Former state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis is under investigation by the Denver and Boulder district attorneys’ offices, nearly a month after legislative staff determined the Longmont Democrat had likely forged at least one letter of support in an ethics probe.
Spokespeople for both offices confirmed their involvement in the investigation Tuesday. The Denver District Attorney’s Office began investigating after “the matter was referred to us by the State Senate,” spokesman Matt Jablow said in an email. “The investigation is ongoing.”
Jablow declined to provide additional details, and the exact nature of the investigation is unclear. But Denver Democratic Sen. Julie Gonzales, who chaired an ethics committee investigating Jaquez Lewis’ behavior toward aides, said she spoke with both the Denver and Boulder district attorneys “about the materials we received from (Jaquez Lewis) as part of the Senate Ethics Committee process.”
The Denver DA’s office also requested an interview with Gonzales, she said, as well as copies of the letters Jaquez Lewis submitted to defend herself against an ethics probe into her treatment of her staff. Gonzales said a constituent of Jaquez Lewis previously contacted Boulder prosecutors and then emailed Gonzales to ask if charges would be filed against the now-former senator.
That email, Gonzales said, prompted her conversations with the two counties’ district attorneys.
Jaquez Lewis earlier submitted five letters, purportedly from supporters and former staff members, as part of her defense against the ethics investigation. One was later determined to have been faked, legislative staff told Gonzales and other members of the Senate Ethics Committee last month.
A second person, Tara Mastracchio, confirmed to The Denver Post on Tuesday that she also did not write a letter attributed to her in Jaquez Lewis’ ethics hearing.
“I am disappointed and disillusioned by the behavior of the prior senator over the last few weeks,” Mastracchio said after reviewing the letter. “I maintained my integrity and loyalty standing by her over the last several months, but now feel like I’ve been a pawn in desperate and manipulative tactics.”
Under Colorado law, using deceit in an attempt to influence a public servant is a felony, as is the use of certain forgeries.
In an interview, Jaquez Lewis said she had not been contacted by law enforcement. She reiterated an earlier assertion that she tried to withdraw the first letter from the public record after realizing it was “submitted accidentally.” She declined to comment on the record about the letter from Mastracchio.
“I have not been contacted by a district attorney, and it sounds like Sen. Gonzales is wanting to continue a political fight with me,” Jaquez Lewis said.
Jaquez Lewis resigned her Senate seat last month just hours before the Senate Ethics Committee was set to deliberate about whether she had mistreated her aides. She’d previously been removed as a sponsor of a bill aimed at addressing wage theft because she allegedly refused to sign off on paying her aide. Last year, The Post also reported allegations that she’d created a hostile work environment.
Her resignation ended the probe, but during the committee’s last meeting, senior legislative staff told the committee they had heard from the supposed author of one supportive letter who denied that she had written it.
“Under no circumstances was I the author of the letter that bears my name,” the former staff member told legislative staff, as relayed by Ed DeCecco, the director of the Office of Legislative Legal Services. The staff member said she hadn’t spoken with Jaquez Lewis for a year and that she was “dumbfounded” to have heard her name mentioned during a previous committee meeting, DeCecco said.
The former staff member did not return a message seeking comment Tuesday. Jaquez Lewis, besides saying the letter was submitted by mistake, told legislative staff that the “letter was information she had … from years ago” and that the letter “was based on conversations” between her and the former staff member, DeCecco told the committee last month.
DeCecco also asked Jaquez Lewis to provide evidence confirming that the other four letters, one of which was anonymous, were genuine — or to provide contact information for the letters’ purported authors. The legislative staff had not heard from any of the authors by the last committee meeting on Feb. 18, DeCecco said.
One of the authors of another supportive letter, Denice Walker, confirmed to The Post that she wrote the letter submitted to the legislature. Another purported author did not return messages seeking comment.
Gonzales said she hadn’t yet spoken with investigators, who reached out to her roughly two weeks ago, and she didn’t know if they’d contacted other lawmakers.
“I think that it is incredibly important for us as senators to hold ourselves to account,” Gonzales said. “If district attorneys want to investigate this matter, that is their purview under the law. That is their work to do.”
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