Last year, my parked car was hit by a local Realtor, who appeared to be heavily under the influence. Myself and four other strangers saw it happen, so I approached her as she started to drive off and got her to stop. After I confronted her about it and we had a short conversation, she drove off fast. Luckily, there where witnesses who took photos of the incident, and I called the cops who tracked her down to her home and gave her a citation for fleeing the scene.

I thought I would easily get payment from her insurance company for the damages to my car. Early this year, they finally confirmed they where settling in her favor because the charge against her was dismissed.

I filed a complaint with the Colorado Division of Insurance, which made the insurance company reopen the case, and I started to dig. With a lot of information requests and talking with people involved, I found out the District Attorney’s Office did nothing. The DA collected no evidence. They had a record of my phone call with the police and that was it. They did not have the body cam footage that had witness testimony on it. They didn’t even have the motor vehicle crash report.

They pretty much had nothing. I was able to show this information to the insurance company, and they paid for my damages. My biggest question is why did I have to go through all that work, and why did the DA, whose main job is to collect evidence and prosecute, not collect evidence and prosecute? Did they drop the ball, or is this just a case of small town politics? Either way, something to keep in mind next time you vote for a DA.