District Court Judge Lauren Swan issued a verbal ruling in her courtroom in Cañon City on December 30 that Custer County Sergeant Pete Elliott had violated the Court’s gag order using two Facebook accounts with fake names on May 8, 2025. Judge Swan further ruled that the District Attorney’s Office had violated evidence rules known as “Rule 16” by not sharing the Wet Mountain Tribune’s investigation into Sergeant Elliott with Hanme Clark’s defense team back in May.
Further, Judge Swan stated that she was concerned about the behavior of the Custer County Sheriff’s Office, which had never performed an investigation into the matter after stating to the Tribune that one would be completed. “It is concerning to this court that no Internal Affairs investigation was completed by the Sheriff’s Office. This judicial officer has seen previous Internal Affairs investigations performed by the Sheriff’s Office, and it is concerning that one was never completed in this instance.”
As punishment for the violation of the gag order and the following cover-up, Judge Swan stated that Sergeant Elliott would not be allowed to testify in the upcoming February murder trial. This sanction against the District Attorney’s Office is severe, as Sergeant Elliott was one of the principal investigators following the shooting on Rocky Ridge Road, where Hanme Clark allegedly killed three people after a confrontation with four neighboring property owners on November 20, 2023. Much of the evidence collected by Sergeant Elliott will not be allowed in the trial.
This sanction imposed on the District Attorney’s Office continues a growing pattern of violations under the current leadership of District Attorney Jeff Lindsey. During the December 30 hearing, Judge Swan listed over a dozen Rule 16 Discovery Violations committed by DA Lindsey’s Office in the past year, including one in this case earlier in the year.
Lindsey stated in an email to all regional newspapers on December 23 that his office had been improving its handling of discovery violations and that most of those violations were caused by an outdated Colorado State software system. He provided a link to a story about a Colorado legislative task force set to explore how to improve the system as more and more data floods court cases. However, Judge Swan has repeatedly ruled that many of the Rule 16 Discovery violations are not due to technological issues but to what appear to be willful withholding of key evidence.
The Custer County Sheriff’s Office released Sergeant Elliott’s personnel file to the Tribune after the hearing, which only contained a few emails and copies of the Tribune’s original reporting from November, along with a certificate that Sergeant Elliott had completed a social media training on how to eliminate social media misconduct while on and off duty.
The key emails show that in December of 2025 (one month after the Tribune published its investigation), Undersheriff Susan Barnes asked Custer County Chief of Staff Mike De Laurentis if he had ever investigated Sergeant Elliott. De Laurentis stated that he had looked at the Tribune’s May email report and found that nothing Sergeant Elliott had done violated rules. He ultimately concluded that Sergeant Pete Elliott’s Facebook profile, which was called “John Clough,” and another one that was called “Jennifer Lewis,” were not anonymous and part of Mr. Elliott’s real name. He stated further that this was typical of public people and undercover officers.
Because De Laurentis did not find any issues with the account, he stated that what Sergeant Elliott had done on Facebook was protected under the First Amendment, “In reference to the post itself, Sergeant Elliott has the same rights as any other citizen, or even the press to the First Amendment right of freedom of speech, which is what I see here.”
What De Laurentis and the Sheriff’s Office as a whole seemed to ignore or not be aware of was that the Court had ordered a gag order on any law enforcement talking publicly about the case. Sergeant Elliott further compounded his actions by using two Facebook accounts with fake names to libel one of the key witnesses in the trial. Judge Swan found these actions to have violated the court’s order.
On Monday, Custer County Sheriff Rich Smith sent a statement to the Tribune explaining that he disagrees with the Judge’s ruling and plans to use County Attorney Dan Slater to explore legal remedies. His full statement is published below.
In addition, the Tribune learned Monday afternoon that Sheriff Smith fired Undersheriff Susan Barnes, but no details on the reasons are currently known as the Tribune goes to press Tuesday afternoon.
As of Monday, Sheriff Smith stated that he had asked the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office to conduct an investigation into Sergeant Elliott’s actions. This could be an effort to provide a different judgment that exonerates Sergeant Elliot and defies Judge Swan’s ruling.
– Jordan Hedberg
Sheriff’s statement on court sanction
This is my statement on the sanction. Last week, the Custer County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) was notified that a CCSO member would face a sanction in an upcoming court proceeding. The Office respects both the judicial process and the presiding judicial officer; however, it does not agree with the ruling and is reviewing its options. The Custer County Sheriff’s Office has consulted with the Custer County Attorney to discuss the matter and evaluate potential legal remedies. The CCSO is reviewing our in-house processes to ensure this does not happen again.
– Custer County Sheriff
Lloyd “Rich” Smith
To read the original investigation click the photo below
