April 14, 2007 06:32 PM UTC

Doomsday Nearer for Jeffco's "Kings of Corruption"

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• by: Colorado Pols

As the Denver Post reports:

A judge on Thursday unsealed documents approving a special prosecutor in a state investigation of whether Jefferson County officials misused taxpayer money to hire a private investigator.

Since mid-March, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation has been looking into allegations that a business operated by a friend of Commissioner Jim Congrove’s was inappropriately paid $7,500 to do surveillance of a county critic and others.

The watchdog group Colorado Citizens for Ethics in Government asked Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey to probe what it called a potential embezzlement of public funds.

Storey asked the CBI to step in because he wanted to avoid a potential conflict of interest since his office’s budget is set by the commissioners.

This isn’t the full disclosure of the investigation’s progress we called for previously, but events may be overtaking the situation anyway. It’s been widely reported that the investigation is wrapping up, and there is unconfirmed talk of indictments coming down in the near term.

The aggregating controversies inside Jefferson County government are set to claim many scalps–former Treasurer Mark Paschall having already modeled “county orange” for the cameras, increasingly looking like Comissioner Jim Congrove will be taken down in disgrace, and Congrove’s close associate and fellow Commissioner Kevin McCasky nervously awaiting what the investigation will reveal about his role in the private-spy scandal–this is the kind of drama voters remember eighteen months later, even if any of these particular jokers are left standing.