COLORADO SPRINGS — Former 4th Judicial District Attorney John Newsome has been cited for official misconduct in allegedly using taxpayer money for personal travel.
Special prosecutor Al Dominguez, formerly the 19th Judicial District Attorney, said Newsome has agreed to plea “no contest” and will pay a $100 fine for the petty offense.
Tuesday was Newsome’s last day as 4th Judicial District attorney. Dan May, who defeated Newsome in the Republican primary, was sworn in as his replacement.
According to a news release from Newsome’s attorney, Matt Werner, Newsome “disputes that he ever intentionally or knowingly possessed public money to convert it to his own use.”
Newsome did not return a call and e-mail seeking comment.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation began looking into a trip Newsome took in October 2007 after The Gazette ran an article in June on his having allegedly billed the county for a trip he took to see a college football game. He reimbursed taxpayers six months later.
Dominguez denied that investigators and special prosecutors waited until Newsome left office before issuing the summons so as not to charge a sitting district attorney.
“It didn’t matter if he was sitting, standing or running, when the time came to file that’s when we filed,” Dominguez said.
According to the release, Newsome told his staff he was taking a side trip to see Notre Dame play his alma mater, the University of Southern California in South Bend, Ind., on the way back from Chicago, where he and a police detective had interviewed witnesses in the killing of a Colorado Springs police officer.
Newsome initially charged the county $699 for hotel rooms for him and the detective, a rental car, gas and per diem for the day of the game, when no witnesses were interviewed.
KOAA-TV asked for Newsome’s travel records April 1, and Newsome wrote El Paso County a check for $584.90 on April 24, according to records obtained by The Gazette.
In the release, it states “Newsome took some efforts to reconcile and repay the personal expenses prior to the onslaught of public scrutiny of the matter arising during the contested primary election” with May.
But the Gazette’s investigation revealed Newsome requested a $50 per diem for that Saturday and was paid in advance. And when he put the weeklong rental car on his personal credit card, he immediately requested reimbursement after returning to Colorado, records show.
Newsome’s no contest plea means he “neither admits committing a crime nor disputes that the personal reimbursement of the office should have occurred earlier than it did.”
It’s unclear when Newsome will enter his plea.
