cannabisnews.com: Family of Police Shooting Victim Still Out $11,000 Family of Police Shooting Victim Still Out $11,000 Posted by FoM on September 23, 1999 at 12:45:56 PT By Anne-Marie O'Connor, Times Staff Writer Source: LA Times El Monte Police Department officials are reportedly demanding an interview with the widow of Mario Paz--a grandfather of 14 who was shot to death in his Compton bedroom by an El Monte officer during a SWAT team raid--before police will return up to $11,000 seized as suspected drug proceeds, lawyers for the family said Wednesday. Attorneys for the survivors of Mario Paz said El Monte police want Maria Luisa Paz, 51, to recount her version of the night in August that an El Monte SWAT team shot the locks off the doors of her home, burst into the bedroom and shot her husband to death in front of her. Police said the officer, who shot Paz twice in the back, feared for his life. Attorney Cameron Stewart, who is filing a claim for damages--the legal prelude to a lawsuit--against the cities of El Monte and Compton on behalf of the Paz family, said the police demand for access to Paz "borders on blackmail." Stewart said an El Monte investigator said "the only way we're going to release the money is if Maria Paz submits to an interview." Armando Paz, 35, one of the seven Paz children, was livid. "My mother has nothing to explain to anyone," he said. "[The police] are the ones who owe us an explanation." El Monte Assistant Police Chief Bill Ankeny said the interview is "not necessarily" a condition of returning the money. But El Monte police investigators do want to speak to Paz's widow as part of their investigation into the money's legitimacy and do not want to return the money until they complete their investigation, Ankeny said. "Her attorney knows that it's not a condition that she submit to an interview," Ankeny said. "Whenever we take money from somebody, we take it to investigate its legitimacy. There's a number of avenues that we can take, and this is just one of them. [The Paz lawyers] have their methods they can go through, we have our methods of investigation," he said. "If it's their money, they will get it back--if the money is legitimate," Ankeny said. Maria Luisa Paz and six others were sleeping at home the night of the Aug. 9 raid, which was mounted in pursuit of a drug case against a man who had lived next door years ago. The family submitted to hours of police interrogations, without lawyers present, after the incident. There were no arrests or charges in the raid, which was part of an ongoing narcotics investigation against a suspect, Marcos Beltran Lizarraga, who had bailed out of jail that morning. Police found no drugs at the Paz home but seized several weapons that the family said were for personal protection. Police were led to the Paz home when its address came up on Beltran's cell phone bill and DMV registration. The Paz family denies links to Beltran and says their former neighbor took advantage of Mario Paz by occasionally using his address. Atty. Stewart said her law firm offered to give the El Monte police copies of receipts showing that the cash found in the Paz home was withdrawn from a Tijuana bank the day of the raid. The family says the money is their life savings and part of a settlement from on-the-job injuries Mario Paz sustained when he fell off a cement mixer in the 1980s. The family has extensive paperwork on the claim. "They have no information that ties this money to any criminal wrongdoing, so they should return it immediately," Stewart said. Stewart said the request for an interview with Paz's widow came from El Monte Police Officer George Mendoza, a narcotics detective who obtained the "high-risk" nighttime search warrant of the Paz home after El Monte police found $75,000 Aug. 7 at a Chino home where Beltran was and 400 pounds of marijuana and three loaded assault rifles in a subsequent search of the home of Paul Lizarraga, a warrant affidavit said. The affidavit said police believed Beltran was using the Paz address to store marijuana and cash. Stewart said David Lynn, the law firm's chief investigator on the case, asked for the return of the Paz money a month ago and was told by Mendoza that "the only way we're going to release the money is if Maria Paz submits to an interview." Lynn asked Mendoza to put it in writing, but on Monday, Mendoza declined, saying he had been instructed not to by the El Monte city attorney's office, Stewart said. Mendoza said he could not comment and referred a reporter to El Monte Assistant Police Chief Ankeny. Said Maria Derain, the adult daughter of Mario Paz: "This is like extortion. But they've taken more than that from us already, something we can't replace." There are other problems associated with the cash, which was seized as suspected drug money, though the raid has still failed to yield any arrests or charges. The police declaration of the seizure lists $10,000 in cash. The family says it was more--just over $11,000--and attorneys say they will present evidence of that sum in their demand for its return. El Monte contract City Atty. Jimmy Gutierrez said he was not ready to comment. "We're still fact-gathering," Gutierrez said. "There are legal consequences to what we might say. We're not stonewalling." Thursday, September 23, 1999 Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #4 posted by Lehder on December 13, 2000 at 11:10:29 PT error: no subject >>But El Monte police investigators do want to speak to Paz's widow as part of their investigation into the money's legitimacy and do not want to return the money until they complete their investigation, Ankeny said. And will there be an investigation into the legitimacy of Mario Paz' claim to life? Then how will his life be restored?If we are ever to undo even a tiny part of the damage inflicted on America by this drug war, we had better begin in earnest right now. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by John Q. Citizen on December 13, 2000 at 09:02:07 PT: City of El Monte "End of The Santa Fe Trail" This Compton shooting is typical, and an indication of the incompetence of the El Monte Police Department and/or the department’s administration which has been known by local residents to improperly handle matters, if even handle them at all. Their hasty decision-making appears also to be detrimental to the citizens of their own city of El Monte.In a similar drug matter, residents of a suspected drug house, complete w/ marijuana growing in the back yard, started threatening neighborhood families and vandalizing their property due to a drug theft of one of the suspects. The suspects boldly told neighborhood residents they are committing the retaliation crimes due to their drugs being stolen, in other words an all out drug war, until they find their drugs.It took El Monte police approximately 30 days to facilitate marijuana being removed from a back yard where it was growing after neighborhood families started complaining to local police, regarding marijuana growing, verbal & phone threats, and multiple vandalisms of their property in retaliation for the suspects’ drug theft. When El Monte police arrived the individual who standing in his back yard w/ the marijuana was simply asked for identification, and days later asked to come to the station for questioning.No one was ever arrested, no charges have ever been filed, and the El Monte police refused to file any vandalism crime reports on 3 vandalisms, which had witnesses to the person & vehicle used, nor any crime reports were filed on the verbal threats to neighborhood families by the suspects.With a Police department, which swings from doing nothing, to a fatal shooting outside their city limits, which results in no drugs found, the women, children and elderly residents have simply moved away from the El Monte neighborhood, which appears to be riddled with gangs and drugs.Hopefully an FBI investigation of the El Monte police department can bring a reality check to this police department, and the actual city, which they are to police first, before they attempt to police the city of Compton. John Q. Citizen City of El Monte "End of The Santa Fe Trail" [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Mario Muller on March 19, 2000 at 03:01:25 PT: Mario Paz shooting Press Release from ElMonteLive.com:FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mario Muller, PublisherWednesday, March 08, 2000 Phone: (626) 448-4832 E-mail: mario elmontelive.comMARIO PAZ AUTOPSY REPORT AVAILABLE ONLINE FOR PUBLIC SCRUTINYInternet Journalists Post L.A. County Coroner's ReportDetailing Facts Surrounding Man Slain by El Monte Police Department EL MONTE, CA -- ElMonteLive.com became the first news agency today to make public the entire autopsy report of Mario Paz, who was killed when El Monte police stormed his home last year. The report, issued by the Los Angeles County Coroner's Office, clearly states that Paz died as a result of a "homicide." The Web site includes detailed diagrams showing two fatal gunshot wounds to the back of the unarmed man. "By making this report available to a global Internet audience," said ElMonteLive.com Publisher Mario Muller, "the people can begin to decide for themselves what happened during the wee hours of the morning on August 8, 1999 in Compton, California." On Thursday, February 10, 2000 the El Monte Police Department held a press conference downtown Los Angeles at the Wells Fargo Bank building. Eugene P. Ramirez, attorney from the law firm of Manning, Marder and Wolfe (www.mmw.com/), singled out two staff members of ElMonteLive.com by ejecting them from the briefing. "Attorney Ramirez confiscated our press passes and made repeated verbal threats to us," Muller said. "In doing do, the El Monte Police Department violated our First Amendment rights and discriminated against my wheelchair-bound News Editor and partner, Bill Py." Muller said, "The City of El Monte continues to whitewash the Paz murder and sugar-coat everything bad that happens around town. Private citizens and the press do not deserve to be treated this way, especially by those we entrust to uphold the laws as our defenders, and from officers of the court like Mr. Ramirez, who should know better." "We will continue to make public any and all information we can gather on the Paz shooting and put it on the Internet for the public to see and draw their own conclusions," Muller also said. ElMonteLive is a cyberzine with a unique point-of view written by and for the people of El Monte, California. It was conceived in early 1999 as the first and only Internet-based community news and editorial source available in the San Gabriel Valley. Although we are actively seeking additional funding and sponsors, we are not beholden to anyone except ourselves. We see our publication as an alternative to the local media. The editorial staff at ElMonteLive welcomes guest commentary, ideas for news stories, and open letters from our readers. Printed versions and free e-mail subscriptions are available upon request. The organization can be reached on the Web at www.ElMonteLive.com or by calling (626) 448-4832. - 30 --------------------------------------------ElMonteLive.com in association with DigiCats Internet Solutions12700 Elliott Avenue #135El Monte, CA 91732-4105Office: (626) 448-4832Fax: (626) 448-7967Web: ElMonteLive.com E-mail: mario ElMonteLive.com------------------------------------------- Mario Paz Autopsy report [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Chris Knestrick on September 24, 1999 at 04:41:30 PT: Cop's Need to Even OUt Their Fact Checking It was been 3 weeks since Mr Paz was hot in the back by our boys in blue. Now, the police claim that he money they confiscated is still under their control because they are still "fact-finding." Too bad they didn't do as extensive a fact finding before blasting their way into the Paz home, The police claimed that they had no idea who, if anyone, lived at the address they were entering. That strikes me as odd, since the owners of any address should be registered with the city with the property title. So, now that the police have their money, they want to make good and sure that their isn't even the _slightest_ hint of a possibility that Paz was involved - this after the Police came out and said right after the raid that they had no reason to suspect any involvement of the man or his family. Perhaps they should have shown the same thorough investigative interests BEFORE they got their money. Do I think that would have saved Mr. Paz's life? Unfortunately, probably not, but at least it wouldn't be quite the slap in the face to the family - they've gotten enough of those in the past month. 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