Week of April 27, 2026: Douglas County Sheriff’s School Resource Officer Terminated for Sexual Misconduct

Welcome to my weekly sum-up. Every Monday I send out a short summary of the last week’s officers that have landed on Colorado’s Peace Officer Standards and Training public database of law enforcement misconduct and actions. They are not necessarily only actions that have happened in the last week, but those that have been added, and consist of any other context I could find. Additionally are officers with otherwise obvious misconduct from around the same time.

Only one officer this week, though documents have come in for previous officers.

Ryan Patino (CO-717-027)

• Terminated for cause as an officer with Frederick Police Department on April 22
• Hired by Frederick PD in October 2025
• The town of Frederick did not respond to a records request from Blue Surveillance on April 28 for relevant records before publishing

Sources:

• POST Database
• Frederick Police Department Facebook page

Officer updates:

Records that must come directly from a law enforcement agency are not required to be released within three business days, as it is with CORA requests to municipalities. Sometimes an officer is added to the database later in the week, and there isn’t time for records requests to come before the newsletter has to be sent out. Sometimes the records we get back are resumes or job applications without much more information, but sometimes they are documents that do lend more important details. Whenever any of these updates come in, we’ll put them here.

Kaden Eftink

• Issued a credibility report as a deputy with Douglas County Sheriff’s Office on April 14, 2026
• Terminated for cause from DCSO on April 2, 2026
• Update: Termination letter
  • Terminated for sustained violations of internal policies including:
    • Commission of a Deceptive Act
      • “Members shall not knowingly make a misleading or inaccurate statement relating to their official duties. Members shall not willfully, intentionally, or knowingly commit a materially deceptive act, including but not limited to verbally departing from the truth, making a false report, falsifying official criminal justice records, or intentionally omitting information.”

Michael Kluth

• Issued a credibility report as a deputy with Douglas County Sheriff's Office on April 14, 2026
• Terminated for cause as a School Resource Officer for Rock Canyon High School with DCSO on April 1, 2026
• Update: Termination letter
  • Terminated for sustained violations of internal policies including:
    • Sexual Misconduct
      • The letter does not cite a specific clause for this policy violation, but the Douglas County SO does have a specific definition of sexual misconduct which is below:
        • “Sexual misconduct includes, but is not limited to, any unwarranted acts or attempts to commit acts that involve sexual contact, sexual abuse or assault, sexual harassment, or invasion of privacy or sexually implicit or explicit communication whether in:
          • Written form: Such as cartoons, posters, calendars, notes, letters, e-mail, text messages, social media or other forms of electronic communication; or
          • Verbal form: Such as comments, jokes, gestures, foul/obscene language of a sexual nature, gossiping or questions about another’s sex life, or repeated requests for dates.”
    • On-and Off-Duty Conduct
      • “Members must not engage in any activity or conduct, on- or off-duty, which discredits them, the county, or the Office.”
    • Exercising Discretion
      • “All employees shall carry out specific duties and responsibilities assigned to them, carry out any duty required by lawful order, and within a reasonable time, report and/or take proper action in any situation encountered which requires action by this Office.”
    • Commission of a Deceptive Act
      • “Members shall not knowingly make a misleading or inaccurate statement relating to their official duties. Members shall not willfully, intentionally, or knowingly commit a materially deceptive act, including but not limited to verbally departing from the truth, making a false report, falsifying official criminal justice records, or intentionally omitting information.”