July 08, 2010 10:21 AM UTC

E-mail to Doug Bruce under investigation

• 4 Comments
• by: NEWSMAN

Police may launch investigation over detective’s e-mail to Bruce

I read somewhere that “The Colorado Springs Police Department might launch an internal affairs investigation against a detective who sent City Hall critic Douglas Bruce a disparaging e-mail from work.

Detective Matthew Hulett, who works in the Financial Crimes Unit, admitted Wednesday that he sent Bruce a one-sentence e-mail on Friday asking, “Punch any reporters lately?”

But Hulett, a 10-year veteran, struggled to explain why.

“Yes, it was me, and basically it was just dumb. That’s about the best thing I could tell you,” he said.

Police spokesman Sgt. Darrin Abbink said the e-mail from Hulett may warrant an investigation.

“I think we probably need to contact Mr. Bruce and find out from him what happened and see if he has a complaint that he wants to file,” he added.

Bruce, who shared a copy of the e-mail with The Gazette, called it a case of “genuine” police misconduct. He said the city “can’t let police officers get away with insulting people using city e-mail” during work and that Hulett should be punished with at least a week off without pay.

“I’m too old to be shocked by governmental misconduct, but I think he ought to be exposed and punished,” Bruce said

Bruce said he doesn’t know Hulett or why he sent the e-mail, but he has his suspicions.

“A police officer is abusing public property to attack a public figure just because I am an adversary of our corrupt and incompetent administration at City Hall,” said Bruce, who has been critical of City Council members and the Police Department, among others in city government.

I can’t remember word for word, but I think that is what I remember reading on my computer screen.