July 3, 2025 • 48 mins
Joel Kern wasn’t alone in his bad behavior. More allegations of misconduct at the CSPD come to light.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys. Before we dive into the episode, we have
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(00:23):
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Speaker 2 (00:41):
He would come into my bedroom and say he was
clearing the house, but I'm sleeping in bed and I
have a gun in a flashlight in my face. He
just played by different rules and everyone just accepted that.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, Season four, episode seven,
The Golden Few. Every week, our team at Betrayal receives
dozens of emails from people devastated by infidelity, stories of
betrayal that are painful and deeply personal, and we read
(01:33):
every single one. We hear stories of people abusing their
power as teachers, doctors, and lawyers. But when we got
the email from Caroline Barega. We knew that this was
more than a personal betrayal to her and her family.
If you were the victim of a violent crime and
called nine one one in crisis, think about who you
(01:55):
would want to respond to your call. Joel's actions aren't
the most egregious case of police misconduct we can find,
far from it. But it's an everyday case of an
officer abusing his power, lying about it, an escaping termination.
That's what resonated with us. Think about it. Our entire
(02:20):
justice system relies on the integrity and character of cops.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
As President Obama described police officers, they are the tips
on the spears of a societal order.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
That's Will Ahison, a lawyer who's worked with police unions
for decades. You heard from him in the last episode.
He says, our society depends upon the trust we place
in the police.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
We get police officers responsibility. We tell them you're going
to have the authority to deprive somebody of their liberty
by arresting them. You're going to have the ability, under
circumstances to use force against them, to take them into custody,
and under rare circumstances, to use deadly force. That responsibility
(03:11):
that we give police officers demands one hundred percent truthfulness
on the part of the police officer, no question about it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
We talk to another expert, former Maryland State Police Major
Neil Franklin. He works on issues surrounding policing all over
the country. He agreed that truthfulness needs to be a
core value of all officers.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
We need to be about telling the truth because a
critical job function that we have is testifying in court.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Just about every case in our legal system, from a
traffic citation to a murder trial, relies on the word
of cops, and when a police officer's character is called
into question, entire cases fall apart. Just think of the
OJS trial when the lead detective used racial slurs and
then lied about it. It threw his credibility into question.
(04:08):
Or the Karen Reid trial in Boston, where the lead
investigator was caught sending highly inappropriate messages about the defendant.
The fact that each of these cops couldn't be trusted
undermined the prosecution's entire case. If you can't trust cops,
you have no rule of law.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
If you cannot testify in court, you don't have that
level of integrity. You can't perform an essential job function,
so you can't be police officer. At least that's my
perspective on it.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Honesty, integrity, and high moral character are job requirements for
police officers, but does the culture really reflect that. At
the Colorado Springs Police Department, we met a civilian employee
who recently retired from CSPD. Will call her Barb. She
shared a story that gave more insight into how things
(05:01):
worked at the department and into Joel Kern's connections, and
we've distorted her voice to protect her privacy.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
So I heard this rumor that Joel had been having
an affair with someone from DHS, which I believe is
a Department of Human Services. That was the rumor, and
I was like, I don't think so, because I had
seen him around his family. I was like, he can't
be that kind of a dog. And it bothered me.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
To be clear, what really upset this former CSPD employee, Barb,
was that someone was spreading rumors about a married and
respected officer at work.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
She thought it was.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Careless at best, damaging at worst. She wanted to shut
it down.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
So I went to my chain of command and I said, hey,
you know, this really bothers me. This is what I've heard,
and it's just can't be right. Well, he turns around
and calls Joel.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Her boss didn't even ask who was spreading the rumor.
Her reason for reporting it was to stop harmful gossip.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
I was expecting some kind of reassurance that, Okay, this
is not cool and it's not right. I didn't get that.
He actually spoke very disparagingly about Caroline. He's like, Oh,
she's going to have him buy the balls, and you
know she's going to lose her mind and she's going
to take the house, this, that and the other, and
(06:26):
you know, she's such a bitch. And I'm like, okay,
I guess the few times I've seen or I didn't
pick up on that.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Barb was completely taken aback at her supervisor's response. He
wasn't interested in shutting down the rumor, just justifying it.
She had originally been trying to protect Joel, a man
she saw as one of the good ones.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
No, I got right on the phone and called Joel,
who then the next time I saw him, wanted to
kill me. Just in the looks I got.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Barb didn't know what to make of it all her
boss's reaction, the sudden shift in tone. Joel, whom she
had once liked and respected, now treated her with cold hostility.
Then something happened with a female colleague, a friend of Barb's.
Joel started sending her sexually suggestive texts.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
He texted her, and she looked up and was like, no, no,
there will be none of that. So I'm like, Okay,
he thinks that you're vulnerable, and you're going to show
him that you're not, which I'm thankful that she did.
In her name has never come up in any of
this stuff. She was uncomfortable by it, and I think
that she was a little bit closer to the positions
(07:42):
of power than I was, so she may have already
understood things were going on that I was not privy to.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
This incident made Barb look at Joel's treatment towards her
and a whole new light. Maybe the rumors about Joel
weren't rumors at all. Looking back now, she can't help
but wonder if he became cold to her because she
was on to him. Through our reporting, we uncovered even
more allegations of misconduct within the Colorado Springs Police Department.
(08:13):
It revealed a culture, one that doesn't just allow for
bad behavior to occur. It's a culture where good officers
may find themselves sidelined, and those who bend the truth
don't seem to face the consequences you'd expect.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
The culture at CSPD is exceptionally toxic, and the toxicity
is all about the people in charge.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
That's John. He is one of the few individuals with
inside knowledge of the CSPD who was willing to speak
on the record. We offered him the option to use
a pseudonym for his protection, but he didn't want it.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
I'm fine with John. I was there for twelve years.
I don't care that they know who I am.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
John isn't just a former CSPD officer. He's a thirty
year military veteran who rose to the rank of colonel.
After a tour in Iraq, he returned home determined to
serve his community. He says, it's the same intention most
officers come in with.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
If you sat in on interviews with potential police candidates,
every single one of them is going to tell you
something along the lines of I want to help people.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
But when John started at CSPD, he quickly realized that
the department was not what he expected.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
The folks at CSPD get promoted based on whether or
not they play golf with the chief. You know, it's
about It's all about me, if I'm in, if I'm
a sergeant or above, It's all about what how can
I use this position for myself.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
John's first indication that something was wrong came during a crisis.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
We had an event where a colleague of mine, a
friend and a colleague, was killed in the line of
duty and a motorcycle crash.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
The officer's name was Matt Tyner.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Matt was actually one of my instructors in the academy,
and he was one of those guys that I would
reach out to for mentorship and advice and how would
you handle this? Because I knew what he told me
was going to be solid. He was also a man
of impeccable integrity and character. Yeah, having a hard time
talking about it, but he's the kind of cop that
(10:26):
I wanted to be.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Matt was in pursuit of a suspect when he was killed.
Cops know there's a risk every time they respond to
a call. Any shift could be their last. Still, Matt's
death hit John hard. It was devastating, and the way
he found out his mentor had been killed made it
even worse.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
I found out about it on Facebook. Somebody on the
scene used their phone to take a video of this
and posted it. He actually was alive for about forty
five minutes and he suffered terribly, and that's how Matt's
family found out about it through social media. They watched
(11:11):
their loved one suffer. I was absolutely incensed because in
the Army, we've been dealing with this for two decades.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
John knew there was a better way to shield a
fallen officer's family. He'd seen what worked in the army.
That's when he offered a solution.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
They could manage a notification process so that Matt's family
hears from the department before they start seeing things on
social media. So I voiced my opinion through an email
to my sergeant, and I asked for it to be
escalated so that they would start taking this into account.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
He went through the chain of command, but his suggestion
was taken as an insult.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
The next day, I was called into the commander's office
and given the knife hand and yelled at about knowing
my place, my place was to answer the radio calls.
That process still has not been adopted or even considered,
because the idea came from a lowly line level worker
rather than somebody who is in a management role. It's like,
(12:15):
you know, I may have some expertise in this arena
that you could take advantage of, but if it doesn't
come from one of them, it's not a good idea.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It was a rude awakening. As the years went on,
his concerns only grew. During his tenure at CSPD, John
spent several years as a DUI officer. These officers receive
special training, assist with fatal accidents, and work to stop
impaired drivers. DUI officers carry the weight of protecting lives
(12:43):
every day.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
There are more people being killed by drunk drivers than
there are from homicide.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
The city is divided into patrol divisions and there are
two DUI officers in each. When John joined the division,
his counterpart was a legend officer, Glenn Thomas, a name
everyone knew in DUI enforcement.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
He was known locally as the dui God. He was
the guy he arrested the most.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Everyone we spoke to told us about Glenn's charisma and charm.
He's a big personality.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Glenn Thomas is currently a sergeant, and at the time
I worked with him, we were both police officer first
class and we were both signed to the DUI enforcement
unit in Sand Creek.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Glenn had the highest DUI arrest record in the state
of Colorado. For years. He was the best and won
multiple awards and honors.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
I was making a lot of arrests, signed up being
number two in the state. He beat me by I
think around one hundred arrests.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
At first, you may think, wow, Colorado Springs must be
the safest place to drive in the country, but the
real story is more complicated. Like Joel Kern, Glenn Thomas
was up to no good and the department knew for years,
long before his alleged crimes became public. John first started
(14:09):
to question Glenn's methods when another officer confided in him.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
What he told me was that he made a traffic stop.
He thinks the guy's impaired, calls for a DUI officer.
Glenn comes over and without talking to the driver, writes
down that he refused any kind of testing, serves him
as a refusal, and then leaves.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
This was a serious allegation, and we don't have any
way of confirming this beyond John's word. But it all
came to a head. John. We'll get to that. When
an officer suspects there is a drunk or an pair driver,
he calls the DUI officer. That officer goes to the
scene to make an assessment. Why on earth would a
(14:50):
DUI officer lie about engaging with the driver. Well, John
has a theory.
Speaker 6 (14:56):
I think it was all about speed, so he could
get more in one shift rather than having to worry
about the technicalities of it.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
John wondered, was this whole Glenn had so many more
DUI arrests than any other officer in the state. Was
he taking shortcuts? It didn't sit right with John.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
He and I immediately began butting heads.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
But according to John, he wasn't the only one who
took issue with Glenn's behavior. For example, there was an
instance when John was called into court to testify about
a DUI investigation. It was a routine part of the job,
but on this occasion.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
I testified in court and the defense attorney caught me
outside the hallway afterwards, and he said, I just wanted
to let you know you're a great witness. I can't
find any way to impeach your credibility. And then he
followed up with you're way better than that Glenn Thomas guy,
he's a liar and I'm going to get in one
of these days. And two other cops were nearby and
(16:00):
they heard that statement.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Word got back to Glenn.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
He took that as me attacking him, even though I
didn't make any statements. Next thing you know, I'm being
called into internal affairs, and the accusation was that I
was conducting an investigation against Glenn. I'm not investigating anything.
I'm being interrogated by my own department for potential wrongdoing.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
John couldn't wrap his head around it. He was in
the hot seat when, according to John, it was Glenn
who was up to no good. So in the midst
of being questioned by internal Affairs, John made the decision
to share his concerns about Glenn.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
I sat there for three hours and outlined all the
different things that people had told me, and I said,
I haven't followed up on any of this stuff, but
since you guys now know about it, I think you
have to. So they opened an investigation and I have
never been privy to the investigation so.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Well, there were now two internal affairs investigations, one for
John into whether he was going after Glenn Thomas, and
one into Glenn himself. John's allegations were supposedly investigated, and
as far as John knows, they were deemed unfounded.
Speaker 6 (17:17):
At the end, we get sat down in a room
with all the command staff. Basically I was blamed for
the whole thing. They said, you know, Glenn made paperwork
errors because he does so many DUIs, and so we're
going to chalk that up to administrative error. And I'm like,
if you show up and you know you didn't talk
(17:38):
to the guy and you wrote down that he was
a refusal, that's a lie. That's not an administrative air.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
CSPD denied our request for these IA investigations, so we
don't know for sure what evidence was weighed in exonerating Glenn.
What we do know is this John was genuinely concerned
about Glenn's behavior, and when he tried to bring those
concerns to CESPD, he was shut down hard. And John
(18:07):
thinks he knows why.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Glenn Thomas was allowed to get away with lying because
he's friends with everybody. People connect with him very readily,
so he uses that to deceive people or manipulate people.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And this is the theme Glenn Thomas continued as the
DUI god. John felt like Glenn was a walking liability
and a liar. John may have been one of the
first people to call out Thomas' bad behavior, but he
wasn't the last. Glenn Thomas, the Colorado Springs d UI God,
(18:59):
is currently awaiting trial for intimidating a ten year old
witness and for violating a protection order. In the course
of our reporting, we met someone who knows Glenn well,
his ex wife, Sarah, herself a former CSPD officer. Sarah
acknowledged that Glenn had a real talent for duy enforcement.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
It's everything to him, like that's his identity. Honestly, in
my opinion, he was proud of the awards that he got,
like he just knew how to do that job so well.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
But Sarah recognized that Glenn was able to get away
with things other cops couldn't.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
He just played by different rules and everyone just accepted that.
He would say things on the radio that were really
really inappropriate and then he wouldn't get in trouble for
any of it. Everyone would just laugh.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
He was the class clown. He could be crude and
it was all deemed acceptable. Glenn Thomas had three daughters together,
and for several years they were a good team.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
The first ten years of our marriage, he still continued
to be very charming. He's very funny. I mean there
was ups and downs. I think until he got on
a car wreck and hurt his back, and then I
think it was like between the pain and then he
got on payments, and I think between the two like
(20:28):
he kind of just very, very drastically changed.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Those changes included behaving violently towards her and their children.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
There were times that he hit me. There were times
that he threw me across the room in front of
the kids.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Sarah said Glenn could be controlling and at times terrifying.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
After we were not sharing a bedroom anymore, he'd come
home at five am and come into my bedroom and
he would say he was clearing the house, but like,
I'm sleeping in bed and I have a gun in
a flashlight in my face.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Sarah told us about one incident that was particularly alarming.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
We weren't allowed to lock doors, and we were in
an argument and I went into the bathroom and like,
it sounds so silly, but the door got locked. I
didn't even lock it, and he kicked the door in
and hit me with the door.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Their three daughters were also affected by his behavior, especially
their eldest.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I witnessed it, the other girls witnessed it, but he
put a chip clip on her breast and so she
started crying.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
In divorce proceedings, Glenn claimed he often put chip clips
on his family member's clothes in good fun. It was
a game to him. The incident with his daughter was
an accident, and he apologized. At the time, Sarah tried
to diffuse the conflict.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I kind of just separated them and tried to calm
the situation down.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Her daughter was fourteen at the time. Glenn's behavior was bizarre.
That was in addition to the physical violence Sarah experienced
at his hands. So this all begs the question why
didn't Sarah go to the police. After all, she was
a former officer at CSPD.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I knew what his relationship was with the department. I
just didn't feel like I would be taken seriously even
if I went to them, I did not feel like
there would be any consequences for him, which then would
most likely make things very, very, very much worse for
(22:48):
me and my children.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
It's a risk a lot of survivors of domestic violence
way out would reporting make things worse, more dangerous, and
in Sarah's case, she'd be reporting her husband to his
own buddies. So for years she stayed silent and stayed
in the marriage, hoping things would change. But then in
(23:11):
the fall of twenty twenty one, something happened that pushed
Sarah to act.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
My oldest came to me and basically said, I don't
trust you anymore. You're not protecting us, Like, I don't
know why you're not leaving him, And she basically told
me you need to leave him or he's gonna end
up killing you and us two.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
That was the moment everything changed.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And then I talked to my other two. I was like,
do you guys feel the same way, and they both
were like, definitely, you need to get out.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
So she did. Keep in mind this was a police
officer they were escaping from.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
And I called the divorce attorney that day because I
didn't really have that concept of what they were going through.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
They moved into a safehouse provided by Tessa, a Colorado
Springs organization that helps those experiencing domestic violence.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
That was just a really hard thing to go through,
leaving your kid's bedrooms. It was hard for all of
us to not have a space and not know what
was coming next, and that uncertainty of where we were
even going to be laying our heads down.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And once she and the kids were safe, they started
to talk about Glenn's behavior. Things were worse than Sarah knew.
Her eldest daughter brought up the incident with the chip clip.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
She said that he kind of was targeting her. It
wasn't an isolated incident, and he was doing it multiple times.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
It was then that Sarah decided to report Glenn to
the CSPD. She spoke to them filn sergeant and her
initial concerns about not being taken seriously by the department
were validated.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
The conversation I had with the sergeant of the DV
unit made me feel gross. He was telling me how
we need to just figure out a way to get
along and that was the initial call for this, And like, oh, yeah,
I know there's been a lot of incidents back and
forth between you. No, there hasn't. He has been victimizing us, period.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But she did feel supported by the officers who were
eventually assigned to investigate the case.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I felt like they did do a really, really thorough
fantastic job investigating it, and they ended up going back
kind of investigating everything. So that's really when everything came
out to CSPD that this is kind of what I
have been going through, my kids have been going through. This.
Detective sergeant and the detective felt like they had reached
(26:02):
the level of probable cause for domestic violence charges, and
so they were told by their lieutenant that they needed
to refer it to the DA's office at the time,
rather they just arrest as per statute they were required
to do to the DA.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Glenn wasn't just any cop. They depended on him regularly.
He frequently testified in cases for the DA's office. And
that wasn't all.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That day that they referred it to the DA's office.
He was training the DA's office in DUIs, like he's
physically at their location. They get this case against him,
and unsurprisingly they declined to prosecute.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
When asked for comment on this claim, the DA said
there was insufficient evidence available to prosecute Sarah points out
that even if the DA wasn't intentionally protecting Glenn, there
was a conflict of interest here. How could the DA
be impartial in a decision to prosecute someone they work
with so closely.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
The right thing to do would have been for them
to refer it to a special prosecutor, but they did it.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I wondered what would have happened if Glenn hadn't been
a CSPD police officer or hadn't been so close with
the DA.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
One hundred percent, he would have been arrested. It wouldn't
have been a hesitation. It would have been right away.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
After the DA declined to prosecute, Sarah continued to fight
for something to be done. In her divorce proceedings, a
judge reviewed Glenn's behavior. She cited examples like the chip
clip incident to be quote inappropriate and uncomfortable, and when
it came to Glenn's treatment of Sarah, specifically the day
when Glenn kicked down the bathroom door or the judge
(28:01):
was clear this was domestic violence. She gave Sarah full
custody of their two oldest daughters. Glenn was only allowed
to have limited contact with the youngest daughter. This judgment
came down in Fall twenty twenty two, nearly three years ago.
At the time, it felt validating to Sarah. A judge
saw what Glenn was capable of and took action to
(28:23):
protect Sarah's kids. But this was all in family court,
not criminal, so Glenn was still allowed to wear the
badge and carry a gun. Sarah felt like it was
important to file a complaint with Internal Affairs.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Then IA gets the case to see if he violated
any policies.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
This was no longer about whether Glenn broke state or
federal laws. There would be no criminal charges. Now it
was a question of whether Glenn broke the department's rules.
And remember, Sarah had been a cop, she knew domestic
violence went against policy. Perhaps Internal Affairs would bring her
some sense of justice.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
If they think that there's any evidence that shows that
he has either broken the law or violated policy, then
they have a lot more ability to take action and
make it so he's not in that position of power
anymore and being a police officer, so I really did
(29:29):
think that it was going to be okay because of
the IA investigation.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Eight months after she filed the case with IA, Sarah
received a letter. It was from CSPD. It read, in part,
after reviewing the case, it was determined that the acts
you complained of were justified, legal proper, and adhered to
department policy.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
It was he was exonerated. It didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
This was the same department that found probable cause to
send this case to the DA. They knew that Sarah,
their former employee, had moved her children to a safe house,
and now they had a family court judge's findings in
hand that said Glenn Thomas had committed domestic violence. But
somehow Glenn's actions were justified, legal proper, and adhere to
(30:24):
department policy. And while we're talking policy, we took a
look at the Employee Handbook. Section four hundred, the one
Glenn was exonerated on, says officers must live by the
Law Enforcement Code of Ethics. They take an oath. It
reads in part, As a law enforcement officer, my fundamental
(30:47):
duty is to serve humankind, to safeguard lives and property,
to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression
or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence, or to while
performing my duties, I will maintain courageous calm in the
face of danger, develop self restraint, be truthful, and be
(31:09):
constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Sarah was hurt
by the department's failure to discipline Glenn. She had hoped
her history at the CSPD would temper the favoritism he
so often received.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
The disappointing part to me was that d C. Edmondson
signed off on it and Chiefasquez signed off on it.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Like d C.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Edmondson was one of my trainers in the academy and
Chief Fasquez was my sergeant for years in Dea, So
I felt like there might be less bias towards one
or the other of us because I knew these people
really well too. But it definitely diffirms my I believe
(32:00):
that Glenn Thomas in particular has a very very special position.
It's CSPD.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
So what line would Glenn have to cross in order
to lose favor with the department. At the heart of
(32:33):
this season is one question. How was Joel Kern able
to do what he did to betray his family, his colleagues,
and his community for so long? During our reporting, we've
learned that Joel wasn't the only officer who knew he
could get away with misconduct. This was a culture problem,
(32:54):
not an isolated case. We've heard from former staff that
there are certain employees who are untouchable, protected by the
badge and by the brass. These are people who don't
fear consequences because if you're one of the golden few,
there are no consequences. Following Glenn Thomas's exoneration in his
(33:17):
IA case, Sarah tried to move forward. She focused on
her job and her kids, but Glenn was still a
part of her family's life. By court order, he had
limited custody of their ten year old daughter. Two years
into this arrangement, in October twenty twenty four, their daughter
confided in her therapist. She said her dad had touched
(33:41):
her inappropriately.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Her therapist reported to DHS. DHS reported to Woodland Park PD.
Woodland Park PD opened an investigation on it. Glenn lived
in Woodland Park.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
It's a small town about thirty minutes outside of Colorado Springs,
but the Woodland Park Police Department was a different ball field.
Glenn didn't work for them. They asked him to come
in for an interview to explain his actions. He denied
the allegations, and then he did something unthinkable.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
He just went to my daughter's school and confronted her
and told her that she's a liar.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
He may have been fueled by anger or distress, but
before the confrontation, Glenn had the presence of mind to
call CSPD colleagues for advice.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
He called two different people within the department who specifically
told him do not go to her school on his
way down there. So, yeah, he was looking for support
and affirmation on what he was doing, and he didn't
get it, and he still went.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Later, at an emergency custody hearing, he changed the story,
claiming a command told Glenn he should go down to
his daughter's school. These emergency proceedings were happening in parallel
to Glenn's criminal case, and at this emergency hearing.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
On the stand, he said that this commander had told
him he should go to the school and talk to
because he was supposed to have visitation the next day,
and so he was like, she told me I should
go and get a witness and like smooth things over
with her so that then we could have a good
(35:32):
visitation like the next day. In fact, what happened is
the person that he mentioned had told him do not go.
Wait for things to shake out, like don't push it,
just don't go, but for sure, don't go to the school.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
He lied on the stand and he put blame on
the CESPD. It was at this hearing that Glenn's visitation
rights were taken away, but perhaps this was also a
turning point in Glenn's relationship with CSPD. Glenn Thomas was
starting to seem less like an asset and more like
a liability to the department, especially once the news got
(36:11):
a hold of the story. We have an eleven breaking
news alert just into our newsroom.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
We just learned that a Colorado Springs police officer is
now under arrest.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
He was accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a minor
in Woodland Park.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Thomas later confronted the alleged victim at school about those accusations,
telling the miner to change the story.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Sergeant Thomas is accused of violating a protection order and
intimidating the victim involved.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Thomas is assigned to the Duy Unit and was taken
into custody earlier today.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Because of the lies Thomas told in the emergency hearing,
the DA put him on the Brady List. It's a
list of police officers who have lied, falsified evidence, or
committed other misconduct anything that would undermine their credibility as
a witnesses. The DA has to notify opposing counsel any
time they use an officer from the Brady List as
(37:06):
a witness. In other words, Thomas is now marked as
a liar in the courts. As for the criminal charges,
Glenn has to go to trial and could even receive
prison time. The Woodland Park PD dropped the sexual assault
charge they couldn't find the evidence they needed to make
(37:26):
the charge stick, but the intimidation of a minor witness
and the violation of a protection order. Those charges were
in Colorado Springs jurisdiction due to the location of the
daughter's school, and this time finally CSPD took the allegation seriously.
Glenn Thomas's trial is set for the end of July,
(37:49):
but until then he still remains employed at CSPD and
he can continue to testifying cases for the DA. We
asked the DA director about whether they'll be putting Glenn
on the stand, knowing what they know now. They responded, quote,
we can't speculate on this topic. We can only confirm
(38:09):
mister Thomas is on the Brady List, and that his
appearance at this time on the Brady List would not
preclude him from participating as a witness in court. So
why are we telling you about Glenn Thomas Because there
are clear similarities with Joel Kern's case. Both had long
(38:31):
standing ties to the CSPD, both operated by their own rules,
and in each case, someone put themselves on the line
to raise a red flag, warning the department that these
men couldn't be trusted, but they still wore the badge.
We asked Major Franklin, who we heard from at the
top of the episode, about these dynamics.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
We're supposed to be a profession that is trusted, so
we should begin within our own ranks developing a very
high level of integrity. But we've developed this stop snitching,
don't snitch on your peers, and it's a culture that
(39:15):
I don't think has changed over many, many, many many decades.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
As a former cop himself, Major Franklin can see how
this culture has sustained itself for so long.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
One of the main reasons is the camaraderie. We have
done a very good job in policing of isolating ourselves
from community at large. You know, we go to police
barbecues and primarily the folks who are at the police
barbecues are police officers and immediate family members. Weddings is
(39:54):
the same way. If you really examine many of the
wedding parties for police officers, they are police officer and
the wedding parties. So we've done a very good job
of isolating ourselves this closely knit group of cops. The
culture in the street is that they back each other
up no matter what for the most part.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
In our last episode, we also introduced you to Claudia Aldrich.
She runs the Police Officer's Whistleblower Network. Her social media
posts call out the CSPD for what she sees as
massive hypocrisy. She says there's no benefit to reporting a
fellow officer for misconduct.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Who is going to want to do that because doing
that puts their career on a big red spot.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Major Franklin says he has seen employees step up to
try and stop rumers and corruption.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
They will report, but you know what, many of them
have paid the price for it.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Former CSPD officer John was one of them. His efforts
to raise red flags and create meaningful change at ESPD
were met with frustration and even outright anger by those
in leadership, and eventually he got tired of fighting.
Speaker 6 (41:09):
I finally had come to the realization that I wasn't
going to make a difference at CSPD. I couldn't make
any changes. I was never going to get into a
position where I could affect change.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
The culture at CSPD prevails. It's a culture that's driven
out stand up public servants like John, and it seems
like he isn't alone. A local news station was able
to get a hold of an employee morale survey. It
was given by the Colorado Springs Police Protective Association back
(41:40):
in twenty twenty three. It painted a bleak picture.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
A new question in the twenty twenty three survey version
asked if these sworn staff members were considering leaving CSPD
within the next five years, sixty three percent saying yes.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
John recalls Joel Kern's feelings on morale when they work together.
Speaker 6 (42:00):
So at first, Joel Kern was somebody that I could
look up to and trust, and he was very skilled
in that arena of investigation. And then as time went on,
things really really started to change. Kern would say things like,
morale is a personal problem, and from a guy with
(42:20):
a management master's degree, I will tell you that one
person with a morale problem is a personal problem, but
when it's systemic across an organization, that's a leadership problem.
And that was the mantra that the brass kept saying.
If the morale here is poor, that's your fault.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
John's experience has proved that not everyone at CSPD agrees
with its culture. There are officers currently on the force
who are disillusioned with how the department disciplines its employees.
I wondered if the dedicated CSPD investigators who tried to
help Sarah and she first reported Glenn were among those
(42:59):
that it out of the job. Here's Sarah again.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
When I brought the case to them, I gave them
that disclosure that nothing is going to happen to him,
like I told them, and they both were like, he
shouldn't be an exception, he shouldn't be protected. This should
be just any normal case. And honestly, I think that
(43:27):
when they found out he wasn't going to be prosecuted,
it seemed like they were pretty upset about it. It
felt like they were kind of betrayed along with me.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
In the end, the department lets Sarah down.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
I have so much knowledge and so much experience and
so much information about how the criminal justice system works,
and how CSPD works, and who is who and navigating
all of these situations would be imposed without that. So
again I'm heartbroken for the people that are victims and
(44:08):
don't have my special set of skills and knowledge and information.
If it hadn't been for some of that information, again,
he would be getting away with all of it.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Here's former CSPD employee Barbigan.
Speaker 5 (44:25):
If you have no integratary in your personal life, why
would you have integrity in your public life. If you
will lie about little stuff, you'll lie about big stuff.
If you lie about big stuff, you'll lie about bigger stuff.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
It makes us wonder how many Joel Kerns and Glenn
Thomas's there are right now getting away with potentially criminal
behavior because their friends on the force are protecting them.
How many officers have had serious reports of misc cot
swept under the rug. How many have had internal affairs
investigations closed without consequence. We'll give the final word to
(45:09):
Major Franklin.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
We work for you. As citizens, and we are to
provide a service. We take enough to protect people's constitutional rights,
and we are one of a very few number of
people occupations in this country who have the ability and
(45:33):
right to take your liberty away from you at any
given second. I want someone who is going to set
the example for their behavior because they're going to be
interacting with me, my kids, my grandkids, my nieces, my nephews,
my relatives, my friends. I'm not asking you to be saints.
(45:55):
I'm asking you to have integrity. I'm asking you to
value your position, asking you to raise the level of
professionalism within your craft. I'm asking you to be the best.
That's all.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
On the next episode of Betrayal, we go back to
Caroline's story and we hear about her healing journey.
Speaker 7 (46:18):
No one blames the wife or the spouse or a
partner for someone's heroin addiction ex except for someone's gambling addiction.
It's just in this realm of infidelities where there seems
to be this really strong focus on the betrayed partner.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Thank you for listening to Betrayal season four. If you
would like to reach out to the Betrayal team, email
us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod
at gmail dot com. Also, please be sure to follow
us on Instagram at Betrayal Pod and me Andrea H.
Gunning for all Betrayal content, news and updates. One way
(47:00):
to support the series is by subscribing to our show
on Apple Podcasts. Please rate and review Betrayal five star
reviews help us know you appreciate what we do. Betrayal
is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass
Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is
executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason. Betrayal is
(47:22):
hosted and produced by me Andrea Gunning, written and produced
by Carrie Hartman, also produced by Ben Fetterman. Our associate
producers are Caitlin Golden and Kristin Melcurie. Our iHeart team
is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Story editing by Monique Leboard,
Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, editing by Tanner Robbins,
(47:44):
and special thanks to Caroline and her family. Betrayal's theme
is composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by my
Music and for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey guys. Before we dive into the episode, we have
exciting news. Betrayal is coming to substack, which is an
online community. We're calling our substack Beyond Betrayal, a place
where we dive deeper into the stories you hear on
this show. Please consider joining our community to gain access
to exclusive content, engage with me and subjects, as well
(00:23):
as connect with others who have experienced betrayal. Just head
to Betrayal dot substack that's sub stack, or just go
to substack dot com, search beyond Betrayal and hit subscribe.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
He would come into my bedroom and say he was
clearing the house, but I'm sleeping in bed and I
have a gun in a flashlight in my face. He
just played by different rules and everyone just accepted that.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal, Season four, episode seven,
The Golden Few. Every week, our team at Betrayal receives
dozens of emails from people devastated by infidelity, stories of
betrayal that are painful and deeply personal, and we read
(01:33):
every single one. We hear stories of people abusing their
power as teachers, doctors, and lawyers. But when we got
the email from Caroline Barega. We knew that this was
more than a personal betrayal to her and her family.
If you were the victim of a violent crime and
called nine one one in crisis, think about who you
(01:55):
would want to respond to your call. Joel's actions aren't
the most egregious case of police misconduct we can find,
far from it. But it's an everyday case of an
officer abusing his power, lying about it, an escaping termination.
That's what resonated with us. Think about it. Our entire
(02:20):
justice system relies on the integrity and character of cops.
Speaker 3 (02:24):
As President Obama described police officers, they are the tips
on the spears of a societal order.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
That's Will Ahison, a lawyer who's worked with police unions
for decades. You heard from him in the last episode.
He says, our society depends upon the trust we place
in the police.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
We get police officers responsibility. We tell them you're going
to have the authority to deprive somebody of their liberty
by arresting them. You're going to have the ability, under
circumstances to use force against them, to take them into custody,
and under rare circumstances, to use deadly force. That responsibility
(03:11):
that we give police officers demands one hundred percent truthfulness
on the part of the police officer, no question about it.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
We talk to another expert, former Maryland State Police Major
Neil Franklin. He works on issues surrounding policing all over
the country. He agreed that truthfulness needs to be a
core value of all officers.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
We need to be about telling the truth because a
critical job function that we have is testifying in court.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
Just about every case in our legal system, from a
traffic citation to a murder trial, relies on the word
of cops, and when a police officer's character is called
into question, entire cases fall apart. Just think of the
OJS trial when the lead detective used racial slurs and
then lied about it. It threw his credibility into question.
(04:08):
Or the Karen Reid trial in Boston, where the lead
investigator was caught sending highly inappropriate messages about the defendant.
The fact that each of these cops couldn't be trusted
undermined the prosecution's entire case. If you can't trust cops,
you have no rule of law.
Speaker 4 (04:28):
If you cannot testify in court, you don't have that
level of integrity. You can't perform an essential job function,
so you can't be police officer. At least that's my
perspective on it.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Honesty, integrity, and high moral character are job requirements for
police officers, but does the culture really reflect that. At
the Colorado Springs Police Department, we met a civilian employee
who recently retired from CSPD. Will call her Barb. She
shared a story that gave more insight into how things
(05:01):
worked at the department and into Joel Kern's connections, and
we've distorted her voice to protect her privacy.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
So I heard this rumor that Joel had been having
an affair with someone from DHS, which I believe is
a Department of Human Services. That was the rumor, and
I was like, I don't think so, because I had
seen him around his family. I was like, he can't
be that kind of a dog. And it bothered me.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
To be clear, what really upset this former CSPD employee, Barb,
was that someone was spreading rumors about a married and
respected officer at work.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
She thought it was.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Careless at best, damaging at worst. She wanted to shut
it down.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
So I went to my chain of command and I said, hey,
you know, this really bothers me. This is what I've heard,
and it's just can't be right. Well, he turns around
and calls Joel.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
Her boss didn't even ask who was spreading the rumor.
Her reason for reporting it was to stop harmful gossip.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
I was expecting some kind of reassurance that, Okay, this
is not cool and it's not right. I didn't get that.
He actually spoke very disparagingly about Caroline. He's like, Oh,
she's going to have him buy the balls, and you
know she's going to lose her mind and she's going
to take the house, this, that and the other, and
(06:26):
you know, she's such a bitch. And I'm like, okay,
I guess the few times I've seen or I didn't
pick up on that.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Barb was completely taken aback at her supervisor's response. He
wasn't interested in shutting down the rumor, just justifying it.
She had originally been trying to protect Joel, a man
she saw as one of the good ones.
Speaker 5 (06:52):
No, I got right on the phone and called Joel,
who then the next time I saw him, wanted to
kill me. Just in the looks I got.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Barb didn't know what to make of it all her
boss's reaction, the sudden shift in tone. Joel, whom she
had once liked and respected, now treated her with cold hostility.
Then something happened with a female colleague, a friend of Barb's.
Joel started sending her sexually suggestive texts.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
He texted her, and she looked up and was like, no, no,
there will be none of that. So I'm like, Okay,
he thinks that you're vulnerable, and you're going to show
him that you're not, which I'm thankful that she did.
In her name has never come up in any of
this stuff. She was uncomfortable by it, and I think
that she was a little bit closer to the positions
(07:42):
of power than I was, so she may have already
understood things were going on that I was not privy to.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
This incident made Barb look at Joel's treatment towards her
and a whole new light. Maybe the rumors about Joel
weren't rumors at all. Looking back now, she can't help
but wonder if he became cold to her because she
was on to him. Through our reporting, we uncovered even
more allegations of misconduct within the Colorado Springs Police Department.
(08:13):
It revealed a culture, one that doesn't just allow for
bad behavior to occur. It's a culture where good officers
may find themselves sidelined, and those who bend the truth
don't seem to face the consequences you'd expect.
Speaker 6 (08:27):
The culture at CSPD is exceptionally toxic, and the toxicity
is all about the people in charge.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
That's John. He is one of the few individuals with
inside knowledge of the CSPD who was willing to speak
on the record. We offered him the option to use
a pseudonym for his protection, but he didn't want it.
Speaker 6 (08:51):
I'm fine with John. I was there for twelve years.
I don't care that they know who I am.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
John isn't just a former CSPD officer. He's a thirty
year military veteran who rose to the rank of colonel.
After a tour in Iraq, he returned home determined to
serve his community. He says, it's the same intention most
officers come in with.
Speaker 6 (09:14):
If you sat in on interviews with potential police candidates,
every single one of them is going to tell you
something along the lines of I want to help people.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
But when John started at CSPD, he quickly realized that
the department was not what he expected.
Speaker 6 (09:31):
The folks at CSPD get promoted based on whether or
not they play golf with the chief. You know, it's
about It's all about me, if I'm in, if I'm
a sergeant or above, It's all about what how can
I use this position for myself.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
John's first indication that something was wrong came during a crisis.
Speaker 6 (09:49):
We had an event where a colleague of mine, a
friend and a colleague, was killed in the line of
duty and a motorcycle crash.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
The officer's name was Matt Tyner.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
Matt was actually one of my instructors in the academy,
and he was one of those guys that I would
reach out to for mentorship and advice and how would
you handle this? Because I knew what he told me
was going to be solid. He was also a man
of impeccable integrity and character. Yeah, having a hard time
talking about it, but he's the kind of cop that
(10:26):
I wanted to be.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Matt was in pursuit of a suspect when he was killed.
Cops know there's a risk every time they respond to
a call. Any shift could be their last. Still, Matt's
death hit John hard. It was devastating, and the way
he found out his mentor had been killed made it
even worse.
Speaker 6 (10:47):
I found out about it on Facebook. Somebody on the
scene used their phone to take a video of this
and posted it. He actually was alive for about forty
five minutes and he suffered terribly, and that's how Matt's
family found out about it through social media. They watched
(11:11):
their loved one suffer. I was absolutely incensed because in
the Army, we've been dealing with this for two decades.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
John knew there was a better way to shield a
fallen officer's family. He'd seen what worked in the army.
That's when he offered a solution.
Speaker 6 (11:29):
They could manage a notification process so that Matt's family
hears from the department before they start seeing things on
social media. So I voiced my opinion through an email
to my sergeant, and I asked for it to be
escalated so that they would start taking this into account.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
He went through the chain of command, but his suggestion
was taken as an insult.
Speaker 6 (11:52):
The next day, I was called into the commander's office
and given the knife hand and yelled at about knowing
my place, my place was to answer the radio calls.
That process still has not been adopted or even considered,
because the idea came from a lowly line level worker
rather than somebody who is in a management role. It's like,
(12:15):
you know, I may have some expertise in this arena
that you could take advantage of, but if it doesn't
come from one of them, it's not a good idea.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
It was a rude awakening. As the years went on,
his concerns only grew. During his tenure at CSPD, John
spent several years as a DUI officer. These officers receive
special training, assist with fatal accidents, and work to stop
impaired drivers. DUI officers carry the weight of protecting lives
(12:43):
every day.
Speaker 6 (12:45):
There are more people being killed by drunk drivers than
there are from homicide.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
The city is divided into patrol divisions and there are
two DUI officers in each. When John joined the division,
his counterpart was a legend officer, Glenn Thomas, a name
everyone knew in DUI enforcement.
Speaker 6 (13:04):
He was known locally as the dui God. He was
the guy he arrested the most.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Everyone we spoke to told us about Glenn's charisma and charm.
He's a big personality.
Speaker 6 (13:18):
Glenn Thomas is currently a sergeant, and at the time
I worked with him, we were both police officer first
class and we were both signed to the DUI enforcement
unit in Sand Creek.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Glenn had the highest DUI arrest record in the state
of Colorado. For years. He was the best and won
multiple awards and honors.
Speaker 6 (13:38):
I was making a lot of arrests, signed up being
number two in the state. He beat me by I
think around one hundred arrests.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
At first, you may think, wow, Colorado Springs must be
the safest place to drive in the country, but the
real story is more complicated. Like Joel Kern, Glenn Thomas
was up to no good and the department knew for years,
long before his alleged crimes became public. John first started
(14:09):
to question Glenn's methods when another officer confided in him.
Speaker 6 (14:13):
What he told me was that he made a traffic stop.
He thinks the guy's impaired, calls for a DUI officer.
Glenn comes over and without talking to the driver, writes
down that he refused any kind of testing, serves him
as a refusal, and then leaves.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
This was a serious allegation, and we don't have any
way of confirming this beyond John's word. But it all
came to a head. John. We'll get to that. When
an officer suspects there is a drunk or an pair driver,
he calls the DUI officer. That officer goes to the
scene to make an assessment. Why on earth would a
(14:50):
DUI officer lie about engaging with the driver. Well, John
has a theory.
Speaker 6 (14:56):
I think it was all about speed, so he could
get more in one shift rather than having to worry
about the technicalities of it.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
John wondered, was this whole Glenn had so many more
DUI arrests than any other officer in the state. Was
he taking shortcuts? It didn't sit right with John.
Speaker 6 (15:15):
He and I immediately began butting heads.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
But according to John, he wasn't the only one who
took issue with Glenn's behavior. For example, there was an
instance when John was called into court to testify about
a DUI investigation. It was a routine part of the job,
but on this occasion.
Speaker 6 (15:36):
I testified in court and the defense attorney caught me
outside the hallway afterwards, and he said, I just wanted
to let you know you're a great witness. I can't
find any way to impeach your credibility. And then he
followed up with you're way better than that Glenn Thomas guy,
he's a liar and I'm going to get in one
of these days. And two other cops were nearby and
(16:00):
they heard that statement.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Word got back to Glenn.
Speaker 6 (16:04):
He took that as me attacking him, even though I
didn't make any statements. Next thing you know, I'm being
called into internal affairs, and the accusation was that I
was conducting an investigation against Glenn. I'm not investigating anything.
I'm being interrogated by my own department for potential wrongdoing.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
John couldn't wrap his head around it. He was in
the hot seat when, according to John, it was Glenn
who was up to no good. So in the midst
of being questioned by internal Affairs, John made the decision
to share his concerns about Glenn.
Speaker 6 (16:43):
I sat there for three hours and outlined all the
different things that people had told me, and I said,
I haven't followed up on any of this stuff, but
since you guys now know about it, I think you
have to. So they opened an investigation and I have
never been privy to the investigation so.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Well, there were now two internal affairs investigations, one for
John into whether he was going after Glenn Thomas, and
one into Glenn himself. John's allegations were supposedly investigated, and
as far as John knows, they were deemed unfounded.
Speaker 6 (17:17):
At the end, we get sat down in a room
with all the command staff. Basically I was blamed for
the whole thing. They said, you know, Glenn made paperwork
errors because he does so many DUIs, and so we're
going to chalk that up to administrative error. And I'm like,
if you show up and you know you didn't talk
(17:38):
to the guy and you wrote down that he was
a refusal, that's a lie. That's not an administrative air.
Speaker 1 (17:44):
CSPD denied our request for these IA investigations, so we
don't know for sure what evidence was weighed in exonerating Glenn.
What we do know is this John was genuinely concerned
about Glenn's behavior, and when he tried to bring those
concerns to CESPD, he was shut down hard. And John
(18:07):
thinks he knows why.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
Glenn Thomas was allowed to get away with lying because
he's friends with everybody. People connect with him very readily,
so he uses that to deceive people or manipulate people.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
And this is the theme Glenn Thomas continued as the
DUI god. John felt like Glenn was a walking liability
and a liar. John may have been one of the
first people to call out Thomas' bad behavior, but he
wasn't the last. Glenn Thomas, the Colorado Springs d UI God,
(18:59):
is currently awaiting trial for intimidating a ten year old
witness and for violating a protection order. In the course
of our reporting, we met someone who knows Glenn well,
his ex wife, Sarah, herself a former CSPD officer. Sarah
acknowledged that Glenn had a real talent for duy enforcement.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
It's everything to him, like that's his identity. Honestly, in
my opinion, he was proud of the awards that he got,
like he just knew how to do that job so well.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
But Sarah recognized that Glenn was able to get away
with things other cops couldn't.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
He just played by different rules and everyone just accepted that.
He would say things on the radio that were really
really inappropriate and then he wouldn't get in trouble for
any of it. Everyone would just laugh.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
He was the class clown. He could be crude and
it was all deemed acceptable. Glenn Thomas had three daughters together,
and for several years they were a good team.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
The first ten years of our marriage, he still continued
to be very charming. He's very funny. I mean there
was ups and downs. I think until he got on
a car wreck and hurt his back, and then I
think it was like between the pain and then he
got on payments, and I think between the two like
(20:28):
he kind of just very, very drastically changed.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Those changes included behaving violently towards her and their children.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
There were times that he hit me. There were times
that he threw me across the room in front of
the kids.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Sarah said Glenn could be controlling and at times terrifying.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
After we were not sharing a bedroom anymore, he'd come
home at five am and come into my bedroom and
he would say he was clearing the house, but like,
I'm sleeping in bed and I have a gun in
a flashlight in my face.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Sarah told us about one incident that was particularly alarming.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
We weren't allowed to lock doors, and we were in
an argument and I went into the bathroom and like,
it sounds so silly, but the door got locked. I
didn't even lock it, and he kicked the door in
and hit me with the door.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Their three daughters were also affected by his behavior, especially
their eldest.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
I witnessed it, the other girls witnessed it, but he
put a chip clip on her breast and so she
started crying.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
In divorce proceedings, Glenn claimed he often put chip clips
on his family member's clothes in good fun. It was
a game to him. The incident with his daughter was
an accident, and he apologized. At the time, Sarah tried
to diffuse the conflict.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I kind of just separated them and tried to calm
the situation down.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Her daughter was fourteen at the time. Glenn's behavior was bizarre.
That was in addition to the physical violence Sarah experienced
at his hands. So this all begs the question why
didn't Sarah go to the police. After all, she was
a former officer at CSPD.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I knew what his relationship was with the department. I
just didn't feel like I would be taken seriously even
if I went to them, I did not feel like
there would be any consequences for him, which then would
most likely make things very, very, very much worse for
(22:48):
me and my children.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
It's a risk a lot of survivors of domestic violence
way out would reporting make things worse, more dangerous, and
in Sarah's case, she'd be reporting her husband to his
own buddies. So for years she stayed silent and stayed
in the marriage, hoping things would change. But then in
(23:11):
the fall of twenty twenty one, something happened that pushed
Sarah to act.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
My oldest came to me and basically said, I don't
trust you anymore. You're not protecting us, Like, I don't
know why you're not leaving him, And she basically told
me you need to leave him or he's gonna end
up killing you and us two.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
That was the moment everything changed.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
And then I talked to my other two. I was like,
do you guys feel the same way, and they both
were like, definitely, you need to get out.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
So she did. Keep in mind this was a police
officer they were escaping from.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
And I called the divorce attorney that day because I
didn't really have that concept of what they were going through.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
They moved into a safehouse provided by Tessa, a Colorado
Springs organization that helps those experiencing domestic violence.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
That was just a really hard thing to go through,
leaving your kid's bedrooms. It was hard for all of
us to not have a space and not know what
was coming next, and that uncertainty of where we were
even going to be laying our heads down.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And once she and the kids were safe, they started
to talk about Glenn's behavior. Things were worse than Sarah knew.
Her eldest daughter brought up the incident with the chip clip.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
She said that he kind of was targeting her. It
wasn't an isolated incident, and he was doing it multiple times.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
It was then that Sarah decided to report Glenn to
the CSPD. She spoke to them filn sergeant and her
initial concerns about not being taken seriously by the department
were validated.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
The conversation I had with the sergeant of the DV
unit made me feel gross. He was telling me how
we need to just figure out a way to get
along and that was the initial call for this, And like, oh, yeah,
I know there's been a lot of incidents back and
forth between you. No, there hasn't. He has been victimizing us, period.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But she did feel supported by the officers who were
eventually assigned to investigate the case.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
I felt like they did do a really, really thorough
fantastic job investigating it, and they ended up going back
kind of investigating everything. So that's really when everything came
out to CSPD that this is kind of what I
have been going through, my kids have been going through. This.
Detective sergeant and the detective felt like they had reached
(26:02):
the level of probable cause for domestic violence charges, and
so they were told by their lieutenant that they needed
to refer it to the DA's office at the time,
rather they just arrest as per statute they were required
to do to the DA.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Glenn wasn't just any cop. They depended on him regularly.
He frequently testified in cases for the DA's office. And
that wasn't all.
Speaker 2 (26:30):
That day that they referred it to the DA's office.
He was training the DA's office in DUIs, like he's
physically at their location. They get this case against him,
and unsurprisingly they declined to prosecute.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
When asked for comment on this claim, the DA said
there was insufficient evidence available to prosecute Sarah points out
that even if the DA wasn't intentionally protecting Glenn, there
was a conflict of interest here. How could the DA
be impartial in a decision to prosecute someone they work
with so closely.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
The right thing to do would have been for them
to refer it to a special prosecutor, but they did it.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
I wondered what would have happened if Glenn hadn't been
a CSPD police officer or hadn't been so close with
the DA.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
One hundred percent, he would have been arrested. It wouldn't
have been a hesitation. It would have been right away.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
After the DA declined to prosecute, Sarah continued to fight
for something to be done. In her divorce proceedings, a
judge reviewed Glenn's behavior. She cited examples like the chip
clip incident to be quote inappropriate and uncomfortable, and when
it came to Glenn's treatment of Sarah, specifically the day
when Glenn kicked down the bathroom door or the judge
(28:01):
was clear this was domestic violence. She gave Sarah full
custody of their two oldest daughters. Glenn was only allowed
to have limited contact with the youngest daughter. This judgment
came down in Fall twenty twenty two, nearly three years ago.
At the time, it felt validating to Sarah. A judge
saw what Glenn was capable of and took action to
(28:23):
protect Sarah's kids. But this was all in family court,
not criminal, so Glenn was still allowed to wear the
badge and carry a gun. Sarah felt like it was
important to file a complaint with Internal Affairs.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
Then IA gets the case to see if he violated
any policies.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
This was no longer about whether Glenn broke state or
federal laws. There would be no criminal charges. Now it
was a question of whether Glenn broke the department's rules.
And remember, Sarah had been a cop, she knew domestic
violence went against policy. Perhaps Internal Affairs would bring her
some sense of justice.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
If they think that there's any evidence that shows that
he has either broken the law or violated policy, then
they have a lot more ability to take action and
make it so he's not in that position of power
anymore and being a police officer, so I really did
(29:29):
think that it was going to be okay because of
the IA investigation.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Eight months after she filed the case with IA, Sarah
received a letter. It was from CSPD. It read, in part,
after reviewing the case, it was determined that the acts
you complained of were justified, legal proper, and adhered to
department policy.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
It was he was exonerated. It didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
This was the same department that found probable cause to
send this case to the DA. They knew that Sarah,
their former employee, had moved her children to a safe house,
and now they had a family court judge's findings in
hand that said Glenn Thomas had committed domestic violence. But
somehow Glenn's actions were justified, legal proper, and adhere to
(30:24):
department policy. And while we're talking policy, we took a
look at the Employee Handbook. Section four hundred, the one
Glenn was exonerated on, says officers must live by the
Law Enforcement Code of Ethics. They take an oath. It
reads in part, As a law enforcement officer, my fundamental
(30:47):
duty is to serve humankind, to safeguard lives and property,
to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression
or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence, or to while
performing my duties, I will maintain courageous calm in the
face of danger, develop self restraint, be truthful, and be
(31:09):
constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Sarah was hurt
by the department's failure to discipline Glenn. She had hoped
her history at the CSPD would temper the favoritism he
so often received.
Speaker 2 (31:27):
The disappointing part to me was that d C. Edmondson
signed off on it and Chiefasquez signed off on it.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
Like d C.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Edmondson was one of my trainers in the academy and
Chief Fasquez was my sergeant for years in Dea, So
I felt like there might be less bias towards one
or the other of us because I knew these people
really well too. But it definitely diffirms my I believe
(32:00):
that Glenn Thomas in particular has a very very special position.
It's CSPD.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
So what line would Glenn have to cross in order
to lose favor with the department. At the heart of
(32:33):
this season is one question. How was Joel Kern able
to do what he did to betray his family, his colleagues,
and his community for so long? During our reporting, we've
learned that Joel wasn't the only officer who knew he
could get away with misconduct. This was a culture problem,
(32:54):
not an isolated case. We've heard from former staff that
there are certain employees who are untouchable, protected by the
badge and by the brass. These are people who don't
fear consequences because if you're one of the golden few,
there are no consequences. Following Glenn Thomas's exoneration in his
(33:17):
IA case, Sarah tried to move forward. She focused on
her job and her kids, but Glenn was still a
part of her family's life. By court order, he had
limited custody of their ten year old daughter. Two years
into this arrangement, in October twenty twenty four, their daughter
confided in her therapist. She said her dad had touched
(33:41):
her inappropriately.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Her therapist reported to DHS. DHS reported to Woodland Park PD.
Woodland Park PD opened an investigation on it. Glenn lived
in Woodland Park.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
It's a small town about thirty minutes outside of Colorado Springs,
but the Woodland Park Police Department was a different ball field.
Glenn didn't work for them. They asked him to come
in for an interview to explain his actions. He denied
the allegations, and then he did something unthinkable.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
He just went to my daughter's school and confronted her
and told her that she's a liar.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
He may have been fueled by anger or distress, but
before the confrontation, Glenn had the presence of mind to
call CSPD colleagues for advice.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
He called two different people within the department who specifically
told him do not go to her school on his
way down there. So, yeah, he was looking for support
and affirmation on what he was doing, and he didn't
get it, and he still went.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Later, at an emergency custody hearing, he changed the story,
claiming a command told Glenn he should go down to
his daughter's school. These emergency proceedings were happening in parallel
to Glenn's criminal case, and at this emergency hearing.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
On the stand, he said that this commander had told
him he should go to the school and talk to
because he was supposed to have visitation the next day,
and so he was like, she told me I should
go and get a witness and like smooth things over
with her so that then we could have a good
(35:32):
visitation like the next day. In fact, what happened is
the person that he mentioned had told him do not go.
Wait for things to shake out, like don't push it,
just don't go, but for sure, don't go to the school.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
He lied on the stand and he put blame on
the CESPD. It was at this hearing that Glenn's visitation
rights were taken away, but perhaps this was also a
turning point in Glenn's relationship with CSPD. Glenn Thomas was
starting to seem less like an asset and more like
a liability to the department, especially once the news got
(36:11):
a hold of the story. We have an eleven breaking
news alert just into our newsroom.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
We just learned that a Colorado Springs police officer is
now under arrest.
Speaker 4 (36:20):
He was accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a minor
in Woodland Park.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Thomas later confronted the alleged victim at school about those accusations,
telling the miner to change the story.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Sergeant Thomas is accused of violating a protection order and
intimidating the victim involved.
Speaker 5 (36:39):
Thomas is assigned to the Duy Unit and was taken
into custody earlier today.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Because of the lies Thomas told in the emergency hearing,
the DA put him on the Brady List. It's a
list of police officers who have lied, falsified evidence, or
committed other misconduct anything that would undermine their credibility as
a witnesses. The DA has to notify opposing counsel any
time they use an officer from the Brady List as
(37:06):
a witness. In other words, Thomas is now marked as
a liar in the courts. As for the criminal charges,
Glenn has to go to trial and could even receive
prison time. The Woodland Park PD dropped the sexual assault
charge they couldn't find the evidence they needed to make
(37:26):
the charge stick, but the intimidation of a minor witness
and the violation of a protection order. Those charges were
in Colorado Springs jurisdiction due to the location of the
daughter's school, and this time finally CSPD took the allegation seriously.
Glenn Thomas's trial is set for the end of July,
(37:49):
but until then he still remains employed at CSPD and
he can continue to testifying cases for the DA. We
asked the DA director about whether they'll be putting Glenn
on the stand, knowing what they know now. They responded, quote,
we can't speculate on this topic. We can only confirm
(38:09):
mister Thomas is on the Brady List, and that his
appearance at this time on the Brady List would not
preclude him from participating as a witness in court. So
why are we telling you about Glenn Thomas Because there
are clear similarities with Joel Kern's case. Both had long
(38:31):
standing ties to the CSPD, both operated by their own rules,
and in each case, someone put themselves on the line
to raise a red flag, warning the department that these
men couldn't be trusted, but they still wore the badge.
We asked Major Franklin, who we heard from at the
top of the episode, about these dynamics.
Speaker 4 (38:53):
We're supposed to be a profession that is trusted, so
we should begin within our own ranks developing a very
high level of integrity. But we've developed this stop snitching,
don't snitch on your peers, and it's a culture that
(39:15):
I don't think has changed over many, many, many many decades.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
As a former cop himself, Major Franklin can see how
this culture has sustained itself for so long.
Speaker 4 (39:32):
One of the main reasons is the camaraderie. We have
done a very good job in policing of isolating ourselves
from community at large. You know, we go to police
barbecues and primarily the folks who are at the police
barbecues are police officers and immediate family members. Weddings is
(39:54):
the same way. If you really examine many of the
wedding parties for police officers, they are police officer and
the wedding parties. So we've done a very good job
of isolating ourselves this closely knit group of cops. The
culture in the street is that they back each other
up no matter what for the most part.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
In our last episode, we also introduced you to Claudia Aldrich.
She runs the Police Officer's Whistleblower Network. Her social media
posts call out the CSPD for what she sees as
massive hypocrisy. She says there's no benefit to reporting a
fellow officer for misconduct.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Who is going to want to do that because doing
that puts their career on a big red spot.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Major Franklin says he has seen employees step up to
try and stop rumers and corruption.
Speaker 4 (40:48):
They will report, but you know what, many of them
have paid the price for it.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
Former CSPD officer John was one of them. His efforts
to raise red flags and create meaningful change at ESPD
were met with frustration and even outright anger by those
in leadership, and eventually he got tired of fighting.
Speaker 6 (41:09):
I finally had come to the realization that I wasn't
going to make a difference at CSPD. I couldn't make
any changes. I was never going to get into a
position where I could affect change.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
The culture at CSPD prevails. It's a culture that's driven
out stand up public servants like John, and it seems
like he isn't alone. A local news station was able
to get a hold of an employee morale survey. It
was given by the Colorado Springs Police Protective Association back
(41:40):
in twenty twenty three. It painted a bleak picture.
Speaker 5 (41:44):
A new question in the twenty twenty three survey version
asked if these sworn staff members were considering leaving CSPD
within the next five years, sixty three percent saying yes.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
John recalls Joel Kern's feelings on morale when they work together.
Speaker 6 (42:00):
So at first, Joel Kern was somebody that I could
look up to and trust, and he was very skilled
in that arena of investigation. And then as time went on,
things really really started to change. Kern would say things like,
morale is a personal problem, and from a guy with
(42:20):
a management master's degree, I will tell you that one
person with a morale problem is a personal problem, but
when it's systemic across an organization, that's a leadership problem.
And that was the mantra that the brass kept saying.
If the morale here is poor, that's your fault.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
John's experience has proved that not everyone at CSPD agrees
with its culture. There are officers currently on the force
who are disillusioned with how the department disciplines its employees.
I wondered if the dedicated CSPD investigators who tried to
help Sarah and she first reported Glenn were among those
(42:59):
that it out of the job. Here's Sarah again.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
When I brought the case to them, I gave them
that disclosure that nothing is going to happen to him,
like I told them, and they both were like, he
shouldn't be an exception, he shouldn't be protected. This should
be just any normal case. And honestly, I think that
(43:27):
when they found out he wasn't going to be prosecuted,
it seemed like they were pretty upset about it. It
felt like they were kind of betrayed along with me.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
In the end, the department lets Sarah down.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
I have so much knowledge and so much experience and
so much information about how the criminal justice system works,
and how CSPD works, and who is who and navigating
all of these situations would be imposed without that. So
again I'm heartbroken for the people that are victims and
(44:08):
don't have my special set of skills and knowledge and information.
If it hadn't been for some of that information, again,
he would be getting away with all of it.
Speaker 1 (44:22):
Here's former CSPD employee Barbigan.
Speaker 5 (44:25):
If you have no integratary in your personal life, why
would you have integrity in your public life. If you
will lie about little stuff, you'll lie about big stuff.
If you lie about big stuff, you'll lie about bigger stuff.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
It makes us wonder how many Joel Kerns and Glenn
Thomas's there are right now getting away with potentially criminal
behavior because their friends on the force are protecting them.
How many officers have had serious reports of misc cot
swept under the rug. How many have had internal affairs
investigations closed without consequence. We'll give the final word to
(45:09):
Major Franklin.
Speaker 4 (45:11):
We work for you. As citizens, and we are to
provide a service. We take enough to protect people's constitutional rights,
and we are one of a very few number of
people occupations in this country who have the ability and
(45:33):
right to take your liberty away from you at any
given second. I want someone who is going to set
the example for their behavior because they're going to be
interacting with me, my kids, my grandkids, my nieces, my nephews,
my relatives, my friends. I'm not asking you to be saints.
(45:55):
I'm asking you to have integrity. I'm asking you to
value your position, asking you to raise the level of
professionalism within your craft. I'm asking you to be the best.
That's all.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
On the next episode of Betrayal, we go back to
Caroline's story and we hear about her healing journey.
Speaker 7 (46:18):
No one blames the wife or the spouse or a
partner for someone's heroin addiction ex except for someone's gambling addiction.
It's just in this realm of infidelities where there seems
to be this really strong focus on the betrayed partner.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Thank you for listening to Betrayal season four. If you
would like to reach out to the Betrayal team, email
us at Betrayalpod at gmail dot com. That's Betrayal Pod
at gmail dot com. Also, please be sure to follow
us on Instagram at Betrayal Pod and me Andrea H.
Gunning for all Betrayal content, news and updates. One way
(47:00):
to support the series is by subscribing to our show
on Apple Podcasts. Please rate and review Betrayal five star
reviews help us know you appreciate what we do. Betrayal
is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass
Entertainment Group, in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is
executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Fason. Betrayal is
(47:22):
hosted and produced by me Andrea Gunning, written and produced
by Carrie Hartman, also produced by Ben Fetterman. Our associate
producers are Caitlin Golden and Kristin Melcurie. Our iHeart team
is Ali Perry and Jessica Crincheck. Story editing by Monique Leboard,
Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio, editing by Tanner Robbins,
(47:44):
and special thanks to Caroline and her family. Betrayal's theme
is composed by Oliver Bains. Music library provided by my
Music and for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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