District attorney's expenses questioned

Fourth Judicial District Attorney John Newsome took in a college football game in South Bend, Ind., in October and left taxpayers with the bill for six months.

He did repay most of the extra expenses involved in staying two extra days on a trip to Chicago to accompany a detective to interview witnesses in a death-penalty case.

Newsome, who is up for re-election this year, initially let stand $699 worth of hotel rooms, a rental car, gas and a per diem for the day he was watching his alma mater University of Southern California play Notre Dame. The weekend football excursion came at the end of a trip in which Newsome and a Colorado Springs police detective interviewed witnesses in a case involving a police officer's homicide.

KOAA reporter James Jarman asked for Newsome's travel records April 1. He requested "all invoices, receipts, stipends or per diems, and travel expenses" for Newsome's 2007 travel under the Colorado Open Records Act. Newsome wrote El Paso County a check for $584.90 on April 24, according to records obtained by The Gazette.

Newsome said he had flagged the trip for his accounting department so he could pay it back "when we were getting the books ready for the annual audit," which is why he didn't pay it back until April.

Newsome requested a $50 per diem for that Saturday and was paid it in advance. And when he put the weeklong rental car on his personal credit card, he immediately requested reimbursement after returning to Colorado Springs, records show.

"Accommodations and per diems are issued in advance and may change depending on circumstances," Newsome wrote in an e-mail.

Newsome said he did nothing improper. When he planned the trip, he said he wasn't sure if the witness interviews would spill over into Saturday. But he confirmed he had the game tickets before leaving. Detective Derek Graham informed his supervisors before leaving that he would be going to the game, according to his supervisor, Lt. Mark Smith.

The travel records obtained by the Gazette through a Colorado Open Records Act request include credit card receipts and copies of per diem checks earmarked for "Marco Lee case."

Lee faces a first-degree murder charge in the December 2006 shooting death of Colorado Springs officer Ken Jordan, who was gunned down during a DUI traffic stop. Newsome has said he will seek the death penalty. A judge has slapped a gag order on everyone involved in the case, so Newsome could not go into detail about who they interviewed.

But he did say no witnesses were interviewed Saturday, Oct. 21, or Sunday, Oct. 22. It's the first time Newsome has traveled out of state to accompany a detective on witness interviews.

"Taxpayers in this community expect me to do everything I can possibly do to be successful in that prosecution," he said.

The pair arrived in Chicago Oct. 17 and checked into the $200-per-night Crowne Plaza hotel.

Here's a summary of expenses incurred by Newsome, and initially billed to taxpayers, that Saturday and Sunday:

• $399 for two Crowne Plaza rooms Saturday night. That doesn't include $70 for valet parking Saturday and Sunday.
• $100 in per diem advances for Saturday for Graham and Newsome. They were also paid the per diem for Sunday, but that's normal for a work-related travel day.
• $95 for two extra days of car rental.
• $35 for gas at a station near South Bend on Saturday, Oct. 21.

That's $699 in bills for Saturday and Sunday.

Graham's supervisors said they were aware of the extra days and thought Newsome would handle the billing.

"The DA's office paid for all travel, and the CSPD paid for Graham's salary for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday," Lt. Smith said. "One thing we want to make clear. Detective Graham did nothing wrong. We knew the itinerary. We had no problem with how to track detective Graham's time. We had every belief that the DA would account for the travel expenses appropriately. We had no reason to think otherwise."

A Colorado law prohibits an elected official from "using of public money for the official's own gain." Whether that official intended to deprive taxpayers of that money is a key part of that law, and specifies the official's intent "may be inferred from the defendants' conduct and the circumstances of the case," the law states.

The 4th Judicial District Attorney's Office auditor — Gustafson, Crandall and Christensen of Colorado Springs — must have its audit complete by June 30, according to Colorado law. They have 30 more days to get the report to the state auditor, who will examine the office's spending. Officials at the accounting firm declined comment, saying the audit is not complete.

Newsome, who noted the office has had clean audit reports since 2005, said his political opponents are trying to "smear" his reputation.

"I don't mind questions about taxpayer money. But I do mind the orchestrated nature of the political smears," Newsome said. "Not one dime paid for any football game that I went to in my spare time with a friend. Not one dime."

In May, a KOAA hidden-camera investigation caught Newsome drinking about 130 ounces of beer over about five hours and then driving a county-owned vehicle.