Golden – A Colorado watchdog group plans to announce today that it will ask the Colorado attorney general and Jefferson County district attorney to investigate use of public money to hire a private eye to spy on citizens.
“We will take a several-tiered approach to determine whether there was embezzlement of public funds,” said Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government.
Taylor said Tuesday that her nonprofit group also will file an open-records request for documents and reports obtained by the county in 2005 and 2006 as the result of surveillance authorized by County Attorney Frank Hutfless, who resigned effective last Friday.
Jefferson County paid Professional Investigators, operated by former Denver police officer Daril Cinquanta, who is a friend of Commissioner Jim Congrove, more than $7,500 last year to investigate a county critic and others.
Another investigative target surfaced Tuesday when the county released “research” done in February 2005 for which the county paid Cinquanta $75.
The “confidential” investigative report is on Lee Suttie, who resigned in January 2004 after serving for 10 years as the county’s facilities director.
The one-page report refers to “employment,” and then lists “unemployment file date,” “weekly benefit” and “paid to date” entries with corresponding information blacked out.
Phone calls to Suttie, Hutfless and Congrove asking for comment were not returned Tuesday evening.
Media outlets, including The Denver Post, have filed open-records requests for the investigative reports. County officials say only the invoices are available and that Hutfless was briefed orally by Cinquanta.
Another report, discovered in Hutfless’ files after his departure, “has surfaced and is being reviewed to determine if anything needs to be redacted,” county spokeswoman Kathryn Heider said Tuesday.
Heider said there are no other documents “that I know of. I have asked, and you have what I have been given.”
Commissioner Kevin McCasky said he doesn’t have “all the information I would like to have,” and he has asked for the past week that “all of the documents be pulled together in one file so we can examine them.”
Commissioner Kathy Hartman said she is “very troubled” by the revelations. “Using county funds to surveil private citizens outside of legitimate law enforcement activities is, I believe, inappropriate and potentially illegal.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
