AURORA | The partner of ousted Aurora police chief Vanessa Wilson is accused of fabricating a report that claimed Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky sexually abused her toddler son, according to an arrest affidavit.
Robin Niceta, 40, faces charges of retaliation against an elected official, a sixth-degree felony, and making a false report of child abuse as a mandatory reporter, a second-degree misdemeanor. Police say Niceta worked in the Arapahoe County Department of Human Services at the time she made the false report.
READ THE ARREST AFFIDAVIT FOR ROBIN NICETA HERE
The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office said Niceta was booked Monday at the Arapahoe County Jail and released in lieu of a $4,000 bond.
Jurinsky said she believes the false accusations were made in retaliation for criticism of Wilson. She emerged as one of Wilson’s most outspoken critics before the chief was fired by City Manager Jim Twombly in April.
The story was first reported by the KCNC TV 4 News.
The affidavit, signed by an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office sergeant, says Niceta called the Department of Human Services anonymously to report that Jurinsky had abused her son in the presence of her employees.
The call was placed on Jan. 28, the day after Jurinsky appeared on KNUS host Steffan Tubbs’ talk-radio show and criticized Wilson’s leadership, referring to Wilson as “trash.”
Investigators with the department later determined that the allegations against Jurinsky were unfounded, and law enforcement concluded that Niceta placed the call after finding that her number matched the number of the anonymous caller and in light of forensic analysis of Niceta’s cell phone and county-issued laptop.
Among other pieces of evidence, roughly four minutes before the call was placed, Niceta allegedly used the search engine Bing on her county laptop to look up “does the child abuse hotline keep phone numbers in colorado,” according to the affidavit.
A few hours after the call was placed — too soon for her to have known about the report through normal departmental channels, an attorney for the county told law enforcement — Niceta also referenced the complaint in a text message from her phone.
Niceta repeatedly denied having made the call but told law enforcement information that conflicted with the evidence recovered from her electronic devices.
Niceta said Wilson and her two children also had access to her phone, though she said her children would not have called. When pressed about who could have called, Niceta said “it wasn’t me,” the affidavit said.
The supposedly anonymous caller said Jurinsky had fondled her son’s genitals in restaurants she owned and during a holiday party for employees. Jurinsky told investigators the places where the alleged abuse took place weren’t open at the time, and the holiday party never took place. Witnesses and employees corroborated that the allegations never happened.
Suzanne Taheri, a lawyer representing Jurinsky, scheduled a press conference at 3 p.m. at CentrePoint Plaza in Aurora, where the county department is located.
Taheri said that one of the first questions Jurinsky asked her was whether similar incidents had happened to others. Teheri said the department’s “culture” needed to be examined.
In a statement, county spokesman Luc Hatlestad said the county has “zero tolerance for this type of behavior, which undermines the critical work of our team.”
“Upon receiving an allegation of false reporting by an employee, we immediately engaged law enforcement and conducted an internal investigation,” he said. “It would be inappropriate to provide any further comment on this personnel matter.”
Hatlestad also forwarded a May 4 email from Niceta in which she announced her immediate resignation but did not offer an explanation for her decision.
At the Monday news conference, Jurinsky said she believed Niceta should have been fired, rather than allowed to resign.
Lara Baker, an attorney representing Niceta, said in a statement, “We trust the judicial system to give Ms. Niceta her day in court, and we will leave politics to the politicians.”
It’s unclear whether Wilson knew about the allegations her partner made and when. Jurinsky said she believed that if Wilson knew, she should also be prosecuted.
An attorney for Wilson was not immediately available for comment.
This is absolutely disgusting. Everyone who voted for Daneille and even those that didn’t should be outraged. We need to stand up for Danielle
So you automatically assume that she is correct? Based on her previous behavior I wouldn’t do that.
Really dim bulb…
Innocence until proven guilty. But Danielle brings it on herself.she should resign.
Did you read the arrest affidavit? The interviews and phone/computer records evidence are pretty damning. The unfounded child abuse claims made against Jurinsky are frankly disgusting. The chief’s partner appears to have had an agenda to destroy Jurinsky and punish her in the most reprehensible way possible–by taking away her child.
Nothing Jurinsky said justifies this kind of dirty politics.
Yes it does, but politics are always dirty today.
She shouldn’t have been wearing that outfit! Why was she walking down that empty street at 11pm??
I am not the biggest fan of CM Jurinsky but this is disgusting, retaliatory behavior. To bring a child into the mix is even lower. For shame.
Do we know this in fact happened? I wish I would have seen the press conference. But the mudslinging from every side will be disgusting for sure.
Yeah, when your side gets caught acting out, suddenly “BOF SYDZ!” are at fault.
If found to be true, I certainly agree. She’ll be held to account.
While unlikely to be proven that Wilson had anything to do with this, aside from her relationship with Niceta, understandably this reflects badly upon Wilson and any sympathy she seeks for her dismissal.
In any case, what a mess this has (and continues to) been! Looking forward to better days and image for the APD and the many/most/majority of upstanding officers and employees. As well looking forward to a city council, void of drama, governing our city with courtesy, progress, innovation and success.
I wouldn’t allow it to reflect on the Chief. This could have been done without her knowledge, and she is not responsible for what someone else does. It’s just like people trying to blame the President for something they allege his son may have done.
Would you not allow this to reflect on Trump had Melania been accused of this? I hardly think so.
When Coffman is gone and the council is more balanced? Me too.
Lol, the council has been “balanced” for several years now. You’re just mad that it’s not slightly tilted in your side’s favor at the moment.
I would hope the Sentinel vehemently defends Jurinsky and condemns this heinous act. They’re very quick to condemn anyone from APD or a Republican in city government. If Wilson was involved. or had knowledge, of the false allegations, she needs to be charged criminally. Who thinks she didn’t know… c’mon!. She’s truly trash and that’s why her officers hate her!
No one needs to defend anyone. The facts will prove what really happened and that will be that. The Chief herself is not involved in this. And by your rhetoric you just took yourself out of any civil discussion.
This is certainly a pathetic post. Surely you can do better.
Malicious, false accusations like this are a result of the partisan, biased and prejudicial rhetoric printed by the Sentinel every day. The Sentinel, in its incessant hatred of Conservatives, all but endorsed this type of act. Go back and read the “reporting” done by Sentinel staff with respect to Juan Marcano and Daniel Jurrinsky and you will see the bias.
Jurinsky was the one who started all this with her inability to control her mouth in an on-the-air interview. I fail to see “bias.” But it points to the fact that this is all a “political hit job” as the Sentinel has pointed out.
Oh boy! Here we go! Charges and counter charges will be flying for the foreseeable future. Stay tuned to this drama.
This should be expected. People who knew the ex-chief said she was all fake on her image…
Told ya she was bad
Did she do something?
I cannot imagine a more vicious or more personal attack. These allegations sought to not simply discredit, but to destroy, to devastate, to make Ms. Jurinsky a pariah. There will never be a full measure of justice if the allegations are unfounded as would be my guess from the reporting so far.
If proven guilty Niceta should face maximum penalties.
I really dislike Jurinsky but false accusers are the lowest of the low.
You just can’t do stuff like that. What a sordid mess.
This latest in Aurora’s Hot-Mess of local stories has it all. It’s an extension and weird collection of city politics. It’s unmistakably of a social justice warrior attempting to use powerful Government control with her position of trust by filing false public reports. It’s about a facile woke city council foaming at the mouth to try to shut down a conservative single mom. A terminated police chief, in the cult of the identitarian left, and NOT exactly some total in the dark everyday “citizen”. Chief Wilsons knowledge of advanced police work, and she knew nothing about this intimidation move toward one of her detractors, huh?
What future picture of a train wreck will this look like?
And CM Danielle Jurinsky, during a radio interview, says yesterday, “this is war”
I was convinced and thought the Wilson firings was old, tired, worn-out news. Not – now – it’s the gift that keeps on giving. This thing is shortly headed for the national news.
Danielle absolutely does not deserve this, nobody does. I do believe that she set a climate of hate and disrespect on city council that boomeranged. Lose the inflammatory language. Act like a respectful adult. Set an example for your baby boy, make him proud of his mom.
Any subsequent fallout from what we’ve seen so far should invite investigators into a further look. The bizarre scheme Robin Niceta, tried to pull was about the same time the chief was facing her own termination turmoil.
The arrest warrant identifies different individuals that were contacted during the criminal investigation of CM Jurinsky, This does not mention any city officials. Nonetheless, was the city manager, the mayor, the APD chief (at this time) or other council members know anything pertinent as the Arap county sheriff nosed around?
If this was the case, we have a tsunami of political drama.
The shorthanded staff at the Sentinel has censored this conservative voice, yet again. I made a statement 24 hours ago about how the far left wing commenters, Joe Felice and Doug King were both commenting on every comment not supporting their position by trying to justify their position that Wilson and her partner/lover are not proven guilty and they thinking Danielle was still at fault.
I will not go away and will say something every time I’m censored. I will wonder if they now censor this comment or even bring back the censored comments. It has happened before and then they blame being shorthanded. Shame on them and their censorship.
Hey there! There was actually no other comments in the queue from you on this story. Make sure you’re hitting the ‘post comment’ button after your response and you should be good to go. Thanks!
Thank you Kara. I do hit the “post comment” every time. That’s not it. I’m discovering it has more to do with the “oldest” “newest key”. All my comments do not show yesterday or today in the standard “oldest” key but when I hit newest all of them show. Your reply didn’t show up until I hit the “newest” key.
Wow. I made my last comment about being censored, looked to see if my original comment would show up because it has in the past and guess what. It did. The timing of the Sentinel’s censorship is very strange. Anyone else noticed this. I will continue to study this until I understand.
You just can not make this lunacy up folks.