...In the two-page document, his lawyers claim local officials knew of Nelson's "violent propensities" and failed to tell Ignacio and his family... In pretrial hearings, prosecutors alluded to at least one other affair Nelson had with a police officer that led to her threatening that officer's wife...Cloud remains over Greeley cops after Nelson case
By Monte Whaley
The Denver Post
03/09/2008
[Excerpts] The Police Department's biggest investigation wrapped up last week with a conviction of the prime suspect and generous praise from prosecutors in the case... But a cloud remains over the officers and detectives in Greeley in the wake of the first-degree murder conviction of Shawna Nelson, police and city officials concede... "I think there has been a climate where some people there were not held accountable for their actions," said Greeley Mayor Ed Clark, who served as a Greeley police officer for 10 years... Clark said, "I don't think it was an aberration." Even with Nelson's conviction and sentence to life in prison for the shooting death of Heather Garraus - a Greeley police officer's wife - more allegations about bed-hopping among Greeley's finest may again emerge in court. Ignacio Garraus - Heather Garraus' husband - filed an intent-to-sue notice in May. In the two-page document, his lawyers claim local officials knew of Nelson's "violent propensities" and failed to tell Ignacio and his family. Jurors in Nelson's trial heard testimony that the former police dispatcher had a fairly open three-year affair with Ignacio that produced a son. Nelson at the time was married to Ken Nelson, a then-Weld County sheriff's investigator, with two children of their own. When Ignacio tried to break off the affair, Shawna Nelson sent threatening messages to both him and Heather Garraus and eventually hatched an elaborate plot that ended in Heather's murder, witnesses said. In pretrial hearings, prosecutors alluded to at least one other affair Nelson had with a police officer that led to her threatening that officer's wife... [Police Chief Jerry] Garner, who wrote a guest opinion column for the Greeley Tribune, said the trial included embarrassing revelations for local law enforcement... [Full article here]
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