Two Glendale police officers indicted

By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 23, 2008 at 4:26 p.m.
Updated May 23, 2008 at 5:52 p.m.

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Two Glendale police officers have been indicted for allegedly destroying evidence related to a prostitution sting.

The grand jury indictment released Friday names Lt. Mike Gross and Det. Roy Martin.

They each face one count of tampering with physical evidence and one count of conspiring to tamper with physical evidence. Both charges are class 6 felonies, punishable by one year to 18 months in prison, according to the Arapahoe County District Attorney's office.

The two have been placed on administrative leave with pay. Police Chief Victor Ross declined further comment.

The indictment gives the following account:

They destroyed notes made during the sting because Gross — who played the "John" during a night of motel room encounters with prostitutes — was embarrassed by the words "begins oral stimulation." The notes were taken by Martin, who was listening in from the adjoining motel room.

Gross feared the three pages of notes on a legal pad would be entered into evidence. That would open him to questioning about the embarrassing words if the cases against the prostitutes went to trial.

Gross became "upset and angry."

Eventually, Martin destroyed the notes.

Martin, Gross and seven other officers conducted the sting operation on May 18, 2007, at the StayBridge Inn in Glendale. The operation netted several prostitutes.

Whether to keep the notes was the subject of a discussion that lasted several days among Gross, Martin and at least three other officers who were part of the sting.

Some of the officers believed the notes were evidence.

But Gross and Martin held that all the relevant data had been incorporated into official reports. Notes were not usually kept in misdemeanor cases, they argued.

Gross also believed the words "begins oral stimulation" was not evidence because the notes didn't specify to which of the prostitutes that act was being attributed.

The offending words did not appear in any of the official police reports, the indictment says.

morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com

or 303 954-5209

• May 23, 2008

  9:33 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  dnvrguy1 writes:

  why is it Denver police can just kill a guy in front of his family "after" he drops a knife and nothing happens and two Glendale police officers are in trouble and are debating some notes about a topic no one really cares about. Maybe we should have Glendale run the Denver dept. So many people have been blown away by our Denver cowboy gun slingers. When will it stop? Let these guys go, hire them to run Denver.

• May 25, 2008

  3:12 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  kevin3 writes:

  Good idea dnvrguy1! It would be a great trade off, Denver can take care of Glendale's Fire Dept. and Glendale can run Denver's P.D.!

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