The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office found evidence that the former Jeffco Public Schools chief of schools purchased child pornography but he did not have any contact with minors.

The sheriff’s office announced completing its investigation into David Weiss on Wednesday, noting that investigators found he “had no direct criminal contact with any juveniles either in person or online,” according to a news release.

The news release did note that “there was evidence that Weiss purchased child pornography.”

The sheriff’s office began investigating Weiss — the chief of schools at the district since 2022 — on Dec. 19 regarding alleged possession of child sexual assault material. 

A financial brokerage alerted the sheriff’s office that Weiss used bitcoin to purchase child pornography, the sheriff’s office said. Investigators then obtained a search warrant of his home.

Investigators confiscated all of Weiss’ electronic devices and gave them to the Rocky Mountain Regional Computer Forensic Lab for searches.

Weiss was also terminated on Dec. 19. At the time, neither the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office nor Jeffco Public Schools announced that a criminal investigation had begun.

Both the district and sheriff’s office confirmed the investigations days later, and Weiss eventually shot and killed himself while in Washington County, Md., on Jan. 1, 2025, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Maryland.

Despite Weiss’ death, the sheriff’s office continued the investigation into the potential crimes.

“While investigations like these do not often involve the person’s employer, due to the nature of his position where he had access to children and electronics at work, the Jefferson County R-1 School District was notified of the search warrant and cooperated with the investigation,” the sheriff’s office said in the release.

The announcement of the investigation was in the midst of a string of sexual assault-related incidents within the school district, shocking parents throughout the metro Denver area.

There have been six arrests or investigations regarding sexual assault on a child or related misconduct in Jefferson County Public Schools since the end of 2023, including the investigation into Weiss.

The chief of schools is responsible for overseeing and increasing student achievement, quality school leadership and school effectiveness for Jefferson County’s schools and communities, according to the district’s website.

An email obtained by The Denver Gazette showed that Weiss oversaw an adult sexual misconduct training for Jeffco employees in December 2024, just a few days before he was terminated. 

In April, parents from Jeffco Kids First claimed the group uncovered 26 cases of sexual abuse, misconduct, grooming, hiring, firing and reporting issues since 2022 in the district.

The troubling amount of cases has led to national scrutiny of both the district and its superintendent, Tracy Dorland.

The Jefferson County Education Association (JCEA) sent a four-page letter to the school board on May 27 announcing a vote of no confidence in the superintendent’s leadership, marking one of the reasons as the lack of communication regarding the investigation into Weiss. 

The union said the specific complaint was “minimal communication to the community regarding charges and investigation into the former Chief of Schools, including cancelling the planned ‘State of the District’ address.”

The next day, on May 28, Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer told board President Mary Parker that the district has sought to inoculate itself, instead of protecting students, also pointing to Weiss’ investigation.

Then, on June 3, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it informed Dorland that it is initiating a Title IX investigation into the district’s policy that students be “assigned to share overnight accommodations with other students that share a student’s ‘gender identity.'” 

The board of education has met three times in executive sessions since May 27 to discuss Dorland’s contract, which runs until 2027. The third meeting was held Wednesday afternoon. 

The first meeting, which was set to discuss Dorland’s mid-year evaluation, lasted an hour. The second, which involved a lawyer to discuss Dorland’s contract specifics, was scheduled for 90 minutes. The third, another mid-year check-in, was scheduled for two hours.

No decisions or statements about Dorland’s future with the district have been made publicly.

The chief of schools role was replaced by Andrew Coleman on May 19.

Coleman was the associate chief of schools at Denver Public Schools since May 2022, according to his LinkedIn.

The official investigation report into Weiss is not finished, according to the sheriff’s office. 

“The investigators are still writing up the reports on all of the electronic evidence and it was a lengthy investigation,” a spokesperson with the department told The Denver Gazette.