holding up? Well?
How can you expect him?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Know? They you know, it's it's amazing how well they
have been able to hold up.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I know Luisa's mother. It's her.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
It's hit him all. Santo's the father. He's very stoic.
He's a very smart man. And you know, in fact,
when we were waiting to talk to DA McCann, he
was looking at all the pictures on the wall and
he saw all the different das and he saw miss
McCann and you know, looked like she was one of
the first women to be a DA for Denver. And
(15:14):
he was talking to me about that and said to
you know, that's so cool that she did that band.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
She must have really had to work hard, extra hard.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Gosh, that's just such a it's so cool in a
country like this you can do something like that. Then
he continued to look around and saw the DA's offices
has moved from the Wellington Web building. It's on the
top floor. It's a very nice office. And he looked
around and he said, boy, there's a lot of money here.
It must be a lot with all the resources. How
is it they can't find who killed my son? And
(15:46):
then we go into the meeting. Then we go into
the meeting and they gave the family the same line
that they gave the family seven eight months ago. And
I wasn't there for that first inn, so I didn't
know it. At Luis Santo's part of me looked over
at me, he says, Matthew, this is all the things
they asked us the first time. Why are they asking
(16:06):
us the same questions again? We already gave them this information.
I guess I'll give it to him again.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I just I have to say, on the one hand,
I'm not entirely surprised because they're time and time again
where for political reasons or what have you. It seems
like certain prosecution decisions were made under Beth McCann that
absolutely should not have done. So I reminded folks in
a recent column in the Denver Gazette about a couple
instances of that. But now you have a different district
(16:37):
Attorney in Denver, and you would hope that John Walsh
might re look at this, take it seriously, say hey,
let's go ahead.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
And file charges on this case. What are we doing?
Has not happened? Has not?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And I have not spoken to mister Walsh.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Certainly his office inherited this matter. But again, and it's
the same frustration in.
Speaker 3 (17:02):
That if media or whomever contacts DPD and again I
think they've done a fantastic job.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
But the line is, well, it's still under investigation.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And then I saw the response to other things earlier
this weekend and it was, well, we're hopeful that this
has come to I can't remember the exact language, but essentially,
we're hopeful that something will happen.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:25):
And it's like, as defense counsel, you know that nothing
gets better for the prosecution with a passage of time.
Time is a defense lawyer is one of their best friends. Yeah,
And the idea, especially when you have a detailed affidavit,
that you're going to get something new now is insane.
(17:46):
There's something else I think the listeners ought to know too,
that I want to make sure that we hit back
to the civil suit when we had filed. There is
a way in which that a defendant can say this
case DPS, he's high school, say well, we're not liable
for just the general defenses. In addition to that, there's
these other people. They're the ones that did it, so
(18:09):
we're not on the hook, right. So they designated these
other individuals, these other co conspirators or others that aided
the individual who committed the crime, and the lawyers for
the district. They never challenged that this person was the shooter,
(18:29):
not once. They didn't say it wasn't. The defense wasn't, Well,
we had this random person. How can we defend against that?
How could we how could we protect Louise? This was something.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
No, they said, we agree, that's who did it. That's
the one.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Wow, that's astonishing. And so let's we just a couple
of minutes left with you, Matthew Bearinger. But let's go
back and go back to DPS in particular and the
bigger picture. We had the murder of Luis Garcia. We
had the shooting of two deans just over a month
later at East, also at East High School inside the
(19:05):
campus by a seventeen year old who had previous weapons
issues and had been expelled from Cherry Creek schools prior
to that. We had mccauliffe International School. You had former
principal Kur Dennis who blew the whistle similarly saying, Okay,
this is a student that we were trying to remove
from the school and give other educational opportunities to protect
(19:27):
the safety of students because he had particular issues of
violence and so forth. How do you look at Denver
Public schools and the fact that they have seemingly been
able to dodge accountability time and time again for years.
Whether it's from the SROs, which they did bring back
in the wake of these shootings, be very clear, or
(19:48):
to the discipline matrix which they resolved to or fixed
a little bit but is still woefully act on to teachers,
just woefully inapt go ahead, please.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Everything you just said I cannot agree with more. This
is my take on that group as a whole. They
have an agenda, and that agenda is that we are
going to have.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
These certain policies.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
And I can know the politics and all those things,
but they have this certain policies, this certain bent on
how a school ought.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
To be ran, and so be it. If a kid gets.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
Shot, Dean gets shot, well, so be it. As the
listeners may know. And I know you know that when
they had when they all got together the board and
it was made public because they tried to keep it sealed.
They were more mad at Superintendo Marero for going to
the mayor and getting SROs back in without consulting with
(20:44):
all of them. They were more ticked off about that
then the fact that two of their deans have been
shot and one of their students. And one other thing
I want to make very clear for the listeners too.
When Luis was shot, the narrative was gun control. Okay,
you can have that argument, you can have that debate.
That's for another day. But they did not put SROs
(21:05):
back in. Let's let's gin up all the kids. Let's
have them go down to the to and exercise their
first minute right, which I agree with one. But we're
not going to do anything that is of substance to
protect you.
Speaker 2 (21:20):
So you, if I'm a kid, I.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
Look at each other and I go, wait a second,
who's are we going to be?
Speaker 2 (21:24):
Okay?
Speaker 3 (21:25):
And then finally they bring in SROs after the dean's
having shot, as they should have believe.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Just imagined a police car in that parking area. That's Soro.
I mean that the message that signals is don't commit
crimes here, and that it's not perfect, but it at
least will help as a deterrent, especially for something in
that case outside of school.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Oh you see the police car there, Maybe.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
You shouldn't agreed, And Santo said to me specifically, Louise Matthew, Yes, Lois,
is that pardon me?
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Louis said.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
He said, Matthew, if there would have been an SRO there,
my kid would be alive today.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Sad, really sad. Matthew Barringer, thanks for what you're doing,
Thanks for joining us on k away again. Thank you
for having me today
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