Update, 4:16 p.m., March 30: The Thornton Police Department has now formally identified Liberty Ledezma as the victim in the Star Point condo complex fire. See the TPD release after the original item, published on March 29. Authorities have not yet confirmed the identity of the young woman who died…
“That Fireman Who Wants Your Drugs May Not Be a Fireman,” published back in February, noted that drugs had been stolen from ambulances at two Westminster fire stations, along with uniforms. Similar burglaries were reported at another eight metro-area stations. This crime wave was hot — but Westminster Police think…
Duel, Steven Spielberg’s 1971 feature-length directorial debut about a crazed trucker on a smash-and-trash spree, is well worth seeing — but residents of a Longmont neighborhood should probably wait a while before checking it out. After all, many of them just witnessed a version of it live. David Kent, a…
While the Aurora Police Department still has plenty of work to do regarding a double shooting yesterday at the Sommerset Gardens Apartments, the APD appears to have finally cleared a previously unsolved crime from its books. Diane Caldwell, 47, was found murdered in a field in November 1998 — but…
Jacob Joseph Medina has several distinguishing marks…Update, 6:50 a.m.:The Denver Police Department reports that Jacob Joseph Medina was captured without incident at approximately 4 p.m. yesterday at a business in northwest Denver. Look below to read our original item about the search for Medina, published on March 26. The Denver…
Deadly gunplay erupted in a parking lot near the Sommerset Gardens Apartments in Aurora yesterday. The result: two people dead and two in custody. No members of this quartet have been identified to date. Early reports suggested that the Aurora Police Department was looking for a third suspect, but that’s…
Last November, we told you about shootings at Club Posh following a Halloween-night bash. Several days later, John Singleton died of his injuries. Singleton’s murder didn’t get much media attention beyond initial incident reports and our blog featuring memories about him shared by his wife, Maria Singleton-McGaughy. But the case…
On Friday, Corporate Accountability International called for McDonald’s to dump Ronald McDonald as its mascot, arguing that he’s a negative factor when it comes to addressing childhood obesity. Cut to early Sunday morning, when the Colorado Springs Police Department reports that two women were robbed at a local Burger King…
There seems to be some misunderstanding about marijuana law in Colorado. Medical marijuana has been legalized via Amendment 20, although there are plenty of disagreements about how the system should work, as our interview with Senator Chris Romer earlier today proves. But while possession of small amounts of marijuana has…
Ever since Northglenn Detective Daniel Joyce and Thornton Detective Robert Lopez filed a lawsuit last week alleging corruption within Operation Fortune Cookie, the news media has been rehashing the long, strange tale of the state’s largest — and likely most convoluted – indoor weed bust. (Here’s a play-by-play primer on…
The warrant out for Ari Misha Liggett’s arrest didn’t mention anything about potentially explosive chemicals. According to Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office bureau chief Bruce Williamson, the Centennial man was wanted for illegal weapons possession — specifically, a silencer. But Liggett’s arrest at a UPS office yesterday afternoon led to a…
American kids are born capitalists — capable of understanding that they can make some folding green from another kind of green just lying around the house. Example? A teen in Carbondale was busted for bringing some of his dad’s medical marijuana to middle school and selling it to students. Tony…
The Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force, the focus of a 2008 Westword feature, has proven again and again that nicknaming thugs is among the most powerful weapons in its arsenal. If not for them, alleged scofflaws such as the Hoppin Hooded Bandits and the $83 Bandit would be merely…
Those of you who thought indecent exposure and child enticement were a young man’s game need look no further than the sketch seen here to be disabused of that notion. The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office suspects that a man in his sixties or seventies may have been responsible for two…
With the sentencing of prominent restaurant owner Dan Tang this coming Wednesday, March 31, it seemed like the long, strange tale of Operation Fortune Cookie would finally be coming to an end. What started more than two and a half years ago as a vague police tip blossomed into the…
This past Monday, when Westword started making calls about a lawsuit that had just been filed by two former North Metro Task Force members alleging they faced retaliation for speaking out about corruption that occurred in Operation Fortune Cookie, a massive indoor weed bust, the case was so new that…
Yesterday, we told you that Balloon Boy dad Richard Heene had been given permission to serve the remainder of his ninety-day sentence for attempting to influence a public servant (by insisting that his young son Falcon was in an “experimental craft” floating over Northern Colorado) at home. Sounds cushy, but…
How did Denver police go about charging Willie Clark with the 2007 murder of Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams? By using witnesses’ own criminal charges as a “vice grip” that convinced them to tell the cops what they knew about the killing, as explained in this week’s feature, “In the Hunt…
Marijuana is a lot easier to steal once it’s been cultivated and packaged. So perhaps it’s an indication of how good the security systems are at Colorado Springs dispensaries that early this morning, three goons invaded a home in the city’s Sand Creek subdivision and stole an unknown number of…
This week, legislators in Connecticut introduced a bill that would allow minors between ages thirteen and eighteen who are in a relationship and engage in sexting to be charged with a misdemeanor rather than a felony. This alteration would mean such teens wouldn’t wind up being placed on the state’s…
Tullio Andrew Ragusin has such big balls that they probably should have been charged as co-defendants in the criminal-impersonation and theft case that will bring him to court later today. “He has portrayed himself as not only being a licensed attorney here in Colorado but also an international attorney trained…
Most young parents will tell you that baby formula is so expensive it could be made out of gold. But for Tam Huynh and Thuy Nguyen, it was basically the equivalent of poker chips and narcotics. That’s the story told by the Jefferson County District Attorneys Office in the wake…
