AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — A retired Aurora police officer said he pleaded guilty to a felony because he couldn’t afford to take his case to trial.
Curtiss Christensen, 70, will spend 90 days in jail followed by four years of supervised probation after being convicted of buying an AR-15 for a convicted felon who detonated two pipe bombs.
On Dec. 5, 2020, a pipe bomb exploded in an Aurora neighborhood causing shrapnel to travel to nearby homes. Fortunately, no one was injured but neighbors were terrified, especially when another bomb followed two weeks later on Jan. 7.
The suspect, Scott Campbell, lived with Christensen in his basement rent-free because he had dated his daughter. Police arrested Campbell and found a bomb-making factory in Christensen’s garage.
“My second biggest mistake was I didn’t come out here every night to see what the hell he was doing,” said Christensen.
Police initially charged Christensen with being an accessory and tampering with evidence. The 70-year-old said he was clueless, but admits a friend tipped him to video of the Christmas explosion that showed Christensen’s truck leaving the scene.
The Problem Solvers asked Christensen if he choose to get rid of the car improperly to hide the evidence, but he admits there was no criminal intent.
“No, Scott sent me a message saying, ‘Hey, we have to get rid of this.’ I sent him back a message, ‘Hey, don’t take it to a storage space, we don’t need to have a paper trail,'” said Christensen.
Regardless, Christensen was never convicted of tampering with evidence and instead pleaded guilty to making a straw purchase of an AR-15 for a convicted felon. Christensen gave the gun to Campbell even though he knew Campbell was a convicted felon and could not legally possess a firearm. He said he never intended on purchasing the gun for Campbell.
Christensen said he couldn’t afford the $15,000 defense attorney needed for trial and was expecting probation only, not four years probation and 90 days in jail.
“I feel like I didn’t have any opportunity to adequately defend myself because of the cost of the defense,” he said.
Christensen said he’s been made a scapegoat, guilty by association with Campbell.
“I do feel like I was innocent because that gun was purchased for me. Did I make mistakes? You damn betcha I did,” he said.
Campbell pleaded guilty Jan. 10 to one count of attempted first-degree murder and one count of possession of a weapon by a previous offender and was sentenced to 20 years.