Denver prosecutors have charged a former state senator with three counts of forgery after she allegedly faked letters of support to a legislative committee that was investigating her.
Sonya Jaquez Lewis, a Democrat who represented Longmont in the Colorado Senate, had already been charged with attempting to influence a public servant for allegedly misleading five of her then-legislative colleagues earlier this year. But last week, prosecutors added the new charges — for each letter she allegedly forged — ahead of a scheduled court appearance.
All four charges she now faces are felonies. The forgery charges each carry the potential for one to three years in prison. The influence charge carries a maximum of six years.
Jaquez Lewis resigned from the legislature in February amid an ethics probe into her mistreatment of legislative aides and alleged campaign finance violations. She resigned hours before a Senate committee investigating her learned that she’d faked at least one of the support letters she’d submitted in her defense.
The purported author of another letter subsequently told The Denver Post that they had not written it. A third person told prosecutors that she didn’t think the letter bearing her name was the same letter she’d submitted, and a fourth person laughed when asked by investigators, but declined to comment further.
The forgery charges are based on actions alleged to have taken place between Jan. 31 and Feb. 14, according to charging documents obtained by The Post on Wednesday. That covers most of the time period of the ethics committee’s investigation into Jaquez Lewis. She resigned on Feb. 18.
Jaquez Lewis declined to comment outside the courtroom last week. She has filed a motion to dismiss the charges. In a statement, she said she resigned from the legislature “when faced with unfair and prejudiced treatment.”
“I have come to believe that effectiveness is a magnet for political revenge in our current political climate. I have NEVER committed a criminal act,” she wrote. “I will not be intimidated and will stand up for my rights and take every opportunity to defend myself and clear my name and reputation.”
In her statement, she claimed that the legislative ethics probe was related to alleged campaign finance violations. She said a subsequent Secretary of State’s Office investigation “concluded that I did NOT use campaign funds for personal purposes.”
While campaign finance concerns were part of the ethics probe, they were not the sole basis of the legislature’s investigation. Jaquez Lewis was also accused of withholding pay from her staff, asking them to sign nondisclosure agreements, and “continually demoting staff without reason and an overall lack of accountability and continuation of repeated behaviors,” according to legal filings.
Earlier this month, Jaquez Lewis paid the state more than $2,700 to settle the secretary of state’s investigation into her campaign finance practices.
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