DA Brittny Lewton accused of soliciting opioids from staffer

A bottle of pills apparently dispensed to a staff member is at the heart of an indictment handed down at the end of February charging 13th Judicial District Attorney Brittny Lewton with three felony drug counts.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office released a copy of the indictment Monday, March 2, which shows Lewton charged with inducement to sell or distribute a controlled substance, conspiracy to sell or distribute a controlled substance and unlawful possession of a controlled substance. She also is charged with first-degree official misconduct.

The 10-page indictment accuses Lewton of taking a bottle of pills, later determined to be a hydrocodone and acetaminophen compound marketed as Norco, from an employee and putting them in her purse.

According to the document, the employee, Tina Dobson, had been to the emergency room at Sterling Regional MedCenter on July 11, 2019, and was released with a “Take Home Pack” of six painkillers in a sealed bottle. Lewton allegedly saw the pills in a bag on Dobson’s desk the following day and asked about them. Later that day, July 12, at around 4:20 p.m., Lewton had an email sent to the staff telling them they could leave for the day at 4:30 p.m. Another employee, identified in the indictment only as M.R., then allegedly saw Lewton approach Dobson and ask her to “help a sister out.”

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