John Ferak

USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

Nearly one month after "Making a Murderer" captured world-wide attention on Netflix, embattled Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Lt. Andrew Colborn wrote a long email to the county’s top prosecutor, assuring her that no evidence was planted during the Teresa Halbach homicide investigation.

Colborn sent his email to Manitowoc County District Attorney Jacalyn LaBre on Jan. 13. She was not employed by Manitowoc County in November 2005 when Colborn and Lt. James Lenk focused on Steven Avery as their prime suspect in Halbach’s murder.

“No evidence was planted at any time by any law enforcement officer during the course of this investigation,” Colborn wrote to LaBre. “The key to Theresa’s (sic) vehicle was not discovered laying next to the pair of shoes in the open, but was instead located cleverly hidden behind a bookcase, in Steven Avery’s bedroom.

Colborn’s mid-January email to LaBre was turned over to USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin last week to comply with a public records request.

Colborn's original purpose for sending the email was to alert LaBre to a talk radio show, hosted by Dan O'Donnell, headlined, "Debunking Making a Murderer."

"It exposes every lie in every episode of the Netflix story," Colborn wrote. After listening to the program, Colborn came up with about a dozen additional "other facts" as well, which became the basis of his email.

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USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin sought access to written or electronic correspondence involving several current law enforcement officials at the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office, including Colborn, who is now head of his agency’s detective bureau.

In his email to LaBre, Colborn also claims that Avery incriminated himself to an unidentified Calumet sheriff’s deputy while he was jailed for Halbach’s slaying.

“It should also be noted that during a court preparation at (Calumet County Sheriff’s Office) a CASO deputy informed me, Jim Lenk, Ken Kratz, Mark Weigert (sic) and Tom Fassbender that during a movement of Steven Avery at CASO, Avery had stated mockingly to this CASO deputy, 'I can’t believe it took you guys 8 times to find that key.'"

“I am unaware if that statement was used at Avery’s trial and if not why?” Colborn added.

On the contrary, no police reports were ever turned over to Avery’s lawyers Dean Strang and Jerry Buting and no testimony was offered at Avery’s five-week trial surrounding Colborn’s supposed recent recollection.

During the trial, Colborn testified that Lenk found the key on the carpet after Colborn was aggressively shaking the bookcase near Avery’s bed. “I handled it rather roughly, twisting it, shaking it, pulling it,” Colborn testified.

However, during cross-examination, Colborn conceded that he omitted mentioning in his police reports any mention of his role in finding the key on Nov. 8, 2005. Strang suggested that Colborn intentionally did so because he did not want to cast any suspicion on himself. Both Colborn and Lenk have denied allegations of planting the key inside Avery’s bedroom.

In his lengthy email, Colborn addressed one of the most memorable scenes in "Making a Murderer" – when Avery’s criminal defense lawyer, Dean Strang, cross-examined him during the 2007 murder trial in Chilton. Strang played the audio communications between Colborn and one of his police radio dispatchers from November 3, 2005 — two days before the recovery of Halbach’s missing Toyota RAV4 at the 4,000-vehicle Avery Salvage Yard.

After playing the audio recordings, Strang asked, “Were you looking at these plates when you called them in?”

“I should not have been and I was not looking at the license plates,” Colborn testified.

In the email, Colborn suggested that he requested Halbach’s vehicle description as well as her registration plate number after being notified by the Calumet County Sheriff’s Office that Halbach was reported missing. “I had no way of running the information given to me by CASO from my patrol car, so I had to call in to dispatch to have them run Theresa’s (sic) registration plate thru (sic)WI DOT to ensure that I had copied down the plate number correctly.

“I had to have this information verified in case I located her vehicle at either of the two locations I was requested to check in Manitowoc County,” Colborn stated. “I made contact at both locations that CASO requested I check for Theresa, not just at Avery’s Salvage Yard.”

Colborn listed about a dozen “other facts” to justify his argument that none of the cops involved in the Avery murder investigation engaged in misconduct.

“The documentary continues to re-victimize the Halbach family and destroys the closure the Halbach family sought and gained thru (sic) the conviction,” Colborn wrote.

Colborn saw no conflict of interest with being involved in any of evidentiary searches, even though Avery had filed a $36 million lawsuit against Manitowoc County and Colborn’s former boss, Sheriff Tom Kocourek. Avery lost 18 years of his life because of the wrongful rape conviction.

“The primary investigative agencies for the 2005 case was the Calumet County Sheriff’s Office and DCI,” Colborn emailed LaBre. “However, due to the enormity of the scene, assistance was sought from (Manitowoc County) the Wisconsin State Patrol, (Manitowoc Police Department) and the Wisconsin State Crime Lab.”

Colborn advised LaBre that Avery’s mobile home was searched multiple times back in November 2005 “due to that being the direction of” the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation and the Calumet County Sheriff’s Office. Each search was a targeted search for specific items”

“For example, one search consisted of locating and collecting Avery’s computer and related computer hardware. Jim Lenk and I had no involvement in the 1985 investigation of Steven Avery,” Colborn wrote.

In 1995, Colborn received a phone call from an outside police agency that, if thoroughly investigated, could have prompted Avery’s exoneration many years earlier. Instead, Avery was freed in September 2003 after DNA testing proved that another man was the real rapist.

Colborn informed LaBre in the email that he was not employed by Manitowoc County when Avery was sent to prison in the 1980s.

Colborn’s stressed that he did not plant any of Avery’s blood in Halbach’s RAV4 that was recovered at the Avery Salvage Yard shortly before 11 a.m. on Nov. 5, 2005. For the next few hours, that vehicle remained under the control and custody of the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office and sheriff’s officials were not keeping a log of what police officers were coming and going.

Days later, Avery’s blood was found within the vehicle and the crime scene photos make it appear that someone could have used a Q-tip to spread a small streak of Avery’s blood near the ignition key column. At the time of Halbach’s disappearance, the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office had a vial of Avery’s blood from his 1985 criminal case, next door at the county courthouse in an unsecured box.

“At no time have I ever had access to any container of Steven Avery’s blood, sweat and/or other bodily fluid connected with Steven Avery,” Colborn wrote in the email. “At no time did any of the aforementioned law enforcement agencies, along with the FBI, enter into any sort of conspiracy to frame Steven Avery of this homicide.”

Colborn also addressed the conviction of Brendan Dassey, Avery’s then-16-year-old nephew. By March 1, 2006, Calumet County detective Mark Wiegert obtained a confession from Dassey, who ultimately implicated himself and Avery as raping, stabbing, shooting and finally burning Halbach’s body in a fire pit on the Avery property.

“(The Manitowoc sheriff's office) was not involved in the interview of Brenndan (sic) Dassey," Colborn wrote LaBre.

In early November 2005, Colborn conducted at least two searches of Avery’s garage where he was joined by Lenk or fellow Manitowoc County detective Dave Remiker, court testimony shows. By March 1, 2006, authorities chose to re-process Avery’s garage looking for more physical evidence. They wanted to corroborate Dassey’s statement to Wiegert. Once again, Lenk was back on the Avery property. This time, bullet fragments and a nearly intact bullet was found. A state crime lab technician later testified that the ammunition contained Halbach’s DNA.

In January 2006, Colborn received a special recognition report that went into his personnel file praising him for his investigation at the Avery Salvage Yard that resulted in Avery’s Nov. 9, 2005 arrest.

“I would be willing to sign any release to allow access to both my military service records and/or my personnel file at Manitowoc County as I have never been the target of suspicion and I feel my service to both my country and Manitowoc County has always been performed to the best of my ability,” Colborn wrote in his email to LaBre.

John Ferak: 920-993-7115 or jferak@gannett.com; on Twitter @johnferak