In the 21st century, society is fighting battles, perhaps, not even imagined as recently as a generation earlier. There is cybercrime, newer and deadlier drugs and gangs that have elevated violence to a whole different level. Then, there are the crimes that have plagued society for as long as memory can recall. Who would even want the job prosecuting these criminals?
Meet new Denver District Attorney John Walsh. Walsh, who ran unopposed succeeds Beth McCann who has held the office for the last eight years. He takes the oath of office on January 14th.
“Denver is my hometown,” said Walsh in a post-Christmas phone conversation. “I love this city.” Walsh says the idea of running for DA had not crossed his mind until McCann announced she would not be running again. That’s when he made the decision. It was, he thought, “an incredible opportunity to work with a great office…the city, the police department and the community.”
Lending a hand, working for others just seemed natural to Walsh. It’s what his parents did. His father was a career federal worker. “He was one of those people who made the system work,” he said. “Dad worked for Social Security,” he recalled. His mother was a psychiatric nurse, first at Denver General Hospital—now Denver Health and Hospitals—and later at Fort Logan Army Hospital. “They were people who deeply believed in public service…they lived and breathed it.”
Denver’s new District Atttorney, Walsh, whose family moved to Denver when he was just 12, graduated from Cherry Creek High School. It was also while he was a student that his parents—much to his objection—sent him to Mexico one summer to immerse himself in the language and culture. He calls it one of the best experiences he could have ever had. And Spanish remains a tool he has called upon throughout his life.
After high school, he earned his undergraduate degree at Massachusetts Williams College and law degree at Stanford. In law school he was president of the Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation.
Over the course of his career, he has worked both in and out of government. After law school, he joined the U.S. Attorney’s Central District of California where one of his cases was the prosecution of Charles Keating. Keating and five U.S. Senators, including John McCain and John Glenn, were accused of corruption in the savings and loan crisis in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Walsh said his role in the prosecution involved only Keating.
Returning to Denver in 1995, Walsh reentered private practice working first at Holland & Hart, where he became a partner. Later, he joined Hill & Robbins before being appointed U.S. Attorney for Colorado by President Barack Obama in 2010.
While Walsh ran for office as a Democrat, he pledged to serve in a non-partisan manner. “I’m a strong believer that what we need to do is enforce the law that is truly effective,” he said. “You have to be tough on violent criminals,” but also “look for ways to prevent crime.”
Walsh said you don’t always need to be heavy-handed on people who have been involved in low level crime. The DA’s office, he believes, should work on “prevention programs that can keep people out of the system” while maintaining public safety.
He wants his office to be seen as a paragon of integrity where all people, those being prosecuted or those who are victims of crime, are treated fairly and thoughtfully. Compassion, he believes, has a place in the law. He pledged to also ensure that attorneys in his office meet the standards he sets. Walsh said he will “make sure they’re complying with the legal system and working to do the right thing,” which is simply seeking justice.
Instances of attorneys being admonished for withholding evidence, as periodically happens in cases in Colorado and other places or having the public second-guessing decisions in high profile cases, including police shootings, Walsh said, will not be tolerated. “I think it’s important for the DA’s office to be transparent.”
While Walsh ran as a Democrat and has worked over the years on various issues supported by the Democratic party, he said his role as DA is not political. “I don’t see the DA as a partisan position…we should not be thinking of ourselves as Democrats or Republicans.”
Over the course of his career, Walsh has prosecuted the most sophisticated white-collar crime, including securing multi-billion settlements against Citigroup for its part in contributing to the Great Recession and against big pharma for falsely advertising its product.
Walsh has also been at ground zero for some of Colorado’s most violent and horrific crimes. As U.S. Attorney, the job required him to be on scene following 2012’s Aurora movie theater shooting and the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood shooting in 2015.
Walsh enters office at a time when car thefts that had skyrocketed in 2022 but have dipped over the past year still remain a serious problem, especially at DIA. So too are the deadly drugs, including fentanyl, that cartels have poisoned the country with. But those are only two challenges that will greet the city’s new DA. Gun violence, sex trafficking and a laundry list of both old and new challenges also go with the job.
But Walsh does not lack confidence. All along the path that has led him to this point, he says he has benefitted from exemplary mentors, including the man who once held the job he’s set to assume, former Denver DA and Colorado Governor Bill Ritter and former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
Walsh knows his new job will be challenging and at the end of the day, it’s voters who’ll let him know exactly how he’s done. But he also holds himself to his own high standards. So far, while not batting ‘a thousand,’ he’s met the challenge.
The 63-year-old Walsh and his wife, Lisa, live in Denver’s Park Hill where they have resided for the last 30 years. They have three children, each of whom is a graduate of Denver East High School.
Disclaimer: Ernest Gurule’ has both professional and personal relationships with both attorneys and staff in the Denver District Attorney’s office.
