February 05, 2018 05:06 PM UTC

The Shirtless Sheriff is Killing Brauchler's Political Career

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• by: Colorado Pols

Former El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa — aka “The Shirtless Sheriff” — skated through yet another high-profile trial today when a jury couldn’t reach a decision on corruption charges. As KOAA reports in Colorado Springs:

The jury in the corruption trial of former El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa returned a not guilty verdict on two counts of official misconduct following several hours of deliberation. On the felony charges of extortion and conspiracy to commit extortion, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Earlier Monday, the jury told the judge they were at an impasse in their deliberations on the charge of extortion. The defense asked the judge to halt deliberations on that charge, yet the judge disagreed and ordered the jurors to continue their efforts.

There is no decision at this time on whether prosecutors will consider another retrial on those charges.

The prosecution of Maketa was being handled by the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s office, which is overseen by DA George Brauchler, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Governor Attorney General. Brauchler’s involvement in the Maketa re-trial had been called “a media disaster” by political observers…and that was before the Arapahoe DA’s office lost the re-trial.

Today’s decision marked the end of the second trial for Maketa on charges of conspiracy to commit extortion,  extortion, and two counts of official misconduct. Maketa’s first trial, in July 2017, ended when he was acquitted on several charges and the jury deadlocked on others. In the aftermath of that trial, difficult questions emerged about how Brauchler had overseen the case, with Hurlburt citing “serious preparation problems” before the trial.

Brauchler will not be able to escape scrutiny on the Maketa re-trial and a decision to attempt a second re-trial. Brauchler has repeatedly taken responsibility for all major decisions that come out of the Arapahoe County DA’s office, which is respectable in one regard but politically-awful in another. Prosecutor Mark Hurlbert (yes, that Mark Hurlbert) said last summer that Brauchler would be “personally involved in the decision whether to retry Maketa.”

Brauchler has already earned a reputation as someone who is more than willing to play loose with the facts in order to make himself look good, and he’s opened himself up to critics who say that he’s just not a very good prosecutor and should not be elected as the chief law enforcement officer of Colorado (not to mention critics from his own party who worry about his ability to effectively do his job while running for statewide office).

With a second loss in the Maketa trial — combined with Brauchler’s litany of excuses over failing to get the death penalty for Aurora Theater Shooter James Holmes — it becomes relatively easy to paint Brauchler as an ambitious politician who doesn’t do his job well because he’s too preoccupied with plotting for his next office. And this latest Brauchler #FAIL couldn’t have come at a worse time, with current Attorney General Cynthia Coffman rumored to be considering re-election instead of her own no-hope bid for Governor.