The former clerk for Lakeside, one of the smallest towns in Colorado, pleaded guilty on Monday to embezzlement of public property.
Brenda Hamilton, the former clerk of Lakeside — a town just outside Golden with a population of only 16, according to the 2020 census — was fired in July alongside her father, Robert Gordanier. Gordanier simultaneously served as Lakeside’s mayor, police chief and fire department chief until his resignation in April 2024.
Investigators said the father-daughter duo schemed to resell town-owned vehicles for personal profit and misused town funds for Costco purchases. Hamilton, with her father’s approval, bought multiple police vehicles from the town at below-market prices and later resold them for thousands of dollars that she then pocketed.
Gordanier was removed from office by town trustees, and Hamilton agreed to resign after being charged with theft and embezzlement. Her father remained police chief until his arrest that summer.
In January, Gordanier was sentenced to four years of probation and ordered to pay the town $26,088 in restitution. Five of his seven charges were eventually dismissed under a plea deal.
As part of her own plea deal, nine of Hamilton’s ten original charges were dropped. She is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5, 2025.
