July 24, 2008 11:14 AM UTC

Dueling DA's in El Paso County

• 8 Comments
• by: NEWSMAN

As Don’s letter below points out, there are charges, and counter charges in the contested Republican Primary for DA in the fourth judicial district.

All of a sudden, by comparison, the guy that had a few beers doesn’t look so bad.

Dan May’s indiscretion seems worse than Newsome’s  

On April 7, 2008, District Judge Stanley A. Brinkley ordered the removal of Dan May and “the entire office of the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District and the capital crimes unit of the attorney general’s office” as prosecutors in the capital case number 05CR74 Division: B – The People v. Alejandro Perez. The Judge further ordered that “no district attorney presently employed by the DA’s office” shall participate directly or indirectly in “any future prosecution of the defendant,” and “no work product generated herein… shall be used in the prosecution of the defendant or provided to newly-appointed prosecutors.”

  This order was issued because Dan May and his colleagues at the 18th Judicial District district attorney’s office were double-billing the Deptartment of Corrections for their work in this case. That is, while receiving their own salaries from the 18th Judicial District, they were also billing their time to the DOC. Their abuse was so great that Judge Brinkley ordered the removal of the entire office from the case, disqualified their work, and forbade consultation with inmate witnesses.

In finding of fact #39 and #39.1, the Judge wrote: “During the Perez prosecution, the district attorney has billed the DOC directly for all time kept by clerical staff and attorneys who worked on the Perez prosecution. Dan May, as chief deputy district attorney in charge of the Perez prosecution, has billed the department of corrections full-time for his monthly salary during 2008. DOC has also been billed directly for substantial sums monthly for Rich Orman’s salary. Mr. Orman is the attorney assisting Mr. May in this case.”

  While The Gazette has been vilifying John Newsome over a late $600 reimbursement on his expense account, the press has ignored May’s double-billing that cost the state tens of thousands of dollars. The violations go to the heart of the integrity of our judicial system.

The people of the Fourth Judicial District have a civic right to be informed about May’s serious legal and ethical misconduct as Assistant DA in Castle Rock. Is this the kind of man we want running our own DA’s offce?

Don Schley

Colorado Springs  

http://www.gazette.com/opinion…