Former Edgewater police officer McKinzie Rees hopes to serve and protect again, but first she must get her name removed from a so-called “bad cops list” maintained by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. It landed there, she said, as retaliation after she reported sexual assaults by a supervising sergeant.
That sergeant went on to work for another police department until this year, when he pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and misconduct and was sentenced, more than four years after the assaults and retaliation against Rees.
She testified to the state’s House Judiciary Committee this week that, even after her attacker was exposed, her complaint about still being listed as a problem police officer “is falling on deaf ears every time.”
Rees’ testimony, echoed by other frontline police officers from Colorado Springs and Denver about retaliation they faced after reporting misconduct, is driving state lawmakers’ latest effort at police oversight. Fresh legislation would require investigations of all alleged misconduct and increase protection for whistleblowers.
But the bill, titled “Law Enforcement Misconduct,” faces resistance from police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys and the Fraternal Order of Police who contend it would complicate police work and lead to unnecessary prosecutions.
While state leaders “are committed to addressing police misconduct,” the requirement that all allegations must be investigated could create “a caustic culture” within police agencies, said Colorado Department of Public Safety executive director Stan Hilkey in testimony to lawmakers during a hearing Tuesday.
“This bill is harmful to the mission of public safety,” Hilkey said, raising concerns it would lead to police “watching each other … instead of going out and responding to and preventing crime.”
The legislation, House Bill 1460, won approval on a 6-5 vote in the House Judiciary Committee. It would require investigations of all alleged misconduct by police, correctional officers and others who enforce the law in Colorado. Officers who report misconduct would gain the ability to file lawsuits if complaints aren’t investigated or they face retaliation.
Key elements under discussion include a provision bolstering the attorney general’s power to add and remove names from the Police Officer Standards and Training database, which bars future employment, and to compel police agencies to provide information for managing that list.
Other provisions would require longer retention of police records and prohibit government agencies from charging fees for making unedited police body-worn camera videos available for public scrutiny.
Investigating all alleged misconduct is projected to cost millions of dollars as state agencies face increased workloads, requiring more employees in some agencies, and increased litigation and liability expenses.
Lawmakers sponsoring the bill have agreed to remove a provision that would have established a new misdemeanor crime for officers who fail to report misconduct by their peers.
But the increased protection for whistleblowers is essential, said Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat, in an interview.
“People need those protections now. This would ensure good officers can be good officers and bad officers who cover up for bad officers no longer can be on the force,” said Herod, who introduced the legislation on April 17.
Most police officers “do great work,” sponsor says
The bill would build on police accountability laws passed following the 2020 Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd, which sparked street protests, Herod said.
“We still have more work to do. There’s no one-shot bill that will fix police accountability in the state,” she said.
“The majority of police officers in Colorado do great work. We need to make sure we have protections in place when that doesn’t happen. This is just as important as any other issue we are debating in Colorado.”
The late-in-the-session legislation would affect the 246 police agencies and 12,000 sworn officers around Colorado. It began when Rees and other police whistleblowers who had faced retaliation approached lawmakers.
For Rees, 30, who now supports herself by pet-sitting, the feeling of still being punished — and prevented from continuing a career she worked toward since childhood — “is horrible,” said in an interview.
“There should always be checks and balances,” she said. “It is exhausting trying to figure this out. You just get this runaround. There’s no way out.”
Rees told lawmakers that she reported two sexual assaults in 2019 by the sergeant to colleagues, seeking protection under internal agency protocols and as a whistleblower under existing state laws.
“Instead, I got served the ultimate sentence of no protection,” she said.
This year, after his dismissal from the Black Hawk Police Department, former Edgewater police Sgt. Nathan Geerdes, who was indicted by a grand jury in 2022 on four counts of unlawful sexual contact and one count of witness retaliation, pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact, first-degree official misconduct and forgery as part of a plea deal. He was sentenced in Jefferson County District Court to four years of probation.
Edgewater police officer Ed McCallin also testified, describing the retaliation he faced after he became aware “that a senior officer had sexually assaulted a junior officer” — referring to Rees — and then “weaponized” the state’s database against her.
“I was asked to cover that up by my police chief,” he said. “I was threatened with internal investigations twice” and “had to meet with a city council member to save my job for doing the right thing.”
When he went to the Fraternal Order of Police for guidance in the case, McCallin said, a contract attorney advised him “to look the other way.”
“We just need more time,” sheriff says
Colorado law enforcement group leaders and police advocates said their main concern was that they weren’t consulted by sponsors of this legislation.
“We just need more time to dive into this,” Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown, representing the County Sheriffs of Colorado, told lawmakers.
Herod acknowledged “miscalculation” in not consulting with law enforcement brass in advance.
She and co-sponsor Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat serving as vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said they lined up meetings this week to hash out language and amendments before the bill advances.
Rep. Mike Weissman, who chairs the committee, agreed that support from law enforcement leaders would be crucial but added that he understood the “guardedness” of the bill sponsors, “given how these issues can go in this building.”
District attorneys from Jefferson and El Paso counties objected to the proposed requirement that every misconduct claim must be investigated, saying it would create conflicts in carrying out their professional duties.
Several lawmakers raised concerns about language in the bill, such as “unlawful behavior.” Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican, said a police officer who was sexually assaulted and chose not to report the crime “could become caught up in the system” for failing to report misconduct. Or police who might have to make an illegal U-turn while chasing a suspect, hypothetically, would have to be investigated, he said.
But the lawmakers broadly supported the efforts aimed at making sure the Attorney General’s Office manages the database of police transgressors properly.
The committee’s bill supporters said the compelling testimony from the Edgewater officers and other whistleblowers persuaded them that there’s an undeniable problem to address.
Former Colorado Springs police officer John McFarland told of a case in which a fellow officer took shortcuts in DUI investigations and falsely reported “hundreds” of roadside sobriety tests that never happened. When McFarland learned of that misconduct and reported it, he said, “I was sat in the corner and surrounded by the department’s command staff. I was threatened with charges and dismissal if I did not drop the matter.”
Former Denver police officer Holland Wiston, who was a victim of sexual assault, told lawmakers she faced ridicule within the police department and later was relegated to desk duties.
Others who testified included the sister of a man who was killed at a Tesla electric vehicle charging station last year in Edgewater. Crystal Fresquez said family members had concerns about police “inconsistencies” as they tried to find out how Adam Fresquez died, discovering eventually from a coroner’s report that the death involved the use of mace and two gunshots in his back. Jeremy Alan Smith was arrested in the incident.
When she heard what happened to Rees, Fresquez testified, she saw a need to support the legislation as a member of the public who could be affected by misconduct.
“How can we trust a police department that fails to hold its own officers accountable?” she said.
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