Caroline Cammack, a former Denver Probate Court employee who alleged the court was failing to protect vulnerable adults from abuse, has settled a civil case against the court for $10,000.
Cammack, who has been unemployed since the court fired her two years ago, said Tuesday that the settlement falls far short of the losses she has suffered.
But “I stopped the bleeding. I won the case, which is the most important thing to me,” she said.
Rob McCallum, a spokesman for the State Court Administrator’s Office, said the state would not comment on the settlement.
Cammack filed a complaint against the court and the state Judicial Department in 2009, contending that she was wrongly dismissed, that supervisors mistreated her after her son died, and that she had unearthed cases of waste, mismanagement and abuse while working for the court.
In a series of stories, The Denver Post examined several of those cases last year. The newspaper reported that the court had lost track of an HIV-positive man engaging in unprotected sex, that a guardian had billed a demented woman hundreds of times for walking with her and reading poetry to her, and that another guardian and a girlfriend had charged the guardian’s brother $83,517 for plane flights and related expenses.
The Post also found that some guardians had reported nothing to the Denver court for five years and that the court’s list of protected people included some who had been dead for years.
Last month, state auditors told a legislative committee that in many cases, Colorado probate courts still fail to follow laws enacted to protect vulnerable adults and children from abuse.
“We understand the problem,” Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Bender responded, “and we’re going to make it a priority.”
David Olinger: 303-954-1498
