ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. — In the fight for accountability, there are limits under the law.
Two teenage girls were killed when a sheriff’s deputy arrested the driver of a car and told an 18-year-old to drive it home without checking to see if she had a license. She didn’t how to drive. Three and a half years later, the family has lost hope there will be any changes or justice.
Leah Ford and her friend were driving with Leah’s boyfriend on a summer night in 2019 in rural Adams County. Her boyfriend was pulled over and arrested for a warrant for an unpaid speeding ticket. The Adams County deputy turned the car over to Leah.
Problem is, Ford didn’t have a license. She didn’t even know how to drive.
"He told her to go ahead and just take the vehicle home," said Twilight Hovey, Ford's mother. "She shouldn’t have been behind the wheel because she did not have her permit, nor did she have a valid driver’s license. My daughter did not know how to drive. She had no driving experience. Yes, she was 18, but she was not ready to drive."
The two teenage girls were killed when a truck slammed into their car around five miles away. More than three years later, the fight for accountability has left Hovey feeling hopeless.
"I’ve lost that hope. There won’t be any [accountability]," Hovey said. "Because I honestly believe that they think that they did nothing wrong and no policy was broken."
In the past years, Hovey and her lawyers have filed state and federal lawsuits against the deputy and the department. Both were dismissed. In federal court, they couldn’t prove the deputy created the danger that ultimately killed the girls. In state court, lawyers couldn’t prove he acted in a willful and wanton way.
"He was granted qualified immunity and our case was dismissed there," said Jeremy Jonsen, an attorney at Allen Vellone Wolf Helfrich & Factor P.C. who represents Hovey. "For him and Adams County to not be accountable for this I think is an absolutely miscarriage of justice."
9NEWS chose not to name the deputy because he’s never been charged. As far as we can tell, he never faced any punishment at the sheriff's office or with the state certification board for telling Ford to drive home without a license. He retired in 2021 and left the state, according to the sheriff's office.
Back in 2019, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office told us the deputy did not break any protocols when he didn’t check to see if Leah had a license after telling her to drive home.
The department said he used discretion in not have the car towed. A spokesperson for the Adams County Sheriff’s Office told 9NEWS Friday they do not believe any policies related to checking the licenses for passengers in the car have changed since this crash in 2019.
"They should be held accountable like the average citizen, like I am. Like anybody," said Hovey. "There’s just no accountability there. Government immunity."
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