CENTENNIAL, Colorado - December 1, 2011 - A former Colorado lawman with a record so distinguished he was once honored as the nation's sheriff of the year now finds himself in a jail that was named for him, accused of offering methamphetamine in exchange for sex from a male acquaintance.
Patrick Sullivan, 68, handcuffed, dressed in an orange jail uniform and walking with a cane, watched Wednesday as a judge raised his bail amount to a half-million dollars and sent him to the Patrick J. Sullivan Jr. Detention Facility.
The current sheriff, Grayson Robinson, who worked as undersheriff for Sullivan from 1997 until he took over the job in 2002, said the department was shocked and saddened at his arrest.
Robinson said the case is still under investigation, including where and how Sullivan might have gotten the drugs. He declined to say if authorities suspect Sullivan of using drugs or if others might be charged.
Court documents in several other cases show that Sullivan in recent months had been associating with young men fighting an addiction to meth. When the former sheriff was questioned about it, he said he was working in a state drug-treatment program.
Sullivan later told detectives he was on a meth drug task force and helps recovering addicts get clean, according to another report.
The Colorado attorney general's office said there was no record of Sullivan working on a meth task force.
