May 22, 2007 07:56 PM UTC

More Trouble - Again - For "Kings of Corruption"

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• by: Colorado Pols

It seems not more than a few weeks go by these days before we hear another damaging story involving Jefferson County’s so-called “Three Kings of Corruption,” former Treasurer Mark Paschall and County Commissioners Kevin McCasky and Jim Congrove.

As The Canyon Courier reports:

A former Arvada bank worker has filed a civil lawsuit naming County Commissioner Jim Congove, a private detective who is a personal friend of Congrove, and the entire Board of County Commissioners as defendants.

Lori Stille, formerly an employee at a Washington Mutual branch office in Arvada who worked as a personal financial representative for Congrove from 2002 to March 2005, filed the suit Thursday in Jefferson County District Court…

…[Daril] Cinquanta’s role as a private investigator is currently at the heart of an ongoing Colorado Bureau of Investigation probe into why the county used public funds to pay Cinquanta to do spy work. The county paid Cinquanta nearly $7,500 in taxpayer funds over a 16-month period to conduct surveillance on a still-unknown number of citizens and county employees. Stille’s lawsuit specifically alleges that Congrove used the public funds to “cover the costs of the investigations.”

A special prosecutor has been named in the case, and is awaiting the results of the CBI investigation before deciding if any of the commissioners at the time should face criminal charges, potentially for a misuse of public funds. Commissioner Kathy Hartman was not in office when the county was employing Cinquanta, which it stopped doing late last year.

The list of corrupt activities just continues to grow for these jokers. McCasky signed off on Congrove’s private investigations and once had a mute button installed to cut off public comments at county commissioner meetings. Congrove is always rumored to be on the verge of indictment, and Paschall is awaiting arraignment for allegedly attempting to solicit a kickback from a county employee.

There’s more on the latest troubles after the jump from The Courier.

Stille further alleges that Congrove called a closed-door meeting on June 16, 2005, with Mark Paschall, the former county treasurer who is currently facing charges that he asked a political appointee for a kickback from a large bonus he offered her last year, as well as with Commissioner Kevin McCasky, then-Commissioner Dave Auburn and several other high-ranking county officials. In that meeting, the suit alleges, Congrove asked the others to “conspire” with him to remove more than $200 million worth of county funds from Chase Bank, where Stille was employed.

“Congrove was requesting a consensus for his plan … and to threaten to withdraw those funds if Stille was not terminated,” the lawsuit states. “While there was no agreement to engage in this proposed conspiracy, none of the participants took any action to impede or to restrain Congrove’s future efforts at retaliation and retribution against Stille.”

Stille was fired from her new job on July 13, 2005. She claims it was in response to Congrove’s actions.

The overall claim states that Congrove, the commission and Cinquanta violated Stille’s First Amendment rights to criticize public officials and to expose their wrongdoings, and that she is unable to secure new employment and that she has suffered “injury and impairment to her reputation, mental anguish and emotional suffering.”

She also alleges a “civil conspiracy” between Congrove and Cinquanta, to “investigate, conduct surveillance operations and intimidate, harass and retaliate against … Stille.”

The suit seeks an unspecified amount in damages.

Requests for comment about the lawsuit from Congrove and McCasky went unanswered last week…

…Stephen Miller, attorney for Stille, told the Courier last week he has not heard any response to the lawsuit from the county, but expects one within 30 days.

Miller said the county has been “on notice” since November 2005 that a lawsuit would be coming from Stille, and that the alleged events are “as serious as a heart attack.”

“When I sign a pleading, it’s based on the facts and the laws,” he said. “It took a lot of effort to find out exactly what was going on here. It’s a monumental story of abuse of power, and basically that it has been allowed to happen because you have a couple other commissioners who sit by and allow it to happen.”