Denver Police detective suspended after domestic violence victim dies
A Denver Police detective has been suspended for three days for not doing enough to intervene in a case involving a domestic violence victim, who later died at the hands of her boyfriend.
Elizabeth Hatlas was found dead in her backyard in 2022. Her boyfriend, Travis Toumi, was charged with first-degree murder.
An Denver Department of Public Safety internal investigation found detective Ana Munoz didn't do enough to get in touch with Hatlas after the initial domestic violence call.
According to the report, Munoz had been promoted to detective on May 1st, 2022, and took over Hatlas' case roughly two weeks later. The case was determined to be low-priority because of Hatlas' delay in reporting a domestic violence incident that previous February. Munoz also said the contact information had not yet been scanned into the case file.
On May 15, 2022, Detective Munoz made a phone call to Hatlas, who did not answer. She could not leave a message because Hatlas' voicemail box was full.
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No other contact was made, and on August 5, 2022, Hatlas was found dead in the yard of the house she shared with her boyfriend.
Munoz said there was not enough probable cause to obtain a warrant.
The review found Munoz made too few attempts to contact Hatlas, thus not properly investigating her case.
Munoz is facing a three-day suspension as a result of the investigation.
