Gwen Compton Ternes has been living with pain since she fell to the floor in 1987 when the wheels of her office chair came off. The injury to the former office manager led to a series of health problems, and by 1999, three doctors agreed that Ternes required replacement surgery…

Complaints that a Denver-based suicide phone line is understaffed, that its service is inconsistent and that its volunteers are untrained have once again gone unanswered by the Colorado Mental Health Grievance Board. After examining the latest complaints against the Living Support Network (LIS’N) — which include allegations that executive director…

Inside virtually every defense attorney beats a bleeding heart. These lawyers love to expound on the meaning of justice, how everyone deserves a fair trial, and how the true measure of a society rests in the way it treats its most reviled members. When it comes to Marvin Gray, however,…

Ali Pahlavi certainly isn’t the first hustler to find his way to Denver. He isn’t even the first person to pose as a member of one royal family or another, although in this sports-crazy town, cops are more familiar with men who pretend they’re a member of the Denver Broncos…

In the late 1800s, what is now lower downtown was the heart and groin of Denver, a rowdy, rollicking locus that served as a jumping-off point for folks hell-bent on gold and riches. The neighborhood teemed with saloons, gambling halls and bawdy houses, and it seemed that cardsharps, ladies of…

The state’s insanity cases have involved a range of inviduals who have invoked the defense with varying results. Among them: • Jeffrey Miller, Byers. Killed his newborn son in 1997 by hurling him against the walls and ceiling of his trailer. Claimed “intermittent explosive disorder.” Found guilty, sentenced to life…

Tom Leask waited patiently for years, biding his time, waiting for the word. The folks in the tiny mountain town of Alma, where he lived, didn’t know that Leask was waiting, but they knew he was “off.” An oddball in a place populated with eccentrics, he was the town crazy,…

Under ordinary circumstances, what happened October 30 inside holding cell No. 4 at the Denver County Courthouse would have been just that — ordinary. One inmate has words with another, a scuffle ensues, blood is spilled, a deputy intercedes, the fight’s over. What sets this particular fracas apart is that…

Natalie Vasquez was raised in Chamisal, a shabby village set among the piñons and red rolling hills of northern New Mexico, a poverty-stricken stepchild to the wealth and culture of nearby Taos and Santa Fe. The centuries-old settlement, beset by the problems of a modern age — drugs, welfare, dropouts…

Dick Berger, executive director of Living Support Network, doesn’t want to be interrupted, so he takes the phones off the hook, one by one. His personal line. The Youth Support Line. The Suicide and Crisis Hotline. “It’s okay,” Berger explains, his voice competing with the insistent, high-pitched beep of handsets…

The Denver courts put too much faith in Oscar Paniagua. The self-titled “Messenger of Truth” is officially a fugitive after failing to show up for a scheduled court appearance September 5 (“The Truth Hurts,” August 31). Denver police had predicted just such an outcome following court rulings that reduced Paniagua’s…

Pine residents angry over a proposal to build a facility for juvenile sex offenders in their mountain town may be surprised to discover that they have a lot in common with the people who operate the facility where those offenders are now living: Pine doesn’t want the group home in…

Oscar Paniagua is charming, articulate and personable, an immaculate dresser, the consummate salesman. Even the police say so. And over the past year, investigators estimate, the Venezuela-born Paniagua used that charisma to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from clients who came seeking advice on marital, financial and health problems,…

When Gilpin County resident Laura Kriho was called for jury duty back in May 1996, she didn’t want to go. She planned to call the courthouse to get out of it, until she spotted a notice on the back of the jury summons warning that a failure to appear could…

In the world of Ufology, it’s tough to be taken seriously. “There’ll be a sighting somewhere, and it’ll be a fantastic sighting,” says Mike Curta, state director of the Colorado Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). “Five hundred people saw it, and there’ll be an interview with a doctor,…

Neuropsychologist Steven Gray sees many kids who have been diagnosed with Reactive Attachment Disorder. Working with them, he’s been struck by a common theme. “Most parents have a label for their child,” he says. “They’ll say, ‘I love my child, but my child is the child from hell.’ I hear…

Last month, after waiting almost four years for an explanation, the public heard what happened the night two-year-old David Polreis was killed. Renee Polreis, who’d adopted the boy from Russia six months before his death, told a rapt courtroom that she apparently “lost it” the night of February 9, 1996…

In what may be the largest settlement of its kind, the State of Colorado has agreed to pay $70,000 to a prison inmate who was raped by a former cellmate. And although the state doesn’t have to admit liability in the case, the payment is based on claims by the…

When the Colorado Legislature passed laws requiring sex offenders to register with the police and to make that information available to the public, it lifted a veil of secrecy surrounding sexual abuse and sex crimes. But some professionals argue that those laws — which were designed to reduce risk to…

The sweeping green lawns of the Columbine Knolls neighborhood are punctuated by ranch-style brick houses and a smattering of split-levels and two-story homes. The 1,100 or so households in the vicinity are governed by a homeowners’ association that enforces covenants designed to keep the area clean, tidy and wholesome. So…