Commissioners rename Arapahoe jail

Arapahoe County Commissioners voted unanimously April 10 to change the county lock-up facility’s name from the Sullivan Detention Center to the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Detention Facility.

In part, the commissioners took the action during their April 10 meeting in response to the recommendation by Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson.

The effort to change the detention facility’s name followed the arrest last fall of former Arapahoe County Sheriff Patrick Sullivan.

In a letter to commissioners, Robinson noted that Sullivan had entered a guilty plea to one felony charge and to one misdemeanor charge. On April 3, Sullivan was sentenced to 30 days in jail for drug possession and solicitation of prostitution.

“As the former sheriff has admitted to allegations of criminal behavior, I respectfully recommend the commissioners direct that the detention facility immediately be identified as the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Detention Facility,” he said in his letter.

The commissioners agreed and approved the motion to change the detention facility’s name. The commissioners also voted unanimously to table separate action on the county facility-naming policy as a whole. No date was set for again taking up the issue.

As he left the meeting, Robinson said the sign on the detention facility would be changed soon although he did not give an exact time for the action.

“The name change really means nothing,” he said. “The members of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Department operates the detention facility to serve the people of the community, no matter its name.”

The facility was built in 1984 and opened in 1986 as the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Detention Center. It retained that name until 2002 when the Arapahoe County Commissioners voted to change the name to the Patrick J. Sullivan Detention Center in recognition of Sullivan’s long and outstanding service to the community.

Sullivan retired from the county in 2002 and served as head of security for Cherry Creek School District until 2008.

In November, Sullivan was arrested and faced a number of charges relating to drug possession and trading drugs for sex. Sullivan entered a guilty plea to possession of methamphetamine, a felony, and soliciting prostitution, a misdemeanor. He is currently serving 30 days in the county detention facility and still must undergo two years of supervised probation.