Ex-sheri≠ chief ’s hearing delayed

Frank Gale, trying to get his job back, will start his appeal Oct. 8.

The appeals hearing for former Denver Sheriff Department chief Frank Gale, who is trying to get his job back, has been continued until October.

Gale, who once ran the Downtown Detention Center, is appealing his January firing for giving preferential treatment to a captain who had been arrested and then blaming a sergeant for mistakes that were made.

The appeals hearing began Aug. 5, but the three days set aside for it were only enough time for the city’s side of the case, Ryan Brand, a law clerk for the Career Service Authority said in an e-mail.

The hearing is expected to resume Oct. 8, when Gale and his attorneys present their side. Interim Sheriff Elias Diggins is expected to testify on Gale’s behalf.

Gale twice has been fired from the sheriff’s department but won his job back after successful appeals.

Gale’s latest termination occurred after the June 2014 arrest of a sheriff ’s captain on a domestic assault charge. Gale had been given oversight of her arrest because she was the ex-wife of then-Sheriff Gary Wilson.

The captain was allowed to wear civilian clothes to her bond hearing and then allowed to leave through the courthouse’s front door rather than returning to the jail for processing.

Two deputies drove her away in a department-issued pickup truck. The captain later had to return to the jail to sign paperwork and report to pre-trial services.

Gale had been ordered to treat the captain like any other inmate.

Officials at the Denver Department of Public Safety found he had violated a direct order and then lied about it when he denied responsibility for the special treatment.

During last week’s hearing, a sergeant, who was investigating the captain’s arrest for internal affairs, testified that Gale is the one who said it would be OK for the captain to leave through the front door. Two other captains said Gale told them the sergeant had allowed it.

Gale’s firing angered the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, the deputies’ union. The union accused Stephanie O’Malley, executive director of the Denver Department of Public Safety, of trying to intimidate the rank-and-file.

Gale holds a national office with the FOP, which is holding its annual meeting this week in Pittsburgh.

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