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2 investigators leave Routt County Sheriff’s Office

Matt Stensland
Ken Klinger
122111_investigators-KenKlinger

— Two longtime Routt County Sheriff’s Office deputies who made up the investigations division have left the department.

Investigator Ken Klinger’s last day was Monday. He said he chose to leave to pursue a job with the Colorado Department of Revenue.

The other investigator, Mike Curzon, said Tuesday that he was let go from the department Nov. 1. He did not want to discuss why he was fired.



“I’m quite happy where I am in my life and my plans for the future,” said Curzon, who has worked as an investigator since 2007 and was with the Sheriff’s Office for about 10 years.

Undersheriff Ray Birch said Tuesday that he would not release any information about Curzon’s departure because it was a personnel issue.



Two patrol deputies recently have been promoted to fill the two-person investigations division. Birch said the investigator rank is equal to a corporal, which is between a patrol deputy and a sergeant.

Deputy T.J. Sisto was promoted from patrol to investigations Friday. Birch said Sisto was raised in Hayden, is a U.S. Army veteran and was hired by the Sheriff’s Office in 2005. Sisto was assigned to the investigations department seven months ago as part of a training rotation, Birch said.

Deputy Tom Munden was promoted Monday. He worked at the Sheriff’s Office from 2004 to 2007, went to the Steamboat Springs Police Department in 2007 and returned to the Sheriff’s Office this year.

“They’re very competent members of the agency,” Birch said. “The transition between the two individuals and the individuals that left will be absolutely seamless.”

Klinger worked for the Sheriff’s Office for 15 years. He worked his way up from a detentions deputy and joined investigations in 2000.

Klinger said he applied in July for a job in the Colorado Department of Revenue’s gaming division. He was offered the job Thursday and said he starts work in Cripple Creek on Jan. 3.

Klinger said a highlight of his law enforcement career in Routt County was in 2000, when he was part of three-man team that investigated a reported sighting of Thomas Lee Johnson, who was wanted for fatally stabbing Steamboat resident Lori Bases in her apartment May 11, 2000.

Klinger said he followed Johnson from the Rabbit Ears Motel along the Yampa River Core Trail to Mount Werner Road, where they were told to make the arrest.

“That was the first and final murderer I got to arrest,” Klinger said.

Johnson received a life sentence in 2001.

To reach Matt Stensland, call 970-871-4247 or email mstensland@SteamboatToday.com


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