part 2 of 2 Kyle Schoepflin appeared healthy when his mother carried him off the plane at Stapleton International Airport, says Dell Lofton, a National Jewish employee dispatched to escort the pair to the hospital. “She said the boy had been sick on the airplane, but he looked normal to…

Properly preserving historical artifacts is a time-consuming task. And if there’s one thing prison inmates have, it’s time. Now they’ve got the artifacts, too–in what could be the only such project in the country, state prison officials and the Colorado Historical Society have launched an inmate-staffed conservation center to salvage…

The bloodletting is delayed until after a short ceremony honoring members of Wheat Ridge High School’s state champion lacrosse team. The people in the audience at the Wheat Ridge City Council chambers listen patiently as the town’s young Farmers are honored with a proclamation. Then they get ready to rumble…

How secure is a prison with locks that don’t work? Only three and a half years after Colorado’s Limon prison opened, taxpayers are going to have to shell out $155,000 to replace its 712 cell-door locks. No matter, apparently, that the locks at the Limon Correctional Facility carried a warranty…

It began as a standard, if violent, date-rape case. The issues were muddied when the alleged victim admitted to an affair with the Denver detective who investigated the case. It became even more complicated when, after the rape charge was dismissed due to the affair, the woman vowed to sue…

Mark Robinson’s arrest last year was a rock ’em, sock ’em, action-packed, real-life cop adventure chronicled in both Denver dailies and broadcast by Channels 2, 4, 7 and 9. And if you liked that, you’ll love the sequel: a federal lawsuit brought by Robinson in April accusing law enforcement agencies…

part 2 of 2 Robert Gardner III was adopted in Pennsylvania shortly after his birth in March 1974 and given the name of his adoptive father, Robert Gardner Jr. His parents dubbed him “Robby” to distinguish him from his dad and from the host of “Bobs” they knew. “It was…

part 1 of 2 Bob and Elisabeth Boccardi of Colorado Springs have spent the past two decades trying to rescue their son Richard. When the boy was three, that meant seeking professional treatment for his hyperactivity. When he was an adolescent, it meant going to bat for him when he…

part 2 of 2 The Central City Police Department sits just a half-mile from the site of Black Hawk’s police headquarters. Compared to Black Hawk’s new digs, Central City officers have a modest home. But they’re pleased nonetheless. The officers moved into their headquarters building–a defunct casino–in January, after making…

part 1 of 2 Cripple Creek police chief Ed Stauffer pushes back from the table at Creekers restaurant, leaving his plate of fries untouched and bringing on a lecture from the matronly waitress. He listens politely to her discourse on diet and health, then lights up a cigarette as she…

Former Aurora resident Sunny Big Keem, convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder in connection with the 1992 slaying of a California millionaire, is expected to be sentenced to life in prison next month in Los Angeles. When the prison door slams shut behind him, it…

It was early in 1993, and Susan Barnes was furious. Like millions of other Americans, she’d been following the Tailhook scandal and the investigation that ensued. Not one of the 140 Navy and Marine Corps officers recommended for discipline would face criminal charges. Of the 35 admirals investigated for their…

part 1 of 2 The Colorado Air National Guard went to war against North Korea early on the morning of April 9. The hostilities came almost without warning and then quickly intensified; within hours of reporting for duty at Aurora’s Buckley Field, Guard members were diving for cover and donning…

part 2 of 2 One of the so-called “good deal” trips took Guard members to Europe, where they had taken Air Force Academy cadets for training in over-water navigation. During a stop in Berlin, says Dewett, he, Colonel Rosson and several other officers and enlisted men attended a live-sex show…

The municipal judge in Edgewater is a convicted felon and former mental patient, but he’s considered an improvement over his predecessor. That judge reportedly was fired because he couldn’t seem to make it to court on time. The town’s police chief carries out “reverse stings,” in essence importing criminals to…

part 1 of 2 Casey Collier’s quicksilver moods–kind and gentle one moment, unruly and obstinate the next–puzzled the people around him from the time he was a preschooler. He landed in therapy before he was ten, in a mental hospital at age twelve. The explanations for his actions seemed to…

part 2 of 2 In February 1992 Casey went to live at another Utah-based program, Sorenson’s Ranch School in Koosharem. At Sorenson’s, Casey lived in a rustic cabin set in a high mountain valley. Like every youth there, he received a horse in order to learn responsibility. It would have…

Heinie headquarters is located in an unpretentious industrial park in the city of Sheridan, overshadowed by a drive-in movie screen and obscured from view by highway ramps and road construction. It is from this unlikely setting that Lee Spieker, the Colorado-based brains behind the Buns of Steel fitness video phenomenon,…

The birthing process for Sue Ratcliff lasted 25 months. Laid off from her job as a Sheridan police officer after becoming pregnant in late 1991, Ratcliff sued the little southern suburb, citing sex discrimination and failure to follow the outline of the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The waiting ended just…

A $7.50 can of sale paint was no bargain for 44-year-old Denver antique dealer Myke Johnson: She might wind up mortgaging her house to pay for it. But Johnson won’t find a lot of sympathy in Edgewater. The little suburb’s police force reportedly turned out en masse for Johnson’s trial…

part 1 of 2 If it’s true that, as one resident says, God has smiled down on the city of Greenwood Village, he must have turned a blind eye to the local government. In this wealthy Denver suburb, a quiet community split between modern upscale tract homes and 1950s ranch…

part 2 of 2 With Poundstone out of the picture in the 1989 election, longtime Greenwood resident Rollie Barnard was elected mayor. And for a couple of years things stayed quiet. Seeing an opening when the Poundstone group lost power, Myrna Poticha had run again for council and been re-elected…