Durango gets 3rd federal prosecutor

Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 3, 2007 at midnight

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A third federal prosecutor will join the U.S. attorney's office in Durango as part of an ongoing effort to address crime in southwest Colorado, particularly on its two American Indian reservations.

U.S. Attorney for Colorado Troy Eid said the newly funded position, approved recently by the Department of Justice, will help strengthen law enforcement on the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute reservations, where the crime rate exceeds the rest of the state.

His office also has trained 84 area law enforcement officers, from local police to sheriff's deputies, to respond to emergencies and issue federal citations on the reservations. They assist the Bureau of Indian Affairs or tribal police officers already assigned there.

The Durango branch of the U.S. attorney's office handles prosecutions of all felonies that occur on the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute reservations, as well as all federal crimes in southwest Colorado.

Last year, Eid proclaimed the Ute Mountain Ute reservation, home to about 2,000 people, the "murder capital of Colorado." Between 2005 and 2006, six people turned up dead on the reservation, all believed to have been killed.

Eid and Ute Mountain Ute officials have said part of the problem is a shortage of law enforcement officers.

The tribe also is looking at other ways to curb crime, from hiring security workers to offering more activities for youths.

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