May 31, 2012

SandBoxBlogs: Grand Junction Daily Sentinel "DA: No charges in case of alleged trooper bias"

Paul Shockley:
" former Colorado State Patrol trooper, under scrutiny for alleged bias in his handling of impaired driving cases over four years, will not face criminal charges following a three-month investigation, District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said Wednesday.

However, Hautzinger said he intends to throw out 10 convictions stemming from cases investigated by ex-State Trooper Donald Moseman between 2008 and 2011.

Hautzinger, who hired a retired FBI agent to investigate 382 closed cases involving Moseman, said he doesn’t feel he can prove the ex-trooper committed any crimes. Those crimes, potentially false imprisonment, perjury, or official misconduct, among others, would require proof Moseman acted “intentionally or knowingly,” Hautzinger said.

“There’s no evidence proving he knowingly or intentionally framed innocent people or was trying to manufacture evidence,” Hautzinger said. “He just tended to see a case when we didn’t see it and others didn’t.”

Hautzinger’s non-charging decision comes as his own investigation, undertaken by retired former FBI Special Agent Jane Quimby, highlighted new concerns about the trooper’s work.

Hired in 1991 in a career that saw a break in patrol duties before again being assigned to roadways in Mesa County in 2008, Moseman left the State Patrol last December after records obtained by The Daily Sentinel showed an internal State Patrol investigation found “bias” in DUI cases....."
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