BRIGHTON — The last of the seven people charged in the Adams County Quality Paving scandal accepted a plea deal Tuesday morning.
Of the seven charged in the investigation that lasted more than three years, six have pleaded guilty or been convicted and two are serving
prison sentences.
on 26 counts — ranging from theft and embezzlement to official misconduct and attempting to influence a public servant — for his role in the .
In the plea deal, Asay entered a guilty plea to one felony theft charge and the other 25 will be dropped.
The prosecution will retain the right to ask for restitution based on all the original charges, and the court will not have special caps on sentencing.
Asay faces two to six years in prison with sentencing scheduled for Jan. 29.
Asay’s attorney, Gene Andrew Ciancio, said that there comes a time when the effort of fighting a case has to be weighed. “Both sides of this whole process are tired, exhausted and depressed at the image that Adams County has gotten. It’s time to go forward.”
District Attorney Don Quick said speed was a factor.
“If this had been strung out for more years, the public would have doubted that anything was getting resolved,” Quick said. “Still a lot of work went into getting this case to a point where the defendants feel they have to take the plea deal.”
, pleading guilty to two counts of theft in return for getting 74 other charges dropped. Gomez, later sentenced to four years in prison, has filed an appeal.
In addition:
• Jerry Rhea, the former president and owner of Quality Paving, was convicted of 23 counts and was sentenced to nine years in prison. .
• in prison.
• Heath Russo, a former Quality Paving employee, pleaded guilty to two theft charges and received a deferred sentence.
• Stacey Parkin, a former Adams County public works employee, pleaded guilty to theft and received a deferred sentence.
• A .
Dave Young, chief trial deputy and lead prosecutor on the cases, said Quick and him “both agree it’s a successful prosecution.”
“These weren’t easy cases,” Quick said, acknowledging the work of prosecutors and investigators from the Sheriff’s office who reviewed more than 100,000 pages of documents.
“I’m hoping this starts to restore faith of Adams County residents in public county officials,” he said.
Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@denverpost.com or twitter.com/yeseniarobles
