DA wants grand jury to probe identity theft cases

GREELEY — Weld County’s top prosecutor is asking for a grand jury to determine whether arrests should continue in hundreds of identity theft cases where suspected illegal immigrants are accused filing fraudulent tax returns.

District Attorney Ken Buck made the request this week after a district judge refused to allow any more cases to be filed because of concerns over federal privacy laws.

Weld County District Judge James Hartmann said in a hearing Monday that part of the reason he is worried is that prosecutors were attaching tax return information to defendant’s court files, making them available for public inspection. He said some of the tax returns sometimes included information about the defendant’s relatives, who are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

Hartmann suggested cases could continue to be filed if prosecutors did not attach tax return information to the defendants’ files, but included it in affidavits.

Prosecutors filed 118 cases before the judge’s order and Buck says more than 1,200 cases are pending.

The filings came after authorities seized about two years of federal tax returns from Amalia’s Translation and Tax Services, a business catering to Latinos. Buck has said that more than 1,300 people in Greeley may have used fake or stolen Social Security numbers to get refunds totaling about $2.6 million.

The investigation started in August after a Texas man discovered someone in northern Colorado was using his Social Security number to get refunds.

Buck said his office researched the privacy issue and consulted with the IRS before getting warrants. He said a grand jury would keep the defendant’s information private.