The Colorado Springs Police Department today passed on to the CBI an investigation into District Attorney John Newsome’s trip to the Notre Dame-USC football game last year.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation will look into the complaint made Monday by state Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, the former police chief of Fountain.
On June 24 The (Colorado Springs) Gazette reported that Newsome traveled to the game in South Bend, Ind., on the extension of a business trip to Chicago. Newsome is a USC alumnus.
“The CBI regularly conducts inquiries into assertions of misconduct of public officials, and is experienced in these investigations,” according to a statement from the police department this afternoon. “An additional consideration is that an employee of the Colorado Springs Police Department is involved in the matter.”
A Colorado Springs police detective had accompanied Newsome on the trip to Chicago to interview witnesses.
Newsome took six months to reimburse his office, according to the newspaper, and repaid $584.90 in April after a Colorado Springs TV station requested his travel records.
Newsome denied wrongdoing, characterizing it as an office accounting oversight he has settled. Newsome is under scrutiny during this election year.
In May, Colorado Springs TV station KOAA secretly taped him drinking about 130 ounces of beer at local bars during a five-hour period, then driving his county-owned SUV. Newsome publicly apologized.
