A Colorado prosecutor with ties to left-wing billionaire George Soros plans to release a sex offender accused of trying to kidnap a boy at a school after the man was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial.
The Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office said it has until the end of the month to formally dismiss criminal charges against Solomon Galligan, which is required by state law.
“Bottom line: When a defendant is found incompetent to proceed, we are legally obligated to dismiss charges,” a spokesman for the office told The Washington Times. “Our hands are tied based on the findings of competency.”
The office also said prosecutors are barred from discussing what condition factored into Galligan’s incompetency.
The DA’s office said Galligan will be civilly committed to mental health treatment upon his release, but the terms of his sentence were only shared in court.
The Washington Times contacted Galligan’s public defender for comment on his sentencing.
Arapahoe County jail records show Galligan, 33, is still behind bars on attempted kidnapping charges.
He was arrested in April 2024 when security cameras captured a man trying to grab an 11-year-old boy during recess at an Aurora elementary school.
According to an affidavit, children yelled “stranger danger” to get adults’ attention after Galligan began targeting the students. The boy he went after said Galligan smelled like alcohol and had white powder on his face.
Court records said Galligan has a 2011 conviction of nonconsensual sexual contact, and a 2012 conviction for failure to register as a sex offender. He also asked the court to refer to him with she/her pronouns during his initial appearance last year.
The DA’s office said the suspect’s mental competency has been raised in past court cases outside of Arapahoe County.
Last year, family members told KUSA-TV that Galligan was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder when he was 16. He began running away from home around that same time.
The family said they would only learn Galligan’s whereabouts after he was arrested again. He had been in and out of jail for 12 years, with prior charges including assault and burglary.
Sarah Galligan, his older sister, told the station that Galligan has been repeatedly deemed incompetent to stand trial, but a lack of beds at treatment facilities prevented him from being institutionalized long-term. His sister said it caused Galligan to be released and then keep reoffending.
Galligan’s upcoming release also puts a magnifying glass over District Attorney Amy Padden, who welcomed about $40,000 in cash from Mr. Soros en route to winning the top prosecutor race last fall, according to campaign finance records.
Mr. Soros is a prolific Democratic backer known for championing candidates who treat criminal suspects with leniency.
Ms. Padden lived up to that reputation in May when she offered a sweetheart deal to a 15-year-old illegal immigrant who killed a woman in a high-speed crash last summer.
Analysts said Ms. Padden’s links to the billionaire represent how Mr. Soros is working harder to conceal his involvement in elections.
Sean Kennedy, policy director for the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund, said Mr. Soros’ network is establishing localized political action committees to obscure where his money is coming from.
In Ms. Padden’s case, the policy analyst said an entity called the Colorado Working Families Party contributed to her campaign.
He said that PAC is an offshoot of the National Working Families Party, a much bigger PAC that was mainly affiliated with the New York-based health care union SEIU 1199 until Mr. Soros began influencing it about eight years ago.
“They’re buying the brand of the Working Families Party, this random union group out of New York, and then rebranding it and using it as a pass-through for all these liberal causes,” Mr. Kennedy said.
The Working Families Party has accepted millions from Soros-aligned groups in recent years, according to the New York Post.
The PAC was a favored piggy bank for avowed socialist and New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani during his upset primary win last month over Andrew Cuomo.
Mr. Kennedy said candidates are still happy to receive Mr. Soros’ money, but are wary about being seen as one of his acolytes because of the “litany of horrors” that other prosecutors under his wing are blamed for.
“He realized he’s become a lightning rod. Basically, George Soros is a bogeyman,” Mr. Kennedy said.
