The Trib Hit Piece on Sheriff Smith:
Situation Normal
by George Gramlich, Commentary
Well, we really want to pass on commenting on this piece of yellow journalism, but it is low hanging fruit, and you know what that means: time for some plucking. The Editor of the Wet Mountain Tribune, Jordy “Red Bug” Hedberg wrote a very long article last week in his paper attacking our Sheriff, Rich Smith, over hiring a highly experienced and qualified Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) to be his part-time “Chief of Staff”. It was indeed low hanging fruit. So, the article needs some light thrown on it.
It is full of speculative allegations, which when reviewed in context, show an extreme prejudice against the Sheriff, and LEO in general.
Smith just hired Mike DeLaurentis as his part- time Chief of Staff (three days a week at $35 per hour and no benefits). An admin job. Smith has known DeLaurentis for a long time as both were stationed in the same building in Florence, with DeLaurentis being the Florence Police Chief and Smith being Captain of our local Colorado State Patrol section.
Hedberg’s hit piece reviews some of the well-known drama about Florence’s Ex-City Manager, Mike Patterson, who was accused of sexual harassment by multiple Florence employees. (Florence hired him even though he was a convicted felon!) Patterson was also involved in a host of other shenanigans as City Manager and was eventually arrested and convicted again.
A lot of the alleged dirt centered around one female employee who claimed that a whole bunch of city employees, including DeLaurentis, had sexually harassed her. This was very early in her employment at the City of Florence. Eventually the city settled and paid her a bunch of money.
(A red flag here folks is the number of people the lady accused. In a very short time.)
Hedberg also mentions some lawsuits filed against the Florence PD which were settled for money and unfairly implies somehow that all of those issues were DeLaurentis’s fault. (Folks, in today’s victim society, you can’t run a police department or a Sheriff’s Office without a constant barrage of lawsuits. Sad stuff, but true.)
Hedberg also knocks DeLaurentis for taking out a loan from the city and paying it back. This was a common practice among city employees with the blessing from the City Manager but this practice was later alleged to be “against city policy”. So somehow this is a black mark against DeLaurentis for having fully paid back a loan?
Hedberg then somehow implies that something fishy is going because no agency, even when asked, wanted to investigate DeLaurentis’s alleged wrong doings. (Wonder why?)
DeLaurents retired in 2019. Hedberg then lists a bunch of issues that occurred in Florence years later (eg, 2022), after DeLaurentis was long gone, and again tries to implicitly link those issues to DeLaurentis.
You got the drift. Somehow DeLaurentis is bad. And Smith is bad for hiring him. Note that DeLaurentis was never charged with a crime and never convicted. But that doesn’t count.
With regards to hiring DeLaurentis, take a look at Smith’s extensive management background with the Colorado State Patrol and his policies on responsibility and transparency. Smith has been totally above board with the public. Smith would never hire anyone who had any ethical issues and Smith would never hire anyone whose actions would reflect badly on the SO or himself.
Smith knew DeLaurentis for a long time. He worked closely with him. DeLaurentis has 42 years of LEO experience at various levels. Smith was stationed in Florence when all this Florence City Manager drama went down. He knows the truth. There is nothing wrong with Smith hiring a guy he knows, who he worked with and trusts, and who has an incredible work background. (Some additional background: DeLaurentis is the president of the Christian Motorcycle Association in Cañon City and is the head of the executive council at his church. In addition, DeLaurentis is a volunteer at the Cañon City Literary Center helping children to read.)
So why did Hedberg write the biased hit piece? Maybe because Hedberg has had multiple run ins with our legal system over the last few years and is not a big fan of LEO?
Or look at this: The three main county employees/officials that Hedberg has repeatedly attacked in the Tribune since he bought the paper, all have three things in common: Dr. Clifford Brown, our Public Health Director, Commissioner Bill Canda, and now Sheriff Rich Smith are all bedrock Christian conservatives. Is that a reason? Who knows?
At the end of the article. Hedberg states he will be attacking another recent SO hire, Undersheriff Susan Barnes, in his next edition. Barnes has an incredible resume and is highly qualified for the job. Hedberg said several SO employees have filed complaints against Barnes and that, apparently, warrants another hit piece.
With regards to Barnes and the complaints against her know this: Rich Smith, in his first two years, has dramatically remade the Custer County Sheriff’s Office. He has a new management structure and has brought in a bunch of highly experienced LEO’s with special training and knowledge that the office didn’t have before. This, of course, will ruffle some feathers of employees who were there when he was hired, but that is normal. A lot of people resist change, and some can’t accept it. So, complaints are to be expected. Note that when reading Hedberg’s attack piece on Undersheriff Barnes.
( Bottom Line: Another biased hit piece on a good man trying to build a better government agency. All of Hedberg’s attacks on Brown and Canda failed miserably. And this will too.
And you have to ask, what is going on in Hedberg’s head that makes him attack good people? Hopefully someday he will wake up and see the goodness and light in humanity.
This type of gutter journalism serves only to divide an otherwise peaceful community.
After reading the Trib’s hit piece, one of the Sentinel’s proofing ladies said, “That was just mean.” That folks, is the bottom line.)
