BOULDER, Colo. — Prosecutors said they had the evidence against three men accused of domestic violence, but the cases never went to trial. They said the Boulder detective on the cases in 2019 didn't work fast enough.
The Boulder County District Attorney's Office completed an audit into Officer Kwame Williams, who they said failed to finish work on 46 cases, and a couple of those cases involved misdemeanor domestic violence offenses. According to the audit, three domestic violence cases of 46 cases total had enough evidence to move forward with prosecution, but the statute of limitations had expired.
"Some of these cases involved victims of sexual assault and domestic violence who went without contact for a prolonged time after the crimes were reported to law enforcement," the audit said. "Williams' failure to work these cases and to communicate with these victims fell below what is expected and required of a detective."
The women called Boulder police for help in 2019. In 2022, the department tried to follow up. The cases had to be closed because too much time had passed.
Police reports for those three cases detail fear from the women. One said her boyfriend was "beating on her" and told her "I'm going to leave you slumped somewhere" after they got into an argument. The woman said her boyfriend grabbed and hit her right breast, which caused her pain.
Another woman told police she got several harassing text messages from her ex. According to the report, he texted her "f*** the cops I love jail." The woman told officers she's pregnant with his child and he was demanding a specific name for the child. The boyfriend was in custody for violating a protection order and was released two days before this incident, according to the police report.
The third woman called for help when she said her boyfriend grabbed her hair and dragged her off of the bed. The report said the woman was bleeding from her finger after the man bit her.
According to the police report, the boyfriend was arrested three more times for domestic violence after the original case was assigned to Williams.
The audit by the District Attorney's Office said the statute of limitations expired in five misdemeanor domestic violence cases assigned to Williams. Three of the five had enough evidence for criminal charges, the audit found, and three of the five defendants committed additional offenses while the original investigation handled by Williams was pending.
Before the police department requested an audit by the DA's office, the department conducted an internal investigation.
It found cases assigned to Williams had not been investigated fully between 2019 and 2022. Five officers -- Williams and four others within his chain of command -- were disciplined.
Williams was suspended for five days without pay and the department placed him in the patrol unit.
The DA's office said the Boulder Police Department responded appropriately. Cases were reassigned to other detectives.
“At the request of the Boulder Police Department, the District Attorney’s Office conducted a thorough review of every case at issue," DA Michael Dougherty said in a statement. "The results of our audit were largely consistent with what the Boulder Police Department had already released to the public, but I appreciate that they wanted an independent review of each case. I recognize that the Boulder Police Department did exactly what one would hope after discovering this failure by the detective. They notified all of the appropriate parties, released a statement to the community, and requested an independent review by the District Attorney’s Office of the cases impacted.”
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