By Jeri Clausing
Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico — Mary Han was a successful civil rights attorney who for decades battled over the rights of abused women, prostitutes and the homeless. In the close-knit Albuquerque legal community, she was known as a spitfire whose fervor was often directed at one entity in particular: The city’s troubled police department.
More than two years after Han was found dead in her garage in what authorities deemed a suicide, the department is facing questions over whether officers mishandled the investigation of her death.
The state attorney general’s office is looking into the matter. It has also asked national government officials, who last year launched a civil rights probe into the department’s high number of police shootings, to look at the case.
Han’s relatives have sued the city — along with the police chief, public safety director and more than a dozen officers and investigators — alleging that shoddy police work resulted in a flawed investigation. They question whether police failed to look at other explanations for the feisty and notoriously foul-mouthed lawyer’s death.
“I would like to know what happened to my mother someday,” said Han’s 28-year-old daughter, Katherine, who remains steadfast in her belief that her mother did not kill herself. “To have an important person removed from their life without explanation is something no one should ever have to deal with. It’s more about peace of mind.”
Friends and fellow lawyers have also expressed doubt about suicide, noting that the 53-year-old Han was not one to give up on anything. But what really happened to Mary Han the night of Nov. 17, 2010, may forever remain a mystery.
Han’s law partner, Paul Kennedy, discovered her body the next morning in the garage of her home after she failed to come to work or contact her assistant.
She was sitting in the driver’s seat of her BMW, reading glasses on, feet propped up on the dash with the driver’s door and the windows open, according to police reports.
The lawsuit brought by Han’s daughter and sister alleges a series of missteps that followed, beginning with the seemingly extraordinary number of people who showed up to “trample” through the house and death scene. Police reports back claims that more than two dozen officers and city officials went to the house that day, and many saw Han’s body.
The lawsuit alleges police violated standard procedure by almost immediately declaring the case a suicide and failing to lock down the home as a potential crime scene. It also claims officers failed to properly preserve evidence, noting that two family heirloom diamond rings worth $100,000 that Han wore regularly were missing and never found.
An autopsy found the carbon monoxide level in Han’s blood to be 84.8 percent, and the medical examiner declared her death a suicide. However, the family’s lawsuit says Han’s car was outfitted with a device to shut it down before toxic amounts of carbon monoxide could be released, and that it was neither running nor had run out of fuel when Han was found.
The lawsuit also contends the carbon monoxide level is “incredibly high” and, therefore, an “improbable cause of death” from ambient exposure.
In one police report, former Albuquerque officer Thomas Grover noted that in previous car suicides he had investigated, the windows were rolled up and the vehicles secured.
“Something really bad happened, and APD made it worse,” said Grover, who was a close friend of Han’s and quit the department over her case. As one of the officers on scene that day, he is named in the family’s lawsuit, even though he agrees with its assessment that the department “really dropped the ball with so many things.”
The police department referred questions to the city attorney’s office. Assistant City Attorney Kathryn Levy said the investigation was complete and thorough. “Allegations ... are just that. They must be proved, and the evidence will not support the allegations,” she said.
Han was known for her aggressive nature and vulgar tongue. Over the years she made many friends and enemies on both sides of the law, acquaintances said.
The city and its police department were often her targets. She won a nearly $1 million civil judgment on behalf of a prostitute who said she was raped by a police officer. She also represented people who claimed to be victims of excessive police force, but Han also defended officers who were wrongly accused.
Conspiracy theories about Han’s death abound. Han’s family declined to speculate on what they think happened to her. Grover said he believes Han was murdered, although he has no idea by whom.
James Juliano, a private investigator working for the family, believes it was an accident.
Juliano, a former field investigator for the city’s medical examiner’s office, said he found nothing to indicate foul play, but he also doesn’t believe Han fit the profile for suicide. “There was nothing to indicate she was depressed,” he said.
“If things are not done right in the beginning, it creates a lot of conspiracy theories,” he said.
Copyright 2013 Associated Press