‘Strained’ relationships threaten community safety in Colorado’s 3rd Judicial District

HUERFANO COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Third Judicial District Attorney Henry Solano has filed multiple lawsuits against elected officials in Huerfano County, and both the cases and relationships are far from resolved.

Huerfano County Sheriff Burce Newman is practically a celebrity in Walsenburg. On a drive up and down Main Street, residents wave to the town native and sheriff of 21 years.

During that time, Newman said he’s worked with about five different district attorneys. He said he’s never had issues as he has now with current Third Judicial District Attorney Henry Solano.

“It's been strained since the day he got here,” Newman said. “He came in trying to tell me how to run my department. You're not a sheriff, you're not a cop. I'm not trying to tell you how to run your department. Don't tell me how to run mine.”

A couple of years ago, Solano filed a lawsuit against Newman for not providing case evidence in a timely manner.

“I have no animosity for anyone,” Solano said. “I'm very insistent, whether it's in my office or with law enforcement, that we do the job.”

It’s why he said he ran for the position back in 2016. Solano had years of experience, including as the U.S. attorney for Colorado, but he chose the Third Judicial District Attorney position because he wanted to improve the community.

The office has a long history of being underfunded and overworked. He said his predecessor quit before his term ended because of it.

“It's my hope and desire that no subsequent person who sits in this position will ever have to deal with that kind of situation,” he said.

One area of improvement he noticed was alleged discovery violations by the Huerfano County Sheriff’s Office.

Solano claimed he couldn’t hand over case evidence to the defense, because he didn’t have the evidence from the Sheriff’s Office. He said this was an ongoing problem since he took office in 2017.

This led to dozens of felony cases being dismissed. In one instance, a repeat offender with drug 2 felony charges walked free because the alleged drugs in the case weren’t sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigations for testing. Solano said the suspect could have been sentenced to 50 years in prison. However, the DA’s office had to dismiss the case because it didn’t have the test results which need to be provided to the defense 35 days before trial.

Solano said other law enforcement agencies in the 3rd Judicial District fail to comply with discovery requirements about 8% of the time, which he said is defensible. However, the Huerfano County Sheriff’s Office fails to comply 23% of the time. In court documents, Huerfano County Sheriff Bruce Newman “acknowledged that a rate of 20% to 25% is not acceptable.”

Newman admitted his office has problems with discovery, but said he is addressing it with new policies, procedures, and training. According to a court-ordered permanent injunction, Newman has to address the violations.

In that order, the judge says his ruling will help relieve uncertainty in the controversial relationship between the DA and the sheriff.

“I don't know what the problem was, but from the day he was here, there's been an issue,” Newman said about his relationship with Solano.

Newman said the lawsuit was a way to blame someone else for the district attorney’s high number of case dismissals that threatened the safety of the community.

“We have some people that we've arrested over 30 times and there's no repercussions,” Newman said. “They just keep re-offending because they know they're not going to get in much trouble.”

Solano doesn’t deny his office has had to dismiss several hundred prosecutable cases, but he blames the Huerfano County Commissioners for his underfunded and overworked staff.

“They have had the money, they've just chosen for whatever reason not to consider the needs of the citizens in terms of prosecutors or prosecution needs,” Solano said.

Solano claimed his office was underfunded by about $160,000 for 2023, so he sued the Huerfano County Commissioners. He alleged the commissioners had enough money in their reserve account to fund his $615,000 request. This month a judge agreed, handing down a contempt order against the Huerfano County Commissioners.

“Had the Commissioners treated the reserve fund in 2023 as they had in the past instead of an expenditure, approximately $300,000.00, funds would have been available to meet the salary needs of the District Attorney,” the judge said.

The commissioners must now fully fund the DA’s office or be fined $100 every day.

“You can't do double, triple the work with a third or a half of the staff,” Solano said. “No company can do it and no prosecutor can do it.”

The commissioners declined an interview but in a statement said they have increased Solano’s budget by more than 200% since 2018. The judge's order will push that up to 378%.

“Such a significant increase for our small county guarantees our residents and services will be affected. We have tried to reason with Mr. Solano and have offered to work with him, only to be rebuffed. Instead, he has opted for lawsuits over cooperation, a costly decision that adversely affects the residents of Huerfano County.”

The Huerfano County Commissioners have already appealed the judge’s order and will “continue to fight on behalf of the people of Huerfano County.”

Despite the lawsuits and headbutting between departments, the one thing they all agree on is how their strained relationships are affecting the safety of the community.

“I think the community is less safe because we haven't been able to have sufficient prosecutors to prosecute the cases and we've had to dismiss cases, high-level cases when the evidence hasn't been presented to us,” Solano said.

“There's no repercussions for their criminal actions,” Newman said about those he arrests in the county. “If you get away with it, they're going to keep on doing it.”

While Newman said Solano’s lawsuits are ways to point the blame at other departments, Solano said the lawsuits are to set up the future success of the Third Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

“The difference is going to be any successor D.A. is going to have a court order that tells them, the commissioners and the sheriff, to do their job or to come up with some very good reasons and explanations why they can't,” Solano said.

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