Years of Colorado felony cases were never investigated in Federal Heights
A potentially decade-long backlog of criminal cases, including felonies, were never properly investigated in Federal Heights, CBS News Colorado reports.
City Manager Jacqueline Halburnt told CBS News Colorado she was recently made aware of the seriousness of the matter and brought in an outside experienced law enforcement consultant to investigate.
Halburnt couldn't say how many cases were never investigated or how far back they may go, but sources tell CBS Colorado the backlog goes back more than a decade and may involve upwards of 40 cases.
Halburnt declined an interview but says she first learned of the issue within the detective bureau in April of last year, after hiring a retired police chief to mentor the newly appointed interim police chief, and that he discovered the backlog and notified her. She says it was her understanding that action was being taken to address it.
However, sources tell CBS Colorado that the interim chief, Mike Domenghini, was demoted in the midst of the investigation and later resigned although it's unclear if any of that was related to the case backlog.
Domenghini declined CBS Colorado's request for comment.
CBS Colorado reached out to the Adams County District Attorney's Office as well to see if they had been made aware of the issue. They released this statement to CBS News Colorado: "On April 13, 2023, the Interim Police Chief for the Federal Heights Police Department asked our office to conduct a review of cases within his department. The Interim Police Chief requested this because of concerns related to his department's backlog of serious felony cases.
Despite the unusual nature of this request, our office agreed to conduct the review in the interest of public safety. A Senior Deputy District Attorney and a Senior Investigator from our office spent hours at the Federal Heights Police Department over the next several months reviewing FHPD case files for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022. Our team uncovered serious lapses and failures in the investigation of felony cases conducted by the Federal Heights Police Department.
We have communicated these concerns to the department and the leadership in the City of Federal Heights."
