Kieran Nicholson
The Denver Post
AURORA, Colo. — An on-duty, armed, uniformed Aurora police officer who passed out drunk while driving an unmarked patrol car in March will not face criminal charges, according to KCNC-TV.
Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler said Thursday his office will not file any charges in the March 29 incident involving Officer Nathan F. Meier. On Wednesday night, Channel 4’s Brian Maass reported that the district attorney will not bring criminal charges against Meier.
In December, Brauchler announced that his office would look into Meier’s actions and the subsequent investigation by Aurora police. “I don’t have any reason to second-guess the Aurora Police Department’s conduct in the investigation at this point, but I’m interested in knowing what information exists,” Brauchler said at the time. “That interest stems from the fact it involves an officer in that agency.”
Also in December, Aurora City Manager Jim Twombly called on former U.S. Attorney John Walsh to investigate the police department’s handling of the Meier incident.
After the incident went public, Meier was supported by Nick Metz, who was police chief at the time. “Finding the balance between discipline and support is critically important. … Why?” Metz wrote in an email. “Because I know cops are human beings. You are not perfect. You are exposed to higher levels of stress and trauma than the general public will ever truly understand.”
Deputy Chief Paul O’Keefe, who was set to become interim chief at the end of the year when Metz retired, was first to respond to the Meier incident. After the incident became public, O’Keefe did not get the interim job. Instead, O’Keefe has announced that he’ll retire March 31.
The March 29, 2019, incident began around 3:45 p.m. when two people called 911 after they discovered Meier unconscious in the driver’s seat of his unmarked car in the middle of East Mississippi Avenue near Buckley Air Force Base, according to an Aurora internal affairs evidence summary.