Missing DVDs likely to be topic at Wednesday hearing in Farries case

Last February, two men stood next to Detra Farries outside an east Colorado Springs apartment complex, and one of them remarked that a tow-truck driver appeared ready to tow someone’s vehicle.

When Farries’ rush to beat a $70 tow fee allegedly led to the driver's death, those two men were among the nearest witnesses. And as Farries’ May preliminary hearing made clear, what they saw could be central to her defense.

So how could police lose DVDs of the men’s recollections?

That will be among the questions likely to be addressed Wednesday at Farries' pretrial hearing. Her trial is set to begin Jan. 30.

Prosecutors are expected to report that videos of the two men’s 2011 statements to Colorado Springs police detectives have been found – or else admit to another eyebrow-raising evidence gaffe. A judge on Monday slammed sheriff's detectives for "stunningly sloppy police work" on the case of a man accused of killing his 7-year-old daughter.

Police in the Farries investigation have supplied interview transcripts that police made before the videos went missing, and both witnesses were available to testify, lead prosecutor Jeff Lindsey said at a December court hearing.

But nearly a year has passed since Feb. 23, and defense attorneys are likely to want footage from when their memories were freshest – and before Farries became a notorious figure in Colorado Springs.

District Judge Jann P. DuBois is expected to address the issue at the Wednesday hearing. Whether it could affect the trial's start, or lead to penalties against prosecutors, is unclear.

In other cases, penalties for similar evidence problems have produced trial delays, led to charges being dropped and even raised concerns over defendants walking free, The Gazette has reported.

Tow-truck driver Allen Lew Rose, a married father of two and an Iraq War veteran, died Feb. 23 after a tow-cable snapped and snared his legs as Farries drove away from an attempted towing, causing Rose to be dragged more than a mile.

At a hearing last month, prosecutor Lindsey said police evidence clerks were trying to track down the interview videos.

DuBois set an end-of-the year deadline, but court records provide no indication of whether the issue has been resolved. Attorneys on both sides have declined to discuss the case out of court, citing gag orders.

The witnesses claimed Rose chased Farries’ SUV with a knife in hand and stomped on a severed tow cable while Farries fled the Hill Park Apartments on North Murray Boulevard, an officer testified last year.

The men’s accounts fueled the defense’s controversial claim that Rose put himself in danger by pursuing the woman.

Farries’ public defenders, Eydie Elkins and Jeremy Loew, say she did not know Rose was being dragged behind her because of the poor condition of the SUV – a position Lindsey mocked in calling her vehicle a “rolling death trap.”

Lindsey also said Rose could have been pursuing her over concerns about the 40-foot-long-plus steel cable flailing in her wake.

Farries is charged with leaving the scene of an accident causing a death, vehicular homicide and reckless manslaughter. She faces up to 24 years on the first count and up to 12 years each on the other two. Prosecutors earned DuBois' approval last month to seek an aggravated sentencing range, citing the cruelty of Rose's death. A jury will decided whether the enhanced penalties will apply.

Farries is among the defendants whose attorneys have raised concerns over evidence irregularities in recent months.

The problems have included missing evidence and delays turning over evidence, as in the case of a Fountain prison guard who nearly walked on drug-smuggling charges.

District Judge G. David Miller on Monday rejected a request to dismiss charges against accused child-killer Hanif Sims after a missing tape turned up and proved that two El Paso County sheriff’s detectives skewed his confession.

The judge, however, slapped sheriff’s detective Ralph Losasso for “stunningly sloppy police work.” Losasso’s supervisor Sgt. Robert Jaworski was also named in Miller's order for affirming Losasso’s account of the botched interview.