The Colorado Judicial Department on Wednesday announced it had signed a pair of contracts for independent investigations into allegations of widespread misconduct across the branch that included a quid-pro-quo deal to a former high-ranking official who threatened a sex-discrimination lawsuit that would reveal it all.

The contracts, to total no more than $350,000, were awarded to Investigations Law Group, to investigate the department’s culture toward sexual harassment and women, and to RCT Ltd., to look into a $2.5 million deal given to former department Chief of Staff Mindy Masias in 2019 – allegedly to stop a threatened lawsuit.

“Investigations into both matters will begin immediately,” Chief Justice Brian Boatright said in a press release. “We expect the process to last several months and will provide timely updates as often as possible.”

The bid proposal by ILG said a third inquiry was apparent: public trust of the judiciary.

“Perhaps the most important question is the unstated one – whether the public can trust that the Judicial Department is taking this problem seriously, and not just ‘checking the box’ or going through the motions to address reported issues in the judicial workplace,” its cover letter says. 

The bid by RCT, led by former U.S. Attorney for Colorado Robert Troyer, promised a thorough and objective investigation, citing its work looking into allegations of sexual misconduct by Catholic priests in Colorado.

Boatright called for the independent investigations in February after newspaper reports uncovered a secret memo that was allegedly the reason for the Masias contract. Masias, who has not spoken publicly about the deal, at the time faced firing and allegedly threatened to sue for sexual discrimination for not having gotten the job as the department’s chief court administrator – its highest civilian position. The threats included revealing the contents of the two-page memo in which more than two dozen allegations of misconduct by judges and other department officials were laid out.

A panel of legislators and other state officials was put together by the governor, attorney general and legislative leaders to determine the scope of the inquiry and later choose the companies to be hired from a pool of eight submissions after a public bidding process.

Central to the inquiry is the two-page memo, read to then-Chief Justice Nathan “Ben” Coats by then-human resources director Eric Brown, a close ally of Masias, in a January 2019 meeting. Then-Chief Court Administrator Christopher Ryan, who was also at the meeting, has said it was decided the contract was a way to prevent Masias from suing. Although it was put up for public bid, none of about 400 companies offered one, nor did Masias. She resigned in mid-March 2019, and within days, the department determined she would get the sole-source deal with a newly formed company – The Leadership Practice.

The last of the two contracts was signed Monday, according to the department, the first in mid-October following months of negotiations.

“With the investigations ready to proceed, this serves as a reminder that the entire judicial branch is expected to cooperate with the requests and inquiries made by the investigators,” Boatright said in the release. “As previously promised, the results of the investigations and recommendations of the investigators will be taken seriously and made public. I sincerely hope recommendations will be made regarding steps for critical improvements moving forward.”

Six other companies submitted proposals, including WilmerHale, whose investigation would have been led by former U.S. Attorney for Colorado John Walsh, and Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, who would have relied on former U.S. Attorney for Colorado Jason Dunn and former Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett to lead their investigation.

Four other independent investigations have been launched as a result of the memo, which the justices released to the public only after the newspaper reports. An inquiry by the state auditor is likely to be the first one completed, beginning just after the memo was released and dovetailing into an ongoing inquiry of a whistleblower’s allegations of wrongdoing across the department. Other inquiries include one by the Colorado Attorney Regulation Counsel, the Judicial Disciplinary Commission and the FBI.

David Migoya can be reached at david.migoya@gazette.com