The Colorado Springs Gazette final

Probe of judicial scandal languishes

No contracts have been signed after eight months

BY DAVID MIGOYA david.migoya@gazette.com

More than eight months have passed since Supreme Court Chief Justice Brian Boatright assured legislators and the public that there would be an independent investigation into a scandal involving allegations of sexually inappropriate behavior by judges and attempts to cover it up.

But state judicial officials have yet to sign a pair of contracts hiring companies to delve into a $2.5 million deal given to a former Judicial Department official or the allegations of rampant misconduct laid out in a memo that prompted it.

Instead, the contracts totaling up to $350,000 have been mired in a negotiations process — which includes the Attorney General’s Office — and, as of Monday, remain unsigned.

In the meantime, four other investigations launched by other state agencies into the memo and subsequent deal have been progressing, according to people familiar with those probes.

At least one member of the eight-person committee — formed by the governor, attorney general, president of the Colorado Senate and the speaker of the House of Representatives to choose the companies to investigate — said

he’s concerned the slow-moving process could erode the public’s trust in what’s to be a transparent inquiry.

“I’m very disappointed it’s taken as long as it has,” said Sen. Pete Lee, D-colorado Springs. “We’ve turned it over to qualified investigative entities to ensure there were competent, impartial, intelligent and knowledgeable people to do a thorough, comprehensive and unbiased investigation. That was the result of many, many hours of very hard work by a lot of busy people.”

Boatright in February said he wanted to ensure a thorough inquiry, telling legislators it would begin in about a month.

“Nobody wants these investigations to go forward more than I do,” Boatright said in a statement in which he asked the state’s other leaders to select the members of the panel.

The panel took months drafting the request for a proposal to an investigative company and then days pouring over seven bids before settling on two companies in August: Investigations Law Group and RCT.

A seven-day appeal process expired for any unsuccessful bidder, and the state was left to negotiate the deals. Investigations Law Group would be paid as much as $250,000 to investigate claims of workplace harassment and gender discrimination within the department. RCT, which is headed by former U.S. Attorney Robert Troyer, would be paid up to $75,000 to investigate the circumstance of the contract given to the department’s former chief of staff, Mindy Masias.

Why the contracts haven’t been signed is unclear, and the details surrounding the negotiations are not public. Gazette emails to the department seeking information were not returned.

Rep. Adrienne Benavidez, D-commerce City, was on the panel that selected the companies and said it’s possible the slowdown is in technical areas of contract language rather than money. “I’ve worked in procurement and know how long it can take, so it’s not that surprising,” she said. “Indemnification — which is if someone sues them over their report — could be a huge issue, to be sure the state will stand behind them. It can get sticky where investigators are talking to employees and others with some pretty confidential information.”

A former administrator has said the contract was given to Masias in return for not filing a sexual discrimination lawsuit that threatened to reveal years of judicial misconduct including the destruction of evidence, payments to harassment victims to protect judges’ reputations, and a variety of other sexually inappropriate behavior by jurists.

The behavior was laid out in a two-page memo written by Eric Brown, the department’s former human resources director. Brown read from the memo in January 2019 meeting with then-chief Court Administrator Christopher Ryan, then-chief Justice Nathan “Ben” Coats and his legal counsel, Andrew Rottman.

Only one — Rottman — remains with the department.

Masias was eventually awarded the sole-source contract for judicial training in March 2019, a day after she resigned her position following months of sick leave. She took the leave when she was told to resign or be fired over financial irregularities.

The five-year contract was up for public bid, but none of more than 400 eligible companies offered a proposal.

A state auditor’s report in December about troubles in the department said there was “an appearance of impropriety” in how the contract was awarded and that it appeared to “be a violation of the Judicial Code of Conduct.”

That audit mainly focused on accusations from a whistleblower letter sent to the governor’s office and the chief justice in early 2019 that outlined a variety of financial concerns. The letter also alleged that “Masias committed fraud and threatened to sue.”

The auditor’s office is wrapping up a second investigation it launched after newspaper accounts in February revealed the memo’s existence, information auditors did not have at the time of their first review, according to people familiar with that probe.

The whistleblower letter also referred to Masias and Brown traveling to conferences on state time and getting paid to speak there, incidents that were not taken up in the first audit.

“Mindy Masias and Eric Brown travel together and speak at conferences for the National Center of State Courts,” according to the whistleblower letter. “They earn consulting and speaking fees as judicial employees on state time.”

State personnel rules specifically say an employee cannot have a second job that overlaps with their government one and cannot accept outside payment for any work they do while on state time. Accepting a state paycheck while simultaneously being paid by the private sector could be a problem that’s referred to prosecutors, depending on the circumstances, according to a former district attorney.

The letter writer noted how Masias and Brown also spoke at a conference in Arkansas while Masias taking family medical leave at the time she was to be fired.

“They both speak on ethics and management even though they are covering up fraud,” the letter alleged.

Neither Masias nor Brown has responded publicly to the allegations.

The auditor’s inquiry is, by law, secret unless criminal charges are filed or the Judicial Department makes it public.

Other agencies delving into the memo and contract scandal include the FBI, the state’s Attorney Regulation Counsel that oversees lawyer discipline and the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline.

Several people familiar with those probes have said they’ve already been questioned by investigators. Benavidez said to be patient. “The public would be slighted and would have a lack of confidence if they just made a sole-source award for it to be done very quickly,” she said. “But those of us on the panel and the judiciary want it to be as fair and transparent as possible. We’ve made very deliberate steps along the way.”

FRONT PAGE

en-us

2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-10-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.gazette.com/article/281483574593470

The Gazette, Colorado Springs