New documents show Lakeside sold 3rd car to town clerk's family

Newly released documents from the town of Lakeside show the town sold one of its police vehicles -- a 2011 Dodge Charger --  to the son of Town Clerk Brenda Hamilton for $500 in 2021, making it the third town vehicle purchased by Hamilton and her family for what appeared to be below-market prices.

Lakeside is a town of one-quarter square mile in the Denver metro area, at the northeast edge of Wheat Ridge. In the 2020 census, it reported having just 16 residents.

In September, CBS News Colorado reported Lakeside Mayor Robert Gordanier -- who is Hamilton's father -- had sold two town vehicles to his daughter at prices well below what the vehicles might have brought on the open market. 

Mayor Robert Gordanier said at the time: "She wanted to buy 'em and so I sold them. It was a lot easier just to do it and be done with it than having to advertise it or anything."

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He said he simply signed the bills of sale and assumed his daughter later filled in the sale prices of the vehicles. One of them was for a 2008 Chevrolet Tahoe which paperwork shows Brenda Hamilton bought for $300. A man in Thornton then bought the SUV from Hamilton a few months later saying he paid $7,000 cash.

This week, Lakeside fulfilled a Colorado Open Records Act request regarding a 2011 Dodge Charger owned by the town but sold in 2021.

Paperwork obtained through that open records request shows the vehicle had 129,500 miles on its odometer and was purchased by Hamilton's son, 22-year-old Marcus Hamilton, for $500. The sales paperwork in this case was signed by a Lakeside police officer. Used car pricing websites suggest the car was worth as much as $7,000. Marcus Hamilton listed the same home address as his parents. He did not respond to an inquiry sent to him via social media.

Approximately eight months after buying the police Dodge Charger, state records show the vehicle was transferred to another man in San Luis, Colorado, Dylan Gandall in May 2022. State paperwork shows Gandall paid nothing for the car and on sales paperwork signed by Marcus Hamilton and his father, they listed the vehicle as a "gift" to Gandall.

Gandall did not respond to a letter sent by CBS News Colorado or an electronic message sent via his Facebook account trying to determine why the Hamilton family would give him a car.

UPDATE: DA opens criminal probe into Lakeside auto sales | Lakeside puts town clerk on leave during investigation

Jeffrey Miller, an attorney representing both Brenda Hamilton and Robert Gordanier, said he could not comment on the case.

"The investigation being conducted by the town of Lakeside is still ongoing so we still cannot comment at this time," wrote Miller.

Additional paperwork turned over by Lakeside this week suggests a broader pattern of selling town vehicles for well below market value. In October of 2021, Mayor Gordanier signed paperwork selling another town-owned Chevrolet Tahoe SUV for $500. That vehicle had 181,000 miles on its odometer.

And in 2022, Gordanier sold a town-owned 2010 Chevrolet Tahoe with 187,000 miles for $800.