WASHINGTON COUNTY, Colorado — "It feels validating because we knew these things all along," said Alicia Johansen who had been waiting with Fred Thornton for 18 months to read the report related to their yearslong battle for custody over their son.
They hope it will shed light on why the Washington County Department of Human Services worked so hard to keep their son Carter away from them.
He was placed in foster care right after he was born when Johansen, his birth mom, tested positive for drugs. Despite doing everything in their treatment plan, it was three years before the foster parents were ordered to return Carter to them. It took another year for them to find out why.
In 2022, after years of fighting to get Carter back, Johansen and Thornton went to the Washington County Board of Commissioners and pointed out that thousands of tax dollars were spent by the county to prevent them from having access to Carter.
In September of that year, the County commissioned an independent investigator to look into the allegations of misconduct by Grant Smith, the Director of the Washington County Department of Human Services. It was finished in November 2022 - just days before Smith resigned.
Washington County fought to keep the report sealed but last month District Court Judge Charles Hobbs ordered it to be made public.
"The broader community has an interest in not only the wrongs imposed on the family but also the use of government resources in perpetuating the wrong," he wrote in his ruling to make the report the public.
"It felt so good to be seen and to be heard," said Johansen.
However, the full report was not released. Only the portions specifically about the custody of Carter were made public. The report is heavily redacted and protects the identities of Washington County employees. During interviews, some of them expressed concern that Smith had "lost objectivity" when it came to where to place Carter.
The report said the case "consumed" Smith and went on to say that "when things don't go his way... he is very moody."
"He's not in here to help us. He's in here for the other family. That's how I'd always feel," Thornton said as he read the report.
The report indicates that some employees agreed with Thornton.
“It is believed by some employees in the office that the child was promised to the foster parents from day one," the report says.
Employees also felt, according to the report, that Smith wasted money on the case.
"Thousands of dollars have been spent that should have been used instead on other families in the county," the report says.
"It was ridiculous," said Johansen. "Those resources could have gone to someone who actually needed them and not just fighting to keep a child away from a family that he belonged to. Just disgusting allocation of funds."
There were also many comments in the report about how Smith felt about Thornton, Carter's father.
"Smith has many times voiced his dislike for the child's father," the report says. It goes on to say, "he has described Fred Thornton as irritating and obnoxious."
"I knew that he didn't feel fondly of me. It never really hurt my feelings," said Thornton. "Every time he would come into a room, I would always feel like I was being ambushed when he was in the room."
Read the full report that was made public below.
The investigation concluded that Smith did violate the County's Code of Ethics policy, which includes respect, courtesy, integrity, truthfulness, and not using public service to bestow any preferential benefit. During his interview for the report, Smith denied the allegations but the report writer said they "did not find his denials credible."
"The state needs to be held accountable because we complained to them. I don't know how many times and nothing was done," Johansen said.
She and Thornton hope that speaking out about how they were treated can prevent other families from similar injustices.
"We have this goal, this responsibility to do something with this so that it doesn't happen again, I mean, to the best of our abilities, at least. And so what do we need to do now to make that happen?"
Smith told 9NEWS that in his position he lacked the "legal authority to influence decisions regarding a child's fate within the legal system.” He said that he acted in the best interest of the child and that "If the Court believed a different course of action was warranted in the Thornton case, it had the authority to make such decisions."
Neither the Washington County Commissioner nor the Colorado Department of Human Services responded to our request for an explanation of their involvement in this case.
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