An Adams County paralegal accused of leaking a sealed court document divulging details of the investigation into the killing of 11-year-old Gannon Stauch has pleaded guilty.

Sherie Farstveet, 54, pleaded guilty Dec. 10 in Adams County Court to a single count of attempted official misconduct, court records show. Authorities alleged she abused her access to state court filings in early April to gain access to an arrest affidavit for Gannon’s stepmother, Letecia Stauch, who is charged with first-degree murder in his slaying. The document was given to an online news outlet, which published it while it remained under seal.

Adams County Judge Michael Andrew Cox ordered Farstveet to pay a $100 fine plus $199.50 in court costs and fees, records show.

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Prosecutors dropped the original charge against her, first-degree official misconduct, in exchange for her guilty plea to the lesser count. The deal averted a trial scheduled for the same day. She had faced up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 if convicted of the original charge.

At the time of the leak, Farstveet was a paralegal in the Brighton City Attorney’s Office. She was placed on administrative leave as a result of the allegations. A city spokeswoman couldn’t immediately be reached for an update about Farstveet’s employment status.

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Letecia Stauch’s 32-page arrest affidavit chronicled the evidence that led authorities to believe that Gannon was attacked in his bed at the family’s El Paso County home, detailing how blood seeped through carpeting and stained the floor below. It also relayed details about the hunt for Gannon’s remains.  

The leak didn’t damage the investigation, but it deprived prosecutors of the chance to discuss the new details with Gannon’s family, Michael Allen, the lead prosecutor in the Gannon Stauch case, said in May. Allen is now El Paso County’s district attorney-elect.

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“We obviously wanted to talk to the family before it was leaked and show them the document and answer their questions, but they were deprived of that opportunity,” Allen said at a media briefing in Colorado Springs. “Really it violated the respect that they should be shown as victims in this case.”

Without naming Farstveet, Allen said last May the person responsible had “a log-in to get into the court system and was able to get access before the seal was lifted.”

The document was leaked for publication by a true crime website April 3, the same day a judge signaled his intent to release the document a week later, Allen said.

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The judge, Gregory Werner, ultimately lifted the court’s seal on the affidavit on April 4 after the contents of the affidavit were posted online.

A representative of the 17^th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which handled the case against Farstveet, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Letecia Stauch remains held in the El Paso County jail in Gannon’s murder. She is due in court Jan. 19 for a hearing expected to focus on a competency evaluation meant to assess whether she is mentally fit to be prosecuted. Her first assessment by state mental health experts concluded she was mentally fit for trial. The case against her remains on hold pending a judge’s determination, however.

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