Glenwood Springs – Voters’ decision to recall District Attorney Colleen Truden this month means there will be no need for a special prosecutor in a case in which the defense attorney believed Truden and her deputies could not be fair, a judge said.
District Judge Dan Petre said Thursday that the request for a special prosecutor by Jeff Cheney, one of seven former deputy district attorneys who resigned after Truden took office in January, was made unnecessary by the recall. But Petre agreed to delay action in the case until Truden is replaced next month by Martin Beeson, also one of Truden’s former deputies.
Cheney had made the request in the case of Ken Newton, who is accused of shooting a neighbor’s dog and burying it without telling the neighbor.
Cheney, one of the leaders of the recall campaign, had argued that Truden’s office based plea-bargain decisions on whether they believed defense attorneys supported Truden.
He said his support of the recall effort jeopardized his client’s chance for fair treatment.
Truden’s office denied the allegation during a November hearing on the special- prosecutor request.
