John Walsh is officially on the job as Denver’s 30th district attorney. He and 330 employees associated with his office were sworn into their official positions during a ceremony in downtown Denver on Tuesday morning.
Walsh emphasized the importance of community safety as part of his first speech in office.
"I will never forget the first job of the DA’s office is community safety. Every day, we must put ideology aside and focus on what actually works to make our city and all the people of our city safe," Walsh said.
The swearing-in was held at the Webb building downtown. Denver Mayor Mike Johnston and former Gov. Bill Ritter, Jr., who was previously a district attorney for the city, also spoke at the ceremony. Outgoing Denver District Attorney Beth McCann was onstage to witness the formal transition.
Walsh has lived in Colorado for most of his life. He has a long and extensive legal career in the private and public sectors. He’s best known for his time as U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado. He was appointed to the position by President Barack Obama and served in that position from 2010 to 2016.
“I ran the United States Attorney’s Office for six years, which is one of the longest terms of any U.S. Attorney in Colorado’s history during the Obama administration,” he told Denverite during his primary campaign last year. “And that meant not just managing a big office, which is what the [district attorney’s] job is, but also managing the relationships and collaborating with other agencies over which I didn’t have direct authority, but which I needed to influence.”
Walsh said his biggest accomplishment was Colorado’s part in a major financial fraud case against Citigroup that resulted in a $7 billion settlement. Federal and state civil claims were filed against the financial services company for packaging and issuing residential mortgage-backed securities that contributed to the Great Recession.
Walsh, who also unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate, is known for his relationships with local law enforcement agencies, district attorney offices and members of both political parties.
During his campaign, Walsh said he would take on police accountability. It’s an area where he has received some criticism during his tenure as U.S. Attorney. His office declined to take on cases that involved the deaths of Marvin Booker in 2010, Jessica Hernandez and Michael Marshall in 2015, and the beating of Alex Landau in 2009.
He said in the primary election that prosecuting police can be a challenging task for the district attorney’s office.
“It's very important for the district attorney’s office to maintain that independence and neutrality to be able to make a decision,” he said. “And in my eyes, that means that we should have a designated set of senior, very experienced prosecutors who not only have responsibility for that set of issues but also get the best training on how to do those cases.”
Walsh previously said he wants to lower crime rates in the city with the creation of a taskforce on violent crime. To address the drug crisis, he wants to aggressively prosecute distributors and manufacturers and offers more treatment options for drug users to address the fentanyl epidemic.
Walsh’s term is four years.
