Archive Search Results
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Feature
The way the Adams County Coroner is running his office could be dead wrong
By Alan Prendergast
Published: July 2, 2009
On a quiet Sunday morning last February, Jaime Brown arrived at that dark and unthinkable place every young mother dreads. She walked into the room of her three-year-old...
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Feature
Where would you take a $100,000 check that is also a suicide note - to the cops or to the bank?
By Alan Prendergast
Published: May 14, 2009
John Francis Beech had a date with destiny last summer. He counted down the days on a calendar in his garage, crossing out each day leading to the final Sunday in July, on...
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Feature
Ken Salazar wants windmills in the ocean, but first he'll have to save the Interior Department
By Alan Prendergast
Published: April 2, 2009
On January 21, Ken Salazar walked into the Department of the Interior headquarters in Washington, D.C., and found a crush of employees waiting for him. It was his first day on...
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Feature
Denver's latest traffic plan depends on getting you out of your car
By Alan Prendergast
Published: February 19, 2009
Read a list of Denver's eight worst intersections on the Latest Word blog. Just south of downtown, a fender bender on Speer Boulevard jams up a long line of cars, which spills...
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Feature
In life and death, tattoo artist Kauri Tiyme made her mark
By Alan Prendergast
Published: January 8, 2009
For more photos of Kauri Tiyme, go to westword.com/slideshow. The maid found her. It was close to checkout time on Saturday, October 18, and a member of the housekeeping staff...
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News
CU in Court
Back on the case of the CU sex-recruiting scandal
By Alan Prendergast
Published: December 18, 2008
Eight years after she first reported a sexual assault to police and four years after prosecutors told her they were dropping the case, a young woman has won an unusual court...
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Feature
Can a troubled Colorado prison change the way inmates think?
By Alan Prendergast
Published: November 6, 2008
Jay Lewis assumes the position. He slouches, arms folded across his chest, knee bent and foot braced on the wall behind him. He looks like your typical green-tunic-clad felon,...
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Feature
Inside one of the nation's top carnivore sanctuaries
By Alan Prendergast
Published: October 23, 2008
Pat Craig walks along a fenceline of his 240-acre spread outside Keenesburg, visiting with some of his latest arrivals. He calls to them in a falsetto, much higher than his...
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City Limits
Crossing Over
How government watchdogs became the energy industry's party animals
By Alan Prendergast
Published: September 18, 2008
There's more than one way to explain the latest scandal erupting within the Bush administration. The release last week of three reports from the inspector general's office of...
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Feature
William Orr's quest for better, cheaper gas left him facing prison time
By Alan Prendergast
Published: September 4, 2008
Few dreamers believe in their dream the way William Orr did. He chased his idea, a search for the perfect fuel to put in a gas tank, for three decades. He conducted test after...
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Feature
Pain Management
Cancer patient Tim Thomason didn't think he could feel any worse. His Denver jailers showed that he could.
By Alan Prendergast
Published: July 31, 2008
To read Alan Prendergast's blog about the Denver jail's heavily redacted policy on pain meds and release procedures, click here. They let Timothy Thomason go shortly before 8...
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Feature
The Lords of Payback
Jefferson County officials show Mike Zinna that what goes around comes around.
By Alan Prendergast
Published: June 26, 2008
In the endless muddle of battle between Mike Zinna and The Powers That Be in Jefferson County, moments of truth have been hard to find. But once in a while there's a burst of...
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Sidebar
Paying the Price
Jeffco antes up against Mike Zinna.
By Alan Prendergast
Published: June 26, 2008
THE ZINNA BILL LITIGATION EXPENSES FOR JEFFERSON COUNTY RELATED TO DISPUTES WITH MIKE ZINNA JANUARY 2004-APRIL 2008 Outside Counsel Zinna v. Congrove $ 112,310.71 Zinna v....
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Feature
The Good, The Bad & The Mad
What happens to the mentally ill in the justice system is just crazy.
By Alan Prendergast
Published: May 29, 2008
On a bitter winter morning four years ago, Heather Gooch stood in her apartment on South Bannock Street and listened to the awful thumping. The noise was coming from the floor...
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Sidebar
A Hospital Without Walls
Denver’s Court to Community program is showing promise.
By Alan Prendergast
Published: May 29, 2008
Thursday afternoons in courtroom 151P tend to be less formal than other proceedings in Denver county courts. Judge Larry Bohning still hands out an occasional scolding ("Time's...
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Feature
Ultrarunning Gets Younger – and Faster
Tony Krupicka takes his sport to new extremes.
By Alan Prendergast
Published: April 10, 2008
Three things you need to know right away about Tony Krupicka: First, the guy loves to run. Loves it. He cruises the trails above Colorado Springs three, four, even six hours a...
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News
Bad Execution
A judge removes DA Carol Chambers from a death-penalty case -- and blasts prosecution misconduct.
By Alan Prendergast
Published: April 10, 2008
Defense attorneys have accused her of running a death machine, but the wheels came off Carol Chambers's rattling apparatus this week. On Monday a judge ruled that Chambers, the...
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Night & Day
Who You Gonna Kill?
By Alan Prendergast
Published: April 3, 2008
By most measures, Colorado isn't any more liberal than other western states. So how come the state has managed to put to death only one prisoner in the past forty years, while...
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Feature
Arapahoe County DA Charges Death-Penalty Fees to the State
How does DA Carol Chambers beat the high cost of a death-penalty prosecution? By billing the prison system.
By Alan Prendergast
Published: February 28, 2008
The State of Colorado has managed to execute one murderer in the past forty years. Its death row, current population one, is among the smallest in the country. For four years...
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Sidebar
Inmates Waitin' Around to Die
Only one man is on death row, but seven others are waiting in the wings.
By Alan Prendergast
Published: February 28, 2008
Technically speaking, Colorado hasn't had a death row for several years — not since officials at the Colorado State Penitentiary stopped housing the prisoners awaiting...
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