Charlie Sheen, whose Christmas present was an arrest for allegedly threatening and assaulting wife Brooke Mueller, wanted to avoid cameras inside an Aspen courthouse during his appearance there yesterday — and his lawyers prevailed on that matter. But there was nothing he could do to prevent cameras outside the building…
Seven years ago, after an emotional murder trial that was rich in incriminating circumstantial evidence but short on motive, a Denver jury found Hal Hebert guilty of shooting his wife Carol in 2001 in their Belcaro home. A key witness for the prosecution was an oddball named Richard White, who…
The long, twisted tale of Operation Fortune Cookie — the state’s biggest indoor weed bust, which went to pot once a snitch spilled the beans to the drug ring about the investigation and the law-enforcement agencies that were involved imploded — was slated to wrap up this week. On Wednesday,…
View Larger Map Early on the morning of Super Bowl Sunday, Denver Police were called to 675 S. Raleigh Street, an area captured in the graphic above (if you have problems seeing the image, click “View Larger Map”). A party had been going on there, but it apparently got way…
Raymond Swisher was arrested on January 15, but charges weren’t announced until today. Why? Maybe because it took that long to count up all the bad things he allegedly recorded himself doing. In the end, he hit triple digits via 85 counts of indecent exposure and fifteen alleging unlawful sexual…
In early January, right after Douglass Singleton was shot and killed, the Denver Police Department characterized the slaying as a medical marijuana transaction gone awry — leading to speculation that the weed element was being trumped up for demonization purposes without adequate proof. The Denver District Attorney’s Office hasn’t played…
Activists rightly tout the ability of the disabled to do just about anything. But don’t expect them to use Steven Clark as a poster boy. Clark, 33, who uses a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, has been hit with several charges related to sexual abuse on a child — the…
Thomas Bader, a Colorado Springs pharmacist, was found guilty today of 31 counts related to importing and distributing anabolic steroids and Chinese human growth hormones. Twenty-three of those counts were for distributing the juice to minors. Bader told physicians his illegal drugs were not subject to FDA approval due to…
“Iraq veteran Nic Gray talks to Westword about the night he can’t remember.”This week’s cover story relates the tale of how Nic Gray, an Iraq war veteran, got caught up in the criminal justice system and eventually landed in an innovative new program called the El Paso County veterans treatment…
Volunteer youth minister William “Bill” McLaughlin has been in Douglas County jail since mid-December on a $500,000 bail thanks to multiple charges of sexual assault on a child. But the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the possibility of additional victims. According to the DCSO, McLaughlin has been associated…
Today, while law enforcement and bank honchos were meeting to discuss a recent upsurge in Denver-area bank robberies, a new bank was hit a little over a mile away. Score one for the robbers. In total, there were 208 robberies in Colorado and Wyoming in 2009, a 37 percent increase…
Update, 1:08 p.m.: Mohammed Zazi has now been officially accused in Brooklyn of conspiring to obstruct justice in Colorado and New York, prompting a scheduled appearance in U.S. District Court at 2 p.m. today. Click here for the details and read a U.S. Attorney’s Office release below our original item…
Colorado’s become Hoax Central lately thanks to the bizarre case involving a certain Balloon Boy. But the latest alleged pranksters are hardly Richard Heene clones. Rather, they’re members of the Denver Police Department. As first reported by Channel 4, two officers assigned to District 6, called the Parker Police Department…
Back in May 2008, a group of nine people, including Deangelo Calaway and Mitchell Walker, were upset by an incident that took place at Bash nightclub, not to mention the murder the day before of Michael Asberry, a 2007 Westword profile subject who talked with reporter Luke Turf about the…
On Friday, we told you about the nineteen locals caught up in Project Big Freeze, a nationwide sweep by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE, that targeted “transnational gangs with ties to drug-trafficking organizations” in 83 cities, including Denver. That doesn’t mean, however, that all 447 alleged gang members…
The wife of notorious swindler and former fugitive Thomas Quintin is set to face charges stemming from reported schemes that date back as far back as 1990, when she and Quintin ran a diesel distribution company that failed to report fuel taxes in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. Sandra Westphal, 68,…
Earlier this week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, popularly known as ICE, announced the results of Project Big Freeze. ICE says the operation targeted “transnational gangs with ties to drug-trafficking organizations” in 83 cities, including Denver. A total of 447 alleged gang members were rounded up, with early reports saying…
You might say Steven Clay Romero sped off with our dishonor this week, dragging his freedom and dignity behind him, bloody and lifeless. How? By dragging a stranger’s dog to death behind his car…
On January 21, we told you about Joseph Trujillo, who reportedly left his infant alone for six or seven hours while he was boozing at a bar — and when he returned, the child was dead. In its initial release about Trujillo, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office explicitly stated that…
On The Simpsons, Mr. Burns frequently says, “Release the hounds!” But not having any vicious canines at his command earlier this week, Joshua Alger made do with the resources he had at hand — and released the children! Alger, 28, reportedly passed out drunk in the play area of a…
Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers has had her ups and downs in her efforts to obtain the death penalty for two Limon inmates accused of killing a prison snitch. Almost two years ago, Lincoln County District Judge Stanley Brinkley removed her office from the prosecution of one of the…
Actress Halle Berry is reportedly planning to star in a film called Who Is Doris Payne?. But plenty of police officers already know the answer to that question — including the ones who just busted her for allegedly swiping a Burberry coat from a Saks Fifth Avenue in Costa Mesa,…
