Murdered prison chief’s widow: Leave my husband out of your campaign

The widow of murdered prison chief Tom Clements wrote an open letter to gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez asking him to not use her husband’s name in his campaign for governor.

Department of Corrections Chief Tom Clements was shot and killed at his Monument home in March 2013. Parolee Evan Ebel pulled the trigger.

Days earlier, Ebel had shot pizza-delivery driver Nathan Leon. Information surfaced in the months after the murder that Ebel had cut off his ankle bracelet four days before the killing spree. A warrant was not issued for Ebel until six days after his ankle bracelet was cut off.

Then,the 11th Judicial District Court admitted it made a mistake that let Ebel out of prison four years too soon.

Beauprez’s campaign has released an advertisement on public safety. In the first three seconds, it says “Under John Hickenlooper, violent criminal Evan Ebel was released from prison and brutally killed two Coloradans.”

The advertisement ends with the question, “With John Hickenlooper as Governor, is your family safe?”

Beauprez’s campaign initially issued a statement from Beauprez in which he defended his decision to reference Clements’ murder. However, another statement was issued late Thursday night that the campaign would change the advertisement”out of respect to the spouse of a victim of parolee violence.”

Beauprez revisited the issue at a press conference on public safety on Thursday.

“He (Evan Ebel) cut off his ankle bracelet four days before, nobody even went looking for him. That’s wrong,” said Beauprez.

He said Hickenlooper has not taken appropriate steps to fix flaws in Colorado’s prison system.

Lisa Clements wrote an open letter to Beauprez:

Mr. Beauprez, it is with great sadness and frustration that I am breaking my silence on matters involving the death of my husband. On several occasions this year, you have attempted to use our family’s tragic loss for your personal and political gain, and we are respectfully asking you to stop. We’re requesting you to please stop referencing our tragedy in your debate statements and in your campaign ads. Because every time you do, you re-open the wounds that our family continues to suffer from. We have not asked you to defend or publicize our experience, and we are not interested in accepting the support of anyone who chooses to do so with the expectation of something in return.

Sincerely,
Lisa Clements

KRDO political analyst Josh Dunn said Beauprez can argue that this is information that voters need to hear.

“It was a personal tragedy with significant public implications and that the state has a right to know about it when the state makes a decision about who they want for governor for the next four years,” said Dunn.

However, he said it is a risky move.

“I do think it’s the personal nature of this and the connection to the governor which is what makes it difficult to the Beauprez campaign,” said Dunn. “It raises the question if this is (a) politically appropriate campaign ad.”

Tom Clements, 58, was appointed head of Colorado’s Department of Corrections in 2011 by Gov. John Hickenlooper. Hickenlooper spoke at Clements memorial service.

“He believed Colorado could be a model for the entire nation,” said Hickenlooper at the service.

At a gubernatorial debate in Pueblo earlier this month, Hickenlooper challenged Beauprez on his stance on women’s rights.

“John, what do you have to say to women who are widows, who have orphans because of parolees you’ve let out of prison direct from solitary confinement,” said Beauprez.

Hickenlooper fired back.

“Congressman Beauprez, if you want to talk to me about widows, talk to me — my mother was a widow twice,” Hickenlooper continued. “I know what it’s like to be in a family that’s gone through that.

“I have spent a lot of time with Lisa Clements and her children; they got married in the governor’s mansion. They understand what they were doing. Tom Clements was part of that reform and for you to make his murder part of a political…gambit…I think is reprehensible.”

Hickenlooper’s campaign did not issue a statement Thursday. However, in its email it pointed to a YouTube video that documented the Pueblo debate.

Here is the full statement from Beauprez’s campaign:

While it is a legitimate issue to raise concerns about the administration’s failure to reform parole, out of respect to the spouse of a victim of parolee violence, we have removed that specific line from our ad.

In its place we are pressing John Hickenlooper on another outrageous failure: advocating for what has been referred to as unsupervised “leisure time” — together — for death row inmates.

From a March, 2014 email from Department of Corrections Deputy Executive Director Kellie Wasko:

“We allow offenders with a sentence of life without the possibility of parole to walk around our medium and close custody facilities, who pose no different risk than those with sentences of the death penalty. So are we really managing those offenders whose sentence is different — however, the same — effectively and equally? We believe that we can do better!

“[W]e decided that while they are out in the dayhalls, and we are assessing how this will work, we would consider this dayhall a ‘NO STAFF ZONE’ at this time. So that means that while the offenders are out in their dayhall for their out-of-cell time, staff will not enter into that dayhall for any reason while we assess how this will work for our organization.”

Read more: http://completecolorado.com/pagetwo/2014/10/22/dept-of-corrections-wants-less-solitary-more-leisure-time-for-death-row-inmates/