Fired DPD Officer Daniel Caballero Joins Parade of Bad Colorado Cops

At a morning ceremony yesterday, October 18, Ron Thomas was sworn in as the next chief of the Denver Police Department after Mayor Michael Hancock nominated him to succeed Paul Pazen, who announced his retirement in late August, and Denver City Council gave its blessing. But the first official press release of the Thomas administration, sent just over two hours later, was hardly auspicious: It announced that Officer Daniel Caballero had been fired after his arrest in Aurora on domestic violence-related charges.

Caballero joins a parade of bad Colorado cops who've stepped into the spotlight this year. He's at least the ninth law enforcement officer busted since March, including a previous pair from the DPD.

The first arrest in this streak involved Colorado Springs Police Department Officer Shane Reed. According to a CSPD release, a felony investigation into Reed's activities was launched on March 9, and nine days later, on March 18, an arrest warrant was issued in his name for second-degree kidnapping, a Class 4 felony, plus misdemeanor-level child abuse and harassment, described as "strike, shove, kick."

More specifics about Reed surfaced on April 6. In court documents obtained by KKTV, he was accused of attacking a teen who was having an inappropriate sexual relationship with Kristen Wessel, his 31-year-old girlfriend; she was accused separately of sexual assault on a child for her actions. According to one of the docs, Reed pushed the teen against a fence and declared that "he would kill him and nobody would find the body."

Three days later, on April 9, the Teller County Sheriff's Department took to its Facebook page to announce that Deputy Mark Bisset "was arrested this morning and is charged with burglary, felony menacing and trespassing." The TCSO also released Bisset's arrest affidavit, which reports that he allegedly drove to a private residence in the community of Florissant "with two beers in his shirt pocket and a revolver in a holster on his hip." After identifying himself as a Teller County deputy, he told a man on the property that he would "kick anyone's ass" and, to reinforce this claim, he returned less than an hour later with a rifle and told the home's inhabitants that if they didn't open they door, "I will kill you."

Arrestee number three was Weld County Sheriff's Office Deputy John Maedel, who was charged with stalking, domestic violence and harassment. Arrest documents contend that he began texting a woman last December and, over the next few months, started following her and delivering threats that prompted her to seek a temporary restraining order against him.

Next up was Colorado Springs Police Department Officer Stephanie Landreneau, whose arrest for felony stalking was announced on May 4.
Later that month, on May 31, Fort Collins Police Services revealed that Officer Valeri Pedraza had been busted twice in two days. As detailed in a news release, the agency received a report on May 29 about "a domestic-violence situation" involving Pedraza, who was off duty at the time. The call was forwarded to the Larimer County Sheriff's Office, which dispatched deputies to an unspecified address. Upon discovery of a victim with what were described as minor injuries, Pedraza was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault, a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Protection orders are routinely issued to prevent alleged offenders in domestic-violence cases from contacting their victims. But on the afternoon of May 30, the sheriff's office received a report that Pedraza had made "several phone communications" prohibited by the edict. That led to her second arrest, this time for violation of a protection order, a Class 2 misdemeanor, plus violation of bail bond conditions.

Just one day later, on June 1, the Douglas County Sheriff's Office put out the word that Deputy Carley Jackson faced five criminal counts, including bribery and official misconduct. She was accused of giving a lighter to an inmate in the hopes that he wouldn't tell authorities about flirtatious note-passing between them. Turns out that she already had a significant other — a different prisoner she'd met in jail.

The DPD got into the act on July 26, when the department divulged that father-and-son officers Michael Pineda and Santana Pineda had been cuffed on felony theft charges; they were accused of charging a private employer for nearly $9,000 in off-duty work that they never actually performed.

Then came the announcement about Caballero, who'd been arrested on suspicion of harassment-domestic violence, menacing and prohibited use of weapons.

The arrest affidavit issued October 15 by the Aurora Police Department notes that late on Saturday, August 15, a woman told investigators that she and four other people had been hanging out at a small house party in the city when a friend decided to leave because her boyfriend, Caballero, was very drunk. The group subsequently headed to another location, a residence on the 900 block of South Waco Way, and en route, Caballero allegedly yanked his girlfriend's hair. Once at the home, the document states, an argument broke out, prompting Caballero to pull out his Glock 26 and press it into the gut of a man in the group — an action that made the victim "scared for his life."

Hired in 2021, Caballero was still officially on probationary status with the DPD when the incident occurred — but not anymore. Yesterday, the department confirmed that he had been terminated from his job.