Bruce Levin, a longtime prosecutor in Adams County and Denver, died after a long struggle with cancer Monday, leaving behind a widow, many friends and a noteworthy legal legacy.
He was 63 years old.
“He was one of the people that had the golden opportunity to spend his entire career at a job he truly loved,” said former Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant, who said Levin prosecuted over 100 murder cases. “He felt the service aspect of prosecution was the highest calling.”
Levin grew up in New Jersey but moved to Colorado to attend the University of Colorado and never left, colleagues recalled. He and his wife, Evelyn, had no children but many pets over the years, which they referred to as their fur children. A lover of animals, Levin was a vegetarian who chain-smoked, read voraciously and loved music, especially Bruce Springsteen. He was known for his dry wit and his mentoring of young prosecutors. He died from complications due to breast cancer, which friends said was unrelated to his smoking.
The funeral service will be at 1 p.m. Friday at Harvest Fellowship in Brighton.
Levin went to work in the Adams County district attorney’s office in 1980, rising to chief deputy there in 1984.
Robert Fuller, a former investigator for the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, recalled Levin’s closing argument in the , accused in the witness slaying of Paul Bueno, was so powerful it left Fuller in tears. Melina was convicted and sentenced to 96 years in prison.
“He was a rumpled Jewish guy from New Jersey, with the most terrible overhang mustache,” recalled Fuller, now an investigator for the Denver district attorney’s office. “He walked like the Penguin, but when he got into the court, especially during opening and closing arguments, this little quiet guy would erupt and be a force.”
Candace Werth, a prosecutor who worked with Levin in Adams County and now is a deputy district attorney in Jefferson County, said Levin got more enjoyment from hearing a victim thank him than the accolades he received from judges, defense attorneys or other prosecutors.
“Bruce would see the crime on the news at night and get incensed by it and have the attitude, ‘I want to be the one to make sure he goes to prison,'” Werth said. “He would go out the next day to the crime scene and take on the case, and he would do it over and over and over.”
Levin joined Denver prosecutor Mitch Morrissey and federal prosecutor Mike Kane in leading a , an investigation that ended with no indictments. He established a rapport with Boulder investigators who were at odds with Boulder prosecutors, Morrissey said.
When Morrissey became Denver’s district attorney in 2004, he hired Levin to be his chief deputy. Levin’s prosecutions in Denver included in the killing of Denver Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams. Levin also handled the extradition and for fatally shooting Denver police detective Donnie Young.
Morrissey recalled that Levin always wore a suit and tie — sometimes with a sprinkling of cat hair from his pets — and always seemed ready to walk into a courtroom to fight for justice.
“Bruce was a man who always wanted to do the right thing, and the right thing was not always the easy thing. And it wasn’t always the thing that made people comfortable,” said Colorado Appeals Court Judge Steve Bernard, who worked with Levin in Adams County as a prosecutor. “Sometimes doing the right thing involved a level of personal sacrifice, but he always, always did the right thing.”
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747, cosher@denverpost.com or twitter.com/chrisosher
