Occupy Denver: 11 of 20 weekend arrestees have no criminal record outside of OD protests

November 17's a day of action for Occupy Denver, which is marking the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. That could mean more arrests, and more suggestions by critics that the protests are dominated by longtime criminals. But a report about the arrest records of OD types busted this past...

By Michael Roberts

November 17, 2011

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November 17's a day of action for Occupy Denver, which is marking the two-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street. That could mean more arrests, and more suggestions by critics that the protests are dominated by longtime criminals. But a report about the arrest records of OD types busted this past Saturday disputes that theory.

According to Complete Colorado's Todd Shepherd, eleven of the twenty people taken into custody on Saturday have no police record whatsoever outside of Occupy Denver activities. And of the remaining nine, five of them -- Ronald Sanchez, Joshua Morgan, Nicholas Baracz, Patrick Lif, and Kathleen Emma Dias -- have racked up only minor offenses. For instance, Lif registered a curfew misdemeanor in December 2010 and Dias was charged with making a false report in September.

That leaves four arrestees with what Shepherd terms "significant criminal backgrounds." They are Westword profile subject Corey Donahue, whose record kicks off in 2002 with an underage drinking charge and includes multiple drinking-and-driving related beefs; Ambrose Cruz, bearer of a felony "menacing with a deadly weapon" allegation from 2007; Scott Allen Greene, charged in Aurora with assault and battery, simple assault and reckless endangerment circa 2000; and Charles Landon Smith, who's collected a slew of failure to appear and marijuana-related accusations over the years.

Click here to access the report, which includes links to the aforementioned records. Whether they explode more myths than they confirm will be up to each person to decide.

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Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword's news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor's degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master's degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

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