Internal probe initiated after ex-employee alleges misconduct, lack of professionalism

The city of Ouray has initiated an internal investigation of its police department after receiving a complaint alleging police misconduct, including violation of state law, not following department policies and unprofessional behavior.

The complaint, filed by former evidence technician Jessica Tice, comes seven months after she raised issues with the department in her resignation letter.

Tice resigned as a contract employee in September, citing concerns about how the department conducted an investigation and handled evidence. She had worked for the department for two years.

At the time, Tice said she met with City Administrator Silas Clarke. She hoped an internal investigation would be initiated after she detailed concerns including evidence management, victim-blaming culture, officers not wearing or turning on body-worn cameras, and not providing evidence to the district attorney’s office.

She filed a formal complaint on April 18.

“I just wanted to make sure this was being handled correctly,” she said in an interview with the Plaindealer. “And I had given it time in hopes that it would get sorted out, and I do not think it has been.”

The formal complaint alleged criminal and department policy violations, which resulted in the city hiring a Broom- field-based company, Municipal Police Consultants, to conduct an internal investigation. Clarke confirmed the investigation has been opened but declined to say more about the complaint at this time or its contents.

“That will all be part of the investigation,” he said. In Tice’s complaint, she lays out a series of concerns, including one alleged criminal violation, a violation of state law and several department policy violations, as well as issues with professionalism, ethics and the climate of the workplace. Among Tice’s allegations:

• Sgt. Gary Ray (who is now the acting police chief) told a suspect in a criminal investigation to delete evidence “to keep you out of trouble later.” Tice alleges this is tampering with physical evidence, a violation of state law. She also said Officer Casey Canfield mismanaged evidence by failing to collect, package and analyze evidence in the same case.

• Police Chief Jeff Wood at one point said the majority of sex assault cases are “bulls–t” and criticized the “Me Too” movement. This is particularly of note, considering Wood’s stepson is a defendant in an alleged sex assault case, in which a woman said she was sexually assaulted at Wood’s home by three suspects while the chief slept upstairs.

• Wood allegedly made inappropriate comments to a 22-year-old woman in summer 2023 and told her he would take her out to dinner but he would “have to explain to his wife why he was out with a pretty young blonde girl.”

• “Chief Wood openly made disparaging remarks about the BLM movement,” she wrote, adding he boycotted businesses in Ouray that displayed support for Black Lives Matter and referred to it as a “terrorist organization.”

• The chief and officers “often worked in uniform without wearing body-worn cameras, which is required by law,” she wrote. As of July 1, 2023, “A peace officer shall wear and activate a body-worn camera when responding to a call for service or during any interaction with the public initiated by the peace officer when enforcing the law or investigating possible violations of the law,” according to state law.

• Tice reported an incident where she found the owner of a passport turned into lost and found at the police department by searching on the Internet, after Ray didn’t locate information. “In front of Wood, Ray repeatedly asked me if I had located the owner on ‘Only Fans’ in an attempt to mock or ridicule me. As a supervisor, Wood did nothing to address this,” she wrote. Only Fans is an online subscription site where people can sell sexually explicit material.

Tice also expressed concerns about the department letting cases go cold, not properly investigating reports of crimes or “whitewashing” them, and other issues. She specifically referenced the way the department handled an investigation of a janitor accused of taking photos of children at the Ouray School last fall, which is not resolved.

“I find the standards of conduct of the Ouray Police Department deplorable,” she wrote.

Tice told the Plaindealer her tenure working for the police department is the first time she encountered such lack of professionalism, toxic culture and poor standards in her 19-year law enforcement career.

Tice has served as a part-time officer with the Vail Police Department since 2005 and a part-time deputy for the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office since last year. During her career, she has served as a patrol officer, detective, drug unit commander and incident commander of SWAT operations, among other positions.

The complaint comes at a time of turmoil within the agency. Wood was placed on paid administrative leave in January, pending the outcome of criminal proceedings involving his stepson, Nate Dieffenderffer, and two other suspects, Gabriel Trujillo and Ashton Whittington. Wood did not respond to a phone call requesting comment for this article.

This is the second internal investigation the Ouray Police Department has been the subject of this year. Another investigation was launched after a complaint was filed in relation to a case involving a juvenile. The Plaindealer has requested the results from that investigation. It’s not clear what the complaint detailed, due to the heavy redaction of the document.

Tice said she’s looking for transparency and accountability, and hopes an impartial investigation of the department will result in changes.

“I think the bottom line is, the public deserves a more professional law enforcement. It should reflect the morals and standards of the community and the way it’s running now is not acceptable,” she said.