Tribune Jihad Against SO:
More Biased, Anti-LEO Gibberish

by George Gramlich,
News and Commentary
Last week, Jordy “Red Bug ”Hedberg, the Editor of the Wet Mountain Tribune, doubled down on his jihad against Sheriff Rich Smith with a full, front-page article on Smith hiring the retired Chief of Police of Florence (Mike DeLaurentis) for a part-time, three day a week (no benefits) admin job in the SO (“Chief of Staff”). All admin, paperwork. Mike had a great career with 42 years of law enforcement and had retired from the Florence PD in 2021. Smith had worked with him off and on for years as Smith’s State Patrol Unit was based in the same building as the Florence PD. In addition to the front-page piece, Hedberg ran a second, shorter article, inside, repeating the same allegations against Smith and DeLaurentis that he had made the week before.
How many “articles” (i.e., juvenile, amateur “hit pieces”) is Hedberg going to write attacking our good Sheriff, Rich Smith, over his transforming the Custer County Sheriff’s Office (SO) into a modern, experienced, highly trained, rural law enforcement agency? Vindictive, ego driven attack pieces against dedicated public servants, (using trivial or even non-existent issues) who have spent their entire careers in serving the public. These attacks have no constructive value in our small community.
Why is Hedberg mounting this jihad against Sheriff Rich Smith and some SO employees? Maybe because Hedberg has had multiple encounters with local LE in recent years? Maybe he is just anti-law enforcement? With all the real issues in the county (which the Trib seems to take the “wrong” side of every time) going on, why pick on the SO and a guy trying to make it better? Who knows, but these juvenile attacks are backfiring on Hedberg as they are so transparently biased and without serious merit that the Citizens of Happy Valley know a bad thing when they see it. And they are not happy. The bottom line is: What is wrong with this guy?
So, let’s take a brief walk through these two biased articles in last week’s Tribune and point out just SOME of the false statements, and pathetic attempts to paint one person’s issues on another.
Hedberg opens his front page “investigation” with multiple paragraphs about the turmoil in the City of Florence after the disgraced and eventually convicted City Manager, Mike Patterson (who the Florence City Council hired even though he had a serious criminal history and enough baggage and red flags that any normal person would have run for the hills when seeing him) was fired. The rot that was exposed after that centered around Patterson and involved all kinds of fraud, sexual harassment allegations and other bad things. A bunch of investigations were launched including one allegedly involving the retired City of Florence Police Chief, Mike DeLaurentis. It looked like the issue was with DeLaurentis’s severance pay package ($32,284) but there was ZERO
evidence in Hedberg’s article of what exactly was wrong with it except that, allegedly, the replacement interim City Manager could not find any record of it being approved by the City Council. (Which might not have been required since Florence had a City Manager who basically ran the whole government structure there.)
Then Hedberg noted that the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was called to look into the matter. This was in March of 2022. Over two years ago. Two years ago and no charges filed to date. Hmmmmm. What this means, folks, in the real world, the odds of any charges being filed about a severance package issue, after two whole years, are virtually ZERO. (We didn’t see Hedberg do an “investigation” last year of our four-day County Manager who walked off with $45k for “working” for four days! Nah. Not important.)
So Hedberg tried to paint, with multiple paragraphs, DeLaurentis as a bad guy based on NO FACTS. Just two-year-old “allegations” that seemed to have died. That folks, is biased reporting.
Hedberg’s next pathetic salvo against DeLaurentis, was the disgraced City Manager Patterson writing a reprimand letter against DeLaurentis in 2019. This reprimand was sooo egregious and sooo bad that Hedberg even printed the whole letter on the front page! What did DeLaurentis do that was so bad that the whole letter had to be printed? Murder One? Grand Theft Auto? Selling meth at the police headquarters? Folks, it was even worse! Patterson, a convicted felon and the worst City Manager ever, reprimanded DeLaurentis over “abusive language in either the form of yelling or swearing in the ordinary course of your job”. Call the FBI!!!!!!
So, Patterson, who was accused of sexual harassment by multiple city employees, who was accused of financial shenanigans, etc, told DeLaurentis that he would be fired if he swore or yelled at people at work again. Precious. Patterson is telling this to the Chief of Police, with 42 years of Law Enforcement (LE) experience. Folks, you don’t threaten to fire your Chief of Police over him swearing at work. There is something else here. (Maybe Patterson wanted to get rid of DeLaurentis for other reasons.) In any event, DeLaurentis retired a month later, so, a non-issue.
Hedberg thinks that reprimand letter over swearing is so bad that it should have prevented our Sheriff Smith from hiring DeLaurentis for a part time, administrative position here in Custer County. (What Lolli Pop world does Hedberg live in? Cops swear. I don’t blame them. Does this disqualify a guy with 42 years of LE service and experience from a part time admin job? NO. (What is so precious about Hedberg pretending swearing is bad is Hedberg’s own issues with profanity. Example #1: Two summers ago several of us at the Sentinel were on our porch when Hedberg slowly drove by giving us the finger and screaming obscenities at us like a mad man. In public, on Main Street. We have other examples of him yelling obscenities in public, plus, remember all the curse words he used on Facebook not long ago against various Custer County ladies. Hedberg condemning DeLaurentis for swearing is beyond hypocritical.)
Hedberg then again revisits the sexual harassment allegation that centered around Patterson, and allegedly, DeLaurentis. These were settled with an insurance company payout. (Note that there were a bunch of sex harassment allegations being thrown about at the time in Florence, by various women, again, with Patterson in the center.) No criminal charges. No specifics relating to DeLaurentis. NONE. So, Hedberg, exactly WHAT did DeLaurentis actually do that was bad? (Sexual harassment allegations have become commonplace in today’s litigation-addicted world. and should be examined carefully before throwing stones.)
Hedberg’s last volley in this biased article, again talks about the employee loans that then City Manager, Patterson, was giving to many employees. It apparently was a common practice. DeLaurentis took one and fully paid it back. Somehow, that is a bad thing. Hedberg says the City Council didn’t know about the loans, which is hard to believe. Remember a City Manager totally runs the City and he makes the calls. DeLaurentis did nothing wrong in taking a loan out authorized by the City Manager and paying it back. A lot of employees did. So another swing and a miss by Hedberg.
When Hedberg condemns the same bad behavior that he often exhibits, somehow it is wrong for those people, but “journalist” Hedberg gets a pass. Yup, the Moral Arbitrator of All Things Right and Wrong in Happy Valley seems to be a bit of a hypocrite. Does this behavior disqualify Hedberg from being the Editor of the Trib? Of course not. But it is ok to attempt to destroy a good man’s career and reputation (i.e., DeLaurentis’s. A man who has actually done something for society as opposed to….) over a reprimand for swearing. You get the picture? (Welcome to Hedberg’s world of personal destruction. Hedberg the Hypocrite.)
So, Hedberg has spent 1000’s and 1000’s of words, with a front-page article, knocking our Sheriff for hiring a LE professional, with 42 years of experience, for a part time admin job. Smith knew the guy, worked with him for years, and knew he would do a good job on admin work. Hedberg is trying to destroy this guy over unproven allegations and a reprimand over abusive language. Can Hedberg EVER see what is important versus what is not? Can he ever stop trying to destroy good people’s careers and reputations over trivial, or even non-existent things?
Guess not.
Addendum: Not satisfied with another failed attempt at destroying good county employees on the Trib’s front page, Hedberg wrote another whining missive on Page 4 against Sheriff Smith, Com-missioner Bill Canda, and Public Health Director Cliff Brown. Hedberg again repeats the same debunked allegations against those three accomplished Gentlemen that he has used before.
Also in the article Hedberg alleges that the SO’s Victim Advocate was fired to “free up funds” to hire DeLaurentis. False again, Hedberg. We checked with Sheriff Smith, and he said that the employee was fired for cause. (Smith replaced the Victim Advocate position with a professional counseling firm in Cañon City that specializes in advocacy and counseling work and is available 24/7. At a very low cost. Smith also hired a very experienced local couple who do crisis intervention and counseling. They are volunteering and available 24/7. So, much better tools and saving money.)
Near the end of the piece, Hedberg levels a new attack against Sheriff Smith regarding a local presentation held two Saturdays’ ago by the well-known election integrity expert, Joe Oltmann. It was put on by a local concerned citizen. Over 80 people attended. In Hedberg’s head, somehow questioning election integrity is a bad thing and he knocks the event and the speaker. The event was sponsored by a private citizen. Hedberg also gets bent out of shape as Sheriff Smith was presented with a symbolic “battle axe” gift by the presenter to help him fight against election fraud. Smith returned the gift to the event organizer as it exceeded the $50 max gift/honorarium Colorado limit.
Also, Hedberg again alleges Dr. Brown had a fraudulent degree on his resume. Hedberg has never proved that. In fact, the ethics complaint that Hedberg filed against Brown with the Colorado Ethics Commission was dismissed.