Judge grants Colorado Department of Corrections right to employees in case of overpayment

By Karen Morfitt

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Colorado (KCNC) — After a months-long battle, a judge has ruled in favor of a Colorado Department of Corrections employee who allegedly had to repay overpaid amounts over several months, which the department previously blamed on a payroll error.

This order came months after Lawrence Cutts and other CDOC employees anonymously shared their stories with CBS News Colorado.

“A lot of people are still going through tough times because of what happened. What is still happening,” Cutts said over Zoom.

He and several others received demand letters last fall without warning demanding they repay thousands of dollars that the DOC said they had overpaid for years.

“We live our lives based on our paycheck and the wages we've been receiving for the past year and a half,” one of those employees told CBS News Colorado reporter Karen Morfitt in March.

The officials applied for and received promotions, allegedly being promised a standard 10% raise.

Internal emails obtained by CBS News Colorado show that while the department admitted it was its mistake, it argued that an engineer had mistakenly approved the amount and that it was not intentional.

At first they agreed to forgive the alleged overpayment, but then representatives told employees that state budget rules did not allow this and that the agency would have to reclaim the money.

We spoke to Cutts again in May after the CDOC began deducting money from his salary.

“I went to work last month and at the end of April, when I was supposed to get paid,” Cutts said, “I got my paycheck and it literally said I had $55.”

Cutts filed an appeal with the state Department of Human Resources in June.

“I didn't have to pay back the overpayment. They wanted to give me back the money they had taken from me,” he said of the case.

In his decision, the judge overturned the DOC's decision and found that the position held by Cutts was a promotion – not a transfer – and that the correct salary increase under CDOC policy should have been 10%.

Cutts says hearing that was confirmation “that the fight was actually worth it.”

However, the fight is far from over, he says.

His attorney says the CDOC has asked the judge to reconsider her decision and he believes they will likely appeal.

Until that decision is made, Cutts will continue his new path as a police officer.

“I'm gone now. I've started a new career. It's exciting. I've had a lot of fun since I got there,” Cutts said, smiling.

CBS News Colorado reached out to CDOC for comment. A spokesperson responded, “We respectfully decline an interview.”

Similar hearings are scheduled in the coming weeks for two other workers who received the same repayment notice.

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