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Karen Bowers

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ONE LAST GASP FOR MARLBORO COUNTRY

AMERICA'S LARGEST TOBACCO COMPANY WANTS TO RUN SMOKERS OUT OF DENVER ON A RAIL.

By Karen Bowers
Dec 13, 1995

As the train pulls into Denver's Union Station, its massive, red locomotives are veiled in billows of smoke. Appropriately, the vaporous clouds increase rather than decrease as the engines chug to a halt and the passengers disembark. Welcome to Marlboro Country. And welcome to the "Marlboro Unlimited," a custom-built, luxury...
WHO SHOCKED THE SHERIFF?

THREE DEPUTIES ACT OUT THEIR LOVE TRIANGLE IN A COURTROOM MELODRAMA.

By Karen Bowers
Nov 29, 1995

The next TV camera in a Denver courtroom may have to be wheeled in from the trashiest of the talk shows. Last week Denver sheriff's deputy Karen Kirchberg stood accused of flourishing a weapon and threatening to "put a bullet" in a couple of other female co-workers following a love-triangle...
96 TEARS

CONVICTED TEEN KILLER CHERYL ARMSTRONG'S SENTENCING WAS SHORT. HER SENTENCE WASN'T.

By Karen Bowers
Nov 29, 1995

Denver prosecutor Craig Silverman was just beginning to launch into a well-rehearsed spiel explaining why convicted teenage murderer Cheryl Armstrong should be punished to the fullest extent of the law when he was cut off mid-sentence by District Judge Warren Martin. "You may sit down, Mr. Silverman," the jurist instructed...
NATURAL BORED KILLERS

By Karen Bowers
Nov 22, 1995

part 2 of 2 January 31, 1995 Met T downtown. Afterwards we went and fucked once, then I saw Rachelle's picture in his wallet & I took it. He totally tweaked out on me so I got all hurt. Got in hugest fight ever. He told me we're over. When...
NATURAL BORED KILLERS

WHEN SUBURBAN GANGSTER WANNABE CHERYL ARMSTRONG WANTED HER BOYFRIEND DEAD, SHE DIDN'T HAVE TO LOOK FAR FOR HELP.GIRL TALK INSIDE THE CHILLING DIARY OF CONVICTED TEENAGE MURDERER CHERYL ARMSTRONG.

By Karen Bowers
Nov 22, 1995

part 1 of 2 January 2, 1995 Me and T are over. I wanna commit suicide. I love him so much. --excerpt from Cheryl Armstrong's diary It may have been something about living in the tame Littleton suburbs that made sixteen-year-old Cheryl Armstrong and her friends long for a more...
BAD REVIEWS

DENVER'S POLICE-REVIEW BOARD FACES A SHOWDOWN.

By Karen Bowers
Nov 15, 1995

The civilian watchdogs entrusted with investigating complaints about Denver police have become so discouraged by a lack of support from the city administration that resignations appear imminent. And that would suit the police--and some city officials--just fine. "If they were to go away," city councilman Ed Thomas, an ex-cop, says...
GETTING IN HIS LICKS

AN ELDERLY MACHINIST PUMMELS HIS WIFE'S LOVER AND SWEARS HE DID NOTHING WRONG.

By Karen Bowers
Nov 8, 1995

Sixty-nine-year-old John Hickey would rather gamble on a prison term than admit to wrongdoing for breaking the nose of his wife's lover moments after discovering the two flagrante delicto. "Put one man on the jury," Hickey has said, "and there's no way they'll convict me." He'll get a chance to...
DEAD TO RITESWAS JIM KLEBER, ACCUSED OF MURDERING HIS WIFE, ABOUT TO GIVE UP HER GHOST?

By Karen Bowers
Nov 1, 1995

Eighteen months ago Jim Kleber, long suspected of killing his wife, Lois, in 1992, seemed on the verge of confiding what her family wanted, yet feared, to hear: where he'd hidden her body. "I just want to do the right thing," Kleber told an Arvada police investigator. Now, however, his...
HARD TIME

EVEN COLORADO'S TOUGHEST CONS ARE AFRAID TO BUNK WITH MARVIN GRAY.

By Karen Bowers
Oct 25, 1995

part 1 of 2 James Mervin, Colorado prison inmate No. 56225, was moving again. Over the years, he'd learned to pack quickly, tossing his meager belongings into a box so as not to upset the guard waiting to escort him to his new home. He didn't think much about it...
HARD TIME

By Karen Bowers
Oct 25, 1995

part 2 of 2 If Hilton had named Gray as his attacker, says DOC legal counsel Brad Rockwell, Gray would have been slam-dunked into solitary to await a disciplinary hearing. But since Hilton had not yet named his assailant, Gray stayed where he was. On July 20 Gray was given...
BRUSH WITH THE LAW

YOUNG DELINQUENTS CHURN OUT ARTWORK TO EARN MONEY FOR RESTITUTION.

By Karen Bowers
Sep 20, 1995

During the past year, budding, nonviolent juvenile delinquents have been turned into budding, nonviolent artists, the idea being that the pint-sized perps would sell their artwork to reimburse crime victims. It may be working. The youngsters, all age sixteen or younger, have raised roughly $5,000 (the bulk of it in...
BEATING THE RAP

THE DEFENDANT IN A FATAL BEATING IN WIGGINS IS ACQUITTED AFTER A SELF-DEFENSE ARGUMENT.

By Karen Bowers
Sep 20, 1995

On Thursday, September 7, following fourteen hours of deliberations, a Fort Morgan jury acquitted Charles "Butch" Allee of second-degree murder, first-degree assault and three other charges related to the February 19 beating death of Wiggins farmer Jeffrey Lousberg. Allee's teenaged son, Charles Allee III, is scheduled to stand trial September...
STILL GETTING AWAY WITH IT

THE STATE IS CATCHING MORE HALFWAY-HOUSE ABSCONDERS THAN EVER. UNFORTUNATELY, IT'S ALSO LETTING MORE CRIMINALS ESCAPE.

By Karen Bowers
Sep 13, 1995

Denver's halfway houses are supposed to help state prisoners ease their way back into society. But for an ever-increasing number of inmates, "community corrections" facilities are simply an easy ticket to freedom. Inmates have escaped or walked away from Denver halfway houses at a record pace this year. According to...
TAG, YOU'RE IT

HOW THE DENVER COPS' ANTI-GRAFFITI PROGRAM ALMOST GOT CROSSED OUT.

By Karen Bowers
Aug 30, 1995

Last week, graffiti made local headlines as never before--community leaders decried the defacement of a beloved rec-center mural, a "volunteer" bloodhound was pressed into service to track down spray-paint-toting vandals, and a local radio station opened a graffiti hotline to report acts of vandalism. Just one week earlier, however, Denver...
A REAL BACK-SLAPPER

A FAMILIAR INMATE LANDS IN THE MIDDLE OF YET ANOTHER PRISON SPAT.

By Karen Bowers
Aug 30, 1995

The world may be a safer place with Jeffery Thomas behind bars, but it sure is a lot more complicated. In January 1993, Thomas (who is serving three life sentences for murdering his girlfriend) was assaulted by guards at the state prison in Limon. Then, after Thomas filed a formal...
SHOOT UP FIRST, ANSWER QUESTIONS LATER

By Karen Bowers
Aug 16, 1995

part 2 of 2 Back at police headquarters, Komesu was singing like a canary. He admitted that he was a morphine addict, Kuretich says, and he admitted forging prescriptions. "He said he'd taken a large amount of morphine so he could start slowly decreasing his use," Kuretich says. "And he...
SHOOT UP FIRST, ANSWER QUESTIONS LATER

A SMALL-TOWN PHARMACIST STEALS 27,800 DOSES OF MORPHINE--AND AVOIDS THE PAIN OF PRISON.

By Karen Bowers
Aug 16, 1995

part 1 of 2 Fort Morgan hospital pharmacist Andrew Komesu was already in jail facing charges of forging prescriptions and plundering drugs when local police and federal agents discovered his stash. The haul, made in May 1994, was one of the largest in ten years for a DEA anti-drug task...
AFTERNOON DELIGHT

AN INQUIRY TURNS DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES OFFICIALS INTO PICNIC BASKET CASES.

By Karen Bowers
Aug 16, 1995

It's a sunny July day at Denver's Washington Park and, over by the picnic pavilion, 150 shorts-clad revelers are eating, drinking, playing games and frolicking to the extent permitted by the 90-plus degree heat. So what's wrong with this picture? The picnickers are employees of Denver's Department of Social Services...
WHO WANTS TO GUARD A COP?

A MIFFED DENVER POLICE OFFICER TURNS A BASKETBALL-COURT SPAT INTO WORLD WAR III.

By Karen Bowers
Aug 2, 1995

Pickup basketball is a physical sport, as evidenced by the playground rule "No blood, no foul." But when the guy who gets smacked is a Denver cop, the rules change. What began as a friendly game of hoops last fall has evolved into a nine-month court battle in which a...
SAY ANYTHING

By Karen Bowers
Jul 26, 1995

part 2 of 2 Chris started informing on other inmates almost immediately after arriving back in the joint. He once allegedly turned in another inmate for smoking pot in return for a promise that he could make a few phone calls. His propensity to tattle was common knowledge among the...
SAY ANYTHING

MURDERER AND JAILHOUSE SNITCH CHRIS RODRIGUEZ WANTS TO CONFESS. AGAIN.KING RAT IN THE COLORADO STATE PRISON SYSTEM, THERE ARE LIES, AND DAMN LIES--AND THEN THERE'S CHRIS RODRIGUEZ.

By Karen Bowers
Jul 26, 1995

part 1 of 2 Chris Rodriguez pops up from his plastic chair and begins to pace the length of the interview room at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City. His voice ebbs and flows as he walks the three steps from the window to the door and back again,...
ON THE SPOT

DRY-CLEANING BILLS ARE ON THE RISE--THANKS TO THE POLITICS OF "PERC."

By Karen Bowers
Jul 12, 1995

The dry-cleaning industry has been hit hard by the popular passion for saving the environment. While some shop owners have undertaken expensive renovations to reduce pollution caused by toxic chemicals, others have been socked with huge cleanup fees. Now dry cleaners are complaining that they can't bear the costs alone...