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Shop now at minkicouture.com and make your 4th of July unforgettably cozy. In 2012, 16-year-old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice. I would ask my husband, do you want me to stop? He was like, no, keep fighting. After nearly a decade, a breakthrough changed everything. This is Minkie Couture.
This is Cold Case Files Miami. Stories of families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Maybe you've heard that Stonewall was a riot where queer people fought back against police, or that it's the reason Pride is celebrated this time of year. It was one of the most liberating things that I have ever done. Legend says Marsha P. Johnson threw the very first brick. Started banging on the door of the Stonewall like one, boom. This week on Afterlives, we'll separate the truth from the myth.
and the life of Marsha P. Johnson. Listen to Afterlives on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hey guys, before we dive into the episode, we have exciting news. Betrayal is coming to Substack, which is an online community. We're calling our Substack Beyond Betrayal, a place where we dive deeper into the stories you hear on this show. Please consider joining our community to gain access to exclusive content, engage with me and subjects, as well as connect with others who have experienced betrayal. Just head to betrayal.substack.com
That's S-U-B-S-T-A-C-K. Or just go to Substack.com, search Beyond Betrayal, and hit subscribe. He would come into my bedroom and say he was clearing the house. But I'm sleeping in bed and I have a gun and a flashlight in my face. He just played by different rules and everyone just accepted that. I'm Andrea Gunning and this is Betrayal Season 4, Episode 7.
The Golden Few. Every week, our team at Betrayal receives dozens of emails from people devastated by infidelity. Stories of betrayal that are painful and deeply personal. And we read every single one. We hear stories of people abusing their power as teachers, doctors, and lawyers. But when we got the email from Caroline Borrega, we knew that this was more than a personal betrayal to her and her family.
If you were the victim of a violent crime and called 911 in crisis, think about who you would want to respond to your call. Joel's actions aren't the most egregious case of police misconduct we can find. Far from it. But it's an everyday case of an officer abusing his power, lying about it, and escaping termination. That's what resonated with us.
Think about it. Our entire justice system relies on the integrity and character of cops. As President Obama described police officers, they are the tips on the spears of a societal order. That's Will Aitchison, a lawyer who's worked with police unions for decades. You heard from him in the last episode. He says our society depends upon the trust we place in the police.
We give police officers responsibility. We tell them, you're going to have the authority to deprive somebody of their liberty by arresting them. You're going to have the ability under circumstances to use force against them, to take them into custody, and under rare circumstances to use deadly force. That responsibility that we give police officers demands responsibility.
100% truthfulness on the part of the police officer. No question about it. We talked to another expert, former Maryland State Police Major Neil Franklin. He works on issues surrounding policing all over the country. He agreed that truthfulness needs to be a core value of all officers. We need to be about telling the truth because a critical job function that we have is testifying in court.
Just about every case in our legal system, from a traffic citation to a murder trial, relies on the word of cops. And when a police officer's character is called into question, entire cases fall apart. Just think of the O.J. Simpson trial. When the lead detective used racial slurs and then lied about it, it threw his credibility into question.
or the Karen Reed trial in Boston, where the lead investigator was caught sending highly inappropriate messages about the defendant. The fact that each of these cops couldn't be trusted undermined the prosecution's entire case. If you can't trust cops, you have no rule of law. If you cannot testify in court, you don't have that level of integrity, you can't perform an essential job function, so you can't be a police officer, at least that's my perspective on it.
Honesty, integrity, and high moral character are job requirements for police officers. But does the culture really reflect that at the Colorado Springs Police Department? We met a civilian employee who recently retired from CSPD. We'll call her Barb. She shared a story that gave more insight into how things worked at the department and into Joel Kern's connections.
And we've distorted her voice to protect her privacy. So I heard this rumor that Joel had been having an affair with someone from DHS, which I believe is Department of Human Services. That was the rumor. And I was like, I don't think so. Because I had seen him around his family. I was like, he can't be that kind of a dog. And it bothered me.
To be clear, what really upset this former CSPD employee, Barb, was that someone was spreading rumors about a married and respected officer at work. She thought it was careless at best, damaging at worst. She wanted to shut it down. So I went to my chain of command and I said, hey, you know, this really bothers me. This is what I've heard. And it just can't be right. Well, he turns around and calls Joel.
Her boss didn't even ask who was spreading the rumor. Her reason for reporting it was to stop harmful gossip. "I was expecting some kind of reassurance that, okay, this is not cool and it's not right. I didn't get that. He actually spoke very disparagingly about Caroline."
He's like, oh, she's going to have him by the balls. And, you know, she's going to lose her mind and she's going to take the house, this, that and the other. And, you know, she's such a bitch. And I'm like, OK, I guess the few times I've seen her, I didn't pick up on that. Barb was completely taken aback at her supervisor's response. He wasn't interested in shutting down the rumor, just justifying it. She had originally been trying to protect Joel, a man she saw as one of the good ones.
No, he got right on the phone and called Joel, who then the next time I saw him wanted to kill me just in the looks I got. Barb didn't know what to make of it all. Her boss's reaction, the sudden shift in tone, Joel, whom she had once liked and respected, now treated her with cold hostility. Then something happened with a female colleague, a friend of Barb's. Joel started sending her sexually suggestive texts.
He texted her and she looked up and was like, no, no, there'll be none of that. So I'm like, OK, he thinks that you're vulnerable and you're going to show him that you're not, which I'm thankful that she did. And her name has never come up in any of this stuff. She was uncomfortable by it. And I think that she was a little bit closer to the positions of power than I was. So she may have already understood things were going on that I was not privy to.
This incident made Barb look at Joel's treatment towards her in a whole new light. Maybe the rumors about Joel weren't rumors at all. Looking back now, she can't help but wonder if he became cold to her because she was on to him. Through our reporting, we uncovered even more allegations of misconduct within the Colorado Springs Police Department.
It revealed a culture, one that doesn't just allow for bad behavior to occur. It's a culture where good officers may find themselves sidelined. And those who bend the truth don't seem to face the consequences you'd expect. The culture at CSPD is exceptionally toxic. And the toxicity is all about the people in charge. That's John.
He is one of the few individuals with inside knowledge of the CSPD who is willing to speak on the record. We offered him the option to use a pseudonym for his protection, but he didn't want it. "I'm fine with John. I was there for 12 years. I don't care that they know who I am." John isn't just a former CSPD officer. He's a 30-year military veteran who rose to the rank of colonel. After a tour in Iraq, he returned home determined to serve his community.
He says it's the same intention most officers come in with. If you sat in on interviews with potential police candidates, every single one of them is going to tell you something along the lines of, I want to help people. But when John started at CSPD, he quickly realized that the department was not what he expected.
The folks at CSPD get promoted based on whether or not they play golf with the chief. You know, it's about, it's all about me. If I'm in, if I'm a sergeant or above, it's all about what, how can I use this position for myself? John's first indication that something was wrong came during a crisis. We had an event where a colleague of mine, a friend and a colleague, was killed in the line of duty in a motorcycle crash. The officer's name was Matt Tyner.
Matt was actually one of my instructors in the academy, and he was one of those guys that I would reach out to for mentorship and advice and how would you handle this? Because I knew what he told me was going to be solid. He was also a man of impeccable integrity and character. Yeah, I'm having a hard time talking about it, but he's the kind of cop that I wanted to be. Matt was in pursuit of a suspect when he was killed.
Cops know there's a risk every time they respond to a call. Any shift could be their last. Still, Matt's death hit John hard. It was devastating. And the way he found out his mentor had been killed made it even worse. I found out about it on Facebook. Somebody on the scene used their phone to take a video of this and posted it. He actually was alive for about 45 minutes and he suffered terribly. And that's how Matt's family found out about it.
through social media. They watched their loved ones suffer. I was absolutely incensed because in the Army we've been dealing with this for two decades. John knew there was a better way to shield a fallen officer's family. He'd seen what worked in the Army. That's when he offered a solution. They could manage a notification process so that Matt's family hears from the department before they start seeing things on social media.
So I voiced my opinion through an email to my sergeant and I asked for it to be escalated so that they would start taking this into account. He went through the chain of command, but his suggestion was taken as an insult. The next day I was called into the commander's office and given the knife hand and yelled out about knowing my place. My place was to answer the radio calls.
That process still has not been adopted or even considered because the idea came from a lowly line-level worker rather than somebody who is in a management role. It's like, you know, I may have some expertise in this arena that you could take advantage of, but if it doesn't come from one of them, it's not a good idea. It was a rude awakening.
As the years went on, his concerns only grew. During his tenure at CSPD, John spent several years as a DUI officer. These officers receive special training, assist with fatal accidents, and work to stop impaired drivers. DUI officers carry the weight of protecting lives every day. There are more people being killed by drunk drivers than there are from homicide.
The city is divided into patrol divisions, and there are two DUI officers in each. When John joined the division, his counterpart was a legend, Officer Glenn Thomas, a name everyone knew in DUI enforcement. He was known locally as the DUI God. He was the guy he arrested the most. Everyone we spoke to told us about Glenn's charisma and charm. He's a big personality.
Glenn Thomas is currently a sergeant. And at the time I worked with him, we were both police officer first class. And we were both signed to the DUI enforcement unit in Sand Creek. Glenn had the highest DUI arrest record in the state of Colorado for years. He was the best and won multiple awards and honors. I was making a lot of arrests. I ended up being number two in the state. He beat me by, I think, around 100 arrests.
At first, you may think, wow, Colorado Springs must be the safest place to drive in the country. But the real story is more complicated. Like Joel Kern, Glenn Thomas was up to no good. And the department knew for years, long before his alleged crimes became public. John first started to question Glenn's methods when another officer confided in him.
What he told me was that he made a traffic stop, he thinks the guy's impaired, calls for a DUI officer, Glenn comes over, and without talking to the driver, writes down that he refused any kind of testing, serves him as a refusal, and then leaves. This was a serious allegation, and we don't have any way of confirming this beyond John's word. But it all came to a head. John will get to that. When an officer suspects there is a drunk or impaired driver, he calls the DUI officer.
that officer goes to the scene to make an assessment. Why on earth would a DUI officer lie about engaging with the driver? Well, John has a theory. I think it was all about speed so he could get more in one shift rather than having to worry about the technicalities of it. John wondered, was this how Glenn had so many more DUI arrests than any other officer in the state? Was he taking shortcuts?
It didn't sit right with John. He and I immediately began butting heads. But according to John, he wasn't the only one who took issue with Glenn's behavior. For example, there was an instance when John was called into court to testify about a DUI investigation. It was a routine part of the job. But on this occasion... I testified in court.
And the defense attorney caught me outside the hallway afterwards and he said, "I just wanted to let you know you're a great witness. I can't find any way to impeach your credibility." And then he followed up with, "You're way better than that Glenn Thomas guy. He's a liar and I'm going to get him one of these days." And two other cops were nearby and they heard that statement. Word got back to Glenn. He took that as me attacking him, even though I didn't make any statements.
John couldn't wrap his head around it. He was in the hot seat. When according to John, it was Glenn who was up to no good. So in the midst of being questioned by Internal Affairs, John made the decision to share his concerns about Glenn.
So, there were now two internal affairs investigations. One for John into whether he was going after Glenn Thomas, and one into Glenn himself.
John's allegations were supposedly investigated. And as far as John knows, they were deemed unfounded. At the end, we get sat down in a room with all the command staff. Basically, I was blamed for the whole thing. They said, you know, Glenn made paperwork errors because he does so many DUIs. And so we're going to chalk that up to administrative error. And I'm like, if you show up...
and you know you didn't talk to the guy and you wrote down that he was a refusal, that's a lie. That's not an administrative error. CSPD denied our request for these IA investigations. So we don't know for sure what evidence was weighed in exonerating Glenn. What we do know is this. John was genuinely concerned about Glenn's behavior. And when he tried to bring those concerns to CSPD, he was shut down. Hard. And John thinks he knows why.
Glenn Thomas was allowed to get away with lying because he's friends with everybody. People connect with him very readily. So he uses that to deceive people or manipulate people. And this is the theme. Glenn Thomas continued as the DUI God. John felt like Glenn was a walking liability and a liar. John may have been one of the first people to call out Thomas' bad behavior, but he wasn't the last.
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We'll be right back.
This Independence Day, wrap yourself in comfort and freedom with Minky Couture.
From stars, stripes, and snuggles to cozy classics, our luxury blankets are proudly made to comfort. Whether you're watching fireworks or hosting backyard barbecues, be proud to be cozy all summer long. Celebrate comfort. Celebrate freedom. Celebrate you. Shop now at minkykouture.com and make your 4th of July unforgettably cozy.
In 2012, 16-year-old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice. The call was horrible. I replayed over my head all the time. For years, Brian's family kept asking questions while a culture of silence kept the case cold. Snitches get stitches. Everybody knows it.
Still, they refused to give up. I would ask my husband, do you want me to just let this go? He was like, no, keep fighting. I told her I would never give up on this case. And then, after a decade of waiting, a breakthrough. We received a phone call that was bittersweet because it's a call that we've been waiting for for a very long time.
I'm Enrique Santos. This is Cold Case Files Miami, a podcast about justice, persistence, and the families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Maybe you've heard that Stonewall was a riot where queer people fought back against police, or that it's the reason Pride is celebrated this time of year. It was one of the most liberating things that I have ever done. But did you know that before it went down in history, the Stonewall was a queer hangout run by the mafia? The voguing at Stonewall was unbelievable.
In the summer of 1969, it became the site that set off the modern movement for LGBTQ plus rights. Started banging on the door of the Stonewall like one, boom, boom, boom. Legend says Marsha P. Johnson, a mother in the fight for trans rights,
through the very first brick. She was really like scrubbed out of that history. This week on Afterlives, we'll separate the truth from the myth in the life of Marsha P. Johnson. Listen to Afterlives on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Glenn Thomas, the Colorado Springs DUI God, is currently awaiting trial for intimidating a 10-year-old witness and for violating a protection order. In the course of our reporting, we met someone who knows Glenn well, his ex-wife Sarah, herself a former CSPD officer. Sarah acknowledged that Glenn had a real talent for DUI enforcement. It's everything to him. Like, that's his identity, honestly, in my opinion.
He was proud of the awards that he got. Like, he just knew how to do that job so well. But Sarah recognized that Glenn was able to get away with things other cops couldn't. He just played by different rules, and everyone just accepted that. He would say things on the radio that were really, really inappropriate, and then he wouldn't get in trouble for any of it. Everyone would just laugh. He was the class clown. He could be crude, and it was all deemed acceptable.
Sarah and Glenn Thomas had three daughters together, and for several years, they were a good team. The first 10 years of our marriage, he still continued to be very charming. He's very funny. I mean, there was ups and downs, I think, until...
He got in a car wreck and hurt his back. And then I think it was like between the pain and then he got on pain meds. And I think between the two, like he kind of just very, very drastically changed. Those changes included behaving violently towards her and their children. There were times that he hit me. There were times that he threw me across the room in front of the kids. Sarah said Glenn could be controlling and at times terrifying.
After we were not sharing a bedroom anymore, he'd come home at 5 a.m. and come into my bedroom and he would say he was clearing the house. But like, I'm sleeping in bed and I have a gun and a flashlight in my face. Sarah told us about one incident that was particularly alarming. We weren't allowed to lock doors and we were in an argument and I went into the bathroom and...
Like, it sounds so silly, but the door got locked. I didn't even lock it. And he kicked the door in and hit me with the door. Their three daughters were also affected by his behavior, especially their eldest. I witnessed it. The other girls witnessed it. But he put a chip clip on her breast. And so she started crying. In divorce proceedings, Glenn claimed he often put chip clips on his family members' clothes in good fun.
It was a game to him. The incident with his daughter was an accident, and he apologized. At the time, Sarah tried to defuse the conflict. I kind of just separated them and tried to calm the situation down. Her daughter was 14 at the time. Glenn's behavior was bizarre. That was in addition to the physical violence Sarah experienced at his hands. So this all begs the question, why didn't Sarah go to the police?
After all, she was a former officer at CSPD. I knew what his relationship was with the department. I just didn't feel like I would be taken seriously. Even if I went to them, I did not feel like there would be any consequences for him, which then would most likely make things very, very, very much worse for me and my children.
It's a risk a lot of survivors of domestic violence weigh out. Would reporting make things worse, more dangerous? And in Sarah's case, she'd be reporting her husband to his own buddies. So for years, she stayed silent and stayed in the marriage, hoping things would change. But then in the fall of 2021, something happened that pushed Sarah to act.
My oldest came to me and basically said, I don't trust you anymore. You're not protecting us. Like, I don't know why you're not leaving him. And she basically told me, you need to leave him or he's going to end up killing you and us too. That was the moment everything changed. And then I talked to my other two. I was like, do you guys feel the same way? And they both were like, definitely. You need to get out. So she did.
Keep in mind, this was a police officer they were escaping from. And I called the divorce attorney that day because I didn't really have that concept of what they were going through. They moved into a safe house provided by TESA, a Colorado Springs organization that helps those experiencing domestic violence. That was just a really hard thing to go through, leaving your kids' bedrooms empty.
It was hard for all of us to not have a space and not know what was coming next. And that uncertainty of where we were even going to be laying our heads down. And once she and the kids were safe, they started to talk about Glenn's behavior. Things were worse than Sarah knew. Her eldest daughter brought up the incident with the chip clip. She said that he kind of was targeting her. It wasn't an isolated incident.
And he was doing it multiple times. It was then that Sarah decided to report Glenn to the CSPD. She spoke to the domestic violence sergeant, and her initial concerns about not being taken seriously by the department were validated. The conversation I had with the sergeant of the DV unit made me feel gross.
He was telling me how we need to just figure out a way to get along. And that was the initial call for this. And like, oh yeah, I know there's been a lot of incidents back and forth between you. No, there hasn't. He has been victimizing us, period. But she did feel supported by the officers who were eventually assigned to investigate the case. I felt like they did do a really, really thorough investigation
fantastic job investigating it and they ended up going back kind of investigating everything so that's really when everything came out to CSPD that this is kind of what I have been going through my kids have been going through this detective sergeant and the detective felt like they had reached the level of probable cause for domestic violence charges
And so they were told by their lieutenant that they needed to refer it to the DA's office at the time, rather than just arrest as per statute they are required to do. To the DA, Glenn wasn't just any cop. They depended on him regularly. He frequently testified in cases for the DA's office. And that wasn't all. That day that they referred it to the DA's office,
he was training the DA's office in DUIs. Like, he's physically at their location. They get this case against him, and unsurprisingly, they declined to prosecute. When asked for comment on this claim, the DA said there was insufficient evidence available to prosecute. Sarah points out that even if the DA wasn't intentionally protecting Glenn, there was a conflict of interest here.
How could the DA be impartial in a decision to prosecute someone they work with so closely? The right thing to do would have been for them to refer it to a special prosecutor, but they didn't. I wondered, what would have happened if Glenn hadn't been a CSPD police officer or hadn't been so close with the DA? 100% he would have been arrested. It wouldn't have been a hesitation. It would have been right away.
After the DA declined to prosecute, Sarah continued to fight for something to be done. In her divorce proceedings, a judge reviewed Glenn's behavior. She cited examples like the chip clip incident to be, quote, inappropriate and uncomfortable. And when it came to Glenn's treatment of Sarah, specifically the day when Glenn kicked down the bathroom door, the judge was clear.
This was domestic violence. She gave Sarah full custody of their two oldest daughters. Glenn was only allowed to have limited contact with the youngest daughter. This judgment came down in fall 2022, nearly three years ago. At the time, it felt validating to Sarah. A judge saw what Glenn was capable of and took action to protect Sarah's kids. But this was all in family court, not criminal. So Glenn was still allowed to wear the badge and carry a gun.
Sarah felt like it was important to file a complaint with Internal Affairs. Then IA gets the case to see if he violated any policies. This was no longer about whether Glenn broke state or federal laws. There would be no criminal charges. Now it was a question of whether Glenn broke the department's rules. And remember, Sarah had been a cop. She knew domestic violence went against policy.
Perhaps internal affairs would bring her some sense of justice. If they think that there's any evidence that shows that he has either broken the law or violated policy, then they have a lot more ability to take action and make it so he's not in that position of power anymore and being a police officer. So I really did think that it was going to be okay because of the IA investigation.
Eight months after she filed the case with IA, Sarah received a letter. It was from CSPD. It read, in part, After reviewing the case, it was determined that the acts you complained of were justified, legal, proper, and adhered to department policy. It was, he was exonerated. It didn't happen. This was the same department that found probable cause to send this case to the DA.
They knew that Sarah, their former employee, had moved her children to a safe house. And now they had a family court judge's findings in hand that said Glenn Thomas had committed domestic violence. But somehow, Glenn's actions were justified, legal, proper, and adhered to department policy. And while we're talking policy...
We took a look at the employee handbook. Section 400, the one Glenn was exonerated on, says, "...officers must live by the law enforcement code of ethics. They take an oath. It reads in part, As a law enforcement officer, my fundamental duty is to serve humankind, to safeguard lives and property, to protect the innocent against deception."
the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder. While performing my duties, I will maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, develop self-restraint, be truthful, and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Sarah was hurt by the department's failure to discipline Glenn. She had hoped her history at the CSPD would temper the favoritism he so often received.
The disappointing part to me was that D.C. Edmondson signed off on it and Chief Vasquez signed off on it. Like, D.C. Edmondson was one of my trainers in the academy and Chief Vasquez was my sergeant for years in DEA. So I felt like there might be less bias towards one or the other of us because I knew these people really well, too.
But it definitely affirms my belief that Glenn Thomas in particular has a very, very special position at CSPD. So what line would Glenn have to cross in order to lose favor with the department?
This July 4th, celebrate freedom from spills, stains, and overpriced furniture with Anabay, the only machine washable sofa inside and out where designer quality meets budget-friendly pricing. Sofas start at just $699, making it the perfect time to upgrade your space. Anabay's pet-friendly, stain-resistant, and interchangeable slipcovers are made with high-performance fabric that's built for real life. You'll love the cloud-like comfort of hyper
We'll be right back.
In 2012, 16-year-old Brian Herrera was gunned down in broad daylight on his way to do homework. No suspects, no witnesses, no justice. The call was horrible. I replayed over in my head all the time. For years, Brian's family kept asking questions while a culture of silence kept the case cold.
Snitches get stitches. Everybody knows it. Still, they refuse to give up. I would ask my husband, do you want me to just let this go? He's like, no, keep fighting. I told her I would never give up on this case.
And then, after a decade of waiting, a breakthrough. We received a phone call that was bittersweet because it's a call that we've been waiting for for a very long time. I'm Enrique Santos. This is Cold Case Files Miami, a podcast about justice, persistence, and the families who never stopped fighting. Listen to Cold Case Files Miami as part of the My Cultura podcast network. Available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Maybe you've heard that Stonewall was a riot where queer people fought back against police, or that it's the reason Pride is celebrated this time of year. It was one of the most liberating things that I have ever done. But did you know that before it went down in history, the Stonewall was a queer hangout run by the mafia? The voguing at Stonewall was unbelievable.
In the summer of 1969, it became the site that set off the modern movement for LGBTQ plus rights. Started banging on the door of the Stonewall like one, boom, boom, boom. Legend says Marsha P. Johnson, a mother in the fight for trans rights,
through the very first brick. She was really like scrubbed out of that history. This week on Afterlives, we'll separate the truth from the myth in the life of Marsha P. Johnson. Listen to Afterlives on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jan Marselek was a model of German corporate success. It seemed so damn simple for him. Also, it turned out, a fraudster.
Where does the money come from? That was something that I always was questioning myself. But what if I told you that was the least interesting thing about him?
His secret office was less than 500 meters down the road. I often ask myself now, did I know the true Jan at all? Certain things in my life since then have gone terribly wrong. I don't know if they followed me to my home. It looks like the ingredients of a really grand spy story. Because this ties together the Cold War with the new one. The Cold War
Listen to Hot Money, Agent of Chaos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. At the heart of this season is one question. How was Joel Kern able to do what he did? To betray his family, his colleagues, and his community for so long? During our reporting, we've learned that Joel wasn't the only officer who knew he could get away with misconduct. This was a culture problem, not an isolated case.
We've heard from former staff that there are certain employees who are untouchable, protected by the badge and by the brass. These are people who don't fear consequences. Because if you're one of the golden few, there are no consequences. Following Glenn Thomas' exoneration in his IA case, Sarah tried to move forward. She focused on her job and her kids. But Glenn was still a part of her family's life.
By court order, he had limited custody of their 10-year-old daughter. Two years into this arrangement, in October 2024, their daughter confided in her therapist. She said her dad had touched her inappropriately. Her therapist reported to DHS. DHS reported to Woodland Park PD. Woodland Park PD opened an investigation on it. Glenn lived in Woodland Park. It's a small town about 30 minutes outside of Colorado Springs.
But the Woodland Park Police Department was a different ball field. Glenn didn't work for them. They asked him to come in for an interview to explain his actions. He denied the allegations. And then he did something unthinkable. He just went to my daughter's school and confronted her and told her that she's a liar.
He may have been fueled by anger or distress. But before the confrontation, Glenn had the presence of mind to call CSPD colleagues for advice. He called two different people within the department who specifically told him, do not go to her school on his way down there. So yeah, he was looking for support and affirmation on what he was doing and he didn't get it and he still went.
Later, at an emergency custody hearing, he changed the story, claiming a commander told Glenn he should go down to his daughter's school. These emergency proceedings were happening in parallel to Glenn's criminal case. And at this emergency hearing... On the stand, he said that this commander had told him he should go to the school and talk to her because he was supposed to have visitation the next day.
And so he was like, she told me I should go and get a witness and like smooth things over with her so that then we could have a good visitation like the next day. In fact, what happened is the person that he mentioned had told him, do not go. Wait for things to shake out. Like, don't push it. Just don't go. But for sure, don't go to the school. He lied on the stand and he put blame on the CSPD.
It was at this hearing that Glenn's visitation rights were taken away. But perhaps this was also a turning point in Glenn's relationship with CSPD. Glenn Thomas was starting to seem less like an asset and more like a liability to the department, especially once the news got a hold of the story.
We have an 11 breaking news alert just into our newsroom. We just learned that a Colorado Springs police officer is now under arrest. He was accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a minor in Woodland Park. Thomas later confronted the alleged victim at school about those accusations, telling the minor to change the story. Sergeant Thomas is accused of violating a protection order and intimidating the victim involved.
Thomas is assigned to the DUI unit and was taken into custody earlier today. Because of the lies Thomas told in the emergency hearing, the DA put him on the Brady list. It's a list of police officers who have lied, falsified evidence, or committed other misconduct, anything that would undermine their credibility as a witness. The DA has to notify opposing counsel any time they use an officer from the Brady list as a witness.
In other words, Thomas is now marked as a liar in the courts. As for the criminal charges, Glenn has to go to trial and could even receive prison time. The Woodland Park PD dropped the sexual assault charge. They couldn't find the evidence they needed to make the charge stick. But the intimidation of a minor witness and the violation of a protection order, those charges were in Colorado Springs jurisdiction due to the location of the daughter's school.
And this time, finally, CSPD took the allegations seriously. Glenn Thomas' trial is set for the end of July. But until then, he still remains employed at CSPD. And he can continue to testify in cases for the DA. We asked the DA directly about whether they'll be putting Glenn on the stand, knowing what they know now.
They responded, quote, So why are we telling you about Glenn Thomas? Because there are clear similarities with Joel Kern's case. Both have longstanding ties to the CSPD.
Both operated by their own rules. And in each case, someone put themselves on the line to raise a red flag, warning the department that these men couldn't be trusted. But they still wore the badge. We asked Major Franklin, who we heard from at the top of the episode, about these dynamics. We're supposed to be a profession that is trusted. So we should begin within our own ranks, developing a very high level of integrity...
But we've developed this stop snitching, don't snitch on your peers. And it's a culture that I don't think has changed over many, many, many, many decades. As a former cop himself, Major Franklin can see how this culture has sustained itself for so long.
One of the main reasons is the camaraderie. We have done a very good job in policing of isolating ourselves from community at large. You know, we go to police barbecues and primarily the folks who are at the police barbecues are police officers and immediate family members. Weddings is the same way. If you really examine many of the wedding parties for police officers, they are police officers in the wedding parties.
So we've done a very good job of isolating ourselves. This closely knit group of cops, the culture in the street is that they back each other up no matter what, for the most part.
In our last episode, we also introduced you to Claudia Aldrich. She runs the police officer's whistleblower network. Her social media posts call out the CSPD for what she sees as massive hypocrisy. She says there's no benefit to reporting a fellow officer for misconduct. Who's going to want to do that? Because doing that puts their career on a big red spot.
Major Franklin says he has seen employees step up to try and stop rumors and corruption. They will report, but you know what? Many of them have paid the price for it. Former CSPD officer John was one of them. His efforts to raise red flags and create meaningful change at CSPD were met with frustration and even outright anger by those in leadership. And eventually...
He got tired of fighting. I finally had come to the realization that I wasn't going to make a difference at CSPD. I couldn't make any changes. I was never going to get into a position where I could affect change. The culture at CSPD prevails. It's a culture that's driven out stand-up public servants like John. And it seems like he isn't alone. ♪
A local news station was able to get a hold of an employee morale survey. It was given by the Colorado Springs Police Protective Association back in 2023. It painted a bleak picture. A new question in the 2023 survey version asked if these sworn staff members were considering leaving CSPD within the next five years. 63% saying yes. John recalls Joel Kern's feelings on morale when they worked together. So at first...
Joel Kern was somebody that I could look up to and trust, and he was very skilled in that arena of investigation. And then as time went on, things really, really started to change. Kern would say things like, morale is a personal problem. And from a guy with a management master's degree, I will tell you that one person with a morale problem is a personal problem. But when it's systemic across an organization, that's a leadership problem.
And that was the mantra that the brass kept saying. If the morale here is poor, that's your fault. John's experience is proof that not everyone at CSPD agrees with its culture. There are officers currently on the force who are disillusioned with how the department disciplines its employees. I wondered if the dedicated CSPD investigators who tried to help Sarah when she first reported Glenn were among those that wanted out of the job.
Here's Sarah again. When I brought the case to them, I gave them that disclosure that nothing is going to happen to him. Like, I told them. And they both were like, he shouldn't be an exception. He shouldn't be protected. This should be just a normal case. And honestly, we're not going to let that happen.
In the end, the department let Sarah down.
and how CSPD works, and who is who, and navigating all of these situations would be impossible without that. So again, I'm heartbroken for the people that are victims and don't have my special set of skills and knowledge and information. If it hadn't been for some of that information, again, he would be getting away with all of it.
Here's former CSPD employee Barb again. If you have no integrity in your personal life, why would you have integrity in your public life? If you will lie about little stuff, you'll lie about big stuff. If you lie about big stuff, you'll lie about bigger stuff.
It makes us wonder how many Joel Kearns and Glenn Thomases there are right now, getting away with potentially criminal behavior because their friends on the force are protecting them. How many officers have had serious reports of misconduct swept under the rug? How many have had internal affairs investigations closed without consequence? We'll give the final word to Major Franklin. We work for you as citizens, and we are to provide a service.
We take an oath to protect people's constitutional rights. And we are one of a very few number of people, occupations in this country who have the ability and the right to take your liberty away from you at any given second.
I want someone who is going to set the example for their behavior because they're going to be interacting with me, my kids, my grandkids, my nieces, my nephews, my relatives, my friends. I'm not asking you to be saints. I'm asking you to have integrity. I'm asking you to value your position. I'm asking you to raise the level of professionalism within your craft. I'm asking you to be the best. That's all.
On the next episode of Betrayal, we go back to Caroline's story and we hear about her healing journey. No one blames the wife or the spouse or a partner for someone's heroin addiction or for someone's gambling addiction. It's just in this realm of infidelities where there seems to be this really strong focus on the betrayed partner.
Thank you for listening to Betrayal Season 4. If you would like to reach out to the Betrayal team, email us at BetrayalPod at gmail.com. That's Betrayal, P-O-D, at gmail.com.
Also, please be sure to follow us on Instagram at BetrayalPod and me, Andrea H. Gunning, for all Betrayal content, news and updates. One way to support this series is by subscribing to our show on Apple Podcasts. Please rate and review Betrayal. Five-star reviews help us know you appreciate what we do.
Betrayal is a production of Glass Podcasts, a division of Glass Entertainment Group in partnership with iHeart Podcasts. The show is executive produced by Nancy Glass and Jennifer Faison. Betrayal is hosted and produced by me, Andrea Gunning. Written and produced by Carrie Hartman. Also produced by Ben Fetterman. Our associate producers are Caitlin Golden and Kristen Malkuri. Our iHeart team is Allie Perry and Jessica Kreincheck. Story editing by Monique Laborde.
Audio editing and mixing by Matt Dalvecchio. Editing by Tanner Robbins. And special thanks to Caroline and her family. Betrayal's theme is composed by Oliver Baines. Music library provided by My Music. And for more podcasts from iHeart, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Maybe you've heard that Stonewall was a riot where queer people fought back against police, or that it's the reason Pride is celebrated this time of year. It was one of the most liberating things that I have ever done. Legend says Marsha P. Johnson threw the very first brick. Started banging on the door of the Stonewall like one, boom. This week on Afterlives, we'll separate the truth from the myth.
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How could a beautiful young first grade teacher be stabbed 20 times, including in the back, allegedly die of suicide? Yes, that was the medical examiner's official ruling. After a closed door meeting, he first named it a homicide. Why? What happened to Ellen Greenberg? A huge American miscarriage of justice.
For an in-depth look at the facts, see What Happened to Ellen on Amazon. All proceeds to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This is an iHeart Podcast.