Former Arapahoe Sheriff Arrested for Meth Dealing Charges

The Denver Post

Former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of trying to trade drugs to a man for sex, as investigators monitored the deal.
Drug task-force officers were "visually monitoring" the deal when the 68-year-old former national Sheriff of the Year delivered methamphetamine to an Aurora home and sought sex in return, said current Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.
"This shows that no one is above the law, particularly a current or a former peace officer," Robinson said.
Robinson said Sullivan had an ongoing relationship with the man as well as other men he had a history of bonding out of jails in the metro region.
Sullivan is being held on $250,000 bail in the jail that bears his name, the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility. He was sheriff from 1984 until his retirement in 2002.
A call left at his family home in Littleton on Tuesday night was not returned. Sullivan's adult daughter told TV reporters outside her parents' home that the family was in disbelief and asked for privacy.
The former sheriff was being held in an isolation cell Tuesday night and could appear in court as early as Wednesday morning, Robinson said.
The investigation is ongoing, and more charges and arrests are expected.
Robinson said investigators received a tip earlier this month that Sullivan was involved in meth distribution, sparking the investigation that culminated in his arrest and staggering fall from grace.
Sullivan had retired from law enforcement to become director of safety and security for Cherry Creek Schools in 2002, retiring from there in 2008. He was hired in the aftermath of security concerns following the deadly Columbine rampage of 1999.