At least six separate investigations were launched after the former chief administrator of the Colorado Supreme Court in February alleged in newspaper stories that another employee there was given a multimillion dollar contract to silence a threatened tell-all lawsuit about years of widespread misconduct in the Judicial Department.

The allegations hinged on a two-page memo that was supposedly at the core of a $2.75 million quid pro quo deal given to a former top administrator who was being fired for unrelated reasons. It laid out more than two dozen alleged misdeeds that for years had gone unpunished or were intentionally kept quiet.

The contract was allegedly in return for keeping the conduct listed in the memo from becoming public.

Within a week of the first story, and despite its initial refusal to release it and steadfast denial of the allegations, the Supreme Court made the memo public and promised an independent investigation into its contents and the circumstances surrounding the contract.

A panel of seven officials chosen by the governor, attorney general and legislature put together parameters of the investigation for public bidding and two companies were eventually chosen nearly eight months later.

Meanwhile, other investigations were separately launched by the state’s Attorney Regulation Counsel, which oversees lawyer licensing and discipline, the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, the FBI and the state auditor.

In December it was reported that the justices were aware of the memo nearly two years before asserting they’d seen it for the first time, calling into question what they knew, when they knew it and why they hadn’t acted on it.