A federal judge on Friday sentenced a former Walsenburg police officer to five years in prison on a drug offense after the 31-year-old was caught selling crack cocaine with her kids in the car.
Judge Raymond Moore said his sentence against Gloria Evangeline Suazo, 31, which was above federal sentencing recommendations, was partly because she was caught selling drugs a day after she pleaded guilty to the federal charge and that she has “paraded” her kids in court.
Suazo’s attorney Frank Moya had asked Moore to give her a lesser sentence because she was molested as a child and was raised by a father and stepfather who were repeatedly in prison. He compared her childhood to a shark that kept biting her.
“I agree with council that you had an horrific childhood and an unfortunate one. But using the same shark analogy, if the shark is circling,” Moore later commented, “carrying chum around is a really stupid thing to do.”
His comment was in reference to revelations at the sentencing hearing that Suazo had been dealing drugs for the past four years partly while serving as a Walsenburg police officer and was arrested for drug dealing while out on bond after pleading guilty to the current offense.
On Oct. 29, Moore had told Suazo he was releasing her on bail after partly to spare her child — then sitting in court — from the trauma of seeing her arrested. The the following day, cocaine out of a truck in Pueblo with both of her kids in the car.
Moments before she was sentenced, Suazo — wearing a red prison jumpsuit — apologized.
“First of all I would like to apologize to the Walsenburg Police Department for being an embarrassment to them and to law enforcement in general,” she said. She added that while in jail awaiting sentencing that she had gotten closer to God.
Prosecutor Kurt Bohn said the Walsenburg police department’s reputation suffered.
“She was one of our own. For her to take an oath to uphold the law and then to deal drugs. It’s disgusting,” Bohn said. He added that when people see other police they will ask themselves, “Is he another Gloria Suazo? Is he dirty?”
Suazo bent her head down upon hearing her sentence and her body heaved as she sobbed. Her first crime was committed on April 16.
Pueblo police were patrolling a neighborhood where there had been an ongoing gang war at 1:15 a.m. April 16, according to court records. There had been six drive-by shootings in two weeks.
Suazo’s husband, Jerold Suazo, a reputed gang member, was at Sharky’s Bar, a gang hangout, according to the records.
He was caught in possession of a gun and arrested. From jail, he called Suazo and said he had “six or seven large” and “brownies” in his apartment, referring to cash and heroin, court records say.
Suazo drove to the apartment in Pueblo and retrieved 189 grams of heroin and more than $6,000, the records show.
Moore said whatever sentence Suazo may get on her current drug charges must be served consecutively to her federal sentence.
Kirk Mitchell: 303-954-1206, denverpost.com/coldcases or twitter.com/kirkmitchell
