Update, July 16: The victim of the June 25 shooting on East Ohio Avenue that’s described below has been identified as Jonathan Petty, 23. Petty’s name doesn’t appear to have been reported before now; at least it doesn’t pop up in a Google search in regard to anything other than…
Less than a day after Denver Police Officer Celena Hollis was shot and killed while trying to break up a fight at City Park, more than 150 people — activists, preachers, mothers and teenagers — gathered at the District 2 police headquarters in northeast Denver to thank the officers who…
Update: More information is emerging about Rollin Oliver, the man arrested following the fatal shooting of Denver Police officer Celena Hollis after a jazz event at City Park on Sunday night — including increasingly solid reports establishing his gang affiliation. Not that this link offers much comfort to Hollis’s family,…
Ethan Ruddy’s Facebook page features plenty of wholesome photos, including ones showing him with fellow members of a past Conifer High School co-ed cheer squad. But the crime he’s been accused of committing is far darker. The Denver District Attorney’s Office has charged Ruddy, eighteen, with sexual assault on an…
Colorado prisoners complain about all sorts of indignities, from the high price of candy bars to the degrading (now banned) “labia lift” procedure some female inmates were subjected to. But not all the recent squawking about a change in hygiene equipment at the Denver women’s prison is negative, apparently. Some…
Update: We now know the identity of the man found shot to death in a parking lot outside the Abrigo Apartments in Aurora: Ernesto Rodriguez-Rodriguez, age 44. Thus far, though, the Aurora Police Department isn’t releasing much more information about the case — including any possible suspects…
Last November, as the hype engine for the latest Twilight movie was running at full tilt, Emi Coleman got downright vampiric, chomping on the necks of not one but two people at a convenience store. Now she’s been sentenced, and while the law’s bite certainly could have been harder, that…
The scandal at the Air Force Academy that followed in the wake of “The War Within,” then-Westword staffer Julie Jargon’s 2003 feature about female cadets victimized by sexual assault, led to changes at the institution intended to demonstrate that supervisors take the problem seriously. But these alterations haven’t prevented such…
If you’re going to have a freak-out, you might as well make it an epic freak-out. That’s the apparent philosophy of Justin Jay, who’s accused by Denver Police of going from a bicycle crash to a bare-assed walk-off in record time…
Jeramie Gerhardt, one of two men charged in an assault on another concert-goer during the 2010 Mayhem Festival at the Comfort Dental Amphitheatre, was sentenced last week in Arapahoe County District Court to 75 days in jail and four years of probation for his role in the incident — while…
Every time you think there are no new perversions left to be discovered, someone proves you wrong. Take Ronald Thomas, age 65, who allegedly made children strip and throw coins at each others’ genitals…
Update: In our original post about Michael Maher, who’s accused of impersonating a firefighter tackling the ultra-destructive High Park blaze (see our earlier coverage below), we noted that his alleged impersonation suggested that he’d been trying something new in comparison with his previous criminal gambits. Wrong, says the Jefferson County…
The Colorado Springs Police Department, working in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, has made a big heroin bust. Nineteen people were arrested, including one juvenile and eight under the age of 21 — many of them alleged users rather than dealers. Their youth makes sense, given…
Two homicides took place in Aurora over Memorial Day weekend — a shooting in the parking lot of the duRoss Lounge and a man found dead in a car near East Alameda and Ironton Street. The victims — Harris Donkor (seen here) and Shawn Hicks, respectively — have now been…
Update: Yesterday, Alan Prendergast reported on a supermax lawsuit alleging shocking mistreatment of mentally ill prisoners. We’ve added a copy of the suit, plus photos of the facility and the imprisoned plaintiffs in the case. See it below following Prendergast’s piece. Original post by Alan Prendergast: “A Clean Version of…
The case against Jesus Cornelio, seventeen, who allegedly caused his toddler cousin’s death by shoving him while Facebooking, sparked controversy after he was charged as an adult using a method the Colorado legislature was trying to reform. That bill is now law, but Weld County DA Ken Buck is crediting…
This isn’t exactly the best week ever for Community Education Centers, a private company that operates halfway houses, prisons and “re-entry centers” in seventeen states. On Sunday, the New York Times began running a three-part series on the company’s alarming record of escapes, assaults, gang activity and drugs at its…
Saturday began with the Denver Police finding a body in an alley near South Quieto Way. It ended with members of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office dealing with a gruesome scene involving Mary Pratt, who was fatally stabbed in the neck. ACSO reps say the person behind the blade was…
Given that cold temperatures tend to cause a certain male appendage to shrink, Kuldip Nijjar’s decision to drop trou and boast about his giant penis while inside a cooler defies logic, as well as common decency and assorted sex crime statutes. He’s now been sentenced to an eight-years-to-life sentence. Get…
Contrary to scenes in numerous books and movies, getting locked up doesn’t always lead to painful bouts of reflection and self-examination. Criminals are a stubborn bunch, and it’s easy behind bars to embrace a convict code and a victim mentality that merely reinforces addictive, self-destructive and antisocial behavior — which…
Returning to the scene of the crime always carries risks for law-breakers. But most are smart enough not to do it while the victim — and the police — are still there. Which brings us to Breanna Ocana…
Update below: Last year, the decision of a Lakewood Police officer to pepper spray an eight year old made national news. But at first blush, that incident seems mild in comparison with the charges leveled against daycare teacher Suzanne Warmington. She’s been accused of pulling a knife on one of…
