A former Adams County undersheriff pleaded guilty Friday in Denver District Court to falsifying records and lying about the number of state-mandated training hours that he completed.
Tommie McLallen was sentenced to two years of supervised probation after he pleaded guilty to second-degree forgery and first-degree official misconduct, both misdemeanors, according to the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, which oversees the state’s training and certification of officers across the state.
He originally faced four felony charges.
Under the plea agreement, McLallen will no longer be able to serve as a peace officer in Colorado, the AG’s office said in a news release Friday. He also must write a letter of apology to staff members at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.
McLallen was arrested in September, alongside former sheriff Rick Reigenborn and Mickey Bethel, a former division chief for the sheriff’s office.
As part of the plea agreement, McLallen agreed to help prosecutors and testify in any of his co-defendant cases, the AG’s office said.
McLallen, Reigenborn and Bethel, who worked for one of the state’s largest law enforcement agencies, were accused of signing various training rosters for classes they didn’t attend and submitting certificates to the Peace Officer Standard and Training, or POST, in an attempt to count the fictitious trainings toward their mandatory training hours, according to court documents.
Without counting the fraudulent trainings, McLallen lacked the hours needed to meet his in-service training requirements for 2021, documents stated.
Under Colorado law, the Attorney General can bring criminal charges or impose fines if POST training standards are violated.
“We are committed to law enforcement integrity and taking seriously steps to undermine our state’s training system,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement. “This action advances that work and makes clear the obligations of law enforcement officers to engage in training in an appropriate manner.”
Cases against Reigenborn and Bethel, who face four felony charges each, are pending in Denver District Court.