GOLDEN — A top aide to former Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Paschall testified Wednesday that it was Paschall’s idea to give her a bonus and collect half for himself.
“I’m going to give you a ridiculous amount of money,” Kathy Redmond recalled Paschall saying in a hallway conversation on Dec. 27, 2006. “It will be for a severance, and I’d like . . . half.”
Redmond, who was Paschall’s communications director, said she cautioned Paschall about what would happen if the media learned of the bonus, and she said Paschall replied, “I don’t care.”
Paschall was indicted in January 2007 on one count of felony theft and receiving compensation for past official behavior.
His trial began Tuesday. The prosecution plans to rest this morning.
Prosecutors contend Paschall solicited a kickback from Redmond.
Paschall’s attorney, David Lane, told the jury, “We are here because (Jefferson County Commissioner) Jim Congrove hates Mark Paschall with an undying passion.” The two men were allies, but Lane said Congrove grew angry in 2006 when Paschall refused to reveal what he told a grand jury.
“I didn’t want it,” Redmond testified about not taking the money. “The offer to me was unethical.”
Redmond said she took her concerns to Congrove, who notified the district attorney’s office.
DA investigator Carl Blesch testified that he gave Redmond a telephone recording device and asked her to record any calls with Paschall.
Two conversations between Paschall and Redmond were recorded at the district attorney’s office, Blesch said.
Redmond cried twice while testifying about the recorded calls, saying she felt she was being set up.
Blesch said he instructed Redmond to talk with Paschall naturally. He denied under Lane’s cross-examination that he scripted her conversation, because “we wanted no suggestion of entrapment, and if it didn’t go anywhere, that was OK with us.”
Redmond wasn’t willing to wear a wire and hand him the check, Blesch said, and recovering the money after the check was cashed would have been a problem.
Ann Schrader: 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com
