Denver Sheriff Department suspends 3 deputies, sergeant over time card fraud

DENVER – The Denver Sheriff Department suspended a sergeant and three other deputies without pay for 18 days in late June after they were found to have left their courthouse duties early without clocking out.

Sgt. Gabriela Velez and deputies Jon Bruno, George Rodriguez and Jharquis Scott all received disciplinary letters in late June informing them they’d be suspended without pay and would be losing hours of vacation accrual for the time card fraud. 

The four were all working at the Denver City-County building when the infractions occurred between April and July of last year, but the letters say the investigation continues to see if other deputies were also leaving early at the city’s Lindsey-Flanigan courthouse.

The letters say that despite multiple orders not to leave early, the deputies were caught on camera doing so on several occasions.

In some cases, the deputies, who are tasked with guarding the courthouse during nighttime traffic court and the cashier’s office, would leave up to 1 ½ hours before their shifts ended. Their shifts were scheduled to end at 8:30 p.m.

An employee first alerted sheriff department leadership that some deputies were leaving early last May.

Sgt. Velez and two other sergeants were in charge of keeping track of the deputies’ time cards, and though the deputies were seen on camera by their captain leaving early, their time cards showed they had worked until 8:30 each evening.

But according to the disciplinary letters, Velez said former commanders told her that deputies could leave early if everyone had left the courthouse for the day.

The deputies served some of their suspensions in July, but some of them have been broken up and will be completed in August and September.

All of those suspended had already acknowledged their transgressions and agreed to the suspensions beforehand, according to the disciplinary letters.