GREELEY, Colo. — Former Rep. Rochelle Galindo (D-Greeley), who abruptly resigned her House District 50 seat earlier this month, was cited for providing alcohol to a minor, but will not face sexual assault charges, according to a report from Greeley Police.
That report was originally considered a confidential case because of the allegations of sexual misconduct.
Greeley Police's report states that Galindo, 29, provided alcohol to a person under the age of 21, and that her campaign manager and former state legislative staffer, Fabio Michael Cordeiro, 22, also bought alcohol that was given to a minor.
Galindo, who represented parts of Greeley and Evans, posted her resignation on social media saying:
"The allegations against me are false. That said, they will make my fight against the pending recall effort untenable. I will not put my constituents through what will surely be a recall campaign based on political smear tactics and false allegations. Instead, I will resign my seat as the elected representative of House District 50, effective immediately."
The Greeley PD incident report references a tip that started the investigation.
That tip was first sent to a reporter with Complete Colorado, a right-leaning online publication.
Sherrie Peif received a tip from a source that said: "This is strictly unverified information at this point and I don't want my name to get out as your source..." It continued with an allegation against Galindo, then finished with "Can you hire an investigator?"
Peif told 9NEWS that she sent that tip to two people in Greeley and never spoke with police herself.
“I sent that same screenshot to people that I trusted inside Greeley, that knew the situation with her and were close to her. Sent that clip to them, said 'do you know this person that’s named in here? Do you have any idea if this could possibly be true?'" Peif told 9NEWS.
One of the people she sent the information to is a Greeley City councilperson.
"That councilperson is a 30-year-old friend of mine," Peif said. "I didn’t hand it to a councilperson because they were a councilperson, I handed it to the councilperson because they knew the players and they knew the people involved and they could give me an answer if there was an answer to give."
The people she sent the tip to found the victim that was named in the text and helped her go to police.
Documents show police interviewed the victim, a 19-year-old intern on the Galindo campaign, hired in September 2018, who alleged drinking, smoking marijuana and a sexual relationship. She also said she was going through a vulnerable time, didn’t remember much about the incidents, but felt she was being taken advantage of.
The report says the victim told police she did not want to continue the investigation and the case was cleared.
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