How bad was Fremont County Sheriff Jim Beicker’s news conference last week? Well, it’s not a good sign when the best news you have to offer is that the latest group of your employees to face disciplinary action didn’t actually break any laws.

That’s a pretty low hurdle for a law enforcement agency to clear. You’d expect that in addition to preventing other people from breaking laws, sheriff’s deputies would follow the law themselves. But that may not be a given in the Fremont County sheriff’s department, where 11 officers have been placed on administrative leave so far this year.

To put that into perspective, when fully staffed, the department is supposed to have 116 employees. Also, bear in mind that there are five more months in the year, so the number of employees put on leave could continue to climb.

Some of those who have been placed on leave could face criminal charges, including a now-retired detective accused of mishandling evidence in a murder case, a deputy accused of misuse of force during an arrest that led to an injury, another officer accused of mishandling DUI/DUID cases and two other staffers accused of separate cases of child abuse.

Read more at The Pueblo Chieftain.