COLORADO SPRINGS — Federal and state criminal investigators have joined a wide-ranging probe of El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa and his office, The Denver Post has learned.
Agents with the FBI and Colorado Bureau of Investigations are providing help to Dan May, the district attorney in Colorado Springs, according to CBI spokeswoman Susan Medina.
The CBI became the lead agency in July at the request of May, who saw potential conflicts in investigating a fellow elected Republican.
Maketa had been touted by Republicans and the National Rifle Association as a potential challenger to Gov. John Hickenlooper. But the sheriff’s political career plunged after three of this commanders in May accused the married sheriff of having sex with three women in the department and promoting them to top-paying jobs.
Now, “the FBI is assisting with the investigation at the request of the CBI,” Medina said.
Medina said the agency does not comment about ongoing investigations or estimate how long they might take.
Maketa did not respond Wednesday to an interview request. But his spokesman, Sgt. Greg White, said the sheriff is confident he will be vindicated.
Maketa “supports these independent investigations. He really does,” White said.
May did not respond to a request for an interview.
CBI confirmed the criminal investigation after El Paso Treasurer Bob Balink told The Post on Friday that Maketa and his comptroller, Dorene Cardarelle, opened “about nine” sheriff’s office accounts in area banks, five without his knowledge.
The commanders, now placed on leave, alleged that Cardarelle was one of the women having sex with Maketa, along with undersheriff Paula Presley and the head of training for dispatchers, Tiffany Huntz.
The women and Maketa have denied the allegations, but the sheriff has apologized for past “inappropriate” behavior.
Balink noted that Cardarelle, as comptroller, was accused by the commanders of having special access with Maketa to the bank accounts. He said limited access to multiple accounts would be unusual for a county agency with a $47 million budget.
Auditors need a clear picture of all the money flowing in and out of county government accounts so they can assure taxpayers their money is being spent properly, Balink said.
“Our office has been trying to identify what other accounts are out there,” he said. “We need to have total openness of where all the money is and how it’s spent.”
Balink would not say whether CBI agents have questioned him. He emphasized that the creation of multiple accounts does not mean any money has been misused.
Following the commanders’ allegations, El Paso County commissioners called on Maketa to resign. Residents briefly launched a recall campaign against the sheriff, whose term ends in January.
White, the sheriff’s spokesman, said Wednesday that Maketa continues to face the same unfounded allegations.
He denied that Maketa and Cardarelle have exclusive access to multiple sheriff’s office accounts. He said Maketa signs checks only from a special investigations account, and a second person signs those checks. People other than Cardarelle can access some of the other accounts, he said.
The commanders accused Maketa of “repeated sexual impropriety, discrimination, creating a hostile work environment, violating the civil rights of those who work in the Sheriff’s Office, using intimidation to keep quiet about his misdeeds and removing almost all oversight” of the sheriff’s office budget, The Gazette has reported.
The Gazette also reported that Cardarelle was repeatedly promoted by the sheriff and now makes more than $100,000 a year.
This week, a veteran employee of the sheriff’s office alleged that this pattern of corruption has lasted at least 14 years.
According to a statement he provided to The Post, one case involved a 2000 burglary investigation of two boys. The employee said the boys’ mothers appealed to Presley, then a lieutenant, when they realized their sons faced a felony charge from the investigating deputy, Robert Mitchell.
Mitchell refused to drop the charge. Presley then opened an internal affairs investigation against him. That investigation concluded that Mitchell falsely told the boys he got into similar trouble as a kid, and Mitchell was punished.
The sheriff’s office confirms the case but denies that Presley did anything wrong. Mitchell, now a sergeant, declined to comment.
Meanwhile, records of the internal affairs investigations concerning the boys have vanished from Mitchell’s files.
According to a confidential memorandum, an assistant county attorney discovered in 2005 that the file concerning Mitchell was missing.
“It was believed that it may have been inadvertently shredded by the Court personnel and is no longer available,” assistant county attorney Jay Lauer wrote.
David Olinger: 303-954-1498, dolinger@denverpost.com or twitter.com/dolingerdp
