Dodd was found guilty by a jury June 28 on three of four counts relating to the possession of murder evidence in a personal storage unit.
July 23, 2018
Former Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Detective Robert Dodd was ordered Monday to serve 15 days in jail on a misdemeanor charge of abuse of public records, but that sentence was stayed after his attorney Randy Jorgensen said he intends to file an appeal.
Dodd was found guilty by a jury June 28 on three of four counts relating to the possession of murder evidence in a personal storage unit.
He was found guilty of abuse of public records, a misdemeanor, and second-degree official misconduct — refrained from duty, and second-degree official misconduct — violating statute, both petty offenses.
He was found not guilty of criminal possession of an identification document.
Class 1 misdemeanors are punishable by six to 18 months in jail, a fine of $500 to $5,000, or both. A class 1 petty offense carries no minimum possible penalty, and a maximum possible penalty of 6 months in jail, a $500 fine, or both.
Fremont County Judge Norm Cooling on Monday denied probation on all counts and sentenced him to 180 days for the misdemeanor, with 165 of those days suspended, and he imposed a fine of $500. Additionally, a fine of $250 was imposed for each of the petty offenses.
Dodd will file for a public defender so the appeal can be reviewed in district court.
“I did my best to serve with honor,” Dodd said before his sentencing was handed down. “I’m not perfect.”
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He apologized to the court, the sheriff and the community for the mishandling of the seized items, which included a blanket, an ax and a rope.
He said he was “deeply sorry” and stated that this entire ordeal has been more than devastating to his family.
The charges stem from the December 2016 discovery of evidence in the storage locker found by Cañon City resident Rick Ratzlaff, who purchased the unit. The evidence allegedly is connected to the Aug. 15, 2006, murder of 17-year-old Candace Hiltz in the Copper Gulch area.
Dodd was accused of storing the potential murder evidence in a personal storage unit that later was sold at auction when his payment defaulted. He learned about the sale of the unit Dec. 25, 2016, and two days later, he created a supplement report to the Hiltz murder file using erroneous information and listing the items but never mentioning that they had been in his personal belongings.
Jeff Worley and Michael Younger, both who have known Dodd for more than 30 years, gave statements in support of their friend Monday, asking the judge for leniency.
“I can confidently say that he is a consummate professional,” Worley said, adding that Dodd had been poorly characterized by local media, which was not accurate or deserving.
Worley, who also was a fellow law enforcement officer, felt that Dodd already has been handed a sentence through the loss of his career and destruction of his good name.
Jorgensen reminded the court of Dodd’s clean record as a 26-year veteran police officer and explained that his client already had suffered “significant consequences.”
Dodd’s career ended with the filing of charges, Jorgensen said, and since this case began, he has been treated for depression, he has been terminated from jobs in Texas because of the publicity from this case, and because he and his family have been evicted from their home, they are staying with a friend.
Jorgensen said because of the public nature of the trial, law enforcement has received the message that District Attorney Molly Chilson wished to send.
“This was not a ‘good faith’ mistake,” Chilson said. “Officers will make mistakes, but they must be honest and own those mistakes.”
She said she wanted Dodd’s sentence to deliver to him the message, “Think before you lie, then don’t lie.”
Judge Cooling said taking home what could be evidence could be considered a “rookie mistake,” but not one that would be made by a veteran officer with commendations. He said Dodd’s reasons for taking home the items were flimsy or “puzzling at best.”
The items originally were stored in a large locker in his office for about a year because he said he wanted to take more photos and write a more thorough report, Dodd said during his trial. When his office moved to the police annex on South Ninth Street, Dodd didn’t want to take the items with him.
“I didn’t want to clutter it up with stuff, with junk,” Dodd said during the trial.
He ended up moving the items to his house until his family moved out of the home, and then they were transferred to the storage unit.
Judge Cooling said another move was another opportunity to return the items to the sheriff’s office, but he felt Dodd’s actions leaned more toward negligent and sloppy rather than deceptive or purposeful.
While the items seemed to not be directly pertinent to the Hiltz murder case, Cooling said Dodd’s actions make it difficult for current law enforcement officers to pick up the pieces if they want to assemble the case.
He said a jail sentence overall is important if only to deter similarly situated law enforcement officers.
“Overall, the community as a whole has a loss of confidence in overall law enforcement,” he said. “The general public is concerned about his type of activity.”
Delores Hiltz, the mother of Candace Hiltz, said she was disgusted by the sentence and the appeal.
“He should have got charged with the felonies that he did,” she said.
She said former FCSO detective Harry Sharp marked the evidence at the murder scene to be collected, but not all of it was taken by detectives.
“My sons and I bagged the evidence in my daughter’s murder,” she said. “We bagged the bloody blanket, we bagged a shotgun casing out of (Candace’s daughter’s) cradle, we bagged a speaker, we bagged the blanket her body was on — they left it all there — that was bagged four days after her death by her mother and her brothers — that is the most disgusting thing.”
Hiltz said she has much respect for Sharp for doing his job competently and honestly.
“(Dodd) is going to appeal for all of these charges to be thrown out of court like none of this ever happened, just like they buried her murder for 12 years come Aug. 15 like it never happened,” Hiltz said.
She also referred to additional evidence that is allegedly connected to Dodd that was found and recovered in May 2017 from the Phantom Landfill in Penrose but never was mentioned in the jury trial.
“He took evidence from the rape of a 10-year-old and kept it,” Hiltz said. “How can that (expletive) walk out of here? That made me sicker than everything that I’ve gone through.”
Carie Canterbury: 719-276-7643, canterburyc@canoncitydailyrecord.com
