Post by WaTcHeR on Nov 20, 2006 14:25:23 GMT -5
Joshua Patsch
11.20.2006 - A former Green Mountain Falls marshal who was fired after being accused of selling guns held in evidence and pocketing the money pleaded guilty Thursday to a petty offense of official misconduct.
Under the plea deal, Joshua Patsch, 25, avoided a trial on felony theft charges and the possibility of a jail sentence.
It also calls for his record to be sealed after six months and leaves him eligible to become a police officer again. The maximum sentence for a petty offense is six months in jail and a $500 fine.
Patsch was accused of removing nine handguns, rifles and shotguns valued at $1,200 from the evidence room, selling them and failing to give the money to the town, according to the arrest affidavit. He was fired in August 2005.
A special prosecutor from the Pueblo District Attorney’s Office handled the deal and declined comment after the hearing.
Although the plea deal spared Patsch a jail sentence, the rest of Patsch’s sentence was left up to Dis- trict Judge Patrick Kelly, a former police officer. Kelly tacked on 500 hours of community service, which the judge said was a penalty for what he called Patsch’s violation of Green Mountain Falls residents’ trust.
About 800 people live in the town along U.S. Highway 24 between Colorado Springs and Woodland Park.
“You also violated the standards of what you were trained to do,” Kelly told Patsch. “It’s shocking to me, even for a petty offense, that a police officer stands before me.”
Kelly suggested Patsch use his community service to “make amends” to the community. If Patsch fails to complete the community service, Kelly could send him to jail for six months.
Patsch, who told Kelly he’s not working, declined to make a statement and was not required to admit what he did.
Patsch worked as a police officer in Ohio before moving to Green Mountain Falls. If a judge agrees to seal his cases, his Colorado police certification would not be affected and he would be free to be a police officer in the state again.
Investigators also accused Patsch of obtaining an arrest warrant for a Colorado Springs resident through fraudulent information, the affidavit states.
Those charges, which also were dropped, arose after Colorado Springs police received a tip from Douglas Dixon, who was fired in May from his job as deputy marshal in Green Mountain Falls, according to an arrest affidavit.
Dixon said he and Patsch went to Colorado Springs in December to arrest the daughter of Thomas Schaefer.
Schaefer, who owns the Strikeforce gun store in Colorado Springs, is a close friend of Patsch, according to the affidavit. Schaefer believed his daughter had stolen checks from his Colorado Springs home in December and reported it to Colorado Springs police.
Patsch apparently thought “the Colorado Springs Police Department was not being much help to Thomas Schaefer in the investigation of these stolen checks,” according to the affidavit.
He allegedly wrote a police report in which he claimed the theft occurred in Green Mountain Falls. Based on that report, a judge signed a warrant authorizing Carrie Schaefer’s arrest.
Patsch “stated that he used this address in order to obtain jurisdiction in this investigation,” according to the affidavit.
Randy Ford, who replaced Patsch as Green Mountain Falls marshal, said Thursday he was “surprised the sentence wasn’t stiffer.”
He said he also was concerned about Patsch becoming an officer again.
“I hope (the certification board) would take into consideration the actual circumstances,” Ford said.
Patsch declined comment.
www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1326629