Wendy Habert once thought of Terry Maketa as family — the man who walked her down the aisle when she got married, whose wife quit a job to be nanny to her first child.
But by September 2013, the love was gone, and a different side of the sheriff emerged.
Habert took the stand Thursday as the first witness in the in 4th Judicial District Court, telling a jury she was fired and subjected to a criminal investigation after a dust-up with then-Undersheriff Paula Presley, a close Maketa ally.
Events she described formed the basis of making Habert a ripe target for Maketa’s prominent attorney, Pamela Mackey of Denver, who launched a slashing cross-examination — supplying early fireworks in a trial poised to expose shifting alliances and simmering feuds during Maketa’s turbulent third term in the Sheriff’s Office.
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