Crime
DPD sting leads to consumption citations for Denver Church of Cannabis leaders over 4/20 ceremony
DENVER – Three of the founders of Denver’s International Church of Cannabis were cited for public consumption of marijuana and violating the Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act for their 4/20 rally after several undercover Denver police officers were able to get inside the church’s event that day.
Steve Berke and two other founders of the newly-minted cannabis church, near Denver’s Washington Park, say the citations weren’t delivered until several days after April 20, something the Denver City Attorney’s Office confirmed. None of the other people at the ceremony were cited. Continue reading
Colo. Sec. of State: Election integrity commission’s data request can’t verify voter roll accuracy
DENVER – A day after the White House released voter comments with unredacted personal information sent to the president’s newly-created, controversial election integrity commission, Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams sent a letter to the commission touting the integrity of Colorado’s elections and addressing a series of questions the commission asked in its request for voter roll information from U.S. states.
Williams said that though he is complying with the commission’s request, since he can’t lawfully provide confidential voter information, the data “can’t be used to effectively assess the accuracy of voter rolls.” Continue reading
Second Aurora police officer charged with official misconduct this week
AURORA, Colo. – Another Aurora Police Department officer has been charged with official misconduct—the second this week, though the department says the cases are unrelated.
George Brauchler, the district attorney for Colorado’s 18th Judicial District, charged Aurora Officer Lt. Leland Anthony Silver on Wednesday with one count of first-degree official misconduct—a class 2 misdemeanor. The charge came after an investigation by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Continue reading
Broomfield youth softball coach charged with sexually assaulting former player of his
THORNTON, Colo. – A former coach of a Broomfield youth softball team was charged Friday with sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl who was a former player of his.
Jason Lee Davis, 43, faces one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust—a class 4 felony.
Dave Young, the district attorney for the 17th Judicial District, says the assault happened April 2 at the Margaret Carpenter Recreation Center.
A news release from the district attorney’s office says Davis previously coached the Broomfield Thunder softball team, and that the girl he’s accused of assaulting was a player on the team.
It’s unclear if the alleged assault happened while Davis was still the girl’s coach, or when he stopped coaching the team.
Davis was advised of his charges in Adams County Court on Friday, and faces an Aug. 25 preliminary hearing on the charge.
The district attorney’s office asks anyone with more information regarding Davis or the incident is asked to call Thornton police at 720-977-5069. A mugshot for Davis was not immediately available.
Fired CDOT auditor charged with 17 felonies, accused of personal use of 4 state credit cards
DENVER – The former Colorado Department of Transportation auditor fired last year amid an investigation into his state-owned credit card use has been officially charged with 17 felonies, including theft and forgery, in Denver.
Christopher Wedor, 34, faces one count of theft, two counts of identity theft, one count of computer crime, six counts of attempting to influence a public servant and seven counts of forgery. Forgery is a class 5 felony; the rest of the charges are class 4 felonies in Colorado.
Denver District Attorney Beth McCann filed charges against Wedor on Tuesday, and he turned himself in on Wednesday.
Wedor is accused of stealing more than $20,000 from CDOT over eight months last year by using his state credit card and those of three of his subordinates to buy personal items and gifts not used by the state.
The alleged theft happened between May and December of last year. He had been hired just a month before the alleged misconduct started. He was fired on Dec. 29 of last year after CDOT opened an investigation into Wedor’s credit card use.
Wedor was paid $112,000 per year in his position, the Associated Press reported in December.
His first court appearance has yet to be set. Class 4 felonies typically carry sentences of between 2 and 6 years in Colorado. Class 5 felonies usually carry 1-3 year sentences.
Man brings nearly 2 pounds of trash bag weed to Lakewood hospital
DENVER – There’s good weed and bad weed, and then there’s trash bag weed.
Lakewood police arrested a homeless man Wednesday evening who showed up to the emergency room at Belmar Swedish Medical Center with 1.8 pounds of pot inside a trash bag—and it didn’t appear to be the high-quality stuff Colorado sells.
The transient, who is either 49 or 50 years old, according to police, had arrived at the emergency room just before 6 p.m. to get treatment for non-life-threatening health conditions.
A Lakewood Police Department spokesman told Denver7 the man was admitted to the hospital, and the marijuana was found during a search of his belongings.
He has yet to be charged, though charges might follow the man’s release, police said.
“We all know marijuana is legal for adults 21+…but you can’t take a trash bag full into the hospital. Oops!” the department tweeted.
We all know marijuana is legal for adults 21+…but you can’t take a trash bag full into the hospital. Oops! pic.twitter.com/85MUli3O4S
— Lakewood Police (@LakewoodPDCO) July 13, 2017
Aurora police officer charged with official misconduct, attempting to influence public servant
BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. – An Aurora Police Department officer was arrested earlier this week on three felony and two misdemeanor charges relating to official misconduct and attempting to influence a public servant.
Officer Matthew Ewert, 34, was arrested by the Erie Police Department and faces charges in Boulder County. He was booked into jail just after noon on Tuesday.
He faces two felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one felony count of destroying physical evidence, and two counts of official misconduct. The latter two are misdemeanors. Continue reading
Colorado woman charged with voter fraud, accused of forging dead parents’ signatures
EL PASO COUNTY, Colo. – A Colorado woman has been charged with six counts of voter fraud for allegedly writing her dead parents’ names on their mail-in ballots multiple times in elections between 2009 and 2013.
Sarilu Sosa-Sanchez, 59, was charged in late May in El Paso County with six counts of forgery of a government-issued document, a class 5 felony. A DNA collection was also ordered in the case. Continue reading
Pilot who cut off transgender woman’s testicles in Denver apartment pleads guilty, sentenced
DENVER – The commercial airline pilot who cut off a transgender woman’s testicles at a Denver apartment in May has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor practicing medicine without a license charge in exchange for felony assault charges being dropped by the Denver district attorney.
James Pennington, 57, originally faced second-degree reckless assault and unauthorized practice of medicine charges, though the victim had asked that Pennington not be charged.
The plea deal between Pennington and prosecutors was reached Monday.
Per his plea agreement, he was sentenced to court supervised probation, according to Colorado court records.
Police reports suggest Pennington removed the transgender woman’s testicles using an Army surgical kit inside her apartment. The procedure reportedly took 90 minutes, but the suturing failed to stop a “large amount of blood” pouring from the incision.
Pennington was a captain for ExpressJet Airlines. ABC7 in Chicago reports that co-workers said Pennington flew for United Express and was based out of Chicago O’Hare.
He was placed on leave after his arrest, and remains on leave Tuesday, according to ABC7. But Pennington told the station that he was “planning to go back to work.”
Pennington’s attorney, Douglas Richards, told ABC7 that Pennington was “pleased that this has brought attention to the daily struggles of the transgender community.”
“It’s not every day that someone, like my client, risks their own liberty to help a stranger who is a victim of her own body,” Richards told the station.
The attorney of the woman who underwent the procedure says the woman has recovered fully and “is happy in her new body,” according to ABC7.
Practicing medicine without an authorized physician license is a class 2 misdemeanor in Colorado for the first offense.
Trial over Denver radio host accused of groping Taylor Swift starts in less than a month
DENVER – The court battle between Taylor Swift and a former Denver country radio host accused of grabbing her buttocks during a meet-and-greet ahead of a June 2013 concert in Denver is heating up a month ahead of the trial.
Swift will appear in person in U.S. District Court of Colorado for the trial, which is set to begin Aug. 7 and scheduled for nine days. A final pre-trial preparation conference is set for July 21.
The world-famous musician has been embroiled in lawsuits and counter-suits for several years with David Mueller, a former radio personality from KYGO, a Denver country radio station.
Mueller was fired from his job days after a member of Swift’s security team claimed that Mueller had grabbed her buttocks underneath her skirt while taking a photo together ahead of a concert at the Pepsi Center.
He sued Swift and some members of her team in September 2015, claiming they slandered him and forced his firing without cause, though the radio station said it did its own internal investigation before firing Mueller.
And Swift filed a counterclaim months later calling Mueller’s claims that it was a different KYGO employee who actually touched Swift’s buttocks “specious” and called for a jury trial to settle the back-and-forth allegations.
At the end of May, Judge William J. Martinez issued a summary judgment denying Mueller’s tort claims that Swift and her team had slandered him, but upheld the rest of both suits.
Swift and handfuls of witnesses have been deposed in the case, and there are hundreds of pages of testimony, documents and photos that have been submitted as evidence.
Her attorneys have argued in documents filed in the past two weeks that Mueller purposely spoiled evidence relating to the case several times, including recordings he made with his bosses that fired him.
They also argue that a photo of the two together proves that Mueller indeed grabbed her, but the photo is sealed in evidence records.
Swift has said in the past that if the court finds in her favor, she’d donate any money to charities aimed at protecting women from sexual assault.
The trial is set to begin at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 7.