GRAND JUNCTION, Colo.—A prosecutor wants to throw out convictions in 10 drinking-and-driving cases, citing doubts about the credibility of a former state trooper who conducted the investigations.
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported Thursday ( ) that eight other cases investigated by ex-trooper Donald Moseman have already been dropped.
An external investigation by a retired FBI agent, commissioned by District Attorney Pete Hautzinger, found that observations in Moseman’s reports weren’t supported by documentation. It also found the details and wording of different reports were similar, and in one case the language was cut and pasted from one report to another.
Hautzinger said he will not file charges against Moseman because prosecutors cannot prove he acted deliberately.
“There’s no evidence proving he knowingly or intentionally framed innocent people or was trying to manufacture evidence,” Hautzinger said. “He just tended to see a case when we didn’t see it and others didn’t.”
Moseman left the Colorado State Patrol in December. The patrol would not say if he was fired, and no phone listing could be found for Moseman.
Hautzinger said he will ask judges to order that information about the 10 case be removed from state and national crime computer databases.
“In most of the 10 cases, it involves Moseman making a statement saying, ‘I saw the defendant weaving, or running a stop sign or committing some other minor traffic offense,'” Hautzinger said. “In 99 of 100 cases involving law enforcement officers, we presume that to be true, but given the circumstances here, I’m presuming it to be untrue.”
Hautzinger said he believes Moseman “was afraid to let a potential drunk driver go.”
“It’s my belief he’d been involved directly investigating a rather traumatic vehicular homicide case, and that ultimately led to the development of this bias,” Hautzinger said.
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Information from: The Daily Sentinel,
