Cannon Leatherwood plea rescheduled

Plea deal on the table

Cannon Leatherwood won’t be going to trial as soon as planned. At a hearing in District Court Wednesday, February 12 the defense attorney for the Gunnison Watershed School District’s former Information Technology director told judge Steven Patrick he had just come into new information and needed some time to discuss it with the prosecution.

Leatherwood’s attorney, Forrest Lewis, said he hoped the technology audit conducted by the School District’s real technology contractor, Mitchell and Company, would be forthcoming.
Leatherwood is facing eight felony counts in relation to his role in an allegedly fraudulent technology contractor that was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the school district for equipment it apparently never received.
However the audit, which was presented to the school board Monday, February 10, looks at the technology currently in the schools and isn’t focused on what may or may not have been bought or installed by the district during Leatherwood’s tenure, between 2006 and last fall when he was fired.
Lewis said a plea deal was already being discussed with the District Attorney’s office and suggested to the court that new information he has, along with the contents of the audit, might impact that deal.
“We haven’t received [the audit yet] but we’re hoping it will contain some of the information that we need,” Lewis said. “We’re certainly prepared to enter a plea, however I discovered some matters just this week that I need to discuss with the district attorney that may impact the offer that’s on the table.”
He even wondered if the case could be resolved through the plea deal, avoiding the need for a trial all together. The rescheduled hearing is set for March 5.