AURORA, Colo. — Dante White thought he’d be dealing with an “open and shut case” after a man was arrested last year for attempting to kidnap children at his son’s Aurora elementary school. That case will soon come to an abrupt end, but not in the way he anticipated.
Solomon Galligan, 34, was charged with kidnapping and child abuse after investigators say he lunged at a child playing outside at Black Hills Elementary School in the Cherry Creek School District on April 19, 2024.
The whole ordeal was captured on surveillance video, showing the suspect wearing a blue hoodie with dark pants and holding a white blanket. He could be seen walking up to the children on the field before the kids started running away from him, police said in a probable cause statement.
“My son comes home from school and he tells us, ‘Hey, this guy tried to take me and my friends,’” White told Denver7.
White said his son needed therapy after the incident.
“There was a time frame that him and a lot of the other children, too, wouldn't leave our sides," White said.
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Man accused of trying to kidnap Aurora child will have all charges dropped
Earlier this week, White learned through news coverage that the charges against Galligan would be dropped after he was found incompetent to stand trial.
Court records show Galligan was evaluated at the state mental health hospital in April and was found competent, but a subsequent evaluation, asked for by his defense, found him incompetent to stand trial.
This is significant because a law passed in 2024 altered the language of a previous law to state that if a suspect is found incompetent and is not restorable, a judge "shall" dismiss the case. Previously, the law stated that a judge "may" dismiss the case.
Galligan will not be released back into the public, however. A spokesperson with the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office told Denver7 Investigates that Galligan will be civilly committed, and if that goes through, he will likely wind up in a mental health hospital.
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Change to Colorado mental health law sparks issues with 2022 stabbing case
Denver7 Investigates has extensively covered competency cases since House Bill 24-1034 passed last year.
“You cannot just hold somebody in jail for the rest of their life if they're not able to stand trial. That is a constitutional right. But you can place them in a hospital,” Colorado State Sen. Judy Amabile (D-Boulder), one of the bill’s main sponsors, previously told Denver7 Investigates.
However, the bill was passed without a funding mechanism to increase mental health services throughout the state.
“It's shortsighted, right? You know, it passes, it doesn't have funding behind it. There's no mechanism to actually make sure that things happen in an appropriate nature. It's kind of a free-for-all,” White said.
This is the third competency case Denver7 Investigates has highlighted since the law changed.
Last year, a suspect accused of stabbing a Lakewood doctor in his office in 2022 saw his charges dropped after he was found incompetent and not restorable. The victim feared that the suspect would be released, but while Denver7 Investigates was digging into the case, a bed opened up at the state mental health hospital.
Earlier this year, a suspect accused of driving drunk, killing two people and injuring two others in a 2021 crash, had his charges dropped after being repeatedly found incompetent. At the time, he was out on bond and walked out of the courthouse after the case was dismissed.
White said he hopes to see a change so cases like these don’t continue in the future.
“This isn't a left and right issue. This is a systemic issue,” he said. “We need to go back and re-evaluate this because obviously it's not working. This isn't the only case where something like this has happened.”
