A Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent accidentally recorded himself using a racist slur during a phone call in February — and kept his job despite an internal investigation into the remark.
Agent Douglas Pearson was on-duty and alone in his patrol car when he used the slur during a personal phone conversation with a woman on Feb. 14, according to a partially-redacted internal affairs report and body-worn camera footage released to The Denver Post on Wednesday in response to an open records request.
During the phone conversation, the woman told Pearson about the mass shooting in Kansas City earlier that day in which one person was killed and two dozen wounded during celebrations of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl win. Pearson looked up information about the shooting as they chatted.
“Let me guess, some (expletive) (expletives),” he said, using both a profanity and a racist slur against Black people.
The woman on the phone did not respond to the slur, and Pearson continued the conversation. He accidentally recorded the phone call on his body-worn camera.
The unintentional 37-minute recording was later reviewed by his supervisor because of the length of the clip, prompting an investigation into the slur, according to the internal affairs report.
Pearson, a former Aurora police officer, told the internal affairs investigator on the case that he couldn’t explain why he used the racist slur and said it wasn’t a “normal term he uses in his daily vocabulary.” The internal affairs investigator found enough evidence to support that Pearson violated CBI policy for ethics and professional conduct and recommended he be disciplined.
But what discipline Pearson faced is unclear, because the CBI won’t say. Agency officials initially cited “state personnel rules” for refusing to disclose Pearson’s discipline, but shifted that explanation after The Post asked for more details. They then cited the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act, which governs the release of law enforcement records.
“This (law) requires the consideration and analysis of several factors, including individual privacy concerns and the public interest to be served in allowing inspection,” CBI spokesman Rob Low said in a statement. “CBI denied the requested records after conducting this analysis.”
Low acknowledged Thursday that Pearson has a long-term personal friendship with CBI Director Chris Schaefer — — and said that Schaefer was not involved in the internal affairs investigation.
“Racist language violates our core tenant of respect towards everyone,” Schaefer said in a statement. “If we don’t show respect at all times, we can’t expect it in return. I expect everyone within the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to act with integrity and honor at all times. The public expects and deserves nothing less.”
Jeff Roberts, executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said CBI is likely relying on a loophole in Colorado law to keep Pearson’s discipline secret.
State lawmakers in 2019 required law enforcement agencies to make public internal affairs reports and disciplinary findings, but only if the investigation is about a “specific, identifiable incident of alleged misconduct involving a member of the public.”
Pearson’s call was a personal call, and he was not interacting with a member of the public. Roberts this week called on lawmakers to broaden the scope of mandated transparency for police disciplinary records.
“There is a reason that these records should see the light of day,” he said. “We are talking about public servants who have a lot of power, and when there are allegations of misconduct and there is an investigation into that, there is a definite public interest in the outcome of that investigation, which includes what happened to the agent or the officer.”
Not all law enforcement agencies keep discipline records secret. The Denver Police Department has been releasing all of its disciplinary records for more than a decade, and the Aurora Police Department publishes officer discipline on a regular basis.
Pearson, an 11-year veteran of the Aurora department, was hired by the CBI in 2022. He has been transferred to a desk job, Low said. He declined to say whether that transfer was disciplinary. Pearson could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Pearson’s racist comment prompted three Colorado district attorney’s offices to file Brady letters this fall warning defense attorneys that the agent’s testimony in court might not be credible. Prosecutors in El Paso, Jefferson and Weld counties each flagged Pearson as having “demonstrated bias,” according to records kept by the Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training board.
“The District Attorney’s Office has been advised that there is information in CBI’s possession regarding Agent Doug Pearson that may affect his credibility in court,” Jefferson County Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Rhoads wrote in an Oct. 24 letter.
