March 09, 2022 11:32 AM UTC

Why Are Republicans Covering For DougCo's Dirty Sheriff Candidate?

• 4 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

A story reported late last week by 9NEWS that we didn’t want to escape mention–Holly Kluth, a former deputy sheriff now running to be the next elected Sheriff of Douglas County has run into some scandal in the form of a “Brady letter” on her permanent record. This is a letter sent by prosecutors under federal law to defense attorneys warning that testimony from that law enforcement officer may be…”unreliable” do to previous acts of dishonesty:

Such letters often end law enforcement careers.

This notification follows an internal affairs investigation into Kluth, launched in December, that related to allegations she ordered another employee to alter her personnel file years ago. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation that began after Kluth’s attorney requested her personnel file from the sheriff’s department while preparing a federal lawsuit against Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock contesting Kluth’s firing. Her termination came after a separate internal affairs investigation.

According to the personnel file investigation, when sheriff’s office staff began to prepare the file, they found a discrepancy — a file had been deleted from the department’s human relations computer system.

Kluth was found to have violated policy in ordering the deletion of personnel file information that “would be disparaging not only to her personal reputation but also to her campaign to become the next elected Sheriff of Douglas County.” Investigators said Kluth violated four policies: Conformance to Law, Unlawful Orders, Commission of a Deceptive Act, and Removal of Records.

Curiously, however:

This investigation ended with Jefferson County recommending official misconduct charges to the district attorney’s office. The district attorney in the 18th District, John Kellner, opted not to prosecute the case. [Pols emphasis]

That’s the same John Kellner who is now running for attorney general against incumbent Democratic AG Phil Weiser. And Kellner isn’t the only one lending a hand to protect Holly Kluth’s reputation. Last weekend, Kellner’s predecessor as Arapahoe County DA and 2018 attorney general’s race loser George Brauchler offered a lifeline on his KNUS radio show for Kluth to make excuses:

.@georgebrauchler Brauchler 3.4.22: George gets an update on the worsening situation in Ukraine from Polina – our Correspondent in Kyiv, and Holly Nicholson-Kluth – Candidate for Doug Co Sheriff responds to the news story about her firing and clarifies… https://t.co/MPLXNiGofB pic.twitter.com/JnwUOgeHTU

— 710 KNUS Denver (@710KNUS) March 4, 2022

Holly Kluth is running in a Republican primary against term-limited County Commissioner Lora Thomas, MAGA crazypants “constitutional sheriff” John Anderson, and current DougCo deputy Darren Weekly. The term-limited incumbent Sheriff Tony Spurlock has endorsed Weekly to replace him, and as the Douglas County News-Press reported in February, Spurlock’s theory on Kluth is straightforward:

Spurlock said he believes Kluth ordered the report to be deleted because she was trying to “cover up her past so she could be the sheriff of Douglas County.” [Pols emphasis]

For her part, Kluth denies she ever ordered the deletion of these records pertaining to an alleged domestic violence case from the 1980s–which is flatly contradicted by the fellow deputy who deleted it, a contradiction for which Kluth has no explanation:

In a recorded call with Jeffco deputies, retired Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Robert McMahan said Kluth had ordered him to do this, according to the recording…

When asked why McMahan would delete something from her file, Kluth said she didn’t know.

Outgoing Sheriff Spurlock ran afoul of the far right when he dared to support the state’s new and by all accounts successful extreme risk protection order (ERPO) law ,allowing a court to order the temporary surrender of guns from persons at risk of hurting themselves or others. Kluth’s personal feud with Sheriff Spurlock is part of this story, but not in any way that exonerates Kluth. Deletion of these negative personnel records is a far greater problem than Kluth’s spat with Spurlock reportedly over political endorsements, and erupted in plenty of time to sink in before the primary. It may be that no amount of talk-radio rehabilitation will be enough to salvage Kluth’s campaign now.

Who wants a dishonest sheriff? The answer appears to be…more people than you think.