Braden, a twenty-year-old from Evergreen who lives with his mom and siblings, is accused of going up to female hikers on Jeffco trails naked and groping himself — and sometimes his victims. He's allegedly confessed to doing this "at least once a week, and often more times than that," telling cops he's had a "compulsion to masturbate" since he was nine years old, when he discovered pornography.
In court on August 17, a preliminary hearing date was set for September 8 as Senior Deputy District Attorney Darren Kafka handed down four counts of unlawful sexual conduct, nine counts of indecent exposure, one count of attempted sexual assault and one count of criminal mischief in the new charging document. The charges are related to eleven separate events and victims, according to the DA's office.
Braden's mother was the only member of the public to show up for the court proceeding. She sat by herself, waiting patiently as she watched orange-clad defendants appear virtually through Webex, one by one, until it was her son's turn to be seen by the judge.
Afterward, she walked out of the courtroom and stood in the hallway alone, teary-eyed and staring out a large window as she waited for Braden's lawyer, Jeffery L. Weeden, to come up and speak to her. "No, no comment," she told Westword when asked about her son and the allegations he's facing.
Weeden, who confirmed that the woman was Braden's mother — saying she's "Mrs. Braden," while not providing a first name — also declined to comment. Attempts to subsequently reach him were unsuccessful.
One of Braden's alleged victims managed to capture her attacker on video.
Jefferson County Records Department
Braden is accused of being the culprit in at least eleven incidents in which female hikers were accosted by a naked man or saw the man. The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office received the first report on April 3, after 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.
Video captured by the victim shows Braden darting off into the woods afterward
Braden's reign of terror came to an end on August 8 after he accosted two female hikers walking alone at Stapleton Park near Beaver Brook Trail in separate episodes. Authorities had been on the hunt for him for weeks and put a plan in place to catch him should another incident be reported.
"We had a very solid plan...if it should happen again," JCSO spokesperson Jacki Kelley told Westword. "When we received the 911 call, we deployed a lot of resources to that area. We had a combination of patrol units: unmarked cars, marked cars, un-uniformed personnel, uniformed personnel, a couple of our special units; we had drones in the air, we had canines. We just threw the manpower that we had available to us at that scene to try and lock down a perimeter and catch the suspect — and we did."
After Braden was arrested, he allegedly told cops that he moved to Colorado in 2021 with his family and currently lives with his mother 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," according to his affidavit. "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. After some discussion, he also admitted to hiking at Flying J Ranch Park." That was the location of the first incident.
Braden is facing five felony charges: four counts of unlawful sexual contact and one count of attempted sexual assault. The nine counts of indecent exposure that he's facing are misdemeanors, and his one count of criminal mischief is a petty offense.
Braden is currently behind bars with a mandatory cash bond of $100,000. He's been ordered to stay away from Jefferson County and Denver County parks should he be released, according to Jeffco's Clerk of Court.
Braden and his mom live around nine and a half miles from Flying J Ranch Park, a little over three miles from Alderfer/Three Sisters Park, a little under eight miles from Bergen Park, and nine and a half miles from Genesee Mountain Park. Ten of the incidents listed in Braden's arrest affidavit occurred on Mondays and Tuesdays — the days when Braden told cops he usually hikes "because those are the days he does not work," investigators say.
"The trail system in Jefferson County is a safer place to be because this guy is in custody," Kelley told Westword.
