His mother, however, insists that he needs help. "He has mental health issues that need to be addressed," she tells Westword. "I want him to get the mental health help he needs." She was at the Jefferson County courthouse on February 20 for a review hearing and competency filing in her son's case.
She's shown up at every court hearing for her son, who is currently charged with fifteen felony counts of unlawful sexual conduct, indecent exposure, attempted sexual assault and criminal mischief. The charges are related to eleven separate events and victims, according to the 1st Judicial District Attorney's Office.
According to Braden's arrest affidavit, the twenty-year-old has confessed to "purposely" exposing himself to women he'd see or meet on hiking trails in Evergreen and Conifer. "He said he didn't remember much of what happened during these episodes because he would get very high on marijuana before hiking," the affidavit says.
The first report came in on April 3, 2023, when Braden allegedly targeted a woman walking solo along a trail in Flying J Ranch Park in Conifer; he groped himself in front of the hiker and grabbed her buttocks, according to cops. Video captured by the victim shows Braden darting off into the woods afterward.
One of Braden's alleged victims managed to capture her attacker on video.
Jefferson County Records Department
A little over a month later, on June 13, 2023, Braden reportedly "confronted a female victim" at Alderfer/Three Sisters Park in Evergreen "and began masturbating," according to Jefferson County Sheriff's Office investigators. On July 11, Braden allegedly targeted a hiker on the Shadow Pine Loop trail and asked her to aid in his masturbation. "Could you touch me, please?" he reportedly asked. "Get the fuck away from me," the victim replied.
"I'll pay," Braden responded before the hiker fled.
On July 18, 2023, he approached three women at Flying J Ranch Park in a single day, fondling two of them, according to JCSO investigators. He also allegedly masturbated and engaged in sexual conversation. On July 24 — just one day before his twentieth birthday — Braden reportedly confronted a female hiker while masturbating and attempted to tear off her clothing.
On August 8, 2023, he accosted a pair of female hikers walking alone at Stapleton Park near Beaver Brook Trail in separate episodes. The incidents happened within a "couple of minutes" of each other, according to JCSO investigators. Braden was arrested later that day.
Braden is due back in court on April 29 for his arraignment. He remains behind bars with a mandatory cash bond of $100,000 and has been ordered to stay away from Jefferson County and Denver County parks should he ever bail out. But his mother says that likely won't happen. "It's a considerable amount," she tells Westword. "We're just ordinary people."
After his arrest, Braden told cops he moved to Colorado in 2021 with his family and was living with his mother and some siblings on South Blue Spruce Road in Evergreen. "Glenn works at El Rancho Restaurant as a line cook with Mondays and Tuesdays being his days off," his arrest affidavit says. "On these days he likes to go hiking, usually around dusk, in the mountain parks around Evergreen including Bergen Park, Genesee Mountain Park and Alderfer/Three Sisters. ... he also admitted to hiking at Flying J Ranch Park."
While in police custody, Braden told investigators he's had a "compulsion to masturbate" since he was nine years old, when he discovered pornography. "The bottom line is he needs to get mental health help," his mother says, requesting that it come through "counseling or a program" of some sort, rather than a prison sentence.
Braden's defense lawyer, Jeffery Weeden, says he's working with the DA's office to come up with a plan and/or "offer" to address Braden's mental health issues, despite his being found competent to stand trial. "We're working very closely with the DA's office to get a mental health and therapeutic disposition of the case," Weeden tells Westword.
The DA's office would not comment on the mental health aspect of the case or Weeden's statement, but did say that "no agreement has been reached."
