{"id":22757,"date":"2020-05-05T13:23:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-05T19:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=64498"},"modified":"2020-05-05T15:31:41","modified_gmt":"2020-05-05T21:31:41","slug":"lucas-pleads-not-guilty-to-misconduct-oppression-false-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/lucas-pleads-not-guilty-to-misconduct-oppression-false-reporting\/","title":{"rendered":"Lucas pleads not guilty to misconduct, oppression, false reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/KPD-shn-020520-1-1024x682.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/KPD-shn-020520-1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/KPD-shn-020520-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/KPD-shn-020520-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/KPD-shn-020520-1-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/KPD-shn-020520-1-2048x1363.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p><figcaption><strong>Lucas<\/strong><br \/><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In the first court appearance for former Kremmling Police Chief Jamie Lucas since being charged with misconduct in January, he pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial via his attorney.<\/p>\n<p>Lucas\u2019 attorney Jeffrey Eidsness entered the plea Tuesday in Grand County Court as he requested a two-day jury trial, which Judge Nicholas Catanzarite set for Oct. 13-14 potentially extending through Oct. 15.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to having this case be heard,\u201d Eidsness said.<\/p>\n<p>Eidsness also asked the judge to set a status hearing in June because he said he plans to subpoena documents for Lucas\u2019 defense from the Grand County Sheriff\u2019s Office. Lucas and Eidsness are also still discussing whether they will file for a special prosecutor.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row shn-donation shn-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.skyhinews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2020\/02\/shn-logo-2x-wht.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>After town leaders elected not to reappoint Lucas as Kremmling\u2019s police chief on April 22, Lucas shared on Facebook that he is deeply disappointed with the decision and continued to accuse the sheriff\u2019s office and the 14th Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office of corruption. Eidsness echoed the sentiment again on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course the chief and myself are disappointed given that we have not had the opportunity to address these allegations in court and that the town declined our offer to meet with them and discuss what\u2019s going on,\u201d Lucas\u2019 attorney said.<\/p>\n<p>Kremmling\u2019s town board voted not to reappoint Lucas as chief of police after receiving a letter from Lucas urging the board to allow him to continue in the role.<\/p>\n<p>Lucas had been on paid administrative leave since Dec. 20 after questions on his handling of an animal abuse case, where three juveniles are alleged to have killed a cat, sparked an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>Based on the results of the investigation, the DA\u2019s office charged Lucas with four counts each of first degree official misconduct, second degree official misconduct and official oppression, and three counts of false reporting to authorities.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unclear why the board didn\u2019t reappoint Lucas, as none of the board members commented on the reappointment nor Lucas\u2019s letter during the April 22 meeting. Town Manager Dan Stoltman said he couldn\u2019t speak to the board\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really can\u2019t comment on personnel matters,\u201d Stoltman said.<\/p>\n<p>Stoltman added that he has begun searching for an interim chief for the police department and plans to finalize the job posting for a permanent chief with the board at its next meeting.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m reaching out to Summit County, Silverthorne PD, I have reached out to Grand County and they\u2019re all going to get back to me as soon as they can,\u201d he said. \u201cThe goal is to have some candidates (for interim chief) for the board to review come the next meeting. At that next meeting, I will probably have a discussion on the police chief job description and whether they want to make any changes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the meeting, Lucas took to Facebook to thank his supporters and express his disappointment, as well as echo claims from his letter that he is being targeted by the DA\u2019s and sheriff\u2019s offices.<\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<p>In the letter, Lucas urged the board to keep him on as police chief, claiming that the charges he faced were retaliatory for raising ethical concerns with the DA\u2019s office<em>.<\/em> He also asserts his faith that the charges will be dropped.<\/p>\n<p>Responding to Lucas\u2019s letter directly, District Attorney Matt Karzen said the accusations are false and reiterated that, to his knowledge, Lucas has never filed a formal complaint against the office, nor has he provided any evidence that he\u2019s being targeted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNeither from (Lucas) nor his lawyer at any point have I ever heard anything in terms of back up as to why he\u2019s saying that or why he thinks we\u2019re corrupt,\u201d Karzen said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Karzen added that while he remembers meeting with Lucas in July 2019, he is certain that they did not discuss his office \u201cusing (Brady Violations) as a weapon,\u201d like Lucas claimed in his letter.<\/p>\n<p>Eidsness said he could not produce any associated documents at this time because they may be used to bolster an ask for a special prosecutor.<\/p>\n<p>The district attorney hit Lucas with a Brady letter on Dec. 18, informing the town the DA\u2019s office would no longer prosecute cases Lucas was involved with due to the investigation into his actions.<\/p>\n<p>A motions hearing for Lucas\u2019 trial is set for 2 p.m. Sept. 21.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/news\/lucas-pleads-not-guilty-to-misconduct-oppression-false-reporting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lucas In the first court appearance for former Kremmling Police Chief Jamie Lucas since being charged with misconduct in January, he pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial via his attorney. Lucas\u2019 attorney Jeffrey Eidsness entered the plea Tuesday in Grand County Court as he requested a two-day jury trial, which Judge Nicholas Catanzarite [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-20 21:00:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22758,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22757\/revisions\/22758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}