The Federal Heights Police Department has failed to investigate serious felony cases over the last four years in a pattern so “utterly alarming” that 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason referred the matter to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office for a potential “patterns or practice” investigation into the police agency.
Police in Federal Heights, a northern suburb of Denver sandwiched between Thornton and Westminster, failed to investigate serious felony crimes in 2020, 2021 and 2022 — including sexual assaults on children, shootings and suspicious deaths, according to a report by the district attorney’s office and an Oct. 31 letter Mason wrote to Interim Chief Robert Grado that were obtained by The Denver Post on Monday.
Detectives failed to conduct follow-up interviews with victims, failed to collect evidence and failed to present completed cases to the district attorney’s office for the filing of charges, according to a 30-page report prepared by the DA’s office that summarized the review’s findings.
Out of 100 serious cases listed in the report, 47 cases needed further investigation, 16 should have been presented to the district attorney’s office to file charges but never were, and 18 were listed as open cases in the police department’s system but should have been closed for various reasons, according to the report.
In at least two cases, the statute of limitations expired and charges can no longer be filed. The Post identified 23 open child sexual assault cases in the redacted report; of those, 16 needed more investigation, the report found.
“I do not have confidence that the (Federal Heights Police Department) can properly investigate a serious felony case at this time,” Mason wrote in the Oct. 31 letter. “Furthermore, I have serious concerns about community safety in the city of Federal Heights.”
The former interim police chief at the department, Mike Domenighini, invited the district attorney’s office to review the police department’s work in April because he was concerned about a backlog of felony cases and stalled investigations, Mason wrote in the letter. Mason declined to comment outside the letter.
Two investigators with the district attorney’s office then reviewed case files for 2020, 2021 and 2022 and found “utterly alarming” failures to investigate cases, Mason wrote. The police department for the city of about 14,000 has only two detectives, he wrote in the letter, and they are not allowed to work more than 40 hours a week — a situation Mason said left the police department “woefully understaffed.”
The police department has a full capacity of 23 sworn officers, including four detectives. But since 2020, it’s had about half-staffing in both the patrol and detective divisions, with only two detectives on staff until late 2022, the report states. One detective was assigned 249 cases between 2020 and 2022; another was assigned 351 investigations, according to the report.
Grado declined to comment and deferred requests to Federal Heights city leadership. City Manager Jacqueline Halburnt said in a statement Monday that Federal Heights hired a consultant “about a week ago” to analyze the overall staffing levels in the police department.
“Due to the seriousness of the matter, we also made arrangements to hire a retired major crimes supervisor from a large metropolitan police department,” she said. “He’s been hired to specifically look at backlogs, workflow and caseload in the division.”
The city also recently received federal funding to hire a new detective focused exclusively on sex crimes who will start in 2024, she added. Grado applied for that funding in June, while the DA’s review was underway, according to the report.
The review by the district attorney’s office also found “significant problems” with record keeping and personnel management, Mason wrote when he informed Grado that he would refer the matter to both the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and the for further investigation.
State legislators in 2020 gave the Colorado Attorney General’s Office the authority to investigate police departments for patterns or practice of conduct that violates state or federal law, or the state or federal constitutions. One such investigation led to the consent decree over the Aurora Police Department, which established independent oversight of the police department to bring about reforms.
First Judicial District Attorney Alexis King also requested a patterns or practice investigation into the Edgewater Police Department earlier this year, citing concerns about unconstitutional policing.
Lawrence Pacheco, a spokesman for Attorney General Phil Weiser, declined to confirm any investigation into the Federal Heights Police Department or comment further.
The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice investigates potential violations of the state’s Victim Rights Act, which guarantees victims of crimes certain rights during the court process. Spokeswoman Paula Vargas said Monday she could not comment on “any pending matters.”
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