An accused drug dealer, charged with committing a felony while armed, walked out of a Walsenburg jail in 2022. This was after the District Attorney did not produce the evidence against him in court to share with the defense.
DA Henry Solano was so tired of what he says is a systemic problem with missing court deadlines due to the delayed delivery of evidence from the Huerfano County Sheriff's Office that he filed suit against them. Years later, the accused drug dealer's case is just one of at least 35 felony cases dismissed due to those evidence delays by the sheriff's office.
Solano says this all started in 2018, a year into his first term as 3rd district attorney for Huerfano and Las Animas counties.
"From 2019 to 2021, which is reflected in the opinion and the evidence, that's when we documented the rather systemic pattern and practice of failing to timely produce evidence a defendant is required to have," Solano said.
After years of requesting deputies deliver evidence to his office and send evidence for testing so he could be prepared for court, Solano says he decided to file suit.
These delays which the court calls ‘mishandling of evidence’ led judges to dismiss at least 35 cases because it says, ‘Sheriff Newman and the Huerfano County Sheriff’s Office were late in providing discovery information to DA Solano’s office.” The Colorado Court of Appeals says this happened in approximately 37 percent of criminal cases.
"And to say that it was frustrating is to put it lightly," Solano shared.
We tried to get in touch with Sheriff Bruce Newman earlier this month, asking for an interview over the phone and by email. Not hearing anything, we pulled some of his testimony from the suit for this story. Then, on the day the story was set to air, he reached out over email stating, “I would like to give my side of the story as I haven't yet." So, we held the story and traveled back down to Walsenburg to his office; four blocks from DA Solano’s.
Sheriff Bruce Newman has held this role for 22 years. He says he never had an issue with any previous district attorney and says he was the last to learn Solano was suing him.
"I told him we're giving you everything we can, and next thing I know is we hear it on the street that he's suing me. And the next day, I get served, and it's on the news that night. That quick," Newman said.
In the lawsuit, DA Solano accused the sheriff’s office of not doing its duty in getting his office evidence so the DA could serve his obligation in court. He also accused the sheriff’s office of not getting evidence to the CBI lab in Pueblo in a timely manner and as a result, being responsible for ‘serious felony’ cases being dismissed. A district court judge ruled in Solano’s favor.
After the ruling, the sheriff promoted an employee to handle evidence discovery.
"Her whole job is to make sure that all the reports are complete. That includes photos, witness statements, anything that pertains to that case has be uploaded in e-discovery and sent to the DA," Newman said.
While he made a staffing change to improve things, Sheriff Newman contends the fact that at least 35 cases were dismissed due to evidence delays is not only the responsibility of his office.
"He was dismissing so many cases, we asked him, and we've done this with every district attorney in the past, 'If you're going to prosecute the case, let us know. We'll make arrangements. We'll get everything up there for testing. But if you're going to dismiss the case, why overload CBI with something that is going to be to no benefit,'" Newman recalled.
In fact, the sheriff says Solano intentionally dismissed some felony cases when he couldn’t get the funding to add another prosecutor to his team.
"He flat out said, 'If I don't get the funding I need, I'm going to start dismissing cases.' And when he dismissed cases, at the bottom, the reason for dismissal, it said, 'Due to lack of funding from county commissioners' and he named Huerfano County commissioners for it,” Newman said.
Solano says that's true. He says before his office got more county funding in 2021, he "had to do something" and began noting in his Motions to Dismiss that it was due to insufficient resources, naming the three current commissioners. He says he went beyond what his predecessors had, clarifying for the judge it was their fault that he did not have the funding of another prosecutor to help him take on the county’s felony cases.
As Huerfano County continued to see cases dismissed over the years due to complications over sharing evidence and gaining funding, the sheriff decided to appeal the District Court’s ruling. Last month, the State Court of Appeals found that the DA was justified in filing suit. The panel of judges ruled the Sheriff’s office is responsible, under rule 16 of the Colorado Criminal Code, to ensure that important evidence makes it to court in time.
“Then the Court of Appeals correctly understood that what I was saying was, I have an obligation, and they have the information. The law says that that information is not only theirs, but constructively mine, and if they're not going to provide it in a timely fashion, I then must do something to see that it happens. And that's what the lawsuit was all about," Solano said.
The sheriff notes that law enforcement is not explicitly named in the rule.
"If you read rule 16, the district attorney has certain responsibilities too that weren't being adhered to. It's his job to make sure, when he gets these cases too, that everything is there, that things are progressing, and that didn't happen. There was no communication,” said Newman.
Solano winning his suit set a precedent for courts across the country that law enforcement is subject to the same obligation as the district attorney when it comes to delivering evidence in a timely manner. But it doesn’t sit right with Sheriff Newman who tells us he plans to take it up to a higher court.
"After talking with my attorney, we believe there were some errors made. So my intention is to appeal it to the Colorado Supreme Court ... I think it needs to be set straight again. I take some responsibility for some of it to happen, but he needs to too. It's not all my fault," Newman said.
Solano is at the end of his second term and the two men will soon be free from working with each other, though both contend they are professional and polite, not having to interact all that often. However, both agree on one thing, Huerfano County is not as safe as it could be.
The sheriff is not yet clear on the timeline for filing an appeal to the State Supreme Court but says he’s committed to setting the record straight and standing up for the hard work of his deputies.
