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Three law enforcement witnesses testify on Day 1 of Robert Dodd’s trial

Posted at 7:51 PM, Jun 25, 2018
and last updated 2018-06-25 21:51:02-04

Monday marked Day 1 of the trial for Robert Dodd in Fremont County.

The former Lieutenant with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office is accused of hiding murder evidence and is facing four charges including misdemeanor criminal possession of an identification document, misdemeanor abuse of public records and two petty counts of second degree official misconduct.

Six jurors heard from three different witnesses from the Canon City Police Department and the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office.

It came out in court on Monday that some of the items in Dodd’s storage locker belonged to a person of interest in the murder of Candace Hiltz back in 2006.

This apparently included a backpack, clothes with possible blood stains and a social security card belonging to a man by the name of Heath Heiman.

Dodd rented this storage locker three years ago and stopped paying the bills back in 2016, that’s when it was sold to auction and the new owner, Rick Ratzlaff, reported the items inside, apparently labeled as evidence with Dodd’s old uniforms to Canon City Police.

On Monday, the records custodian from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office told the jury, within three days of Dodd being notified his storage locker had been sold, he went in and edited the archive report for the Hiltz murder six times, a full ten years after her 2006 unsolved murder.

Jurors will hear from Dodd’s former supervisor, Fremont County Sheriff Jim Beicker, the fourth witness in this trial first thing on Tuesday morning.

The trial is scheduled to go through Friday, June 29th.

Robert Dodd retired as a lieutenant in April 2017 shortly after he was placed on administrative leave by Sheriff Jim Beicker. Prosecutors had filed charges of second degree official misconduct and abuse of public records. After leaving the sheriff’s office, Dodd found another law enforcement job in Texas.