Crime & Police

A halfway house operation in Colorado Springs, where two men died from suspected drug overdoses last month, has also been sharply criticized by state and county officials for bungling two separate investigations into sexual misconduct among its residents. The same company recently fired an employee who was suspected of “assisting clients in altering urine samples” that are required as part of mandatory drug-testing for felons making a transition from prison to the community.

In March 2015, we published multiple posts about the fatal shooting of Naeschylus Vinzant by Aurora police officer Paul Jerothe, a veteran of nearly a decade on the force who has been lauded for his actions in the wake of the 2012 Aurora theater shooting. Vinzant was unarmed at the time he…

In an interview with Westword published yesterday, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, who wrote a letter of support for an anti-marijuana legalization measure up for vote in California next week, said he believes legal pot has contributed to a crime increase in Colorado, including more homicides. But he acknowledged that…

There have been no shortage of lawsuits filed in Colorado of late that claim excessive police force, with most of them, including those put forward by the families of the late Ryan Ronquillo and Joseph Valverde, involving guns. In contrast, the complaint pressed by Jeffrey Tomlinson focuses on a different…

Update: We first reported about the arrest of William Amaya for the murder of his aunt and uncle in July 2014; our previous coverage has been incorporated into this post. It’s appropriate that we tell you about the resolution of the case on Halloween. The crime itself was horrifying, and Amaya…

A new report by two of Colorado’s premiere investigative reporters indicates that former Boulder District Attorney Mary Lacy misrepresented DNA evidence in the JonBenét Ramsey investigation in order to clear her parents and her brother of any suspicion in the six-year-old’s 1996 murder. That revelation is unsettling enough, but it also…

Update: Four years ago next month, thirteen-year-old Dylan Redwine disappeared in southwestern Colorado, where he’d traveled for a court-ordered visit with his father, Mark Redwine. His body was found in June 2013, and just over two years later, Mark was named a person-of-interest in the case, which was belatedly ruled…

Update: The prosecution of Air Force cadet Jack Warmolts for an alleged sexual assault in Boulder last year has been marked by controversy, including a judge’s decision to give the defense team the new address of the victim, who’d moved out of state after the incident; see our previous coverage below…

Update: In May, as we reported at the time, social media busted Katrina Kennedy, also known as Katrina Kennedy-Flores, before the police did after a disturbing child-abuse video went viral. Our previous coverage has been incorporated into this post. Now, Kennedy has pleaded guilty in the matter, and while the count…

Update: In two separate posts published in May 2015, we reported about the arrest of Eric Fuhs, Derek Webb and Chad Baluska for the murder of 61-year-old Samuel Grady, Fuhs’s uncle. Our previous coverage has been incorporated into this post. More than a year later, Fuhs, nicknamed “Ice,” has been sentenced…

Update: Around this time in 2015, we revealed the ten most frequently stolen cars in Colorado according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau’s annual “Hot Wheels” list, which covered calendar year 2014. Now, the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association has published data about Colorado thieves’ favorite targets in 2015, and many of the same…

The City of Trinidad has reached a $375,000 settlement in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Colorado on behalf of two women who were arrested three years ago in a botched drug-sting investigation that involved fabricated evidence and an informant paid to make busts. The city has also quietly…

George Brauchler is seeking reelection as district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, but it’s not exactly a race. The Democrats didn’t bother putting up a candidate for the office, and even if they had, Brauchler, a GOP up-and-comer who flirted with a U.S. Senate run before changing his mind, would…

Donald Trump Jr. made plenty of news during his visit to Colorado this week — a lot of it embarrassing or worse. Junior was denied a campaign stop at the Sink in Boulder around the same time that remarks surfaced about a joke he’d made about the Aurora theater shooting. On…

Among the biggest drug busts ever on Colorado’s eastern plains began with a man who’d been shot in the hand. It ended with two arrests and seven pounds’ worth of meth valued at $320,000. And that’s not to mention the 51 pounds of marijuana. “We’ve been seeing an increase in…

Update: In March, the Denver District Attorney’s Office announced the filing of six sexual assault counts against Canada’s Colby Messer in relation to alleged activities at the Grand Hyatt the previous November. The details contained in a police report on view below made it one of this year’s most disturbing stories —…

In recent weeks, two men, Spencer Siroky and David Tatum, were sentenced for a violent marijuana heist in Westminster circa July 2015 and a third, Fredy Castillo, is still wanted for the crime after jumping bail. But even if Castillo was in custody, the story wouldn’t be over for a victim of…

In late 2015, as we’ve reported, Grand Junction’s Sydney White was sentenced to thirty years behind bars related to the death of Angel Place, an eleven-month-old in her care. Prosecutors said Angel died after White kicked her in the head. “I did a horrible thing that I am not proud of,” she…

Last week, Burke Ramsey, older brother of JonBenét Ramsey, who was murdered in her Boulder home on Christmas Day of 1996, sued Dr. Werner Spitz, a Michigan-based forensic pathologist, for $150 million. The focus of the complaint was Dr. Spitz’s assertion in a CBS Detroit interview flowing from the network docuseries The…

Burke Ramsey, older brother of JonBenét Ramsey, who was murdered in Boulder on Christmas Day of 1996, has filed a lawsuit against Dr. Werner Spitz, a Michigan-based forensic pathologist. Spitz theorized on the CBS program The Case of: JonBenét Ramsey” that Burke had killed JonBenét with a blow to the head. The lawsuit, included…

The Facebook pages of Evergreen resident Katherine “Katie” Barton and her husband, Jason Barton, could hardly look more typical. The posts and photo galleries are dominated by photos of their three adorable children, who look happy in all the shots that appear. But the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office believe…

The media barrage about the murder of JonBenét Ramsey is nowhere close to being over, as witnessed by The Killing of JonBenét: Her Father Speaks, an A&E documentary broadcast last night, in which John Ramsey, the father of the six-year-old Boulder girl murdered on Christmas Day, 1996, blasted a CBS series in which a…