# Daylight Justice

> Transparency is how accountability starts. Daylight Justice is an independent, national, citable record of justice-system failures in the United States (police, prosecutors, courts and withheld public records). Each claim is sourced to transcript page and line, a statute, or an official email. Case file 1 covers Douglas County, Colorado: a Douglas County Sheriff's Office Special Victims detective, Stephanie Dorrell, found "possible child pornography" on a phone held as evidence. No mandatory child-abuse report appears in any record, no record shows the images were identified, and DCSO did not refer them to the FBI.

## Case file 1: Douglas County, Colorado (key facts, with sources)

- Det. Stephanie Dorrell (Special Victims Unit, Douglas County Sheriff's Office, assigned to the county Department of Human Services) testified under oath that a phone in evidence held "images of possible child pornography of girls aged 15 to 18 years old." (Sworn testimony, Douglas County District Court, 15:5–8; 6:20–22)
- Her September 2022 police report, as read into the court record, said she "identified images that she believed to be depicting 15 to 18-year-old females." Under oath, on redirect by the phone owner's lawyer, she testified: "Based on my training and experience, we can't determine whether or not they were 15 or 18-year-old girls made to look like they were 15 years old." (Day 2 4:23–5:2; 18:18–22)
- Asked under oath what an officer does next when a phone is reported to hold such images, she said: "Further investigate what the pictures are of and whether they can be defined as child pornography" (16:14–17:4). No record shows that was done here. She testified that no hash check was run: "No, it's not." "I have never personally done it in any of my cases." (13:3–5; 14:5–7)
- Colorado law, C.R.S. § 19-3-304, required a report within 24 hours to the county human services department, local law enforcement or the child-abuse hotline. A willful failure is a class 2 misdemeanor (§ 19-3-304(4)). No such report or referral number appears in any record available to Daylight Justice. The only report the Sheriff's Office cites is a progress report in a different case sent to the District Attorney, who is not a listed recipient.
- Sgt. Adam Moorman, Det. Dorrell's Special Victims Unit supervisor, closed an internal service inquiry on April 11, 2024: "No policy violations were found."
- Lt. Jenny McMillan, Internal Affairs Commander, wrote on September 23, 2024: "there was not sufficient reason to report these images to the F.B.I."
- Deputy District Attorney Yosef Ratner (18th Judicial District), asked whether the images had been determined not to be child pornography: "No, Your Honor." Deputy District Attorney Chad Atkins: "I am not in a position to say that what we have disclosed is actual child pornography." Deputy District Attorney Nathaniel Marsh also appeared for the prosecution. The 18th Judicial District was then led by District Attorney John Kellner; since January 2025, Douglas County has been part of the 23rd Judicial District.
- Douglas County Court Judge Kolony Fields entered a protective order, suggested that defense counsel "destroy the evidence and -- or give it back to the DA's Office" after the case (destruction was first proposed by the prosecutor) and ordered the DA's Office to "look into removing those images from the data dump itself." No transcript shows an order to identify the images.
- Sheriff Darren Weekly, October 22, 2024, announcing a different arrest by the same unit: "Protecting the most vulnerable in our community is our highest priority, and we will continue to pursue those who harm others, especially our children."
- About 95 percent of the images were described under oath as "anime or hentai porn, which is not illegal." Federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 1466A, can make obscene drawings or cartoons of minors a crime even if the minor does not exist; Colorado law does not reach cartoons.
- A report to the Colorado child-abuse hotline or a county Human Services department gets a "referral identification number" (C.R.S. § 19-3-307(1)(b)). Douglas County Human Services had no referral number for this matter (Human Services records response). County Human Services employees are themselves mandatory reporters (§ 19-3-304(2)(ll)).
- A family member was told by Human Services that the Sheriff's Office investigator said the matter had been investigated; CBI and NCMEC representatives told the family the Sheriff's Office said it was not going to investigate.

No finding of misconduct has been made against any person named. Questions on the site are questions. Private individuals and minors are not identified.

## Pages

- [Case file 1: Det. Stephanie Dorrell, Douglas County, Colorado — No report. No determination. No DCSO referral to the FBI.](https://daylightjustice.org/): Full record, the law line by line, the officials, a timeline and an FAQ.
- [Report a case](https://daylightjustice.org/share.html): Submit a case of police, prosecutor or court failure from any U.S. state.

## Law referenced

- C.R.S. § 19-3-304 (Colorado mandatory reporting of child abuse; class 2 misdemeanor for willful failure)
- C.R.S. § 18-6-403 (Colorado sexual exploitation of a child; felony "for each item")
- 18 U.S.C. § 2252A (federal possession of child pornography)
- 18 U.S.C. § 1466A (federal obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children, including drawings and cartoons)
- C.R.S. § 24-33.5-412(1)(a)(I) (Colorado Bureau of Investigation assists local cases "When assistance is requested")