In the days after Regional Transportation District General Manager and CEO Debra Johnson fired Chief of Police Joel Fitzgerald last month, RTD’s police union polled its members to gauge their feelings on who should next lead the department.
The results were overwhelming: More than 96 percent of members who responded expressed “strong support” for Deputy Chief Steven Martingano, a seasoned police officer who’s been with RTD since 2015 and has experience in New York City, Arvada and Denver.
“These results demonstrate our confidence in Deputy Chief Martingano's leadership and our belief that he has done an excellent job guiding us through these turbulent times,” Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 72 President and RTD K9 officer Corey Averill wrote to Johnson in a Sept. 22 email summarizing the survey, which CPR News obtained via an open records request.
“We believe altering course and considering any other option would undermine the stability and consistency we need,” he continued.
Less than two weeks later, Johnson made her decision. She named both Martingano and another deputy chief, Glynell Horn, Jr., as acting co-chiefs, saying in an Oct. 4 press release they both had her “full confidence.”
But Horn, who was hired by Fitzgerald, does not have the confidence of at least some in the department he is now charged with co-leading.
Averill, the union president, wrote another email, this time to RTD’s board of directors, alleging that both Horn and the recently fired police chief have violated state laws. Averill later clarified he was referring to the state’s body camera law for police officers.
Officers who shared information with investigators looking into Fitzgerald’s behavior also felt betrayed by Horn’s appointment, according to the union president’s letter.
“We fear that this appointment raises several ethical concerns, specifically relating to potential bias or retaliation, conflict of interest and public perception,” Averill wrote to the board in an Oct. 4 email also obtained via a records request.
The conflict threatens to unravel a police force that Johnson has sought to grow in response to public calls to make RTD’s trains, buses and stations safer as the agency slowly tries to rebuild ridership lost during the pandemic.
RTD spokesperson Stuart Summers said Johnson was not available for an interview and did not respond to an interview request for Horn. In a statement, Summers said RTD prohibits and will not tolerate retaliation against individuals who file complaints or participate in investigations.
Summers also provided a statement on Johnson’s behalf, which reiterated her “full confidence” in both Horn and Martingano jointly leading the department of about 80 officers.
“The two are focused on continuing the agency’s efforts to create a welcoming transit environment and will ensure RTD prioritizes the personal safety and security of its employees and customers,” Johnson said.
New acting co-chief has deep ties to fired chief Fitzgerald.
When Fitzgerald was sworn in as RTD’s chief of police in August 2022, he thanked a handful of his friends who had traveled from out of state to attend the ceremony.
One of them was Horn, who at the time was assistant chief of the Stafford, Texas, police department. Though it’s not clear how or when the two men met, earlier in his career Fitzgerald led the department in neighboring Missouri City, Texas, another Houston suburb. Fitzgerald’s wife was a detective at the Stafford police department as well.
By January 2023, Fitzgerald had hired Horn as his deputy chief at RTD. He was chosen over five other candidates, according to internal emails obtained by CPR News, though RTD redacted the names of the other candidates. Horn’s salary as deputy chief was $229,681, records show. Fitzgerald also hired another friend who attended his swearing-in: Nathaniel Mallory, an RTD police commander who earns $188,469.
Horn’s resume shows he climbed the ranks in Stafford, a suburb of 17,000, for nearly 20 years. He was promoted to assistant chief in 2016 and earned a doctorate of philosophy in leadership and change from Antioch University in 2021. His dissertation researched the relationship between Black men and law enforcement.
Fitzgerald has not responded to a request for comment. His attorney, civil rights lawyer Diane King, said she’s been hired to investigate racial discrimination at RTD toward the former chief. Fitzgerald, the first Black officer appointed to lead the department, has not yet filed a lawsuit against RTD, she said.
RTD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Fitzgerald faced racial discrimination from the agency.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Fitzgerald recently called Horn a “trustworthy and knowledgeable Chief.”
“Simply put, he is my best external hire, and I don’t know whether I would ever accept another job sans being able to hire someone with similar skills and abilities to help create a new culture or prompt a paradigm shift in that law enforcement entity,” Fitzgerald wrote.
Fitzgerald was put on leave over the summer and ultimately fired by RTD after a nearly three-month investigation. RTD executives have said little about the probe or the firing, denying multiple records requests by CPR News and declining to answer questions from other news outlets as well.
Since June, CPR News has paid RTD more than $600 for public records relating to former Chief Fitzgerald and the RTD police department. In July, CPR News published an investigation that found that Fitzgerald repeatedly drove an agency vehicle over 100 mph and did not come to work very often.
Some officers have been trying to blow the whistle on Fitzgerald for months.
One police officer sent an email to the RTD board office in May 2024 full of accusations toward Fitzgerald. Those included that he rarely came to work, surrounded himself with “incompetent friends,” and refused to investigate complaints into those friends.
RTD redacted the email’s author, but CPR News has confirmed that it was written by an RTD police officer. It’s not clear if or when that email was forwarded to the members of the RTD board, but emails show it was taken seriously by RTD executives.
“Shall I add this to [our] one-on-one agenda?” RTD’s Chief People Officer Charlene Polege wrote to General Manager and CEO Johnson.
“Yes, ma’am…thank you,” Johnson replied.
That letter, as the union’s letter later did, also alleged unspecified law-breaking within the department. Union president Averill declined CPR News’ interview request but said in a statement that he was referring to the state’s requirement that law enforcement officers wear body cameras.
RTD officers have made multiple complaints to union leaders that command staff responded to police calls and took police action without wearing body cameras, Averill told CPR News.
“Our members take state law seriously and believe strongly in the importance of adhering to it,” Averill said.
CPR News also obtained, via a records request, footage of RTD officers responding to a domestic dispute in June 2024 that clearly shows Horn not wearing a body camera.
A 2020 state law requires police officers to wear and activate body cameras when responding to a call for service, during interactions with the public when enforcing the law or investigating possible violations of the law. The 2020 law also says police agencies shall discipline officers “up to and including termination” if they fail to activate their cameras.
In his statement, agency spokesperson Summers said RTD “has taken, and continues to take, appropriate action to ensure full compliance” with the body camera law. RTD has not yet responded to another request for more details on what RTD management knows about the use of body cameras within the department.
The police union wants the RTD board to intervene in the situation.
“We urge the RTD Board to thoroughly reassess the current interim leadership structure to address these ethical concerns and restore trust among our officers,” Averill wrote in his letter to the board.
The union’s members are “extremely concerned” that Johnson will exclude them from the hiring process for the next chief of police, Averill wrote that neither the union’s input nor the investigation results into Fitzgerald were considered by Johnson when she appointed Horn as acting co-chief, and that Johnson gave officers just 15 minutes’ notice before meeting with them recently.
“This conveys that she does not want us involved in decisions that directly impact our roles, our morale, and the future of our department. Unfortunately, we feel that our voices are not being valued within this agency,” he wrote.
RTD board chair Erik Davidson has not yet responded to a request for comment. It’s unclear what influence the board could have over the department, which falls under Johnson’s purview as CEO and general manager.
In his statement, Summers said RTD will launch a “robust search process” for a new chief this year. The agency hopes to name a new department leader by early 2025.
