March
9, 1999
To
my Friends and Associates in the University of Denver Community:
I
am Don Auman. I am the Plumbing
Shop Foreman for the University of Denver.
I work for the main campus Physical Plant.
I am also a senior undergraduate student in the BSBA Management program
at Daniels College of Business Administration.
I have been working toward a degree since 1989 by using my tuition waiver
benefit.
I
am writing this letter to a number of my past and current University associates
and college professors because I know that many of you have been concerned for
me and my family, and also because I want those of those of you who do not know
of my situation to know something about it.
It will continue to be a major concern in my life.
As
many of you know, I have experienced a great deal of grief during the past year.
My daughter, Lisl
Auman, is the young lady that was tried and
convicted in the shooting death of Denver Police Officer Bruce Vander Jagt. This
tragedy has many ties to the University community, as I am sure many of you
know. When I started my employment
at DU in 1984, Bruce was a DU security guard.
I had many encounters with him in the
This
has also been a terrible tragedy for my family, for many reasons.
The media portrayals of my daughter were grossly inaccurate or completely
false. Matthaeus Jaehnig, the
gunman, was a complete stranger to Lisl. She
knew nothing about his character or his past arrest record, which included at
least thirty Denver arrests for what are considered to be crimes of violence.
My daughter had only known the Jaehnig for less than thirty minutes
before they left to go get her belongings from the Buffalo Creek residence that
Lisl had been sharing with her boyfriend. Lisl
was hand-cuffed and seat-belted in the back seat of a police cruiser for a full
five to ten minutes before the fatal gunfire erupted describing what Jaehnig
looked like and describing to the best of her ability the gun she had seen him
with.
I
do not feel that Lisl, who had no prior police record, received a fair trial.
There are many reasons for this; too many to detail here. Yes, Lisl had
been experiencing troubles, but she did not, and has never, displayed any
violent tendencies or notions of hate. She
is not a skinhead, has never attended a neo-nazi rally and neither subscribes to
nor supports any of their policies. Many
of you have shown me tremendous compassion during the past year and have let me
know that you continue to share concerns for my family.
I have wanted to say something to you for a long time, but I could never
seem to do it until now. I want to
thank all of you for the support you’ve shown me.
If
you would like to have more information about my daughter’s case, I would be
happy to provide it to you. There
is also a web site: Lisl.com We
will be updating the web site as more information becomes available.
If you have any specific questions, I will try to respond quickly.
Please feel free to reply with any comments you have.
Sincerely,
