An injured Park County (CO) deputy along with the family of Nate Carrigan, who was killed while serving an eviction notice last February, filed intent to sue paperwork against the Park County Sheriff’s Department and Sheriff Fred Wegener.
Court paperwork details the basis for the lawsuit – that Sheriff Wegener made the final decision to follow Martin Wirth into the home he was being evicted from, even though he “threatened to harm any individual trying to evict him,” and that decision ran counter to department policy.
The paperwork claims that Park County Sheriff Office Policy and Procedures at that point, required Wirth be treated as a barricaded subject. Non-SWAT officers like Carrigan and Kolby Martin should not have been sent into the home. It says that the death of deputy Carrigan and the injuries to Kolby Martin are, “due to the grossly negligent conduct of command staff at the Park County Sheriff’s Office, failure to properly train and supervise, failure to adhere and follow the basic National Standards as it concerns the treatment of a barricaded suspect and a high risk eviction.”
Wirth had lost the home to foreclosure. Carrigan, along with Martin and other deputies were assigned evict Wirth on February 24, 2016. When they arrived, the notice of claim says, Wirth was on his deck and threatened the deputies.
“The basic laws of law enforcement, once they go back in, you surround it and you have the person come out,” Grant Whitus, a former SWAT team leader for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said. “That could go on for hours and you made need to use gas to have the person to come out. You certainly have the SWAT teams involved with it when something goes that wrong. And that’s what should have been done that day.”
“This isn’t about money,” said John Carrigan, Nathan’s father, “we are not looking for money. We’re looking to remove Fred Wegener as the sheriff and his command staff from their jobs. What we’re hoping is to get the information out on what actually happened, the murder of Martin Wirth and the killing of our son, as well as the lies told by the sheriff about it.”