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Last August, Ron Perea, a former special agent in charge of the U.S. Secret Service’s Los Angeles division, resigned after just weeks in his post as Denver’s manager of public safety. At the time, the city was mired in allegations of police brutality. Not much has changed since, and several high-profile internal investigations into the alleged brutality incidents remain ongoing. Now, Perea’s replacement, Mary Malatesta, who was appointed in September by then-Mayor John Hickenlooper, has announced she will depart on March 12. “In recent days, I have been made aware of some urgent matters regarding which members of my family need my immediate help,” she writes in a letter to interim Mayor Bill Vidal (9News).
In his own statement, Vidal writes, “The Department of Safety and the Office of the Independent Monitor will continue their steadfast progress on the resolution of outstanding discipline cases under review. The mayor wants Denver citizens to know that Manager Malatesta’s retirement will not slow the work being done to bring those cases to fair resolution” (Denver Post).