Ninth Judicial District voters made history Tuesday when they overwhelmingly chose to oust District Attorney Colleen Truden from office 11 controversy-filled months after she was voted in as the district’s top prosecutor.
Truden – the first district attorney to be recalled in Colorado – will be replaced by one of her former employees, attorney Martin Beeson. Beeson was one of six attorneys who bailed out of Truden’s office within six months of her taking over and publicly criticized her management style, experience and ethics.
“This is a victory of moral certitude over political tactic,” Beeson said Tuesday night as the election results showed Truden being trounced by a 5-to-1 margin and Beeson with more than a 1,000-vote edge over write-in candidate Chip McCrory.
Beeson, 49, pledged to give the voters “the honesty and integrity they demand from public servants.”
Pitkin County voters cast 2,039 votes for recall and 112 against. In Rio Blanco County, where Truden’s troubles rarely made headlines, 169 voters said she should be recalled and 278 voted no.
Truden, 47, did not return phone messages asking for comments after the vote made it apparent that she would not retain her job. She earlier said she would remain in the office until the Colorado secretary of state certifies the election results, likely in early January.
“It’s been a wonderful pleasure serving the citizens of the Ninth Judicial District,” Truden said as the polls were closing Tuesday. “And tomorrow is another day and we’ll be back doing our job.”
Truden, a former municipal judge with 23 years’ experience as an attorney but no experience as a prosecutor, drew fire early in her tenure for being dishonest with other public officials about hiring her husband to work on the computer system in the district attorney’s office. She was accused of spending most of her budget in her first several months in office and of being too inexperienced to handle prosecutions.
“Her dishonesty was the main thing that was her downfall. I don’t think people tolerate dishonesty, especially in a DA,” said Glenwood Springs attorney Sherry Caloia, who spearheaded the recall effort.
Truden has denied those claims and had spent the two months before the election touting her accomplishments, such as increased felony filings and convictions.
Much of the public criticism against her came from staff that resigned from her office. A dozen staff members quit.
Former Truden Deputy Attorney Katie Steers filed an ethics complaint with the attorney-oversight arm of the Colorado Supreme Court alleging Truden illegally let unlicensed attorneys practice without supervision and that she unethically would give better deals to defendants whose attorneys had not publicly criticized her office or been involved in the recall.
The former allegation was dismissed. The latter is still under investigation.
Former Deputy Attorney Tony Hershey has filed a civil suit against Truden claiming that she created a hostile work environment that made it impossible for him to continue in his job.
Truden has blamed “the former regime” of Mac Myers for the criticism of her office. Myers has denied having any part in Truden’s problems and said she rebuffed his efforts to help her make a smooth transition when he left the office because of term limits and she was elected with no opponent.
Truden blamed Myers for leaving behind an inadequate computer system, dismantled files and a budget deficit that all led to early criticism of her office. Myers, now an assistant district attorney in Cortez, has also denied that.
Tuesday, Truden also blamed the media, for dwelling on alleged problems in her office and reporting “distortions” of her tenure made by her critics.
No Colorado district attorney had faced a recall vote since 1978, when former Pueblo District Attorney Joe Losavio survived a recall election.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or at nlofholm@denverpost.com.
