Court Records Expose Police Officer’s Bias and Culpability in Theft of Church Property

Transcript shows Colorado Springs police detective Brian Corrado encouraged woman to steal church property

COLORADO SPRIINGS, COLORADO, USA, March 30, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Colorado Springs Fellowship Church (CSFC) gave a hand up to Arnisha and Nick Gainer who were residing in a mold-infested apartment with only a couch, dilapidated kitchen table, and air mattresses in the bedroom. Concerned about the negative environment and the health and welfare of the Gainers exposure to black mold, CSFC permitted the Gainers to reside in a nicer corporate apartment fully furnished by the church. The Gainers not only agreed to contribute $1000 per month (the cost they were paying for rent in their previous mold-infested residence), but also agreed to not do drugs or possess firearms in the corporate apartment. CSFC told the Gainers that if they failed to abide by the rules the church would not permit them to continue residing in the apartment.

After violating the drug use and gun possession rules and becoming belligerent about doing so, seven church parishioners went to the apartment to secure the property therein. Nick Gainer wasn’t going to allow that to happen and pulled a gun on parishioners.

CSFC parishioners called the Colorado Springs Police Department (CSPD) expecting they would assist them in securing church property. However, CSFC’s expectations would ultimately be destroyed by Detective Brian Corrado who not only conducted a biased investigation and fabricated felony charges against parishioners but also encouraged Arnisha Gainer to steal church property. On the day CSFC contacted the police after Nick Gainer menaced them with a gun, uniformed officers arrived and sent parishioners home without church property.

On August 21, 2020, the Gainers received and signed for a letter from CSFC’s attorney Bernard Kleinman that included an itemized list of all CSFC’s property in the corporate apartment. Kleinman told the Gainers in his letter that the church would retrieve their property within 24 hours of them vacating the premises and that they were not to “remove, damage, spoil, or otherwise vandalize” church property (View letter at https://bit.ly/3tWGo2f). Arnisha Gainer provided Kleinman’s letter to Corrado.

Corrado was also provided with the formal lease agreement proving CSFC was the lessee of the apartment and receipts showing that the $20,000.00 worth of furnishings and other property in the apartment that was purchased by the church. Official police transcripts and audio from Corrado’s October 1, 2020 interview of Arnisha Gainer shows Gainer tacitly and affirmatively acknowledges CSFC’s ownership of the property and expresses her misgivings about stealing it.

“If they didn’t want us to be in the apartment anymore, the could’ve just told us that and we would’ve left,” Gainer stated to Corrado. “We could’ve at least found a friend…um our friend, Nicole, we could’ve asked her to stay there,” added Gainer. “I know they (CSFC) want their stuff and I don’t know if we- if we take it, if we’re in the wrong from taking it,” said Gainer. Following these acknowledgements, Detective Corrado suggests a scheme to Gainer whereby she could steal all of the church’s property and be supported by him and the department.

Corrado tells Gainer she should consider “hiring a lawyer…who’s on the civil side.” Because “the way we look at this case is, [CSFC parishioners] were there to take things back that they THOUGHT belonged to them,” Detective Corrado told Gainer.

“From Arnisha Gainer’s statements alone, Detective Corrado had no doubt that the property in the apartment belonged to the Colorado Springs Fellowship Church,” says Lamont Banks, Executive Director of A Just Cause. According to Black’s law dictionary, an investigation is defined as “the activity of trying to find out the truth.” “Corrado did not try to find the truth or he would’ve contacted the CSFC board to get their side of the story,” adds Banks. “Instead, Corrado viewed the investigation only through lens provided of the Gainers,” adds Banks.

“The fingerprints of bias and discrimination against the church can be seen everywhere in this case,” says Banks. “All the objective evidence to-date shows that Corrado manipulated the facts and insidiously prodded Ms. Gainer into stealing church property under the guise that he and the department would treat it as a civil matter,” adds Banks.

According the Denver Post (https://www.denverpost.com/2020/11/02/plea-deals-racial-bias-colorado/) 99% of the criminal cases result in plea deals which is why the church believes that biased cops like Corrado confidently hedge their bets on the accused taking a plea bargain which would result in his malfeasance never being brought to light or becoming moot.

“Corrado and the El Paso County District Attorney have a herculean task proving that CSFC parishioners came to the church’s corporate apartment with the intent to commit a crime,” says Banks.

The Colorado burglary statute (https://codes.findlaw.com/co/title-18-criminal-code/co-rev-st-sect-18-4-203.html) requires the state to prove that CSFC parishioners knowingly entered or remained unlawfully in the church’s corporate apartment with the intent to commit a crime against another’s person or property, not their own property.

If Corrado had conducted an unbiased investigation, he would have found that the Church purchased a car and GAVE it to the Gainers as part of their outreach to them (See video of a happy Nick Gainer receiving the car at https://bit.ly/3w9s7kA). Unlike the $20,000.00 worth of furnishings in the corporate apartment, the church has not sought return of the car because it indeed was a gift. As a Christian organization, CSFC’s mission is to be God’s hand extended to those who are in need which is why parishioners mobilize weekly to show random acts of kindness throughout Colorado Springs – acts which have included CSPD, El Paso County, Sheriff’s Office, the military, schools, hospitals and others in public service (See letters of appreciation at https://bit.ly/3a6BuZd & https://bit.ly/3758wHw & https://bit.ly/2LDNMPs ) and a video of Pastor Banks giving a struggling mother $1000.00 to buy gifts for her children.

“It’s disgraceful that Detective Corrado has no interest in the truth and chooses to reward CSFC evil for the good it did for the Gainers and the Colorado Springs community,” says Banks. “But given what happened to George Floyd at the hands of Minnesota police, Corrado’s bias and abuse of church parishioners and his alleged participation in the unlawful theft of church property is not a surprise,” concludes Banks.

As of the date of this press release, Nick and Arnisha Gainer have not been arrested and charged for actually taking $20,000.00 worth of church property. CSFC has been told there’s an internal affairs investigation into Detective Corrado’s conduct but given the city’s lethargic pace of action from Chief Niski, Mayor Suthers and the El Paso County District Attorney, church leaders have low expectations.

As is customary in the U.S. criminal justice system related to officer misconduct, the wagons have been circled and the blue wall is always reinforced to protect a rogue officer at the expense of the innocent.

An evidentiary hearing for CSFC parishioners has been scheduled for April 21, 2021.

Lamont Banks
A Just Cause
+1 855-529-4252 ext. 710
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