Shayne Grannum was convicted of shooting at a home in California and was on probation for another conviction on a trespassing charge.
Faun Gomez was ordered to attend anger-management classes after her conviction for disturbing the peace. Police alleged she repeatedly shouted a racial slur at a movie theater employee who told her she had to pay the parking fee she owed.
Solomon Mikael was convicted of assault in Chicago, where he was a Black Gangster Disciple gang member.
Despite their criminal convictions, all three found employment at the Denver Sheriff Department, guarding inmates in the city jails.
Grannum, Gomez and Mikael aren’t the only lawbreakers to end up there. A Denver Post review of court records and select job applications found more than a dozen employees who were hired as deputies despite finding themselves on the other side of the law.
In some cases, those deputies have been at the center of scandals at the city’s jail system.
The sheriff’s department has a less rigorous hiring process than the city’s police or fire departments, making the department vulnerable to patronage and bad hires, a national expert in jail management said. The department’s disqualification policies for job candidates with criminal backgrounds aren’t as strong as at least one other Denver-area county jail system.
The Post also found that the Denver Sheriff Department frequently allows employees to stay on the payroll after they have broken the law during their employment. Of 71 cases in which city officials concluded employees violated the law over the past decade, just 21 resigned or were fired, according to data provided by the city.
The jail system has come under scrutiny after a from a former inmate. Critics say the city needs to tighten deputy-hiring standards and do a better job disciplining those who break the law after they’re hired.
“There are questions about how the city hires these people,” said Denise Maes, policy director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.
“There has been an impression and statements made about the culture of the jails,” she said. “What is the culture in the jail? Who are the people they hire? They’re not all bad apples, but some of them are.”
Maes was a member of one of four task forces created by to review problems in the jail system and make recommendations. asked for the city to consider new hiring policies for deputies, but the city disbanded the group.
An internal city work group formed by Mayor Michael Hancock is looking at hiring policies at the sheriff’s department and considering making them more stringent and equal to those that govern the hiring of police officers and firefighters.
“All things are on the table,” said Stephanie O’Malley, who became the executive director of Denver’s Safety Department in January and is the civilian in charge of the sheriff’s department.
The work group also is considering changes to the way internal affairs reviews cases in which deputies are accused of breaking the law, she said.
“The internal affairs bureau in the sheriff’s department needs a hard look right now,” O’Malley said. “Is there the expertise? Who do we have in internal affairs? Who do we have leading internal affairs? How are we managing cases? I’m not casting aspersions on existing personnel, but there is a whole cadre of issues that go into this conversation.”
Assaults, DUIs, theft
Denver’s jailers include Tommy Garcia, convicted before his hiring of assaulting a person he said was harassing his wife. At least five others were convicted of driving while their ability was impaired. At least three found jobs in the jails despite convictions of theft or shoplifting.
John Kennan got a job as a Denver deputy despite a conviction of possession of a dangerous weapon, nunchucks, in North Tonawanda, N.Y., and a one-year probation sentence. Another man found work in the city’s jail system despite a Colorado Springs marijuana possession conviction. Deputy Kyle Sharp had a driving-while-intoxicated conviction in another state before his hiring by the city.
Denver also hired Akintola Akinyemi despite his pleading guilty to child abuse in Colorado Springs. Akinyemi, who declined comment, is now a sergeant.
And dozens of other deputies incurred criminal charges after they were hired to work in the jail system, but the city allowed them to remain on the job.
The Lakewood Police Department arrested Denver Deputy Scott Kanipe on charges of third-degree assault and harassment in 2003 after his girlfriend accused him of forcibly grabbing her arms and legs, leaving bruises on the legs, and calling her 62 times to leave messages berating her. Kanipe, who remains on the force, pleaded guilty to harassment and was ordered to undergo domestic violence counseling.
Deputy Theresa Willis in July 2012 pleaded guilty to unlawful conduct on public property. charges for spraying a rabbit with Mace. In the past, he has declined comment.
The Post tried but was unable to reach all of the current and former deputies named in this story.
Not isolated cases
Their cases are not isolated, according to internal affairs investigative data the city released to The Post after an open-records request. From 2005 through last month, Denver sheriff’s employees were accused of committing law violations at least 157 times. In 71 of those cases, city officials concluded the violations occurred.
Of those cases, the city fired 11 employees and temporarily suspended 27, while 10 employees resigned. Employees who kept their jobs included those found to have engaged in theft, domestic violence, driving under the influence, trespassing and careless driving resulting in death. A deputy involved in road rage was counseled. One who was arrested on a child abuse warrant was suspended.
Employees resigned or the city fired them in cases where they tampered with federal evidence, used drugs, solicited a prostitute or sexually abused a child, among other violations. Two were fired for domestic violence.
The sheriff’s department says that five years ago it began conducting criminal background checks every year to determine whether employees were convicted of breaking the law in the past two years. But those checks aren’t part of the department’s formal policies, officials say.
O’Malley said deputies and other sworn personnel are required to divulge when they are arrested so internal affairs investigators can review the allegations.
Those still on the job with criminal convictions or arrests make up a fraction of the nearly 720 sworn employees at Denver jails.
But given the importance of their work — guarding and protecting inmates — just one bad hire can do a lot of damage, said Martin Horn, a lecturer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who from 2003 to 2009 was commissioner in charge of the New York jail system.
“It’s critically important to get this right in a jail or prison,” Horn said. “The only thing you have is your workforce. You’re only as strong as your weakest link.”
He said Denver should institute a civil service system that requires those wanting to work in a jail to take an exam to determine their level of skill, something New York does.
“There’s a critical flaw without a civil service process,” Horn said. “That means they are patronage jobs. That explains why you get people hired with criminal records. We took the highest scorers first, and we had a rigorous criminal background check. We hired nobody with a felony conviction, and we looked carefully and closely at any misdemeanor conviction.”
In Denver, the civil service testing process governs the hiring of police officers and firefighters, but not deputy sheriffs. Under the civil service process, an independent commission forwards finalists on to Denver’s safety manager for a final hiring decision, and those finalists are ranked by their test scores.
Denver administers tests to sheriff’s applicants, too, but the only requirement to get passed along for further consideration is a score of at least 70 percent. And the tests measure just the basics: reading comprehension, basic math, legal terminology, memory skills and the ability to follow basic instructions, as well as department procedures and duties. Those taking the test are given copies of the department’s policies during the testing.
Those who get a passing grade proceed to the next level, which includes a criminal background check, lie detector test, fitness test and psychological exam. Denver’s sheriff forwards those he wants to hire to O’Malley for final approval along with their psychological exams and criminal background information.
“If there is something that jumps out at me that just says not this person, and you don’t want them in the department for a host of reasons, then I’m not going to advance them,” O’Malley said. “And since I have been here, there have been candidates that have not been advanced to the academy after my review.”
Felony convictions are disqualifying for a Denver sheriff post, but misdemeanors are allowed if they are more than five years old. But city officials say that is understood to begeneral practice, and that no specific policy exists clarifying what convictions are allowed and which aren’t. Past illegal drug use also is allowed if it occurred more than three years ago, according to practice.
At least one other local sheriff’s department, Adams County’s, has stricter hiring standards. Adams County’s policy states those with misdemeanor convictions are eligible for hiring, but the county specifies that any one of 45 such convictions automatically disqualify an applicant if they occurred in the past 13 years. Those disqualifying convictions include misdemeanor third-degree assault, indecent exposure and resisting arrest.
O’Malley said a subcommittee of the Denver mayor’s work group is reviewing whether the civil service system should control hiring for the sheriff’s department.
“I’m open to this entire process of optimization for enhancing the quality of the type of personnel that we have within the department, and if that means moving it to a civil service system, then I’m not adverse to that,” she said. “I’m not there yet because we have not finished this experience of weighing the merits of the two programs.”
At center of scandals
Some of those hired in Denver with criminal convictions have been at the center of scandals at the city’s jail system.
Mikael rose through the ranks, becoming a sergeant. and other contraband to inmates, allegedly making $50,000 annually on the side.
Gomez, who was arrested after witnesses said she repeatedly hurled racial epithets at the movie theater employee, was a defendant in the . Deputies did not make their required rounds the night of Feb. 19, 2006, when Rice died in the Denver jail of internal injuries suffered in a car accident, according to that lawsuit.
The suit cost the city and Denver Health Medical Center combined settlement costs of $7 million.
Gomez also is a defendant in another lawsuit, scheduled to go to trial Monday, . The homeless preacher died in custody at the Denver jail during the early hours of July 9, 2010.
That suit alleges Gomez startled Booker when she grabbed him from behind after he tried to retrieve his shoes. After Booker swung his left elbow at Gomez, she and four other deputies took him to the ground.
A former captain and deputy have testified in sworn affidavits that Gomez had a reputation for provoking inmates.
“Deputy Gomez would frequently go out of her way to piss off inmates so that they would throw the first punch so that she could go hands-on,” according to the testimony of former Deputy Patricia Houston. “This would force her fellow officers to have to jump in and back her up, putting everyone at risk.”
Gomez had a checkered discipline history during her time working for the sheriff’s department. She once was suspended without pay for 35 days for failing to accurately document a use of force she witnessed. She resigned from the department last year after it was alleged she was involved in another similar violation.
Houston said that after Gomez joined the sheriff’s department in 2004, Gomez boasted to her co-workers that she was related to then-Division Chief Fred Oliva.
Gomez in sworn testimony denied she instigated the altercation with Booker. She also has denied using a racial slur in the movie theater incident, but she did not contest the charge of disturbing the peace and was convicted.
Deputy Gaynel Rumer was arrested in 2008 on a charge of violating a protection order after his former wife alleged he stalked her. Rumer’s charge eventually was dismissed, but concerns about his conduct have continued at the jail.
He was a defendant in the federal lawsuit filed by former inmate Jamal Hunter that the city recently settled. The suit
alleged that Rumer was often drunk on the job, and that the deputy allowed and helped facilitate a brutal attack by other inmates who knocked Hunter out and scalded his genitals and thighs with 200-degree water.
Others have gone on to receive promotions at the jail despite their past transgressions.
Grannum became a sergeant despite the fact he was on probation for a trespassing conviction when he applied to work at the sheriff’s department. In addition to that trespassing conviction, he had been charged by the Mountain View Police Department in California with conspiracy and shooting at an inhabited dwelling. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor shooting charge.
In his job application, Grannum said he had been goofing off with two other military friends at the time of the 1987 shooting and that a bullet from the pistol they were firing struck a garage.
Grannum, who declined comment, now takes a leading role nationally on how to provide crisis intervention for inmates with mental illnesses.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747, cosher@denverpost.com or twitter.com/chrisosher
