An online search with the keywords “Black Ranchers in El Paso County, Colorado” will likely result in images of dead animals, torn Black Lives Matter flags, and a Black couple pleading for justice.
Three witnesses testified in a civil trial that began Monday in the El Paso County Combined Courts that accuses Sheriff Bill Elder of age discrimination against a former Sheriff s Office
Since June 2019, the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center has reported four suicides, a sharp increase since the last previously reported suicide in 2009. According to recent reporting by Reuters, which filed more than 1,500 public records requests to compile data on inmate populations, health care and deaths from 500 jails across the nation, suicide is the second leading cause of death in Colorado jails after illness. Between 2009 to 2019, in Colorado, 64 inmates died by suicide. Coloradoâs inmate death rate is 1.64 per 1,000 inmates, compared to the national inmate death rate of 1.46. The factors that contribute to inmate suicide are varied and complex, and the rise in suicides at the El Paso County Jail coincide with both a change in medical service providers and ongoing issues with El Paso County Sheriffâs deputies completing required inmate checks, which has also led to inmate injuries from fights going unnoticed by jail staff.
Heidi Beedle
The Colorado Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) Board revoked the certification of six peace officers Dec. 11, 2020, for knowingly making untruthful statements while conducting their official duties. The revocations are the first to be mandated by Senate Bill 19-166, which passed during the 2019 legislative session. As a result, those six officers are no longer able to work as certified peace officers in Colorado.Â
One of these officers was El Paso County Sheriffâs Deputy Russell Smith, who had worked at the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center since September 2016. According to an internal affairs investigation summary obtained by the