The Rocky Flats Grand Jury Files: Records, Secrecy and Unanswered Questions

In 1989, following the FBI raid on the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, Colorado’s first special federal grand jury began reviewing evidence gathered during the investigation.

Thirty years later, Westword reported on another troubling chapter in that history: attorneys seeking access to records considered by the grand jury were told that federal officials could not confirm where the requested records were located.

The Rocky Flats grand jury

The special grand jury was impaneled on August 1, 1989, two months after the June 6 FBI raid of Rocky Flats. According to Westword, after nearly two years reviewing evidence, grand jurors sought charges against eight individuals, including Department of Energy officials and employees of Rockwell International, which operated Rocky Flats for DOE. Those proposed indictments were not pursued. Instead, the Justice Department reached a 1992 agreement with Rockwell. The company pleaded guilty to environmental crimes and paid an $18.5 million criminal fine. The grand jury's work remained sealed. The disagreement over what happened between the grand jury and federal prosecutors became one of the most controversial episodes in Rocky Flats history.

A new effort to obtain the records

In January 2019, attorney Pat Mellen went to federal court on behalf of seven organizations—including Rocky Flats Downwinders—seeking disclosure of business records that had been provided to and considered by the special grand jury. The groups argued that the records could contain important information about contamination and environmental conditions at Rocky Flats, particularly after more than 6,000 acres had been opened to the public as the Rocky Flats National Wildlife Refuge. But according to Westword, six months into that effort, the U.S. Attorney's Office had been unable to confirm the location of the requested records.

Mellen prepared another motion asking the federal court to require the government to locate them.

Grand jurors who wanted to speak

The records were especially significant because members of the grand jury had long sought to tell the public more about what they learned during their investigation. Grand jury foreman Wes McKinley later co-authored The Ambushed Grand Jury, describing the conflict between jurors and federal prosecutors. Jon Lipsky, the FBI agent who led the 1989 raid, also became a public voice about the investigation after leaving the agency. Westword reported that Lipsky had located many of the documents ultimately presented to the grand jury during the original investigation.

Records returned to federal custody

The story contains another remarkable detail. Documents associated with the Rocky Flats grand jury had surfaced among papers donated by former federal judge Sherman Finesilver to the Denver Public Library. According to the library archivist interviewed by Westword, court officials subsequently reviewed the collection and requested that materials concerning Rocky Flats be returned to the federal court. The library complied. Years later, the organizations seeking those records were being told that officials could not confirm their location.

Why this history matters

The Rocky Flats grand jury controversy is about more than a decades-old criminal investigation. It raises continuing questions about public access to historical records, government accountability, preservation of evidence and how communities can understand what happened at a former nuclear weapons facility when important records remain sealed or difficult to locate. The 2019 Westword investigation captures one moment in that much longer story. We are sharing it as part of the historical record and encourage readers to explore the original reporting.

Read Patricia Calhoun's original Westword investigation