MONUMENT—News 5 Investigates confirmed the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office has opened a criminal investigation involving financial records at the Town of Monument.

“I am writing to make a formal request for the preservation of records,” Det. Marissa Williams said in a “preservation of evidence” letter sent to the Town on Nov. 20, 2018.

“I am requesting you preserve all financial documents up to and including records beginning in 2005,” Williams wrote. “These records may include, but are not limited to all electronic data stored and/or transmitted to both local and remote servers associated with the Town of Monument, physical copies of invoices, ledgers, statements, audits and receipts. The request pertains to any and all financial documents for the Town of Monument, whether stored at the offices of the Town of Monument or at an alternate physical location.”

We spoke with a spokesperson for the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. She says due to the active investigation the they can’t comment on who they are investigating, or the circumstances of the allegations.

News 5 reached out to Town Clerk Laura Hogan for comment.

Hogan referred us to the interim manager, Mike Foreman, who says he’s working with the town attorney to learn more about the investigation and says he’ll fully cooperate with investigators.

“So I was presented with this document by staff and I consulted with our new town attorney and instructed him to meet with the sheriff’s office so he could bring me up to speed on this request. During the discussion with the sheriff’s office we made it clear that the Town of Monument would cooperate fully in any investigation,” Foreman told us on the phone.

We also reached out to Mayor Don Wilson.

“At this time we have not received any requests for additional information or specifics,” Wilson said via email. “The Town has reached out to the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office to request more information and to let them know we are willing to cooperate with their investigation.”

The investigation was briefly noted during the Dec. 3 Board of Trustees meeting.

You can review the minutes for that meeting by clicking here.

Investigators are requesting any and all financial documents going back more than a decade. The memo says any person who interferes with the sheriff’s office request to preserve records could face felony charges.