Saying that a Denver police investigation “smacks of a sham,” U.S. District Judge John Kane has asked federal authorities to investigate the “patterns and practices” of the Denver police and sheriff’s offices and suggested they were intimidating a key witness.

In an emergency hearing, Kane ordered Denver police internal affairs detectives to stop an investigation against witness Amos Page, who is testifying in the case of a former jail inmate.

The inmate, Jamal Hunter, has accused the city and Denver jail Deputy Gaynel Rumer of facilitating and encouraging a brutal 2011 attack against him in his cell. Rumer did not come to Hunter’s aid while the inmate screamed and fellow inmates attacked him.

Kane on Friday ordered Denver police to produce all documents in its investigation of Page, including recordings of interviews, e-mails, notes and correspondence by June 16.

“The Denver Police Department is immediately and permanently enjoined from any and all action, investigation, consultation or and kind of participation, including any action by its Internal Affairs Bureau, until judgment is entered in this case,” Kane ordered.

Denver police spokesman Everett Moore said he could not comment on the case.

Kane also ordered that a transcript of Friday’s hearing be provided to the U.S. attorney’s office for a possible criminal investigation. The judge added that if the case goes to trial, the jury will be instructed regarding the treatment of the witnesses, “including intimidation by agents of the defendant.”

“I think it … smacks of a sham to suggest that the Internal Affairs Bureau of the Denver Police Department was investigating any kind of a case for criminal activity,” said Kane, according to a transcript of the Friday hearing. He added that, “I for the life of me do not understand” why internal affairs was even involved in the case because the sheriff’s office has its own internal affairs investigators.

Kane ordered that all statements from Page recorded by the city and its law enforcement officers be stricken from the record of the case. The judge also canceled all depositions of other witnesses.

He gave Hunter the authority to depose the internal affairs officers at the expense of the city, including attorney’s fees.

A motion by Hunter’s attorney, Qusair Mohamedbhai, says Sgts. Brian Cotter and Brad Lenderink of Denver’s internal affairs office went to the Crowley County Correctional Facility and interviewed Page, apparently to intimidate him from testifying in Hunter’s lawsuit.

“There’s also some fairly significant criminal statutes involving these police officers,” Kane said. “And I make no judgment as to whether they’re guilty or not, but I think that there is certainly cause to suspect that witnesses have been intimidated. … “

In 2011, Page and other cellmates of Hunter’s at the Downtown Denver Detention Center allegedly broke Hunter’s nose and scalded his genitals, believing he was a snitch.

Hunter claims in a lawsuit that Rumer facilitated and encouraged the attack against him by offering to turn out the lights after Page told him about the impending attack.

Rumer, who denies the allegations, is still working at the jail after serving a 40-day suspension. His attorney said Rumer is actually the target of the Denver police investigation.

Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kirkmitchell