By Jason Pohl
Greeley Tribune
GREELEY, Colo. — When Corey Fuller was released from prison and put on parole, the state’s hope was that he had learned his lesson.
The seven-member board, like it does in all cases, weighed the pros and cons of early release, set the terms and hoped Fuller — who pled guilty to vehicle theft and drug possession in 2008 — would serve as a poster child for the corrections system doing what it’s intended to do.
But that wasn’t what happened.
Fuller broke into a Larimer County Sheriff’s vehicle in February and stole a police-issued sniper rifle, an assault rifle, a night vision scope, an emergency radio, ammo and other tactical equipment, records show.
Detectives later raided his Weld County storage unit and located evidence from a rash of thefts across northern Colorado, including the stolen police gear.
They found everything except the stolen sniper rifle, which Fuller, now 30, refuses to help authorities locate despite still-ongoing court proceedings and the potential for a trip back to prison.
The case didn’t come as a shock to Greeley’s top law enforcement officer.
Few things do anymore, though Greeley Police Chief Jerry Garner is hopeful a handful of changes within the Colorado Department of Corrections and its parole division can pave the way toward a revamped organization as opposed to what he called the broken system of today that sees cases like Fuller’s far too often.
Local law enforcement including Garner and Weld County Sheriff John Cooke have long urged reform when it comes to releasing sometimes-unskilled parolees in the community.
In their minds, cost-saving early release programs unfairly shift the burden back to local law enforcement agencies, who are thrust into a reactive mode of chasing repeat offenders.
Recently, their message was heard.
They met with state leaders to voice their concerns regarding potentially violent parolees being sent back to communities.
And they left the meeting with a sense of cautious optimism that change could be on the horizon.
“It was, I thought, a very, very positive discussion,” Garner said. “Now the key will be to see what happens.”
While some of the problems plaguing Colorado’s parole system have varied for decades, Garner pointed to legislative changes of the past several years aimed at reducing prison populations to save the state money.
Early release and an influx in parolees ultimately sent a higher number of unskilled, potentially violent numbers of criminals back to the streets around the state — including Greeley.
That, in Garner’s mind, meant a surge in officers responding to cases of career criminals committing crimes.
The number of parolees released back to Weld County varies from fewer than 30 one month to more than 50 another, Garner said.
Those figures may not be dramatically worse for Weld than other counties in the state, but it’s still troubling and something Garner said causes him concern.
“We’ve got to have some help here,” he said.
CLEANING HOUSE
Colorado’s Department of Corrections came under fire last March when investigators said Evan Ebel — paroled in January — murdered Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements days after slaying a Denver pizza delivery driver.
A warrant was issued for his arrest stemming from the parole violations, and he was ultimately killed in a shootout with police in Texas, though questions continued to surface surrounding Ebel’s motives and the system from which he was freed.
In the days and weeks that followed that case, state parole chief Tim Hand was fired. Steve Hager took his spot as the interim director, and Rick Raemisch was appointed to the top spot within the DOC.
Both directors agreed early on that they wanted to fix what some were calling a defunct corrections system, and they reaffirmed that desire when they met with Garner and Cooke.
Hager called that meeting “very productive” and said he was encouraged about the position the department is moving forward.
“Each of them made it clear that their top priority is the public safety of Weld County,” he said in a written statement to The Tribune. “We discussed many ways that we would continue to communicate to ensure the police chief’s concern for public safety was met.”
And that message, by all accounts, is expected to continue and transform into more tangible solutions.
Raemisch on Monday appointed Walt Pesterfield as the new director of parole. Hager will continue serving with the DOC as the director of prisons.
With a background as a California police officer and specialty areas including parole and drug treatment, Pesterfield accepted the Colorado job after serving for eight years as the director of Oregon’s Columbia County Department of Community Justice.
“I was immediately struck by Walt’s enthusiasm to take on the challenge of leading our parole division,” Raemish said in a news release announcing the appointment. “There is no doubt that he will positively impact the lives of many offenders as they re-enter our communities.”
OPTIMISM EMERGES
A lot stands to change this year within the world of Colorado corrections — changes that are encouraging to Weld authorities.
Whether it’s through a more open dialogue between state leaders and local agencies, additional resources for overburdened parole officers, further training for inmates before they are released back into society, or simply more strictly monitoring cases in which a parolee comes back with a drug-laced urine analysis, Garner said change will take time.
But it’s something that needs to be addressed.
“In some parts of the state, police chiefs aren’t saying anything about it,” Garner said. “They’re just accepting it as the way it is. I don’t think you have to accept it. I think you try to make it better. My job is to keep the local people safe. They’re not hurting people in Greeley as long as they’re locked up.”
Cooke echoed those comments and said that, while there will always be things to improve on, local communities shouldn’t face the brunt of the parolee problem.
Moreover, for every one crime a parolee ends up getting busted, too often there are five to 10 others that have gone unreported.
That’s what happened in the case of known gang-banger Joe Ramirez.
Sentenced to 10 years in prison stemming from his 2005 guilty plea of second-degree assault with a deadly weapon, Ramirez was eventually released on parole and back into Weld County.
Then, last May, he led his gang to a crowded East Memorial Park, opened fire on a rival gang member and fled in a stolen Dodge Durango with nearly 2 grams of methamphetamine, records show.
He was later captured and linked to two other gang-related drive by shootings using the same stolen SUV.
Just like the cases of Fuller who stole weapons from a sheriff’s vehicle and even Ebel who was released on parole when he shouldn’t have been, Ramirez’s crimes raise fears among law enforcement leaders that criminals can slip through the cracks within a broken system.
Garner acknowledged it’s his job to chase criminals. But he grows frustrated at the “bureaucracy” that makes it difficult for clear progress.
That’s what he’s hopeful will change moving into 2014.
“You’ve only got so many resources,” Garner says, a hint of dismay in his voice. “The more time you spend chasing parolees who are messing up, the less time you have to do something else — to do something proactive.”