District Attorney George Brauchler talks with reporters Feb. 6 regarding an incident in Aurora where an officer had passed out his police car drunk. 
This screen grab from Aurora police body cam video shows Officer Nathan Meier passed out behind the wheel of his police car as fellow officers try to extract him. An investigation later determined that Meier had passed out from drinking. SENTINEL FILE PHOTO 
Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz 
Pictured: Deputy Aurora Police Chief Paul O’Keefe. He will retire from the Department after a 24-year career March 31, 2020. Photo provided by the City of Aurora.
AURORA | A pair of top-ranking Aurora police chiefs made “critical missteps” after finding an officer passed out in his running cruiser while on duty last year, a former federal prosecutor wrote in a lengthy report released Thursday.
Former U.S. Attorney for Colorado John Walsh determined Aurora police brass, primarily former Chief Nick Metz and former Deputy Chief Paul O’Keefe, “made significant errors of judgement” after Officer Nate Meier was found unconscious in his running Ford Taurus on March 29, 2019, according to a 329-page document detailing the incident.
However, Walsh determined the chiefs tasked with investigating and disciplining Meier did not do so out of “bad faith,” according to the report.
Instead, Walsh criticized Metz and O’Keefe for failing to pursue a criminal investigation against Meier, for limiting the scope of the internal affairs review process that followed and for failing to realize how severely Metz’s decision to retain Meier would hinder the department’s reputation.
“Chief Metz’s decision to retain Officer Meier despite the aggravating facts of the incident has had a negative impact on the department internally and the public’s perception of whether APD is able to police itself,” Walsh, who now works as a partner at the Denver law firm Wilmer Hale, wrote.
A furor over Meier’s firing has been consistent since CBS4 Reporter Brian Maas first reported on the incident in early December. The outcry gained new traction last month after Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler announced that he did not have sufficient evidence to prosecute Meier due to case law that granted Meier legal immunity following his interviews with the department’s internal affairs unit.
Meier later told police that the day officers found him passed out in his cruiser he had returned to his Parker home during his scheduled shift with the police department to get a uniform for his second job as a security guard. There, he drank Smirnoff vodka to the point of blacking out before getting in his car and driving an estimated 30 minutes.
“The next thing he recalled was being at the hospital and a male doctor telling him he was not going anywhere until he could stand on his own,” according to Walsh’s report. ” … He did not recall drinking alcohol prior to coming to work in the morning, but said it was possible that he did.”
Meier was scheduled to work from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on March 29, though he clocked in at 10:15 a.m. and left at 2:02 p.m., according to the report.
After several months of internal review, Meier was eventually demoted and temporarily suspended without pay, but he remains on the police force. He was never criminally charged with DUI or other infractions despite being found in the driver’s seat of a city-owned vehicle with a blood-alcohol content of .43, five times the legal limit, according to police internal affairs documents.
City Manager Jim Twombly ordered Walsh’s independent review of the incident in December. The city has so far paid about $100,000 out of the general fund to cover the cost of Walsh’s investigation, Twombly said. In total, coffers are expected to be dinged $200,000 for the report.
Read the full report here.
In his analysis, Walsh recommended implementing several policy changes to prevent incidents like that involving Meier from occurring in the future. Those changes include automatically starting a criminal investigation whenever there is a reasonable suspicion a cop has been drunk while driving or in possession of a gun, consulting with the local district attorney in any such scenario, refer such a case to a third-party investigator and bolstering the power of the department’s independent review board, which is composed of both cops and civilians.
Interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson has since taken the reins of the department. She has already implemented Walsh’s proposed change calling for a mandatory criminal investigation into any Aurora cop suspected of driving drunk.
“Our community deserves accountability and transparency from the Aurora Police Department and its leadership,” Wilson said in a statement issued Thursday. “The conclusion of this review brings us all one step closer to helping and earning back the public trust.”
Wilson was named interim chief late last year after O’Keefe withdrew his name from the running on Christmas Eve. He abruptly resigned from the department earlier this year after Wilson announced she had started a new internal affairs investigation into his conduct surrounding the Meier incident.
That investigation is still pending.
Through his attorney, O’Keefe declined to be interviewed by the Wilmer Hale team, Walsh said.
In internal affairs documents, O’Keefe said he called off a criminal DUI investigation in an attempt to insulate Meier, who he believed was having an extraordinary medical episode.
“(O’Keefe) indicated that he had erred on the side of caution to protect Officer Meier and anybody else under the same circumstances from criminal investigation blood draws when they were suffering a medical emergency,” Walsh wrote.
O’Keefe indicated he would have made the decision for a civilian in a similar scenario.
Walsh disagreed.
“A civilian simply would not have been given this same lenient treatment and shouldn’t be — neither should a police officer,” he said.
Walsh lauded several Aurora police officers who repeatedly questioned the department’s handling of the investigation.
“At each stage of APD’s response, APD members themselves raised concerns about the appropriateness and adequacy of APD’s response,” he wrote.
Days after Meier was found near the entrance of Buckley Air Force Base with his car in drive and his foot on the brake pedal, Police Commander Marcus Dudley told O’Keefe that at least two other officers who responded to the scene reported smelling alcohol emanating from Meier’s car.
“O’Keefe sighed, said ‘ugh,’ and pushed himself away from the desk,” according to Walsh’s report. He then recused himself from the ensuing internal affairs investigation, which he typically took part in, because he was the first officer to respond to Meier’s vehicle.
Another lieutenant said that Metz was hesitant to expand the scope of the internal affairs investigation beyond Meier’s actions.
“Chief Metz was reluctant to initiate a separate (Internal Affairs Bureau) investigation into APD’s response to the incident,” Walsh wrote. “Chief Metz advised that Officer Meier would be the only subject of the investigation. Everyone else involved, including Dep. Chief O’Keefe, would be interviewed as witnesses and the investigation would include the entire response to the incident.”
Metz retired at the end of 2019.
Despite both the internal affairs bureau and a separate review board ultimately finding Meier was in violation of four department directives and deserved to be fired, Metz ultimately decided to keep the veteran officer on the force.
“Officer Meier provided Chief Metz with a long and detailed presentation of the steps he had taken since the incident to deal with his alcohol abuse issues,” Walsh wrote. “Chief Metz said that Officer Meier took full responsibility for his conduct and was very remorseful.”
Walsh ultimately condemned that decision and painted Metz as shortsighted.
“As a result, although Chief Metz’s decision to give Officer Meier a second chance is understandable, and his motive laudable, his decision focused too narrowly on Officer Meier and did not adequately take into account the needs of the community and public safety more broadly,” he wrote. “Chief Metz was aware that the facts of the incident might become public. Particularly, in view of that, he underestimated the legitimate public concerns given the severity of the incident.”
Metz also nixed a secondary investigation into O’Keefe’s conduct surrounding the Meier investigation.
“Division Chief (Ernie) Ortiz met with Chief Metz — a police legal advisor was also present — and explained the (Chief’s Review Board’s) concerns related to O’Keefe’s ‘decision making process’ and whether he violated APD’s policy regarding investigation of alcohol use by an officer,” Walsh wrote. “Div. Chief Ortiz recalls that Chief Metz indicated that he did not believe that an investigation was appropriate. The decision was to be documented in a memorandum, but it appears that memorandum was never drafted.
City politicos said they were floored by Walsh’s findings.
“I think that everything in (the report) has confirmed the worst suspicions that at least I had of how this was going to play out,” City Councilwoman Allison Hiltz said. “So I’m very frustrated by the findings and the outcome because I think a small part of me was hoping it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, and it is. So that’s a little disappointing.”
Mayor Mike Coffman said Aurora residents should continue to trust Aurora cops.
“I was obviously upset to learn about this case, and I fully supported the city manager’s decision to get an outside and independent review,” Coffman said in a statement. “Our residents should have full faith in their police department and their city leaders, and I hope that the steps the city has taken already—and will take in response to this report—go a long way in making them feel confident again.”