Colo. police look for car in prison director's killing
Updated at 4:20 p.m. ET
MONUMENT, Colorado Colorado's top state prison official was shot and killed when he answered the front door of his house, setting off a hunt for the gunman and raising questions about whether the attack had anything to do with his position.
Authorities are also looking for a dark-colored "boxy" car seen near the house of Tom Clements, 58, when he was shot around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday in Monument, north of Colorado Springs. The vehicle's engine was running and a witness reported seeing one person driving away in the car.
Lt. Jeff Kramer of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said investigators have not ruled anything out, but the shooting could have been related to Clements' job as executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections.
"As the director of the Department of Corrections or any similar type position, it could in fact open someone up to be a target of a crime such as this. Although we remain sensitive to that, we also want to make sure that we remain open-minded to other possibilities as well," Kramer said.
The FBI and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation have joined the case, he said.
The home of the Clements family in Monument, Colorado.
/ CBSClements, 58, was appointed to serve as the head of the DOC by Governor John Hickenlooper in January 2011 after he served for more than three decades in the Missouri Department of Corrections. He oversaw operations of state and private prisons and parole operations.
Hickenlooper, red-eyed and somber at Wednesday's news conference, said he didn't think the killing was part of any larger attack against his cabinet.
In an email to Department of Corrections employees notifying them of the killing, Gov. Hickenlooper said, "I can hardly believe it, let alone write words to describe it. I am so sad. I have never worked with a better person than Tom, and I can't imagine our team without him."
The governor described Clements as "unfailingly kind and thoughtful."
A family member called 911 to report the shooting. Search dogs were called in to comb through a wooded area around Clements' home, and authorities were going house to house trying to find out what neighbors heard and saw.
Clements lived in a wooded neighborhood of large, two-story houses on expansive 2-acre lots dotted with evergreen trees in an area known as the Black Forest. Long driveways connect the homes to narrow, winding roads that thread the hills. Clements' home was out of view, behind a barricade of crime-scene tape in the road.
It would have been simple to find where Clements lived. It took two clicks to get his correct street address through a publicly available internet locator service Wednesday morning. The listing also included his previous home address in Missouri.
While Clements generally kept a low profile, his killing comes a week after Clements denied a Saudi national prisoner's request to be sent to his home country to serve out his sentence.
Colo. prisons chief shot and killed at home
Homaidan al-Turki was convicted of sexually assaulting a housekeeper and keeping her as a virtual slave. Clements said state law requires sex offenders to undergo treatment while in prison and that al-Turki had declined to participate.
Al-Turki, a well-known member of Denver's Muslim community, was convicted in state court in 2006 of unlawful sexual contact by use of force, theft and extortion and sentenced to 28 years to life in prison. A judge reduced the sentence to eight years to life.
Al-Turki insisted the case was politically motivated. He owned a company that some years ago sold CDs of sermons recorded by Anwar al-Awlaki, killed in a drone strike in Yemen in 2011.
Al-Turki's conviction angered Saudi officials and prompted the U.S. State Department to send Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, Crown Prince Sultan and al-Turki's family.
After Clements' shooting, someone with the State Department called the Colorado Corrections Department.
Prisons spokeswoman Alison Morgan said she had no details on the call other than to say it wasn't connected to the shooting investigation and may have been a simple courtesy. "They called us because we have a cooperative international program with them," she said.
Attorney Henry Solano, one of al-Turki's attorneys, said he has not been contacted by investigators. He refused to comment on the shooting.
State officials said they have increased security for top Colorado government appointed officials and have increased security at the governor's mansion in the wake of the incident. Officials told KCNC reporter Brian Maass the move was purely precautionary and there was no threat that would make it seem other state leaders were in danger.
Clements is at least the second state prisons chief killed in office. Michael Francke, director of the Oregon Department of Corrections, was stabbed to death outside his office in 1989 in what prosecutors described as a bungled car burglary.
A former Oregon prison inmate, Frank Gable, was found guilty of aggravated murder in 1991 and sentenced to life in prison. He and supporters contend he was wrongly convicted.
Clements' slaying was reminiscent of the 2008 killing of Adams County prosecutor Sean May. His wife was six months pregnant when he was shot and killed as he returned from work to his home in northwest Denver. His killer was never found.
Gov. Hickenlooper ordered flags lowered to half-staff at public buildings until the day after Clements' funeral. Clements is survived by his wife, Lisa, and their two daughters.
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we never had a problem with overcrowding before they started letting violent felons out.
---------
Letting them "out"????
...We don't even let them IN, nowadays. More and more often, they only see the inside of a cell up to and until their cases are plead out- and that just goes for those who were either denied bail or couldn't post it if they weren't.
All afterwards, they are released to the services of probation officials.
And where is the whipping post, these days? That used to be an effective deterrent for young persons prone to disorderly conduct, certain kinds of violence, burglary and theft. In some states, prisons used to perform so-called "welcome beatings" BEFORE new admits were even assigned a permanent cell.
These days we assign sentences based on community corrections concepts, and models for offender supervision and regular reporting. In some instances, the offender never even saw the inside of a CF, even those convicted of a crime of violence.
One of the problems we have today, is just where we draw the line between the violent and the non-violent. Too many offenses, these days, are categorized as either violent or wantonly reckless. We've really dumbed down the true meaning of "violent crime."
Possession of an illegal (and loaded) handgun on the streets is NO more violent than a motorist who was convicted while operating with a .10 B.A.C.. The thinking being that the intoxicated driver was no different than someone with a loaded gun ready to become aimed at one or another innocent person among public. It's the truth, and it is ABSURD!
in atlanta armed robbers get 2 years , in 1950 you would get 20 and do it all.
the criminals know they will just be recycled to once again fill the coffers of lawyers, prosecutors and municipalities, probation offices etc etc. WITH PUBLIC FUNDS (INDIGENT PEOPLE)
HOWEVER MANY OF US ARE RAPED OR KILLED IS JUST THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS.
You have probation officers all throughout the U.S. who have caseloads that include people who were convicted of felony assault, weapons possession, assault of an officer, or multiple burglaries (usually, addict junkeys), right alongside those convicted of possession of pot, DWI (per se rule) or criminal trespass. Who do YOU think are and ARE NOT the ones who pose the greater risk to communities and their residents?
Years before now, our society started dealing with the problem of prison and jail overcrowding by augmenting probation services- in just about ALL states to one extent or another. Today, there are approximately 5.5 million people on only probation nationwide, leave alone 2.3 million inmates, local, state and federal. There is just in not enough room to house all the people that should be locked up, and the answer has become, increasingly, to pass the buck onto probation officials.
As a former probationer myself, I found it insulting to discover that the P.O. supervising me, and directing me for reporting, was at the same dates and times directing a guy who'd been charged with assaulting SEVEN corrections officers inside the local jail (as an inmate), in addition to being charged with inciting a riot in a correctional facility.
I plead guilty to a single charge of DWI (but unlike millions of others guilty in a court of law of the same thing, there was no B.A.C, no chem test refusal, and I wasn't even observed by anyone else to be driving in the first place), and it was only the second criminal conviction in my lifetime. I was 15 years older than this other guy, and didn't damage or destroy any property, hurt nobody, resisted nothing, cooperated fully- and refused a chem test- something the DMV UPHELD at my hearing!
It's simple: Leave alone non-violent offenders or others with practically no criminal history. If- if, their crimes caused damage or injury to nothing and nobody. Put those that HURT others behind bars!
....oh I forgot, we still have that pesky dilemma of too many people, not enough space. I wouldn't be shocked if in the years to come, persons convicted of assault or even worse, crimes of manslaughter or even attempted murder, see their sentences cut in half or even more, doing very little time in proportion to the sentences that were fulfilled by convicts back prior to 1995 or so. The compromise to this, of course, will be enhancement of periods of post-release supervision. Instead of one to five years for such offenders, they will be on PRS for anywhere from 6, 7, on up to ten, fifteen and twenty years.
All while an equal amount of resources are spent controlling the lives of millions of others convicted of petty crap, for each and every day they are part of someone's caseload. Why all this? It's just as you said, to keep the system in business, and the lawyers fat and happy. And so you know, it IS ALL ABOUT the money. An ALJ upheld my license following a hearing shortly after my arrest and being charged. I was permitted FULL driving privileges for an entire YEAR before the case was sent to trial, with a do-nothing PD. That other guy I mentioned? Oh yah, he paid a local attorney in a private practice and got seven of his eight charges dropped, and pled to a single felony just as I had.
...probably was released earlier than I was, too, as I stopped seeing him down at the office after the first year and a half- and his charges came all after my own, a guy who was ALREADY locked up for domestic violence. Makes no sense, until you start seeing into things a little further, realizing how, and to whom, and for what purposes, the money gets paid and passed around.
Public safety is, these days, not the first priority anymore, and it hasn't been for many, many years. So, as such, I agree with your comment.
He really must have PO'd someone out there.
The governor who appointed him is also a crook and was supposed to sign in some redundant knee jerk gun laws and sign a civil unions bill for homosexuals today. He added more security to his staff since he is paranoid being a left wing anti-Bill of Rights Jackass and enabler to sexual deviency.
Lot's of PO'd people in Colorado these days.
He and others like him better watch their backs the way they are turning Colorado into another California cesspool.
gun laws have been used by congress starting in 1792, 3 years after the constitution was ratified, by the same people who wrote the constitution. the SCOTUS has ruled time and again that congress can regulate weapons. you might want to actually read some history, instead of repeating the NRA propaganda designed to make money for themselves and gun manufacturers.
and yes, we should force all public servants to work for minimum wage and live in a tin-roof shack, i'm sure we'll only get the best people that way.
Nobody is threating anyone.
Democrat is just stating a fact about politicians and government who have been crossing the line and going too far and stepping on Constitutional rights and endorsing insanity and perversion.
This has been going on far to long and people are fed up and some will break the law. Left wing Government is causing to become criminals by the stupid laws they pass and support
These un-America politicians are bringing it one themselves.
His daughter's angry boyfriend.
An angry former business partner.
A dumped mistress.
Real life is seldom like Law'n Order (donk donk!)