S4: E7 — The Golden Few

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Speaker 37 He would come into my bedroom and say he was was clearing the house, but I'm sleeping in bed and I have a gun and a flashlight in my face.

Speaker 37 He just played by different rules, and everyone just accepted that.

Speaker 1 I'm Andrea Gunning, and this is Betrayal Season 4, Episode 7:

Speaker 1 The Golden Few.

Speaker 1 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 every single one.

Speaker 1 We hear stories of people abusing their power as teachers, doctors, and lawyers.

Speaker 1 But when we got the email from Caroline Berega, we knew that this was more than than a personal betrayal to her and her family.

Speaker 1 If you were the victim of a violent crime and called 911 in crisis, think about who you would want to respond to your call.

Speaker 1 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, and escaping termination.

Speaker 1 That's what resonated with us.

Speaker 1 Think about it. Our entire justice system relies on the integrity and character of cops.

Speaker 38 As President Obama described police officers, they are the tips on the spears of a societal order.

Speaker 1 That's Will Aitchison, 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 38 We give police officers responsibility. We tell them, you're going to have the authority to deprive somebody of their liberty by arresting them.

Speaker 38 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.

Speaker 38 That responsibility that we give police officers demands 100% truthfulness on the part of the police officer. No question about it.

Speaker 1 We talked to another expert, former Maryland State Police Major Neil Franklin. He works on issues surrounding policing all over the country.

Speaker 1 He agreed that truthfulness needs to be a core value of all officers.

Speaker 39 We need to be about telling the truth because

Speaker 39 A critical job function that we have is testifying in court.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Just think of the O.J. Simpson trial, when the lead detective used racial slurs and then lied about it.
It threw his credibility into question.

Speaker 1 Or the Karen Reed trial in Boston. where the lead investigator was caught sending highly inappropriate messages about the defendant.

Speaker 1 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 39 If you cannot testify in court,

Speaker 39 you don't have that level of integrity, you can't perform an essential job function, so you can't be a police officer. At least that's my perspective on it.

Speaker 1 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?

Speaker 1 We met a civilian employee who recently retired from CSPD. We'll call her Barb.
She shared a story that gave more insight into how things worked at the department and into Joel Kern's connections.

Speaker 1 And we've distorted her voice to protect her privacy.

Speaker 40 So I heard this rumor. that Joel had been having an affair with someone from DHS, which I believe is the Department of Human Services.
That was the rumor, and I was like, I don't think so.

Speaker 40 Because I had seen him around his family. I was like, he can't be that kind of a dog.

Speaker 6 And it bothered me.

Speaker 1 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 1 She thought it was careless at best. damaging at worst.
She wanted to shut it down.

Speaker 40 So I went to my chain of of command and I said, hey, you know, this really bothers me. This is what I've heard.
And

Speaker 40 it just can't be right.

Speaker 40 Well, he turns around and calls Joel.

Speaker 1 Her boss didn't even ask who was spreading the rumor. Her reason for reporting it was to stop harmful gossip.

Speaker 40 I was expecting some kind of reassurance that, okay, this is not cool and it's not right.

Speaker 40 I didn't get that.

Speaker 40 He actually spoke very disparagingly about Caroline.

Speaker 40 He's like, oh, she's going to have him by 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, you know, she's such a bitch.

Speaker 40 And I'm like,

Speaker 40 okay, I guess the few times I've seen her, I didn't pick up on that.

Speaker 1 Barb was completely taken aback at her supervisor's response. He wasn't interested in shutting down the rumor, just justifying it.

Speaker 1 She had originally been trying to protect Joel, a man she saw as one of the good ones.

Speaker 40 No, he 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 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.

Speaker 1 Then something happened with a female colleague, a friend of Barb's. Joel started sending her sexually suggestive texts.

Speaker 40 He texted her and she looked up and was like, no,

Speaker 40 no, there will be none of that.

Speaker 19 So I'm like, okay.

Speaker 40 He thinks that you're vulnerable and you're going to show him that you're not, which I'm thankful that she did and her name has never come up in any of this stuff. She was uncomfortable by it.

Speaker 40 And I think that. She was a little bit closer to the positions of power than I was.
So she may have already understood things were going on that I was not privy to.

Speaker 1 This incident made Barb look at Joel's treatment towards her in a whole new light. Maybe the rumors about Joel weren't rumors at all.

Speaker 1 Looking back now, she can't help but wonder if he became cold to her because she was on to him.

Speaker 1 Through our reporting, we uncovered even more allegations of misconduct within the Colorado Springs Police Department. It revealed a culture, one that doesn't just allow for bad behavior to occur.

Speaker 1 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 39 The culture at CSPD is exceptionally toxic and the toxicity is all about the people in charge.

Speaker 1 That's John. He is one of the few individuals with inside knowledge of the CSPD who is willing to speak on the record.

Speaker 1 We offered him the option to use a pseudonym for his protection, but he didn't want it.

Speaker 39 I'm fine with John. I was there for 12 years.
I don't care that they know who I am.

Speaker 1 John isn't just a former CSPD officer. He's a 30-year military veteran who rose to the rank of colonel.
After a tour in Iraq, he returned home determined to serve his community.

Speaker 1 He says, It's the same intention most officers come in with.

Speaker 39 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 But when John started at CSPD, he quickly realized that the department was not what he expected.

Speaker 39 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.

Speaker 39 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 John's first indication that something was wrong came during a crisis.

Speaker 39 We had an event where a colleague of mine, a friend and a colleague, was killed in the line of duty in a motorcycle crash.

Speaker 1 The officer's name was Matt Tyner.

Speaker 39 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?

Speaker 39 Because I knew what he told me was going to be solid.

Speaker 39 He was also a man of impeccable integrity and character.

Speaker 39 Yeah, having a hard time talking about it.

Speaker 39 But he's the kind of cop that I wanted to be.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And the way he found out his mentor had been killed made it even worse.

Speaker 39 I found out about it on Facebook.

Speaker 39 Somebody on the scene used their phone to take a video of this and posted it.

Speaker 39 He actually was alive for about 45 minutes and he suffered terribly. And that's how Matt's family found out about it.

Speaker 39 Through social media.

Speaker 39 They watched their loved ones suffer.

Speaker 39 I was absolutely incensed because in the Army, we've been dealing with this for two decades.

Speaker 1 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 39 They could manage a notification process so that Matt's family hears from the department before they start seeing things on social media.

Speaker 39 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 He went through the chain of command, but his suggestion was taken as an insult.

Speaker 39 The next day, I was called into the commander's office and given the knife hand and yelled at about knowing my place.

Speaker 39 My place was to answer the radio calls.

Speaker 39 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.

Speaker 39 It's like, 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 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.

Speaker 1 These officers receive special training, assist with fatal accidents, and work to stop impaired drivers. DUI officers carry the weight of protecting lives every day.

Speaker 39 There are more people being killed by drunk drivers than there are from homicide.

Speaker 1 The city is divided into patrol divisions, and there are two DUI officers in each.

Speaker 1 When John joined the division, his counterpart was a legend, Officer Glenn Thomas, a name everyone knew in DUI enforcement.

Speaker 39 He was known locally as the DUI God.

Speaker 39 He was the guy he arrested the most.

Speaker 1 Everyone we spoke to told us about Glenn's charisma and charm. He's a big personality.

Speaker 39 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 assigned to the DUI enforcement unit in Sand Creek.

Speaker 1 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 39 I was making a lot of arrests. I ended up being number two in the state.

Speaker 1 He beat me by, I think, around 100 arrests 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 joe kern glenn thomas was up to no good and the department knew for years long before his alleged crimes became public

Speaker 1 John first started to question Glenn's methods when another officer confided in him.

Speaker 39 What he told me was that 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 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 will get to that.

Speaker 1 When an officer suspects there is a drunk or impaired driver, he calls the DUI officer. That officer goes to the scene to make an assessment.

Speaker 1 Why on earth would a DUI officer lie about engaging with the driver?

Speaker 4 Well, John has a theory.

Speaker 39 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 John wondered: was this how 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 39 He and I immediately began butting heads.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 It was a routine part of the job. But on this occasion,

Speaker 39 I testified in court

Speaker 39 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.

Speaker 39 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 him one of these days.

Speaker 39 And two other cops were nearby and they heard that statement.

Speaker 1 Word got back to Glenn.

Speaker 39 He took that as me attacking him, even though I didn't make any statements.

Speaker 39 Next thing you know, I'm being called into internal affairs, and the accusation was that I was conducting an investigation against Glenn.

Speaker 39 I'm not investigating anything.

Speaker 39 I'm being interrogated by my own department for potential wrongdoing.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 So, in the midst of being questioned by internal affairs, John made the decision to share his concerns about Glenn.

Speaker 39 I sat there for three hours and outlined all the different things that people had told me.

Speaker 39 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.

Speaker 39 So they opened an investigation, and I have never been privy to the investigation.

Speaker 1 So there were now two internal affairs investigations. One for John into whether he was going after Glenn Thomas and one into Glenn himself.

Speaker 39 John's allegations were supposedly investigated, and as far as John knows, they were deemed unfounded 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

Speaker 39 and so we're going to chalk that up to administrative error and i'm like if you show up

Speaker 39 and you know you didn't talk to the guy and you wrote down that he was a refusal, that's a lie. That's not an administrative error.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 John was genuinely concerned about Glenn's behavior. And when he tried to bring those concerns to CSPD, he was shut down.
Hard.

Speaker 1 And John thinks he knows why.

Speaker 39 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 39 And this is the theme.

Speaker 1 Glenn Thomas continued as the DUI god. John felt like Glenn was a walking liability and a liar.

Speaker 1 John may have been one of the first people to call out Thomas's bad behavior,

Speaker 1 but he wasn't the last.

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Speaker 23 The glass of red, the cozy blanket, then the drop.

Speaker 25 The stain so dark, so stubborn, it might as well have been a crime scene.

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Speaker 1 Glenn Thomas, the Colorado Springs DUI god, is currently awaiting trial for intimidating a 10-year-old witness and for violating a protection order.

Speaker 1 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 DUI enforcement.

Speaker 37 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 But Sarah recognized that Glenn was able to get away with things other cops couldn't.

Speaker 37 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.

Speaker 37 Everyone would just laugh.

Speaker 1 He was the class clown. He could be crude, and it was all deemed acceptable.

Speaker 1 Sarah and Glenn Thomas had three daughters together. And for several years, they were a good team.

Speaker 37 The first 10 years of our marriage, he still continued to be very charming. He's very funny.

Speaker 37 I mean, there was ups and downs, I think, until he got in a car wreck and hurt his back. And then I think it was like between the pain and then he got on pay meds.

Speaker 37 And I think between the two, like he kind of just very, very drastically changed.

Speaker 1 Those changes included behaving violently towards her and their children.

Speaker 37 There were times that he hit me. There were times that he threw me across the room in front of the kids.

Speaker 1 Sarah said Glenn could be controlling and at times terrifying.

Speaker 37 After we were not sharing a bedroom anymore, he'd come home at 5 a.m.

Speaker 37 and come into my bedroom and

Speaker 37 he would say he was clearing the house, but like I'm sleeping in bed and I have a gun and a flashlight in my face.

Speaker 1 Sarah told us about one incident that was particularly alarming.

Speaker 37 We weren't allowed to lock doors

Speaker 37 and we were in an argument. And I went into the bathroom and

Speaker 37 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 Their three daughters were also affected by his behavior, especially their eldest.

Speaker 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 In divorce divorce proceedings, Glenn claimed he often put chip clips on his family members' clothes in good fun.

Speaker 1 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 37 I kind of just separated them and tried to calm the situation down.

Speaker 1 Her daughter was 14 at the time. Glenn's behavior was bizarre.
That was in addition to the physical violence Sarah experienced at his hands.

Speaker 1 So this all begs the question, why didn't Sarah go to the police? After all, she was a former officer at CSPD.

Speaker 37 I knew what his relationship was with the department. I just didn't feel like I would be taken seriously.

Speaker 37 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 me and my children.

Speaker 1 It's a risk a lot of survivors of domestic violence weigh out. Would reporting make things worse, more dangerous? And in Sarah's case, she'd be reporting her husband to his own buddies.

Speaker 1 So for years, she stayed silent and stayed in the marriage, hoping things would change. But then in the fall of 2021, something happened that pushed Sarah to act.

Speaker 37 My oldest came to me and basically said, I don't trust you anymore.

Speaker 1 You're not protecting us.

Speaker 37 Like, I don't know why you're not leaving him.

Speaker 37 And she basically told me, you need to leave him or he's going to end up killing you and us too.

Speaker 1 That was the moment everything changed.

Speaker 37 And then I talked to my other two.

Speaker 37 I was like, Do you guys feel the same way? And they both were like, definitely. You need to get out.

Speaker 1 So she did. Keep in mind, this was a police officer they were escaping from.

Speaker 37 And

Speaker 37 I called the divorce attorney that day because I didn't really have that concept of what they were going through.

Speaker 1 They moved into a safe house provided by TESSA, a Colorado Springs organization that helps those experiencing domestic violence.

Speaker 37 That was just a really hard thing to go through,

Speaker 37 leaving your kids' bedrooms.

Speaker 37 It was hard for all of us to not have a space

Speaker 37 and not know what was coming next and that uncertainty of where we were even going to be laying our heads down.

Speaker 1 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 37 She said that he kind of was targeting her. It wasn't an isolated incident, and

Speaker 37 he was doing it multiple times.

Speaker 1 It was then that Sarah decided to report Glenn to the CSPD.

Speaker 1 She spoke to the domestic violence sergeant and her initial concerns about not being taken seriously by the department were validated.

Speaker 37 The conversation I had with the sergeant of the DV unit made me feel gross.

Speaker 37 He was telling me how we need to just figure out a way to get along and that was the initial call for this.

Speaker 37 And like, oh yeah, I know there's been a lot of incidents back and forth between you.

Speaker 1 No,

Speaker 1 there hasn't.

Speaker 37 He has been victimizing us, period.

Speaker 1 But she did feel supported by the officers who were eventually assigned to investigate the case.

Speaker 37 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.

Speaker 37 That this is kind of what I have been going through, my kids have been going through.

Speaker 37 This detective sergeant and the detective felt like they had reached the level of probable cause for domestic violence charges.

Speaker 37 And so, they were told by their lieutenant that they needed to refer it to the DA's office at the time rather than just arrest as per statute they are required to do.

Speaker 1 To the DA, 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 37 That day that they referred it to the DA's office,

Speaker 37 he was training the DA's office in DUIs. Like he's physically at their location.
They get this case against him, and

Speaker 37 unsurprisingly,

Speaker 37 they declined to prosecute.

Speaker 1 When asked for comment on this claim, the DA said there was insufficient evidence available to prosecute.

Speaker 1 Sarah points out that even if the DA wasn't intentionally protecting Glenn, there was a conflict of interest here.

Speaker 1 How could the DA be impartial in a decision to prosecute someone they work with so closely?

Speaker 37 The right thing to do would have been for them to refer it to a special prosecutor, but they did it.

Speaker 1 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 37 100%

Speaker 37 he would have been arrested. It wouldn't have been a hesitation.
It would have been right away.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 She cited examples like the chip clip incident to be, quote, inappropriate and uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 And when it came to Glenn's treatment of Sarah, specifically the day when Glenn kicked down the bathroom door, the judge was clear. This was domestic violence.

Speaker 1 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 2022, nearly three years ago.

Speaker 1 At the time, it felt validating to Sarah. A judge saw what Glenn was capable of and took action to protect Sarah's kids.
But this was all in family court, not criminal.

Speaker 1 So Glenn was still allowed to wear the badge and carry a gun.

Speaker 1 Sarah felt like it was important to file a complaint with internal affairs.

Speaker 37 Then IA gets the case to see if he violated any policies.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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 37 If they think that there's any

Speaker 37 evidence that shows that he has either broken the law or violated policy,

Speaker 37 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.

Speaker 37 So I really did think that it was going to be okay because of the IA investigation.

Speaker 1 Eight months after she filed the case with IA, Sarah received a letter. It was from CSPD.

Speaker 1 It read in part, After reviewing the case, it was determined that the the acts you complained of were justified, legal, proper, and adhere to department policy.

Speaker 37 It was, he was exonerated. It didn't happen.

Speaker 1 This was the same department that found probable cause to send this case to the DA.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 But somehow, Glenn's actions were justified, legal, proper, and adhered to department policy. And while we're talking policy, we took a look at the employee handbook.

Speaker 1 Section 400, the one Glenn was exonerated on, says,

Speaker 1 Officers must live by the law enforcement code of ethics. They take an oath.
It reads in part,

Speaker 1 as a law enforcement officer, my fundamental 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 disorder.

Speaker 1 While performing my duties, I will maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, develop self-restraint, be truthful, and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others.

Speaker 1 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 37 The disappointing part to me was that DC Edmondson signed off on it, and Chief Vasquez signed off on it.

Speaker 37 Like DC Edmondson was one of my trainers in the academy, and Chief Vasquez was my sergeant for years in DEA.

Speaker 37 So I felt like there might be less bias towards one or the other of us because I knew these people really well too.

Speaker 37 But it definitely affirms my belief that Glenn Thomas in particular has a very, very special position at CSPD.

Speaker 1 So what line would Glenn have to cross in order to lose favor with the department?

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Speaker 1 At the heart of this season is one question.

Speaker 1 How was Joel Kern able to do what he did? To betray his family, his colleagues, and his community for so long?

Speaker 1 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, not an isolated case.

Speaker 1 We've heard from former staff that there are certain employees who are untouchable, protected by the badge and by the brass.

Speaker 1 These are people who don't fear consequences, because if you're one of the golden few, there are no consequences.

Speaker 1 Following Glenn Thomas's exoneration in his IA case, Sarah tried to move forward. She focused on her job and her kids.
But Glenn was still still a part of her family's life.

Speaker 1 By court order, he had limited custody of their 10-year-old daughter. Two years into this arrangement, in October 2024, their daughter confided in her therapist.

Speaker 1 She said her dad had touched her inappropriately.

Speaker 37 Her therapist reported to DHS, DHS reported to Woodland Park PD.

Speaker 37 Woodland Park PD opened an investigation on it.

Speaker 29 Glenn lived in Woodland Park.

Speaker 1 It's a small town about 30 minutes outside of Colorado Springs. But the Woodland Park Police Department was a different ball field.
Glenn didn't work for them.

Speaker 1 They asked him to come in for an interview to explain his actions. He denied the allegations.

Speaker 34 And then he did something unthinkable.

Speaker 37 He just went to my daughter's school and confronted her. and told her that she's a liar.

Speaker 1 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 37 He called two different people within the department who specifically told him, do not go to her school on his way down there.

Speaker 37 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 Later, at an emergency custody hearing, he changed the story, claiming a commander told Glenn he should go down to his daughter's school.

Speaker 1 These emergency proceedings were happening in parallel to Glenn's criminal case.

Speaker 37 And at this emergency hearing, on the stand, he said that this commander had told him he should go to the school and talk to her because he was supposed to have visitation the next day.

Speaker 37 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 visitation like the next day.

Speaker 37 In fact, what happened is the person that he mentioned had told him, do not go.

Speaker 37 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 He lied on the stand and he put blame on the CSPD. 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.

Speaker 1 Glenn Thomas was starting to seem less like an asset and more like a liability to the department, especially once the news got a hold of the story.

Speaker 43 We have an 11-breaking news alert just into our newsroom. We just learned that a Colorado Springs police officer is now under arrest.

Speaker 40 He was accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a minor in Woodland Park.

Speaker 44 Thomas later confronted the alleged victim at school about those accusations, telling the minor to change the story.

Speaker 43 Sergeant Thomas is accused of violating a protection order and intimidating the victim involved.

Speaker 45 Thomas is assigned to the DUI unit and was taken into custody earlier today.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Anything that would undermine their credibility as a witness. The DA has to notify opposing counsel anytime they use an officer from the Brady list as a witness.

Speaker 1 In other words, Thomas is now marked as a liar in the courts.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 They couldn't find the evidence they needed to make the charge stick.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And this time, finally, CSPD took the allegations seriously.

Speaker 1 Glenn Thomas's trial is set for the end of July, but until then, he still remains employed at CSPD.

Speaker 1 And he can continue to testify in cases for the DA.

Speaker 1 We asked the DA directly about whether they'll be putting Glenn on the stand knowing what they know now.

Speaker 1 They responded, quote, we can't speculate on this topic. We can only confirm Mr.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 So why are we telling you about Glenn Thomas?

Speaker 1 Because there are clear similarities with Joel Kern's case. Both had long-standing ties to the CSPD.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 We asked Major Franklin, who we heard from at the top of the episode, about these dynamics.

Speaker 39 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.

Speaker 39 But we've developed this

Speaker 39 stop snitching, don't snitch on your peers.

Speaker 39 And it's a culture that I don't think

Speaker 39 has changed over many, many, many, many decades.

Speaker 1 As a former cop himself, Major Franklin can see how this culture has sustained itself for so long.

Speaker 39 One of the main reasons is the camaraderie. We have done a very good job in policing of isolating ourselves from community at large.

Speaker 39 Primarily the folks who are at the police barbecues are police officers and immediate family members. Weddings is the same way.

Speaker 39 If you really examine many of the wedding parties for police officers, they are police officers and the wedding parties. So we've done a very good job of isolating ourselves.

Speaker 39 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 In our last episode, we also introduced you to Claudia Aldrich. She runs the police officers whistleblower network.
Her social media posts call out the CSPD for what she sees as massive hypocrisy.

Speaker 1 She says there's no benefit to reporting a fellow officer for misconduct.

Speaker 40 Who's going to want to do that?

Speaker 46 Because doing that puts their career on a big red spot.

Speaker 1 Major Franklin says he has seen employees step up to try and stop rumors and corruption.

Speaker 39 They will report, but you know what? Many of them have paid the price for it.

Speaker 1 Former CSPD officer John was one of them. His efforts to raise red flags and create meaningful change at CSPD were met with frustration and even outright anger by those in leadership.

Speaker 1 And eventually, he got tired of fighting.

Speaker 39 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 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.

Speaker 1 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 in 2023.
It painted a bleak picture.

Speaker 47 A new question in the 2023 survey version asked if these sworn staff members were considering leaving CSPD within the next five years, 63% saying yes.

Speaker 1 John recalls Joel Kern's feelings on morale when they work together.

Speaker 39 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.

Speaker 39 Kern would say things like, morale is a personal problem.

Speaker 39 And from a guy with a management master's degree, I will tell you that one person with a morale problem is a personal problem.

Speaker 39 But when it's systemic across an organization, that's a leadership problem.

Speaker 39 And that was the mantra that the brass kept saying. If the morale here is poor, that's your fault.

Speaker 1 John's experiences 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.

Speaker 1 I wondered if the dedicated CSPD investigators who tried to help Sarah when she first reported Glenn were among those that wanted out of the job. Here's Sarah again.

Speaker 37 When I brought the case to them, I gave them that disclosure that nothing is going to happen to him. Like I told them.

Speaker 37 And they both were like, he shouldn't be an exception. He shouldn't be protected.
This should be just a normal case.

Speaker 37 And honestly, I think that when they found out he wasn't going to be prosecuted, it seemed like they were pretty upset about it.

Speaker 37 It felt like they were kind of betrayed along with me.

Speaker 1 In the end, the department let Sarah down.

Speaker 37 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 impossible without that.

Speaker 37 So again, I'm heartbroken for the people that are victims and don't have my special set of skills and knowledge and information.

Speaker 37 If it hadn't been for some of that information,

Speaker 37 again, he would be getting away with all of it.

Speaker 1 Here's former CSPD employee Barb again.

Speaker 40 If you have no integrity 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.

Speaker 39 If you lie about big stuff, you'll lie about bigger stuff.

Speaker 1 It makes us wonder how many Joel Kerns and Glenn Thomases there are right now getting away with potentially criminal behavior because their friends on the force are protecting them.

Speaker 1 How many officers have had serious reports of misconduct swept under the rug? How many have had internal affairs investigations closed without consequence?

Speaker 1 We'll give the final word to Major Franklin.

Speaker 39 We work for you as citizens, and we are to provide a service.

Speaker 39 We take an oath to protect people's constitutional rights.

Speaker 39 And

Speaker 39 we are

Speaker 39 one of a very few number of people, occupations in this country who have the ability and the right to take your liberty away from you at any given second.

Speaker 39 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.

Speaker 39 I'm not asking you to be saints. I'm asking you to have integrity.
I'm asking you to value your position. I'm asking you to raise the level of professionalism within your craft.

Speaker 39 I'm asking you to be the best. That's all.

Speaker 1 On the next episode of Betrayal, we go back to Caroline's story and we hear about her healing journey.

Speaker 48 No one blames the wife or the spouse or a partner for someone's heroin addiction or for someone's gambling addiction.

Speaker 46 It's just in this realm of infidelities

Speaker 46 where there seems to be this really strong focus on the betrayed partner.

Speaker 1 Thank you for listening to Betrayal Season 4. If you would like to reach out to the betrayal team, email us at betrayalpod at gmail.com.
That's betrayalp

Speaker 1 at gmail.com. Also, please be sure to follow us on Instagram at betrayalpod and me, Andrea H.
Gunning, for all betrayal content, news, and updates.

Speaker 1 One way 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.

Speaker 1 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 Faison.

Speaker 1 Betrayal is 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 Kristen Malkuri.

Speaker 1 Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreinchek.

Speaker 1 Story editing by Monique Laborde. Audio editing and mixing by Matt Delvecchio.
Editing by Tanner Robbins. And special thanks to Caroline and her family.
Betrayal's theme is composed by Oliver Baines.

Speaker 1 Music library provided by MyMusic. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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