DA investigates Colorado county clerk candidate
NO PLACE LIKE HOME?: Adams County clerk candidate Cynthia Martinez’s discrepancy over her actual address could prevent her from running.
By Jen Raiffie | WatchdogWire.com
Triggered by an Adams County resident’s formal complaint, the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s office has officially launched an investigation against Cynthia Martinez, the Democratic candidate for Adams County Clerk and Recorder.
The complaint alleges the candidate actually resides outside the county, making her ineligible to serve in office.
Adams County resident and 27-year retired federal fraud investigator John Sampson filed a nine-page affidavit, that according to the terms of C.R.S §§ 1-13-1-1, requires the district attorney to “investigate, and, if reasonable grounds appear therefore, he shall prosecute the violator.”
Martinez sits on the Brighton City Council. She ran for the office unopposed in 2007, and again in 2011, using a Brighton address — an Adams County property she co-owns with her mother. She also owns a Boulder County property in Lafayette where her husband, Brad Rieke, and their two children live.
The discrepancy arose because Martinez appears only to be using the Brighton address as a means by which to qualify her to run for office and serve in Adams County, the complaint alleges. Evidence acquired by Sampson shows she did not start using the Brighton address until she first ran for City Council, at which time she also changed her vehicle and voter registrations from Boulder to Brighton.
The eligibility of a candidate for county office is defined in Article XIV of the Colorado Constitution, which says a person must have resided in that county for one year preceding the election.
Sampson was initially hired by the Republican candidate for Clerk and Recorder, Stan Martin, to conduct an investigation after he heard persistent rumors and accusations that Martinez actually lived in Boulder with her family. Martinez was even recently quoted in the The Denver Post as stating that her husband and two children do live at their Lafayette address.
