GOLDEN - A Jefferson County commissioner and two of the county's attorneys weren't straightforward with investigators looking into the disappearance of legal files, a sheriff's report indicates.

Commissioner Jim Congrove, former County Attorney Frank Hutfless and former Assistant County Attorney Duncan Bradley provided answers that flew in the face of common knowledge about the missing documents and that contradict information given to detectives by other elected officials and county employees, the report says.

The report, compiled two years ago by Jefferson County sheriff's officers and recently obtained by the Rocky Mountain News, also shows Congrove and Bradley were in their offices the evening the files were taken from the office of former Assistant County Attorney Lily Oeffler.

Nearly all of the missing files involved Mike Zinna, a frequent critic of county government and publisher of the Web site JeffcoExposed.com.

The files contained a lengthy dossier the county had compiled on Zinna, whose lawsuit against the county was on its way to the Colorado Court of Appeals. The court eventually ruled against Zinna, who alleged the county breached a contract for development of land at the airport near Broomfield.

The dossier included information on Zinna's divorce and child support orders and other litigation he was involved in.

Copies of the documents later were published on colorado-wackoexposed.com, a Web site critical of Zinna. The site is registered to Robert Cook, an acquaintance of Congrove.

How and when Cook obtained the documents is not clear. He could not be reached for comment.

Congrove, a Republican and former state lawmaker, did not return calls for comment. Bradley could not be reached.

The files were taken between 5:20 p.m. on May 19, 2005, and the next morning, when Oeffler returned to her office to discover that the files she left on her desk were gone.

Days later, it was discovered that other files related to the Zinna case were taken from a nearby file room and an empty folder had been used to prevent the door from locking.

Congrove told detectives he was in his office until at least 8:30 p.m. the evening when the files were believed to have been taken, and Bradley said he worked with another assistant county attorney until at least 6 that evening. Bradley said he left with the other attorney but returned to "retrieve a briefcase," then left again, according to the investigators' report.

Just nine days after the documents turned up missing, Zinna's attorney, Chris Paulsen, sent the county a notice of intent to sue Congrove, his fellow Commissioners Dave Auburn and Kevin McCasky, and other current and former county employees. The lawsuit alleged that county officials and staff conspired to stifle Zinna's constitutional rights.

All three commissioners asked Hutfless to compile the files on Zinna and to keep the files in a single location, Congrove's fellow commissioners told investigators.

The job was almost complete when the documents, 8,087 of them, were taken.

Hutfless, the report says, told the investigators on June 7, 2005, that he was not aware an assistant county attorney had been told to assemble the files and said he did not know who asked that it be done.

On June 13, Oeffler told investigators that Hutfless had told her to do the job.

Hutfless said he had not personally seen the documents before they were taken and could not speculate on their contents when asked by detectives.

"I told them what I knew for sure," he said. "It was a matter of not guessing or assuming what was there. I was telling them what I knew for sure."

Although Congrove and Bradley denied knowing what files were missing, detectives repeatedly noted that the files' contents were well known around the county building.

"County employees prior to this date indicated that it appeared to be common knowledge an investigation was being conducted in reference to the missing files pertaining to . . . Zinna," the investigators' report said.

In their notes about a June 21, 2005, interview with Congrove, investigators quoted him as saying he "did not know what the files contained." But later in the interview, detectives noted that Congrove's responses to subsequent questions show he "appeared to understand or know that the files pertained to Zinna."

Congrove also told investigators in that interview that commissioners did not request that the Zinna files be assembled, contrary to statements from McCasky and Auburn.

McCasky and Auburn said all three commissioners were told about the missing files and their contents. McCasky said he and Congrove were together in Congrove's office on May 25, 2005, - nearly a month before investigators interviewed Congrove - when Deputy County Attorney Ellen Wakeman told them about the theft, according to the report.

McCasky also told investigators that he, Congrove and Auburn had asked Hutfless to collect the Zinna documents.

No one was identified as a suspect in the case of the missing documents, which was referred to Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey. Morrissey did not file any charges after his staff spent several weeks examining the sheriff's office report.

"There was nowhere to go with it. No one was ever identified as a suspect and, in fact, we could not even prove probable cause that a crime had been committed," said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver district attorney.

Timeline in missing-files inquiry

• May 19, 2005: Assistant County Attorney Lily Oeffler leaves her office at 5:20 p.m. Box containing files on Mike Zinna and his previous lawsuits, including those filed against the county, are on her desk.

• May 20, 2005: Oeffler returns to her office at 8:15 a.m. and discovers the box is missing. Later that day, additional files relating to Zinna are determined to be missing.

• May 26, 2005: County commissioners contact sheriff's office to request an inquiry into the missing files.

• June 3, 2005: Zinna files another lawsuit, accusing Commissioner Jim Congrove and others of trying to interfere with his constitutional rights.

• June 6, 2005: Investigators contact Oeffler and conduct the first interview in their inquiry.

• July 5, 2005: Investigators complete interviews.

• Aug. 5, 2005: District Attorney Scott Storey files request for special prosecutor to examine the results of the inquiry. Case later is assigned to Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.

• Feb. 13, 2006: Morrissey's office decides no charges are warranted because no suspect emerged.

• April 2006: Copies of the Zinna documents are posted on Web site coloradowackoexposed.com.

ablec@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5020

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