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Commissioners weigh sheriff’s hiring of former county attorney Treu as ‘outside counsel’

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September 9, 2024, 12:47 pm
Beth Oliver, middle, was named as the new Eagle County attorney in April.

Editor’s note:  The commissioners on Tuesday, Sept. 10, postponed this discussion in order to receive legal advice and determine if the sheriff’s office hiring its own legal counsel is allowable under law. They have not yet set a date to revisit the issue.

The Eagle County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday will hold a public “discussion regarding scope of work for outside council [sic] for the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office” – an unusual arrangement involving longtime former Eagle County Attorney Bryan Treu.

Typically, the county attorney provides legal counsel for the sheriff’s office, but Treu confirmed to RealVail.com last week that he’s been serving as a legal consultant for Eagle County Sheriff James van Beek since mid-August. The commissioners held an executive session meeting (behind-closed-doors with no public or media allowed) on the topic on Sept. 3.

Eagle County Sheriff James Van Beek
Sheriff van Beek

“I’m doing consulting work for the sheriff,” Treu said in a phone interview on Sept. 4. “I just had so much going on before [when he was county attorney] so I’m helping him out. That meeting yesterday, I wasn’t at it, but I think it was just to discuss scope of work to make sure we’re not overlapping with the county attorney. I’m just doing a lot of trainings right now, cleaning up their policies. How long, I don’t know.”

Treu was replaced by current Eagle County Attorney Beth Oliver in April.

Oliver sent an email statement on Monday clarifying last week’s executive session “was to provide legal advice on issues relating to legal representation of the Board of County Commissioners and the Sheriff’s Office, which is also an appropriate topic for discussion pursuant to 24-6-402(4)(b) of the Colorado Open Meetings Act.”

Oliver added: “We can’t provide more detail as to the specific discussion. The Board did not adopt any position or take any action in the executive session. The Attorney’s Office continues to work on determining appropriate options for legal counsels’ scope of work, which will be discussed by the Sheriff and the Board in an open session [on Tuesday].”

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Treu said he was not brought on by the sheriff for any particular case.

“Most likely it would be for training, legislative work, real-time questions from deputies, 24/7 access, that kind of stuff,” Treu said. “I just started in mid-August and I’m only doing about 20 hours a week. That’s about all I can do right now. Just helping out, trying to do some overflow, a lot of their policy. There were a lot of legislative changes for law enforcement policies.”

Treu was asked if these were things he handled during his tenure as county attorney beginning in 2005.

“I would say yes and no,” Treu said. “Probably not, because you’re pulled in so many different directions.”

Oliver joined the county in 2012 as assistant county attorney and served as deputy county attorney beginning in 2016.

In a press release when Oliver was named county attorney in April, county officials explained “the county attorney is appointed by the board of commissioners to provide legal services to all elected county officials, departments, boards and commissions.”

One high-ranking state law-enforcement official who declined to be quoted on the record told RealVail.com it is highly unusual for a sheriff’s office in Colorado to obtain outside legal counsel apart from what is provided by the county attorney, and that the arrangement could create legal liability issues.

Treu in 2019 represented van Beek when he was charged by then District Attorney Bruce Brown with official misconduct in a dispute over what the DA felt was the sheriff’s improper expenditure of state-confiscated money. A special prosecutor in the case told a judge he could not prove the charges against van Beek, resulting in a dismissal.

In a statement at the time, Treu said the case “could have easily been resolved over a cup of coffee.”

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David O. Williams

Managing Editor at RealVail
David O. Williams is the editor and co-founder of RealVail.com and has had his awarding-winning work (see About Us) published in more than 75 newspapers and magazines around the world, including 5280 Magazine, American Way Magazine (American Airlines), the Anchorage Daily News (Alaska), the Anchorage Daily Press (Alaska), Aspen Daily News, Aspen Journalism, the Aspen Times, Beaver Creek Magazine, the Boulder Daily Camera, the Casper Star Tribune (Wyoming), the Chicago Tribune, Colorado Central Magazine, the Colorado Independent (formerly Colorado Confidential), Colorado Newsline, Colorado Politics (formerly the Colorado Statesman), Colorado Public News, the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Springs Independent, the Colorado Statesman (now Colorado Politics), the Colorado Times Recorder, the Cortez Journal, the Craig Daily Press, the Curry Coastal Pilot (Oregon), the Daily Trail (Vail), the Del Norte Triplicate (California), the Denver Daily News, the Denver Gazette, the Denver Post, the Durango Herald, the Eagle Valley Enterprise, the Eastside Journal (Bellevue, Washington), ESPN.com, Explore Big Sky (Mont.), the Fort Morgan Times (Colorado), the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the Greeley Tribune, the Huffington Post, the King County Journal (Seattle, Washington), the Kingman Daily Miner (Arizona), KUNC.org (northern Colorado), LA Weekly, the Las Vegas Sun, the Leadville Herald-Democrat, the London Daily Mirror, the Moab Times Independent (Utah), the Montgomery Journal (Maryland), the Montrose Daily Press, The New York Times, the Parent’s Handbook, Peaks Magazine (now Epic Life), People Magazine, Powder Magazine, the Pueblo Chieftain, PT Magazine, the Rio Blanco Herald Times (Colorado), Rocky Mountain Golf Magazine, the Rocky Mountain News, RouteFifty.com (formerly Government Executive State and Local), the Salt Lake Tribune, SKI Magazine, Ski Area Management, SKIING Magazine, the Sky-Hi News, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the Sterling Journal Advocate (Colorado), the Summit Daily News, United Hemispheres (United Airlines), Vail/Beaver Creek Magazine, Vail en Español, Vail Health Magazine, Vail Valley Magazine, the Vail Daily, the Vail Trail, Westword (Denver), Writers on the Range and the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Williams is also the founder, publisher and editor of RealVail.com and RockyMountainPost.com.