Colorado Attorney General John Suthers late today asked that a custodian be appointed to take over the management of the Colorado Humane Society & S.P.C.A. Inc, alleging that the charity’s top managers diverted thousands of dollars of contributions for personal use.
Suthers alleges that the defendants — identified as Mary C. Warren, Robert Warren and Stephenie Gardner — failed to register the Colorado Humane society under the Charitable Solicitations Act, “causing CHS to collect nearly $3 million in donations illegally.”
Suthers also alleges that approximately $32,000 of the $66,154 the society received in donations for helping animals affected by Hurricane Katrina were spent to cover the charity’s own payroll.
The lawsuit, filed in Arapahoe County, accuses the Warrens and Gardner of “gross mismanagement of CHS finances.
Mary Warren is the Colorado Humane Society’s executive director. Her husband, Robert Warren, is development director. Mary Warren’s daughter, Stephenie Gardner, is director of operations.
“Individual defendants have co-mingled CHS finances with their own personal finances to an extent that the integrity of CHS finances has been brought into question,” the suit claimss.
The Colorado Humane Society’s work dates to 1881 and Suthers said appointing a custodian is “necessary to preserve an important charitable institution. While the lawsuit’s allegations will wait to be proven at trial, I felt the most important order of business was to ask the court to appoint a custodian to operate the Colorado Humane Society’s shelter and protect the charitable assets.”
Robert Warren told The Denver Post he has yet to see the suit. “We are not prepared to comment at this point.”
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
