District Attorney Alexis King announced today that a former law enforcement officer, Wayne Darrell Nelson (DOB 9/21/52), has been charged with seven counts for the alleged sexual assaults of three adult females between April 2018 and December 2020. Mr. Nelson is charged with Attempt to Commit Sexual Assault (F4), Unlawful Sexual Contact (F4), two counts of Soliciting Prostitution (M3) and three misdemeanor counts of Unlawful Sexual Contact (M1).
According to the arrest affidavit, all three female victims were tenants and roommates of Mr. Nelson between April 2018 and December 2020. The charges allege that on the evening of December 24, 2020, retired officer Nelson forcibly groped and solicited sex from his twenty-seven-year-old tenant in Arvada. The charges also allege two separate incidents of unlawful sexual contact on previous female roommates that occurred in 2018 and 2020. The alleged victims told detectives that they were scared to report Mr. Nelson’s conduct because he was a retired law enforcement officer.
Mr. Nelson worked for the Westminster Police Department before he was hired by the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office as an investigator in 2008, and was employed until he resigned in 2014. The investigation also revealed that Mr. Nelson currently teaches CCW classes and women’s self-defense classes.
Mr. Nelson turned himself into the Jefferson County Jail yesterday and is being held on $5,000 cash or surety bond. The case is next set for Preliminary Hearing on July 7, 2021. The charges are merely legal allegations, and Mr. Nelson is presumed innocent of the charges against him unless and until he is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.