The Denver Sheriff Department is paying a combined nearly $40,000 per month to five deputies who have been placed on paid investigatory leave, according to records obtained by The Denver Post.
A sixth deputy is serving a 90-day, unpaid suspension.
The leaves and suspensions play into the department’s overtime spending as it must cover the gaps in jail supervision and management.
At least two of those deputies have been off the job for nearly five months. And with a backlog of 189 open internal affairs investigations, the department could be paying the suspended deputies for months to come.
Two of the five deputies on leave are Chief Frank Gale, who once ran the downtown jail and served as the department’s spokesman, and Capt. Sonya Gillespie, an officer accused in June of throwing a cellphone at her boyfriend. Gillespie also is the ex-wife of former Sheriff Gary Wilson.
Gale was placed on leave in June after another captain filed a complaint against him in connection with Gillespie’s case.
The Denver Department of Safety declined to identify the other three deputies who are on investigatory leave.
Deputy Robert Roena is serving an unpaid suspension after he demonstrated taekwondo moves in front of an inmate, causing the inmate, who had a reputation for violence, to become more agitated. The deputy and inmate ended up in a fight, and other deputies had to jump into the fray to control the inmate, according to Roena’s disciplinary letter.
Deputies are not paid when they are serving out a disciplinary suspension. Roena’s suspension ends Dec. 10.
However, they continue to receive their salaries while they are under investigation for misconduct or violating department rules. And those investigations can last for months.
The five deputies currently on paid investigatory leave earn a combined $39,126 per month, according to information provided by the Denver Department of Safety. The information came in response to an open-records request by The Post.
Employees are allowed to receive their regular pay because they are afforded due process by the city’s employment rules, said Daelene Mix, spokeswoman for the Denver Department of Safety. If the city eventually suspends or fires a deputy, he or she is not required to pay back the money.
Sheriff’s department employees are placed on investigatory leave by the sheriff or the Department of Safety’s executive director, Mix said.
“It’s typically going to be the sheriff, but if something comes across our office, we may request they be put on leave,” Mix said.
The leaves are given at the discretion of the sheriff and safety manager, she said. There are no suspected rules violations that require a mandatory placement on investigatory leave.
“If it’s someone with supervisory responsibilities, you may want to take them off the job during the investigation,” Mix said. “It also depends on the liability to the city as to whether you want to keep them on.”
An investigatory leave lasts 45 days, but most sheriff’s department internal investigations take much longer.
A recent Denver Post analysis determined that it takes an average of more than 10 months for the department to decide whether or not to punish a deputy. In many cases, it takes more than a year.
Cases where deputies are earning their salaries while sitting at home on leave do get some priority in the sheriff’s department’s internal affairs bureau, Mix said.
“Of course, this weighs into our prioritization,” Mix said.
In cases where an investigation will last longer than 45 days, the sheriff’s department must apply for an extension to the city’s Office of Human Resources, said Pete Garritt, a human resources supervisor. The sheriff’s department must explain why the extension is needed, and the human resources executive director decides whether to approve the request.
Typically, the sheriff’s department requests a 45-day extension and continues to request extensions until the case is completed, Garritt said.
Noelle Phillips: 303-954-1661, nphillips@denverpost.com or twitter.com/Noelle_Phillips
