Week of August 3, 2026: Deputy Terminated for Sexual Misconduct and Sergeant Arrives for Duty Intoxicated at 6 a.m.
Welcome to our weekly sum-up. Every Monday we 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. These actions from POST are not necessarily only those that have happened in the last week, but those that have been added, and consist of any other context we could find. Additionally are officers with otherwise obvious misconduct from around the same time.
This week POST did not update the database with any new actions, but Blue Surveillance received a few documents of previously reported on officers.
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.
William Ward (CO-8832-8142)
- Terminated for cause as a sergeant with Johnstown Police Department on July 20
- Updates: disciplinary action report
- A breath test revealed shortly after Ward arrived for duty at 6 a.m. on May 28 that he had a BAC of .107. He had driven to the department in-uniform, in his patrol car and with his firearm
- Further reported on here.
James Beuthel (CO-121-203)
- Terminated for cause as a deputy with Douglas County Sheriff’s Office on June 23
- Updates: disciplinary reports, termination letter, application
- In February 2025, Beuthel received a one year letter of reprimand for, along with two other deputies, leaving a minor child alone at a hospital without telling staff.
- According to a June 12 disciplinary memorandum, Beuthel was terminated for sustained policy violations of sexual misconduct and on and off-duty conduct.
- The relevant records including the internal affairs investigation itself was denied to Blue Surveillance with Douglas County SO citing C.R.S. 24-72-303(4)(a), which, within the their policy definition of sexual misconduct, implies the misconduct was not involving a member of the public. The agency did not specify further. The agency is also not required to deny the records if it did not involve a member of the public, but they often choose to.
- Sexual misconduct as defined by the Douglas County SO policies:
- Employees shall not engage in sexual intercourse, sexual contact, or other sexual activity or intimate conduct:
- While on duty
- While attending training in an official capacity and actively participating in agency-sponsored activities
- While actively engaged in agency business or official responsibilities during agency-sponsored travel
- While assigned to special events, conferences, or details and responsible for official duties
- While responsible for agency operations in any capacity
- Sexual misconduct also includes, but is not limited to, any unwarranted acts or attempts to commit acts that involve sexual contact, sexual abuse or assault, sexual harassment, 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.
- Nothing in this section is intended to prohibit lawful off-duty conduct occurring during non-working hours when the member is not acting in an official capacity, representing the agency, or otherwise creating a conflict with agency operations or policy.
