Sep 17, 2008 6:22 pm US/Mountain
Retired Denver Cop Charged In New Sex Assault Case
Written by investigative reporter Brian Maass
DENVER (CBS4) ―
Joe Bini, a former Denver police officer, has now been charged in a second sexual assault case since his retirement in 2007.
Arapahoe County authorities charged Bini last month with a misdemeanor count of unlawful sexual contact in connection with an August 2007 incident. The case has remarkable similarities to another case in Denver earlier this year that led to felony criminal charges against the controversial former officer.
Bini became well known after he engineered a disastrous no-knock drug raid in 1999 that led to police shooting and killing Ismael Mena, a Mexican immigrant.
Bini's faulty search warrant had sent SWAT team officers to the wrong house. He was charged with felony perjury but later accepted a misdemeanor plea bargain and returned to the police force.
The 39-year-old Bini retired from the Denver Police Department last year citing a medical disability suffered on the job. He has faced a rocky road since.
In May of this year, Bini was arrested and charged with multiple counts for allegedly paying $20 to two juvenile girls to have sex while he watched. The girls say the incident happened at a GNC Nutrition store on the 16th Street Mall where Bini worked. The store is owned by Bini's wife.
The girls told police Bini took them to a back room of the store where he paid them to have sex with each other while he masturbated.
Now comes word that Bini is being charged in a second case with striking parallels to the Denver case. In August 2007, a young woman went to the GNC nutrition store at 5616 South Gibraltar Way in Centennial. The store is also owned by Bini's wife.
According to a police report, on Aug. 21, 2007, the women went to the store to buy diet pills. She said Bini was running the operation and told her "she was a beautiful girl" and offered her a job on the spot, telling her to return the next day with a resume.
The woman told police she went back the next morning and that Bini was the only one in the store. According to the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department offense report, Bini told her he wanted to interview her in a back room. She said Bini started off professionally, but then told her she was "so hot ... freaking adorable," and told her, "I swear if you work here we're going to end up sleeping together."
The woman says Bini spoke to her in extremely graphic, sexual terms.
A few minutes later, she said Bini hugged her and "put his hands on her butt." She told him that was not okay. According to the woman, Bini then "started to reach down the front of her pants. He only got the tips of his fingers in when she pushed him away ... he told her he wanted to see what color of panties she was wearing."
As the woman began to leave, she said Bini then asked her to "go in the back and masturbate on the table for him." She said Bini then suggested several times she allow him to perform a sex act on her. As she was leaving, she says Bini told her, "Okay, well just come in tomorrow for training and I really want you to work here."
The woman subsequently told police Bini touching her stomach, her posterior and attempting to see her panties was all done without her consent.
While the woman reported the alleged incident within days, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson says she then decided not to pursue the case. But Robinson said she reconsidered and decided to press charges after learning about the 2008 incident at the GNC store in Denver.
Bini is due back in court on the Arapahoe County case Sept. 26. His attorney, Michael Meyrick, said he would not comment on this latest charge. Phone messages left for Bini at both GNC stores, on his cell phone and by email were not returned.
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