Update: Last week, we posted about the decision by Cinemark, owner of the Aurora Century 16, to reopen the theater where James Holmes allegedly killed twelve people and injured 58 this past July; see our previous coverage below. Now, we’ve learned more details about the Facebook survey that showed the…
Billy Joe Delacey is a U.S. Army veteran who had two war-zone deployments. But this service to his country didn’t prevent him from being indicted in relation to a brutal crime — the fatal Mesa County beating of a male escort he’s said to have met on Craigslist. See the…
A specialty of our Alan Prendergast is bringing vintage crime stories to life, as he did with his September feature “The Happiest Man on Death Row.” His look at 1920s-era Denver district attorney Phil Van Cise, “Scourge of the Underworld,” is in this tradition — and for that 2008 tale,…
A motion made public today in the James Holmes case references “the notebook and the burnt currency” when discussing whether a package sent to a psychiatrist who was seeing Holmes should be subject to doctor-patient privilege. Much of the document is redacted, including the psychiatrist’s name, though she’s been identified…
Update below: Law enforcement investigated motions filed by someone impersonating a victim in the James Holmes case, prosecutors say in one of 57 documents made public. As Westword previously reported, at least one of those motions is truly bizarre, claiming that Holmes is being “framed by Philip Anschutz, police chief…
This morning, the court released more than fifty documents in the James Holmes case that had previously been kept from public view — dating all the way back to Holmes’s application for a public defender on July 20, the day prosecutors say Holmes shot and killed twelve people and injured…
Update: An arrest has been made in the horrific hit and run that killed Laura McDermott over the weekend: Dennis Esquibel, 25, has been charged with the crime. But it’s not that simple. He was reportedly joined in the car that caused the fatal crash by two other people –…
A recent push by state prison officials to crack down on the sexual content of inmates’ mail has greatly expanded the range of books and magazines intercepted by prison censors, including such staid fare as Rolling Stone and Men’s Health. The move has also prompted complaints from inmates’ loved ones…
In June, Mayor Michael Hancock fired his aide and close friend Wayne McDonald amid “serious allegations of misconduct” — which became a major distraction at a press conference on the city’s structural budget gap. Now, McDonald intends to sue the city and has filed a complaint with the city’s Board…
Regan Benson is a supporter of Mitt Romney, but she’s not a big fan of the law enforcement officials in charge at the candidate’s recent Colorado rally. Benson says that when she was trying to get to her car after the Sunday night campaign event ended, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s…
Within days of the Aurora theater shooting, announcements were made about possible lawsuits over the horrific attack, in which James Holmes is accused of killing twelve people and injuring 58. Now, however, two suits have been filed against the theater’s owner by a total of three surviving victims. The documents,…
During his recent arrest in Boulder, Benjamin Szycher insisted that he was being fitted for cuffs in violation of his First Amendment rights; get details from the vivid police report on view below. And he certainly used his speech freely during a bizarre incident that allegedly included him punching a…
Last month, Crocs co-founder George Boedecker was busted for DUI despite — or perhaps because of — his alleged claim that a “batshit crazy” Taylor Swift had actually been behind the wheel. No telling if he’ll repeat this assertion if the case goes to trial — but for now, he’s…
The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office didn’t get a jury to agree with every charge leveled against Victor Sanders, who was accused of pimping and abusing a teenage girl — and that’s an apparent source of frustration. But jurors signed on to enough of them to earn the 26 year…
The alleged rape in a Denver International Airport concourse of a young woman scheduled to interview for a job at a convent was among the most shocking stories of last year — and now it appears to have a resolution. A jury has convicted Noel Bertrand of the crime, rejecting…
Last month, ex-United Way official Rich Audsley got involved in the committee responsible for disbursing millions of donated dollars to the families of those who were killed or injured in the Aurora theater shooting. He was brought on as a special adviser because of his expertise in an area he…
Earlier this year, we told you about the tragic death of Jimma Reat, a Sudanese immigrant who was killed after a 911 operator told him and his companions to return to Denver after escaping a racially motivated attack. Now, his estate, among others, is suing the city over the incident,…
Since word broke that Marc Pereira, a youth soccer coach for the Rocky Mountain Soccer Academy in Aurora, had been arrested on suspicion of sexual assault against one of his under-age players, much of his online footprint appears to have vanished. But there are still some lingering items that offer…
In 2010, we assembled a gallery of the state’s most wanted sex offenders according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Many of the faces have changed in the two years since then, and at least two of the current top twenty (one and nineteen) have been busted. But there are…
In a very brief press conference at the State Capitol announced less than an hour before it began, Governor John Hickenlooper introduced Ken Feinberg as the new “special master” for the Aurora Victim Relief Fund — almost a full month after victims’ families first came together to express their frustrations…
This week’s feature, “The Happiest Man on Death Row,” delves into Colorado’s execution of Joe Arridy, a man with an IQ of 46, for a murder he almost certainly didn’t commit. It happened in the 1930s, when the state’s gas chamber was kept busy with a string of customers. But…
On the same day that a new, wild-eyed mug shot was released of James Holmes — one that shows his hair close-cropped and returning to its natural dark color — the accused Aurora theater shooter has been charged with ten additional counts of attempted murder at the request of prosecutors…
