The beating by Denver police that left a 16-year-old with a damaged liver and kidney was unusual not for the violence dished out by officers but because the injuries were severe and two of the officers reported the actions of the third, former safety manager Al LaCabe testified Thursday.

Police culture in Denver and elsewhere is accepting of officers roughing up suspects within certain boundaries, LaCabe told a hearing panel of the Civil Service Commission.

Few officers actually engage in the violence, but as long as the injuries aren’t too severe, officers rarely report those who do, LaCabe said.

“This was the run of the mill — teaching the guy a lesson,” LaCabe said.

Nick Rogers, president of the Denver Police Protective Association, the officers’ union, said LaCabe, a former New Orleans police officer, knows nothing about Denver’s police culture and called his statements baseless.

“In 1970, there may have been street justice administered in New Orleans, in Philadelphia, in Denver,” he said, “but times have progressed, and that culture doesn’t exist and hasn’t existed for the 26 years that I have been a Denver police officer.”

LaCabe, who oversaw the police, fire and sheriff’s departments from 2003 until his retirement in 2010, made his statements at Chuck Porter’s appeal of his firing for the beating of Juan Vasquez in April 2008. Officers Luis Rivera and Cameron Moerman also lost their jobs.

All three denied beating the teen, who was wanted for parole violation, had cocaine in his possession and ran when he spotted the officers on a north Denver street.

Days after the incident, Rivera and Moerman blamed Porter for the injuries, telling internal-affairs investigators that after Vasquez was on the ground, Porter jumped on his back.

A jury acquitted Porter, who was the only officer charged with a crime.

LaCabe decided all three were involved in the beating, two of them at least throwing punches and kicking the boy. He also determined that all three lied about the incident.

And even though he found Moerman and Rivera were not credible when they denied taking any part in roughing up Vasquez, he thought they told the truth about Porter.

Cops might be squeamish about reporting their own, but they won’t frame an innocent officer, LaCabe said.

“Can you believe Officer Moerman and Rivera when they say Officer Porter jumped on Mr. Vasquez’s back?” LaCabe said. “I found based on circumstances and this culture that you absolutely can believe them.”

LaCabe fired the three in 2010. Since then, his successors have terminated six officers in excessive-force cases.

A new manager of safety, former state Supreme Court Justice Alex Martinez, took office recently. Robert White, who served as police chief in Louisville, Ky., will take over from Denver Chief Gerry Whitman this month.

LaCabe said his experience as an officer taught him that there are times when even good officers can cross the line between using force to get a suspect under control and adding a few punishing blows.

Especially in foot or vehicle chases, he said, officers are filled with adrenaline.

“The faster you go, the dumber you get,” he said.

Assistant City Attorney Joseph Rivera asked LaCabe whether he had ever used unneccesary force. “Unfortunately, yes,” he replied, adding that he did so at the conclusion of a “huge fight.”

When officers step over the line, they don’t mean to cause serious injury, he said. The officers called an ambulance for Vas quez not because they thought he was seriously hurt but because they thought he was an intoxicated juvenile, LaCabe said.

In a case like Vasquez’s, some officers think that as long as there are no serious injuries, the victim’s complaint won’t be sustained.

“If you can write a report that says this is consistent with falling down, this is consistent with running through branches,” there is little chance of punishment, he said.

Vasquez received an $885,000 settlement from the city after the incident.

Rogers said LaCabe knows nothing about Denver’s police.

“He has never been a Denver police officer and never will be,” Rogers said. “I take great exception to him comparing his measly seven years in New Orleans back in the ’70s in one of the most corrupt police departments in the world.”

Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com