About the Sheriff’s Office

For the first year of the Sheriff’s Office, county prisoners were held in the Brighton Town jail. In 1903, the first jail was located in the basement of the County’s first Courthouse, which was the rented residence of Daniel Carmichael, the founder of Brighton.

The contract called for two jail cells with a front corridor. Each cell was seven feet high, seven-and-one-half feet wide, and eight feet deep. The accommodations included a canvas hammock and an iron bucket in each cell, and there was a hopper, a wash sink, and a bathtub in the corridor.

When the courthouse burned to the ground in 1904, the county commissioners leased the Herman Reuter residence. Reuter agreed to allow the county to build a jail on the property, and a small brick building was constructed in the rear to house the cells from the burned courthouse.

When the new Adams County Courthouse was completed at South 4th Avenue and Bridge Street in May 1906, the jail and the sheriff’s office were located in the northern half of the basement. The new facilities included a separate cell for women. When a separate county jail was built on the same block east of the courthouse, it included an apartment for the sheriff. The Sheriff’s wife usually cooked the prisoners’ meals.

In 1964, a modern building for the sheriff’s office and county jail was built on East Bridge Street in Brighton. The old county jail was used for storage until it was demolished in 1977. The Adams County Juvenile Detention Center was constructed next to the sheriff’s office and county jail in 1970.

Today, the Adams County Coroners Office is located where the Juvenile Detention Center was. In 2001, the Patrol and the Detectives Divisions were moved to a newly constructed substation in Commerce City.

Martin R. Bromley was appointed in 1902. The sheriff and the undersheriff were paid on a salary schedule, while the deputies were paid by the number of calls they made. They were also given a mileage allowance. There was no training program like there is now.

One of Adams County’s most colorful sheriffs was James P. Higgins, elected Sheriff in November 1904. He owned the Elite, one of Brighton’s four saloons. Higgins was known for his ready Irish wit and his generosity to those in need, but his wit also got him into trouble. Higgins was overheard joking about Judge Gutheil and his court, which did not amuse the judge. Higgins was arrested for contempt of court and spent 60 days in his own jail rather than pay a $400 fine.

Sheriff Higgins’ successor was Herman Schloo, who was involved in what the Brighton Blade termed “another of the famous bloody ‘Battles of Brighton’ in January 1909. The trouble started shortly after midnight on inauguration day. As a result of a dispute over the election in 1908, sheriff-elect Schloo and 30 other armed Democrats stormed the county jail and demanded that Clyde Hackley, who was occupying the sheriff’s office, turn the office over to them. Guns were drawn, but the only person who was hurt was Hackley’s father, when he was struck on the head several times with a revolver.

Hackley, his two brothers, his father, and the jailer, George W. Lytle, were seized and disarmed of their revolvers. The crowd then broke into the county judge’s office and arrested Judge Gutheil on a warrant from the local justice of the peace that charged the judge with tampering with the ballot boxes during the recent election. The incumbents showed no further evidence of trying to hold on to their offices, and the next day, the Democrats were in peaceful possession of the jail and courthouse. Schlooremained in office for three terms.

From 1932 until 1956, Adams County had four different sheriffs: Lewis Ballard, Herman Farney, Homer Mayberry, and Ira Basher.

Red Light Bandit – A pair of bandits would dress up like a man and woman and cover their lights with red kerchiefs so that people would think they were the police. They would then drive into a “lover’s lane” area and beat up and rob the people in their cars. They were eventually caught when two male deputies posed as lovers in their car. When the “Red Light Bandits” approached the car, shots were fired, and one was killed and the other was apprehended.

Liquor Truck Robbery – Two men stole a liquor truck containing nearly $10,000 worth of liquor. After searching for the men and the truck for nearly four months, it was found in the yard of Deputy Rotello. The two men did not realize that they were on a dead-end road. They jumped out of the truck and ran with Rotello in pursuit. He had only a pistol, and they had sub-machine guns. They were never apprehended.

Pot Isn’t A New Fad – In 1948, Sheriff Mayberry found and destroyed a large cache of marijuana in Globeville. It was the largest amount ever found up until that time.

The life of a law enforcement officer was not easy during the department’s early days. With only a 37-man force, they had a large area to cover, compared to a 140-man force in 1978.