In the mudfight that was last month's Adams County sheriff's election, incumbent Ed Camp was accused of--among other things--firing deputies who'd opposed him politically ("Cop-A-Doodle-Doo!," September 28). And though Camp lost his bid for re-election and leaves office next month, it appears that loyalty is still high on his agenda: The lame-duck sheriff has ordered an investigation of his harshest in-house critic for writing a negative, pre-election press release about Camp.
If the investigation is completed as scheduled, Camp will be the one to decide the fate of letter writer Sergeant Martin Amarillas. And to Camp's mind, Amarillas is already guilty. "What he did was wrong, in my estimation," he says.
To Amarillas, however, it's the sheriff who's in the wrong. "I think he's being vindictive," Amarillas says. "He mistakes these kind of activities, being politically involved, as being disloyal to him. But I am loyal. I'm loyal to the department."
The internal investigation stems from a November 2 fax that Amarillas sent to a dozen or more media outlets in the Denver metro area. Amarillas--a thirteen-year veteran with the department and president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Lodge No. 1--had been vociferous in his criticism of Camp and vocal in his support of sheriff-elect Bill Shearer.
Amarillas's press release faulted Camp for holding a fundraiser at an Adams County nightclub instead of appearing at an FOP-sponsored candidates' debate. "The FOP #1 is bewildered by his sense of priorities," Amarillas wrote, "and further is offended by his tacit endorsement of an establishment which has 82 incident reports in the last eleven months." According to the fax, the incidents at Club 56, on Washington Street, included two "riots" and numerous assaults. In addition, he wrote, "Currently, there is an investigation (in progress) of a murder which took place in Club 56's parking lot."
Camp's decision to allow Club 56 to pick up the tab for the sheriff's fundraiser, Amarillas continued, showed "callous disrespect for the safety of his officers."
The next day Camp responded with a media fax of his own and defended Club 56 owner Angelo Dimos. "I am deeply concerned that a sergeant of mine would openly attack an honest businessman as being responsible for the criminal activity occurring in the parking lot of his business," Camp wrote. "The owner of Club 56 has worked with us and continues to work with us to positively impact the reduction of such incidents."
The sheriff closed his letter by adding that there was indeed an ongoing investigation involving the club and that the information Amarillas had used in his press release "may have been privileged...confidential...and improperly obtained and disclosed. As the Adams County Sheriff, I have instructed our Professional Standards Unit to investigate possible internal violations of document information release and to see if any criminal conduct may have been committed."
Crime statistics--or the news that deputies are investigating a murder--is hardly top-secret stuff. Law enforcement agencies all around the state, including the Adams County Sheriff's Department, pay certain officers to disseminate exactly that type of information. "All of that was public information," counters Amarillas. "I know that for a fact."
Nonetheless, the sergeant received notification six days after the election that he was under investigation for an alleged violation of department rules.
"If he didn't do anything, then he doesn't have anything to worry about," Camp says. "He's blowing a lot of smoke--`poor little boy being prosecuted and persecuted'--and he needs to be shutting his big mouth."
Amarillas's suspicion that he might be a political target is rooted in what Adams County deputies referred to as a post-election "bloodbath" following Camp's successful re-election bid four years ago. Camp fired three deputies who later filed suit in federal court, claiming they'd been dismissed because they'd backed Camp's opponent. A jury sided with Camp on that one.
But three other staffers were forced out following Camp's court victory. Shearer was asked to resign his division-chief post when it became apparent that he was eyeing the sheriff's job. Shearer's wife, LuzMaria, an Adams County officer, was fired, as was Shearer ally Dave Lutter, a nineteen-year veteran of the department. Camp claims he had good, nonpolitical reasons for canning each of them, but the trio sees it differently. LuzMaria Shearer has notified the county of her intent to sue Camp, and Lutter filed suit in federal court claiming Camp booted him out because he is a Democrat (Camp is a Republican) and a friend of Bill Shearer's.
Camp also denies that the investigation of Amarillas is retribution against a political enemy. To do nothing, he says, would have been unconscionable. "He quoted things in there that may have been part of an ongoing investigation," Camp says. "My concern is that he used his position as a sergeant to look at an investigation and extract things he wanted to utilize. He took this information and tried to use it not only against the sheriff but against the owner of this facility."
Camp is not the only one spitting nails over Amarillas's missive. Kent Krausman, general counsel for the corporation that owns Club 56, says he thinks the fax was "defamatory and slanderous."
