Ben Lammons, the Southern Ute Tribal prosecutor, has announced his candidacy for the position of district attorney in the 6th Judicial District.
As a Democrat, he will be running in the primary against current Assistant DA Christian Champagne, who announced his candidacy in September. No Republicans have announced for the office to date.
“It’s a super important position as lead prosecutor for three counties (La Plata, Archuleta and San Juan),” he said. “In a democracy, voters should have a choice.”
Lammons has been an attorney in Colorado for 25 years. He has spent 21 as a prosecutor, including in Fort Collins; Albuquerque; the 11th Judicial District, which includes Cañon City; and two years as a senior prosecutor in Craig Westberg’s office. From 2009 to 2014, while with the tribe, he was also a special assistant U.S. attorney.
“I prosecuted Wade Burkham for second-degree murder in December 2006 in Fort Collins,” Lammons said, “then came down here, and in January 2007 was prosecuting serial rapist Gary Hauk with Craig in Archuleta County. I really had to hit the ground running.”
Burkham is serving a 24-year prison term. Hauk is serving a term of 24 years to life for sexual assault.
“One of the things I would bring to the office is experience in small, medium-sized and large District Attorneys’ Offices,” Lammons said. “It’s not just more years of experience I have as a prosecutor than Christian, it’s that I’ve prosecuted cases in New Mexico, Colorado, federal, state and tribal courts. It helps to have experience in a lot of different courts in front of lot of different judges.”
The perception in the community is that Westberg’s office really hammered defendants, Lammons said, and current DA Todd Risberg swung too far the other way.
“A lot of offenders who get caught up in the criminal justice system are regular folks, maybe with a mental-health issue or drug or alcohol dependency, not who you think,” he said. “Alternatives to incarceration such as community service, drug and alcohol monitoring, counseling, probation supervision and mediation are appropriate in less-serious cases.”
But some cases are different, Lammons said.
“For the top 2 to 5 percent of truly dangerous offenders, who are harming victims, doing tremendous damage to people and presenting a real danger to the public,” he said, “you have to go after them with everything you’ve got. If there’s a place I want to make a difference, it would be, ‘Let’s go after those on the top end, be courageous in the courtroom and eliminate prosecutorial mistakes.’”
abutler@durangoherald.com
This story has been changed to reflect Gary Hauk’s correct prison sentence, which is 24 years to life for sexual assault.
If you go
Sixth Judicial District district attorney candidate Ben Lammons will be available to meet with voters from 5 to 6 p.m. Friday at Carver Brewing Co., 1022 Main Ave.
Anyone with questions for the upcoming election may call him at 903-2221.
Contributions for his campaign may be sent to Ben Lammons for DA, 113 Tierra Vista Drive, Durango, CO 81301.
Precinct caucuses will be held March 1; the La Plata County Democratic Party Assembly is scheduled for March 12; and the primary election ballots are due by 7 p.m. June 28.
