ALAMOSA — When Bob Willett accepted a prosecutor position under former district attorney for the 12^th Judicial District, David Mahonee, he knew the salary was low and the caseload was high. But, for all of his life, Willett placed great personal value in public service, “working in the trenches, doing something that mattered and made a difference in people’s lives.”

He saw that opportunity — the need to be fulfilled — in the Valley. And once he said “yes”, he was “all in.”

“The valley became my home and it’s been that way ever since,” Willett said.

After leaving office in January of 2021, Willett was immediately hired by the 4^th Judicial District in Colorado Springs — the second largest district in the state — where he has tried major felony cases in El Paso and Teller counties. But he has continued to “come home” to the valley several times a month, where he still owns his home and, with his wife Wendy operates a small business.

Willett and Kelly don’t differ on much, but Willett says he knows the valley

Now, facing an election against a recently appointed opponent for a position he was also appointed to in 2019, he believes he and Anne Kelly are, in many ways, “on the same sheet of music.”

They both believe in strong prosecution, he said. They both believe in the diversion of low-level offenders. They both believe in strong advocacy for victims and agree that failure to prosecute not only revictimizes the victim but also harms the community where the victim lives.

And he knows “better than anyone” the impact underfunding and understaffing the 12^th district has had on both the staff who have stayed with the office and the people of the valley, as well.

“That was a constant refrain for years with the Colorado District Attorneys Council,” he said.

But it wasn’t just the CDAC who expressed concern.

Before she was appointed by Governor Polis to the bench, former district attorney Kristen Newmyer-Olsen ordered an evaluation from the prestigious national group Prosecutors Center for Excellence, which confirmed, in extensive detail, conditions that could be summarized in damning brevity.

Funding is bad. Staffing is bad. Turnover is bad. Case load is very bad. Lack of adequate technology and office space — both bad.

Willett continued to meet with the evaluator after Newmyer-Olsen left the office and implemented some of their recommendations — as much as the pandemic would allow.

Despite challenges, Willett remains devoted to 12^th district

Even with significant challenges — or maybe because of them — Willett says he was devoted to his job for the entire seven-year stretch he worked in the 12^th district.

He made it a practice to go to felony crime scenes, mainly homicides, including a 3 a.m. call on New Year’s Day related to a homicide in Saguache County.  He knows well all 22 law enforcement agencies in the valley and was in frequent communication with police departments and sheriff’s offices.

“I went over to APD all the time or they’d come to the office. They may not have agreed with me all the time,” Willett said. “Some of them may not even like me or like some of the decisions I made. But they knew I would listen to them, and they knew I was fair.”

In his career, Willett says he has tried about 90 cases; about 40 in the 4^th judicial district and an estimated 50 in the valley, including “everything from murder down to misdemeanor” cases.

“I am the only prosecutor to my knowledge who has tried a felony jury trial in every county,” he said. “It was my understanding that, before me, the last felony trial in Mineral County was 13 years ago.”

That could not be confirmed before press time.

Willett says he also knows how juries in the San Luis Valley can be different from one county to another, including some that show great diversity, such as in Saguache where on one jury featured several cowboys as well as a Buddhist monk.

“People have a basic sense of what’s right and what’s wrong, but sometimes they come in with core beliefs that can impact what they do,” he said. “Not all juries are the same, and any prosecutor who tries to say they are isn’t being honest.”

He also knows how a case that is lost can impact a rural community, citing a case in a county he chose not to disclose where a man was fatally shot for crossing onto someone else’s property.

“That was a tough case to try and when the victim didn’t get the outcome they hoped for, they were angry with the community — many of whom they knew — for the verdict they reached,” he said.

He was an adjunct instructor at Trinidad State College Police Academy — a feeder school for law enforcement in the valley — where he taught students about what he had learned as a police officer for 19 years as well as parts of their job that are crucial to the effective prosecution of cases,

And Willett also speaks about his time with victims.

“I’ve had to tell victims that maybe what happened to them didn’t constitute a crime or that we’re not taking a case to trial because there’s a good chance we’re going to lose and a plea deal is the better way to go,” Willett said. “Ninety percent of all cases end up in a plea deal – that’s just the way it is. The courts can’t handle prosecuting every case that’s charged. But a victim doesn’t care about those other ninety people. They care about one crime, the crime that happened to them.”

And that brings up what Willett says is a guiding principle for him.

“I would much rather under-promise and over-deliver than making a promise to people I can’t keep,” he said. “Making promises may make people feel reassured for a while and look at you in a certain light. But promising something you don’t deliver is guaranteed to lose people’s trust, and once that’s gone, it is very hard to get it back.”

Pandemic brings about new challenges

When the pandemic hit full force shortly after he was appointed DA, the stress that plagued his office increased exponentially.

“Domestic violence and sexual assaults increased,” he said. “Sheriffs were still making arrests and they’d call asking ‘Should I keep them?’ because they were trying to empty out jails because of the virus. And judges didn’t want to hear that you’d lost almost all your prosecutors and even some staff because of COVID.”

So, Willett did what he needed to do, taking over all cases in Alamosa and Rio Grande County, Willett went into the office at about 3:30 a.m. and prepared for hearings. He convinced two part-time attorneys who lived out of town to pick up other cases, while they were in the valley, they stayed with him in his house, rent free, He would bring in local investigators and law enforcement officers and set them up in separate rooms to testify, via Zoom, in preliminaries.

“I filed 13 homicide cases that year, including a cold case from 2014,” he said.

And when Payne announced his candidacy, he also tried to run a campaign for the primary.

“I guess you could say those of us who were left were trying to land a plane with both wings on fire and smoke coming into the cockpit, and, for the most part, we got it done,” Willett said.

And when he lost the primary and knew he would be leaving at the end of the year, he and Megan Martinez, 12^th Judicial District office manager, went before all the county commissioners and requested a budget increase.

And when he saw unprecedented felony cases on the horizon, such as the Los Sauces murders, and knew his successor had never prosecuted a case and was planning on hiring almost all public defenders, he consulted with law enforcement and requested special prosecutors to handle the case. 

And, during his tenure, he also did something that is difficult for any district attorney to do. He charged seven different law enforcement officers with crimes and had prosecuted three of them when he left.

The only time Willett gets a little choked up is in sharing that one of the officers he prosecuted recently sent him an Instagram, saying he hopes he gets elected.

“That … meant a lot to me,” he said. “Everybody is treated the same under the law, but it’s tough when it’s one of your own.”

Willett’s plans if elected in November

At this point, Willett says, if elected, he has several things he would like to do, including creating a Special Victims Unit, creating a cold case squad and creating a panel that includes law enforcement officials, community members and others to review wrongful convictions.

He also knows that all those things cost money and, when asked about DA Kelly’s request for a significant budget increase, Willett agrees that more funding is greatly needed. He said he hopes the commissioners will listen to her request.

“But, to be fair, things work differently in rural districts than they do along the Front Range,” he said. “The valley has a small population with five of the ten poorest counties in the state. It’s not like the Springs where commissioners can be generous because there are 650,000 people and there’s a large tax base. And underfunding isn’t just true here. It’s true in the thirteenth up by Sterling and Fort Morgan, in the 16th in La Junta and Lamar in the 15th.

“The DA’s office is critical to law enforcement in the valley. But asking for a million dollars more means other departments are going to lose funding, and where will it come from? Law enforcement? The jail? Public health?

“That’s what people who haven’t worked in rural districts don’t understand. That doesn’t mean don’t ask but what you ask has to be feasible on the ground where it plays out. It’s not an equitable system, but no single person can tell everyone what they have to do. People have to work together. That’s how rural districts are.”

Willett cares about the San Luis Valley

One question remains in the conversation.

Even when he left for a year for a better-paying job in a well-staffed district, Willett returned to a stressed office with high turnover. Despite the loss in the primary, and an unfounded felony charge filed by Payne that was so egregious it was described as “weaponizing the office of the district attorney against a political opponent” and was cited as one of the reasons for Payne’s disbarment, despite those charges being dismissed without prejudice in the same courtroom where – just hours before – Polis’ appointed DA was sworn into office, Willett still wants to come back.

It begs the question … why?

“I have a strong commitment to the people,” he said. “I could see the disaster unfolding for the past year and talked to people who suffered because of what was done. This is my community.”

 “You asked why I’m coming back? I never left. This is my home.”

The election is Nov. 8.

The Valley Courier and Alamosa Chamber of Commerce will host a forum in which Willett and Kelly will take center stage at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at Society Hall, 400 Ross Ave.