DENVER, Colo. -- After a 14-month investigation, the Colorado Attorney General's Office filed a civil complaint on Wednesday against the family that runs the Colorado Humane Society, confirming the information uncovered by the CALL7 Investigators.

The complaint specifically names the Colorado Humane Society's Executive Director Mary Warren, her husband and Director of Development Robert Warren, and Mary Warren's daughter Stephenie Gardner who was the charity's director of operations.

According the attorney general's 27-page filing, "The Individual Defendants have deceived, misled, and financially injured consumers in Colorado."

The filing goes on to say, "Individual Defendants have misused and wasted and continued to misuse and waste charitable assets intended for the benefit of the public. Therefore, the Attorney General believes these legal proceedings are in the public interest and are necessary to safeguard Colorado citizens from the Individual Defendants' charitable fraud and unlawful business activities."

The complaint was filed in Arapahoe County District Court and alleges the Warrens and Gardner collected nearly $3 million in donations illegally.

It said, "Individual Defendants have co-mingled their personal assets with CHS assets and have used CHS assets for their own personal benefit."

Another accusation claimed the family running the Colorado Humane Society misrepresented the organization as a "no-kill" shelter and said "The dogs euthanized to make room for new dogs frequently had no history of illness, injury, old-age, or aggression. Often times, they were simply larger dogs that were taking up space and not considered as 'adoptable' as the dogs coming in from a transfer, dogs that had been at the shelter for a period of time and had decreasing chances of being adopted, or dogs of a particular breed not considered easily adoptable."

The complaint also alleges the Warrens misrepresented the euthanasia rate at the shelter by claiming it was less than 8% of the total number of animals. The attorney general's office believes Colorado Humane Society's actual euthanisia rate reached as high as 29 percent in the past five years.

Wednesday's action by the attorney general follows a lengthy investigation in 2007 by the CALL7 Investigators which raised questions about mismanagement of donations and the discarding of euthanized animal carcasses.

Over six weeks, CALL7 Investigators discovered more than a dozen dead animals in a Dumpster outside the Colorado Humane Society.

In September 2007, officials with the Colorado Humane Society insisted they had done nothing wrong and in an interview with CALL7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski, Mary Warren claimed to have no knowledge of any dead animals in the Dumpster.

"So, can I be guaranteed that every time you euthanize an animal, you cremate it?" Kovaleski asked Mary Warren.

She replied, "Right. Yes."

"So euthanized animals, dogs and cats, are never thrown in the Dumpster at Colorado Humane?" Kovaleski asked.

"Correct," Mary Warren said.

What she said and what 7NEWS discovered don't match.

On July 24, 2007, CALL7 Investigators found two dead animals inside black trash bags in the Dumpster outside the Colorado Humane Society.

It was a fox and a raccoon.

On Aug. 8 last year, 7NEWS discovered three more animals including a cat.

7NEWS hired an independent lab to test liver and fluid samples from two of the deceased animals.

"The results we found would be consistent with what you would expect if an animal had been euthanized," said Petra Hartmann with Industrial Laboratories.

Animals are euthanized with a drug combination commonly known as Beuthanasia. The packaging includes warnings reading, "This product is toxic to wildlife. Birds and mammals feeding on treated animals may be killed."

The warning goes on to read, "Euthanized animals must be properly disposed of by deep burial, incineration, or other method in compliance with state and local laws."

The drug can kill other animals if those animals find a carcass in the Dumpster or in a landfill.

7NEWS also found animals wrapped in trash bags and discarded in the Dumpster on Aug. 20 and Sept. 1, 2007.

The most disturbing discovery came a week later, on Sept. 7.

7NEWS found six dead animals -- three dogs, two cats and a raccoon -- in the Dumpster.

One of the dogs, an Elk Hound named Sinbad, had belonged to Jerry Mason.

The dog had become aggressive with one of Mason's children and he agreed Sinbad should be "put down."

"He was my best friend," Mason told 7NEWS.

He never expected the Colorado Humane Society would throw the dog's carcass into a Dumpster.

"If I would've known this before that dog went there, that dog never would have ended up there," Mason said. "I just hope all animal shelters ain't like this."

A second dead dog, discovered on Sept. 7, 2007, was a Rottweiler.

Its former owner did not want to be identified on camera, but told 7NEWS he had paid the Colorado Humane Society to euthanize and cremate his dog.

"Did they give you any indication it was going to be in the Dumpster?" Kovaleski asked the Rottweiler's former owner.

He replied, "No. Not at all."

Ultimately, 7NEWS uncovered more than a dozen animals discarded in the Dumpster outside the Colorado Humane Society over a six-week period in 2007.

Testing, identification and sources confirm at least six of those animals had been euthanized.

"I'm horrified. I'm absolutely horrified. It just makes me sick," said Gina Godfrey, a frequent donor to the Colorado Humane Society. "I think what they're doing is wrong, and I think almost everybody would say what they're doing is wrong. And it shouldn't be allowed."

"Have you been told to discard dead animals in the Dumpster?" Kovaleski asked current and former employees of the Colorado Humane Society in late 2007 whom we identified as "whistleblowers."

All replied, "Yes."

When asked by whom, one whistleblower told 7NEWS, "Mary Warren, our executive director."

A second whistleblower said, "When an animal is euthanized and there's nowhere to put it, the first person people go to is Mary."

"And what are the instructions?" Kovaleski asked.

"To throw it in the Dumpster," the whistleblower replied.

Kovaleski showed Warren the video of the dead animals discovered in the Dumpster and asked, "You want to tell me the truth now?"

"I am telling you the truth. Absolutely telling you the truth... I knew nothing about this," Warren replied.

"What if Mary Warren says she never told an employee to throw a dead animal in that Dumpster? Would that be the truth?" Kovaleski asked a whistleblower.

"No," said the whistleblower.

"Three employees have said that you have directed them to dump dead animals, sometimes cats and dogs into that Dumpster," Kovaleski said to Warren.

"Not true. Not true," Warren replied.

When asked if the whistleblowers were lying, Warren said, "Absolutely."

Whistleblowers said for each animal left in the Dumpster, the Colorado Humane Society saved $12 on pickup and cremation costs.

After learning of our investigation, the shelter's director of development, Bob Warren, admitted in an e-mail that "euthanized animals might have been mistakenly tossed into the Dumpster."

In an e-mail received in late 2007, Colorado Humane Society President Madeline Duncan said, "A member of our staff made the decision to place the bodies of these two animals in our commercial trash bin. This was a mistake in judgment. We accept responsibility for the mistake. It will not be repeated."

The prepared statement failed to address the other 11 animals discovered by the CALL7 Investigators.

The e-mail did include this statement, "The KMGH story has pointed out our shortcomings, but fails to note the immeasurable amount of good our organization has done."

The financial questions CALL7 Investigators began looking into start at the office of the Colorado Secretary of State where the Colorado Humane Society's license to collect charitable donations was suspended in April 2004.

That same year, the Secretary of State's Office sent a letter to Colorado Humane Society stating it is against the law to solicit donations with an expired license, but the organization continued to collect donations for more than three years, with a suspended license, including a $10,000 donation in August 2007.

"Your license has been suspended since April of 2004 with the Colorado Secretary of State. Do you know that?" Kovaleski asked Mary Warren.

Warren replied, "No."

Records provided by the Secretary of State show Colorado Humane Society received three delinquency notices before the letter of suspension.

Kovaleski asked Warren, "You're the executive director. You're on the board of directors and you don't know that your license has been suspended since 2004?"

Warren again replied, "No."

Colorado Humane Society is one of several hundred nonprofit organizations in which the Secretary of State's office listed as "suspended," however, many of those organizations are no longer operating.

Other accountability questions center on a 1986 Mercedes Benz, donated to Colorado Humane Society in January 2007.

One whistleblower told 7NEWS, "The Mercedes was donated by a woman who specifically wanted it to go towards the animals. And somehow Bob [Warren] and Mary started driving a new Mercedes Benz."

"Are you aware of any vehicle donations that you have received in the last year?" Kovaleski asked Mary Warren in late 2007.

She said, "In the past year, I don't know."

State records show the Mercedes was registered to Warren's husband, Bob, and not to the Colorado Humane Society.

Gina Godfrey and her uncle donated the Mercedes.

She told 7NEWS, "Bob said, 'Gosh we'll get at least $3,000 for this car in auction.'"

Bill Godfrey said, "I wanted that money to go to the animal shelter."

Documents obtained by 7NEWS show Bob Warren bought the Mercedes for $1,160 through a payroll deduction from Colorado Humane Society.

The car was registered in Bob's name and he used documents from eBay to justify the $1,160 he paid, even though that amount is less than half the Blue Book value and well below the $3,000 he told Gina Godfrey they should be able to get from auction.

Gina Godfrey told 7NEWS, "I wouldn't consider it ethical. We were making a donation of a vehicle that was supposed to be auctioned. The maximum amount of money was supposed to be generated to be given to take care of animals at the Colorado Humane Society. We weren't giving Bob a car for $1,100."

Her uncle was also angered when he learned the car was registered to Bob Warren, saying, "I think it's wrong and frankly I think the dogs got cheated."

After talking with her husband, Mary Warren did recall the Mercedes donation, and after learning of our investigation, Bob Warren sent an e-mail to 7NEWS in which said he will return the car to Colorado Humane Society. The e-mail goes on to say the car will be donated to charity.

Ultimately, the whistleblowers said the mysterious money trail surrounding the Mercedes illustrates an environment with no apparent accountability, where employees see large donations while their paychecks frequently bounce and where, whistleblowers said, managers took shortcuts with homeless animals.

"The animals are suffering. We have expired vaccinations, but [Bob and Mary Warren] are driving a Mercedes when they already have three cars," said a whistleblower.

Kovaleski asked Mary Warren, "Would you ever use expired medications or vaccines on your animals?"

Warren replied, "Absolutely, positively not."

"And if former employees said you have, how would you respond?" Kovaleski asked.

"I would say that if there were some ex-employees that believed that, maybe there's a reason they're ex-employees," Mary Warren said.

Important Note: The Colorado Humane Society does not have a direct association with the National Humane Society or the Humane Society of the United States. In fact, Colorado Humane Society is not linked to any other animal shelter in the state or nation. It is a private nonprofit entity.