District Attorney Dan May speaks about which case took the biggest emotional toll and what he plans for the future

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Over the course of working 12 years as the 4th Judicial District Attorney, Dan May has been involved in thousands of cases in El Paso and Teller Counties. KRDO had the opportunity to sit down with May in a one-on-one interview to discuss cases, losses, and his overall time as the district attorney.

Looking back, what was one of the most emotional cases you had to deal with during your career as District Attorney?

“The Kelsey Berreth case… I’ve done a lot of homicide cases and a lot of high profile cases a lot of very emotional cases, kids cases. That was one of the most emotional one’s I’ve ever had and I have to say I kind of sat back thinking to myself, ‘why is this one so much more emotional and hard to do?’ and I think part of it was you had that time period where she was missing and you were hoping to find her alive and you start to attach to her as a live person and get to know her family… So when we really knew we would never find Kelsey, that hit me harder than I think almost any other case because this person really is dead.”

Are there any cases you are particularly proud of?

“Part of it is you are just trying to seek justice. There have been a couple of cases that I’ve actually taken to trial and got convictions where no other prosecutor was willing to get on the case so you sort of have a pride in that you sought justice in a case that was difficult but I don’t know if one sticks out. Every one of them is important to me.”

On the flip side to that; are there any cases that you wish could have gone differently or you did something different?

“Oh absolutely. When I do a mistake or I have a bad verdict I think about those quite literally for years later or even when I make a decision sometimes I’m second-guessing myself years later.”

“I’ll tell you the first rape case I lost I still think about that from time to time and how I failed that victim, but one of the things I failed that victim on was that I hadn’t prepared her for the fact that we could lose.” 

“She thought it was a referendum on her personally so I took a lesson from that I need to prepare these because I did not prepare her and I’m really here for her.”

“To be asked about intimate things in your life in front of a whole bunch of strangers that’s a lot of bravery and that victim needs to be supported and I didn’t do it there.”

Is there any more you'd like to say about the plea deal your office made with Krystal Lee in the Kelsey Berreth disappearance?

“We did a deal with the devil. I mean there is just no if, and, or buts about it.”

“We knew we were building a case on her so the question is can I build a case on both of them and successfully prosecute them? And it was in our opinion that we could not. So that is why we gave a deal to Krystal Lee in order to get Patrick Frazee. She’s in prison today but she didn’t get near the justice she should have gotten which is wrong but we did get the justice on the murder in this case.”

What are your future aspirations?

“I’m going to stay around here. I love this community.”

“So I’m looking forward to doing nothing for a while so on January 12th, I do not intend to open a private practice I intend to do nothing for a while.”

Watch the full interview below: