Aspen – An Aspen Police Department community resource officer is raising the area’s reputation for substance abuse to the top of his political agenda as he challenges five- term Pitkin County Sheriff Bob Braudis in the November election.
As part of that, Ricky Magnuson telephoned an Arizona alcohol treatment center and, posing as a journalist, left a message asking Braudis to call an Aspen newspaper.
Magnuson said he made the call to alert the media of the sheriff’s whereabouts.
Last month, Braudis, 61, checked into Desert Canyon, a drug and alcohol treatment center in Sedona, Ariz.
The sheriff says he has been sober for two months.
“I haven’t felt this good in 15 years. Waking up to a sunrise without any fog from a dinner party the night before is beautiful,” said Braudis, a long-time critic of the war on drugs.
Magnuson, 41, spends much of his time walking the sidewalks and pedaling his mountain bike around town responding to non-criminal police calls.
Magnuson says his campaign is about sanitizing Aspen’s party environment.
“Sheriff Braudis has an outdated philosophy. There are a lot of drug issues here, there are a lot of substance-abuse problems, and I don’t think he’s addressing them,” he said.
The sheriff does not condone undercover police work. He considers it deceptive, dangerous and expensive. Magnuson said he believes it is necessary to curb drug dealing.
“Jails were invented to cage people who do very bad things to their fellow man – not people who copped an addiction because of a lifestyle or a genetic predisposition,” Braudis said.
Magnuson said it’s more than a health issue.
“A health issue implies multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes or kidney failure. (The sheriff’s view) is nothing more than an attempt to de-stigmatize addiction problems. ”
Magnuson is also concerned about communication problems between the Sheriff’s Office and police.
Those problems peaked in December, when a drug raid targeted two blue-collar restaurants. The Police Department orchestrated the bust and brought in help from nearby locales as well as state and federal agencies – but not the Sheriff’s Office.
“When the sheriff and the chief of police aren’t talking to each other, there’s a problem,” Magnuson said.
Said Braudis: “I’ve recovered from that gagging sensation that I was excluded and, in my mind, deceived regarding the lead up and execution of those raids.”
Now, given Magnuson’s call to expose the sheriff’s issues with alcohol, some observers wonder just how nasty the campaign might get.
“I’m just going to tell the truth. If that’s considered dirty, well, it can only be dirty if there is dirt to uncover,” Magnuson said.
Braudis isn’t shying away from the challenge.
“This has energized me. I’m looking forward to it, and the day after they count the votes, we’ll know which philosophy appeals to the most people.”
