Aurora – District Attorney Carol Chambers wants a lawsuit in the Brent J. Brents matter to be litigated in open court.
“At this point we want to air this out,” Chambers said Tuesday, in reaction to the lawsuit filed against her and her predecessor Monday night by the attorney for an Aurora woman who was beaten and raped by Brents a year ago.
“I would like to litigate this,” Chambers said. “There are some things that aren’t right. The impression shouldn’t be that we are settling this. We should get to the truth.”
Chambers admits her 18th Judicial District office made mistakes. She also says she hopes the victims receive compensation, but says her office doesn’t have money for the victims. She plans to formally ask the Arapahoe County commissioners for money and wants to set up a foundation that would raise millions for all victims.
Brents, who was arrested in February 2005, is serving life in prison.
In November 2004, he was suspected of molesting an 8-year-old Aurora boy and admitted it to police in an interview. Brents was a registered sex offender who had recently been released from prison for sexually assaulting a boy and girl.
Aurora police continued to investigate the case and sought charges from the DA. But miscues by both the police and DA’s office allowed the case to languish without a judge’s signature for two months.
In the meantime, Brents went on a rampage through Aurora and Denver, attacking and raping women and children at knifepoint.
A week ago, four of those victims – including the woman in Monday’s lawsuit identified as Jane Doe – reached a settlement with Aurora.
Monday’s lawsuit, filed by Denver attorney Will Hood, seeks a yet-to-be determined amount of money.
It says that Chambers and her predecessor, Jim Peters, failed to do their jobs of preventing a known sexually violent predator from attacking.
“(The victim) is upset by what she perceives is the callousness of the district attorney’s office,” Hood said.
The lawsuit alleges Chambers led a 2002 training session with Aurora police in which she told detectives not to “make arrests based simply on disclosures by children, without corroboration.”
It says Chambers encouraged detectives to invite suspects to interviews with promises they wouldn’t be arrested immediately.
“I never said that,” Chambers said. “I do not have the right authority now, nor did I in 2002, to set arrest policy for (the Aurora Police Department).”
Staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer may be reached at 303-820-1175 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com.
