Former Sheriff Pat Sullivan had so much intimate information about a 27-year-old man found dead in the South Platte River early last year that investigators at the Denver medical examiner’s office contacted police and recommended that detectives talk to him.
Sullivan’s role in the life and death of Sean Moss is just one piece of the bizarre case of the longtime Arapahoe County sheriff, who was arrested last fall after police said he tried to trade methamphetamine to a man in exchange for sex.
Sullivan, 69, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Monday on charges of distribution of a controlled substance, possession of methamphetamine, prostitution and attempting to influence a public official.
He declined to comment when contacted at his home by a Denver Post reporter.
Moss, who claimed on a website that he had roles in 17 gay pornographic movies, drowned Jan. 27, 2011, though investigators were not able to determine whether his death was a suicide, an accident or a homicide. Autopsy reports showed he had meth and the club drug GHB in his system when he died and that the drugs were “significant contributing conditions.” The report also states that Moss once had attempted suicide.
The investigation remains “open and active,” said Denver police Lt. Matt Murray, a department spokesman.
Chief Deputy Coroner Michelle Weiss-Samaras confirmed to The Post that Moss had listed Sullivan as an emergency contact in his medical records. When an investigator in the coroner’s office called him, Sullivan came to the office almost immediately.
Staff members were struck by how much Sullivan knew about the young man.
He told the investigator that Moss was gay, that he had grown up in Nebraska, that he had an argument with his roommate shortly before he was found dead and that his friends had been looking for him, Weiss-Samaras said. Sullivan also knew details of Moss’ family and medical history. He said Moss had lost many of his teeth and that the former sheriff had paid for the man’s partial dentures.
At one point, Sullivan asked whether he could identify the body, but staffers said he could not because he was not next of kin.
The investigator contacted the Denver detectives on the case “to give them a heads-up” that Sullivan knew a lot about Moss’ life, Weiss-Samaras said.
Police have said they interviewed Sullivan around that time.
Cherry Creek School District officials have said Sullivan — then director of security for the district — helped Moss get a job there in 2007.
And after Moss’ death, the bondsman who posted bail after the 27-year-old was arrested Jan. 14, 2011, on domestic-violence charges filed documents in Arapahoe County in an effort to drop the bond. The bondsman said Sullivan had contacted him about the death.
Moss wasn’t the only young man with whom Sullivan associated.
In September, police were called to a Centennial home by a man who said Sullivan was hanging out with his three roommates, whom he believed were using meth, and that Sullivan wouldn’t leave the home. One of those roommates was 35-year-old Willie Hadley, who had lived with Sullivan and his wife at one point.
Sullivan told a police officer who responded to the complaint that he worked for the state health department in a drug-treatment program that helps recovering meth addicts get clean, and that the men were in his program. State officials said Sullivan never had worked for the department.
The drugs-for-sex investigation heated up in November, after Englewood police stopped a driver and found methamphetamine. The young man in the vehicle told investigators that he was “involved” with Sullivan, authorities have said.
An undercover sting was arranged using two confidential informants who said they had engaged in sex with Sullivan in the past and would be willing to ask him for meth in exchange for sex, according to court documents.
Sullivan agreed to meet one of the men at a home in Aurora, where he was arrested. He posted a $50,000 bond and was released from the jail that bears his name Dec. 6.
Staff writer Carlos Illescas contributed to this report.
Sara Burnett: 303-954-1661 or sburnett@denverpost.com
