Crime
Lawsuit: Anadarko defrauded investors with ‘materially false’ info about Firestone explosion risk
DENVER – Anadarko Petroleum, the company responsible for two oil and gas sites whose explosions have killed three people and severely injured four others in Colorado over the past five weeks, now faces accusations that it made “materially false and misleading statements” about the Firestone home explosion that defrauded investors out of money.
An investor named Robert Edgar filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Anadarko Petroleum Company, its CEO, president and chairman, R.A. Walker, and its CFO, Robert Gwin earlier this month in federal court in Texas. Anadarko is based in The Woodlands, Texas—a Houston suburb. Continue reading
Mother’s boyfriend arrested for 18-month-old girl’s death in Rocky Ford
ROCKY FORD, Colo. – Authorities have arrested the boyfriend of the mother of an 18-month-old girl found dead Saturday on suspicion of child abuse that resulted in the girl’s death.
Ryan Casias, 20, of Rocky Ford is set to be advised of his charge Friday in an Otero County courtroom. He is being held on a $150,000 bond for the child abuse resulting in death charge.
Investigators still aren’t saying much about the circumstances behind 18-month-old Jayleianna Rivas-Trujillo’s death, only that they were called to a home in Rocky Ford on Saturday morning after an unresponsive child was reported.
The toddler was taken to the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center, then airlifted to Children’s Hospital, where she died.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation says Casias is Rivas-Trujillo’s mother’s boyfriend.
DA: Denver PD ‘careless’ in responding to union’s open records request, but no charges filed
DENVER – Denver District Attorney Beth McCann won’t file charges against the Denver Police Department’s chief or deputy chief after the department allegedly violated the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) when it initially kept secret a letter from the former district attorney concerning a controversial arrest last year.
McCann’s decision comes after a months-long investigation by Denver7 Investigates into the letter, which was obtained by the investigative team in January.
In the letter, then-District Attorney Mitch Morrissey wrote to Police Chief Robert White about his concerns over an investigation into an alleged rape committed by a DPD officer and another woman who were arrested but never charged.
In the letter, Morrissey took issue with DPD Deputy Chief Matthew Murray’s discretion and actions during the investigation, particularly with Murray’s decision to “rush to judgment” in arresting the people involved in the case, and bypassing what Morrissey says were long-engrained rules about consulting with the district attorney’s office about “serious investigations.”
Though White responded with a two-sentence letter to Morrissey in June 2016—a month after Morrissey originally sent the letter.
The Denver Police Department’s rank-and-file union, the Denver Police Protective Association (DPPA) had made formal CORA requests to DPD on December 28 of last year and Jan. 3 of this year for Morrissey’s letter and White’s response, but didn’t receive Morrissey’s letter to the department until Jan. 30—more than a month after the original request, days after Denver7 asked police about the letters and the records denials.
By then, DPPA had already received both Morrissey and White’s letters from the district attorney’s office three weeks earlier via a separate CORA request.
“They lied and said that the letter didn’t exist, that there were no records responsive to our request,” union president Nick Rogers told Denver7 Investigates in January. “It was nothing but an out-and-out lie.”
In March, McCann’s office opened an investigation as to whether DPD violated CORA laws, and Denver’s Department of Public Safety opened an independent investigation into both the original case and the open records spat.
Now that the district attorney’s decision has been made, the city’s investigation will continue.
“We have engaged a third party to handle the administrative investigation into this matter,” said Denver Department of Public Safety Communications Director Daelene Mix. “Now that the District Attorney’s office has concluded its work, we will advance the findings to the third party and the administrative investigation will commence.”
First Amendment attorney Steve Zansberg said DPD’s open records denials raised “significant suspicion” when he talked to Denver7 Investigates about the case in March.
“It raises significant suspicion that they were unable to find a letter until you told them you had a copy of it,” Zansberg told Denver7’s chief investigative reporter Tony Kovaleski.
But McCann said Thursday that there was not “sufficient evidence…to find a knowing and willful violation of CORA beyond a reasonable doubt.”
She did not fully exonerate White and Murray’s handling of the records, however, despite saying no one will face charges.
“The CORA requests in question were handled carelessly by DPD, particularly by Chief White and Deputy Chief Murray,” McCann said. “The public has the right to expect a quick and thoughtful response to CORA requests by city officials, particularly by its police leadership.”
She also urged the Denver Department of Safety and DPD to “examine and improve” its process for responding to CORA requests.
“These requests provide the public with important access to government documents. Immediate and thorough responses are critical to provide transparency and accountability in government operations,” McCann said.
CBI called in to help investigate death of 18-month-old girl in Rocky Ford
ROCKY FORD, Colo. – State and local authorities are investigating the death of an 18-month-old girl that happened Saturday, though few details are available.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation announced Wednesday evening it had joined the Rocky Ford Police Department and 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office investigation into the girl’s death.
CBI said that it would not release details because the investigation is still active.
But a GoFundMe page identifies the toddler as Jayleianna Rivas-Trujillo, and says she died as a result of child abuse. Attempts to reach the Rocky Ford Police Department to confirm that is the case have been unsuccessful.
The La Junta Tribune-Democrat reports that dispatch was called Saturday to report that the girl was unresponsive, and that when an officer arrived, she had a faint pulse.
According to the Tribune-Democrat, the officer performed a sternum rub on the girl before she was taken to the Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center, then airlifted to Children’s Hospital, where she died.
Lakewood man sentenced to maximum 48 years for beating girlfriend’s young son to death
GOLDEN, Colo. – The Lakewood man who pleaded guilty last month to beating his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son to death in 2014 was sentenced Wednesday to the maximum 48 years in prison that he faced.
Ever Lopez-Calidonio, 27, pleaded guilty to child abuse resulting in death charges last month for killing his girlfriend’s son, Jason “J.J.” Ramirez in October 2014, by beating him repeatedly.
He faced between 36 and 48 years in prison at sentencing, but Judge Chris Bachmeyer handed him the maximum sentence, saying it was among the most violent child deaths she’d seen in more than two decades on the job.
In October 2014, Lakewood police were called to the home Lopez-Calidonio shared with his girlfriend and her son, and found the boy laying on the pavement outside his mother’s apartment.
The boy’s mother had just left for work, and neighbors had seen Lopez-Calidonio slapping the boy’s chest and called police.
Though Lopez-Calidonio claimed he was trying to help the boy breathe when he was struggling, the boy’s autopsy showed that he had a transected liver and other internal bleeding caused by various injuries.
In addition to the blunt-force injuries to his body, the boy was found to have injuries to his head as well.
In his plea hearing, Lopez-Calidonio admitted he started beating the boy in the abdomen when the boy soiled himself while Lopez-Calidonio was running late for work.
During his sentencing hearing, Lopez-Calidonio told the judge he’d made a “mistake” and wanted to be treated as such, but the judge didn’t agree.
Lopez-Calidonio, a Guatemala native, has been living in the country illegally after overstaying a visa, the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office says.
Denver sergeant accused of revealing trafficking victim’s name joins Brauchler’s trafficking unit
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. – A Denver Police Department sergeant who had previously been named in a lawsuit as having identified the victim of a child sex trafficking case in a film will join the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office’s special human trafficking team.
District Attorney George Brauchler announced Daniel Steele’s hiring as a criminal investigator in the office’s human trafficking team Wednesday.
Steele, most-recently a sergeant working for the Denver Police Department’s Special Investigations Division, has worked in law enforcement for more than 22 years and is widely considered an expert in combatting sex trafficking.
He was one of the investigators who helped found the Rock Mountain Innocence Lost Task Force and supervised it for five years.
But he was also named in a lawsuit filed late last year, in which he was accused of disclosing personal details, including the name and photograph, of a child sex trafficking victim from Denver in a movie that ran on Netflix called “Tricked.”
Though he was not a defendant in the lawsuit, Steele’s actions were the crux of it. The defendant in the suit, film company Three Generations Inc., settled for an undisclosed amount with the plaintiff in February.
Brauchler’s human trafficking unit was founded after his office received funding from the four counties his district represents in 2015.
“These cases are frequently difficult to prosecute,” said Brauchler. “Victims can be reluctant to testify, and witnesses frequently come from troubled backgrounds and tough circumstances. Our team understands the complexities and works to hold traffickers accountable and help vulnerable victims. I’m pleased to be able to add Dan Steele’s expertise to our efforts.”
Former Weld County teacher’s assistant faces new child sex crime charges at second school
WELD COUNTY, Colo. – A former teacher’s assistant already facing charges for allegedly having sex with one of her 14-year-old students faces new charges after she allegedly kissed and sent explicit photos to a 6th-grade student at Prairie Heights Middle School in Evans.
Jerica Zoe Enriquez, 25, faces four new charges for the alleged indiscretions uncovered after her previous arrest in December: sexual exploitation of children, two counts of internet sexual exploitation of a child, and criminal attempt to commit sexual assault on a child.
According to her latest arrest affidavit, a teacher at Prairie Heights contacted an Evans police officer in early January to report that she had heard a student talking about a teacher “sleeping with” and kissing one of the students.
The alleged contact happened during the 2015-16 school year, when the victim was in 6th grade.
According to the affidavit, Enriquez noticed the victim on his first day of school that year and immediately asked about him and where he lived. When he asked Enriquez why she was asking him such personal questions, she replied, “Sorry.”
Later in the school year, the two were alone together again, and Enriquez started staring at the boy and moving closer and closer toward him.
He asked about her behavior, according to the affidavit, to which she again replied, “Sorry.”
But she continued inching her face closer to his, even though he “thought it was weird,” according to the affidavit, so he kissed her, saying he wanted to “see how it was” to kiss a woman not his age.
Enriquez allegedly replied, “That was sexy.”
According to the affidavit, Enriquez offered to have sex with the boy, but he refused. He also refused advances by Enriquez in which she tried to take him home from school, despite his mother being on her way to give him a ride.
At the end of the school year, Enriquez told the boy she would miss him, according to the affidavit.
At some point, though it’s unclear whether it happened during the school year or after, Enriquez allegedly sent two Snapchat photos to the boy: one in which she was wearing only underwear, and another in which she was nude and exposing her breasts and genitals, according to the affidavit.
She already faced charges of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and obscenity to a minor charges in the previous case. She worked at Jefferson Middle School while that incident allegedly occurred.
She is set to appear in court for status conferences in both cases Friday morning in Weld County.
Transient’s shoplifting arrest leads to charges in 2 November Denver-area murders
DENVER – A transient who already had active attempted murder warrants out of Louisiana now faces charges for two murders that happened in the Denver metro area over the span of two weeks in November.
Mikhail Anthony Purpera, 29, is now accused of murdering Patrick Murphy, a 33-year-old Englewood man, whose body was found in an Englewood pond behind the Safeway on Feb. 11.
Purpera had already been charged with murdering 54-year-old Wayland Busby on Nov. 5 of last year, but months of detective work and an incident in which Purpera was caught stealing has now led to police linking him as the killer in both cases.
Busby, who was also a transient, was found shot to death on the morning of Nov. 5 last year by a Denver park ranger patrolling along the South Platte River.
Englewood police catch shoplifting suspect, and unwittingly, alleged murderer
Denver police had already started looking at Purpera as the suspect in Busby’s murder when on Nov. 11, an Englewood officer chased down a man suspected of stealing shoes from a Walmart nearby.
The suspect, later identified as Purpera, tried to get away on a bike, but was caught.
He fought with the officers, according to an affidavit for his arrest, and exchanged several blows with them. At one point, according to the affidavit, he tried to reach for a gun in his waistband, at which point officers deployed three TASER strikes, corralling him.
Officers found meth and marijuana on him, along with several photocopied IDs from various people, including Murphy, cell phones and other official documents.
They also discovered that Purpera had an active warrant out of Gonzales, Louisiana for two counts of attempted murder.
At the time, Englewood police investigated him for meth possession, possession of weapons by a previous offender, resisting arrest, theft and drug paraphernalia possession. The officer who wrote the affidavit noted that Purpera was “also wanted in the city of Denver, as a suspect in further homicides.”
As it turns out, Purpera had allegedly murdered Murphy near the pond earlier that day, though police would not make the connection until months later.
Purpera was held without bond in Arapahoe County because of his warrants out of Louisiana, which had been issued in August 2016. But while he was in jail, people he knew from the streets started talking to police, telling them Purpera murdered Busby after an argument involving drugs and that he had also killed another man near the Englewood duck pond—things Purpera was telling his acquaintances, according to the affidavits.
Purpera allegedly showed multiple people several shell casings he said were “trophies” from the murders, and threatened one man he told about the Busby murder that he’d kill the man if “anything comes out.”
But Purpera showed another man another “trophy,” telling him he had “a present” for him.
According to the affidavit, Purpera pulled a bloody baseball cap from a backpack and handed it to the acquaintance, telling him: “I shot somebody else” and that he had “killed him for no reason.”
Purpera also allegedly showed his acquaintance the man’s ID he said he had killed, which the acquaintance later confirmed to police was that of Murphy.
He had also told the acquaintance at the time that he was looking for a new pair of shoes, as his had blood on them. He allegedly shoplifted the shoes from Walmart later that day.
Second murder is linked to Purpera
In the meantime, nobody actually knew that Murphy was dead.
He lived with his father in Englewood, but was known to disappear for periods of time. His own family said he was an alcoholic.
But his father reported him missing on Dec. 12 last year nonetheless, telling police that it was curious that his son’s car, electric razor and toothbrush were still at the home, and that he had called his son’s phone at one point, and heard another man pick up the phone, say, “Yo,” then hang up.
By that point, Purpera had already been officially charged with first-degree murder and aggravated robbery in Busby’s death.
Then, on Feb. 11, a teenager walking by the duck pond, near S. Broadway and Highway 285 in Englewood, saw a man’s body lying face-down in the pond, which was in the process of being drained, as it is every couple of years to remove sediment, the affidavit says.
Officers recovered the body, and the coroner confirmed that it was that of Murphy. He was killed by a gunshot wound to the head.
Police went back and reviewed their interviews with Purpera’s acquaintances and the documents and phones discovered on Purpera when he was arrested for shoplifting.
They realized that at least one of the documents and one of the cell phones found on Purpera that day in November belonged to Murphy. Another acquaintance told police that another man had said he helped Purpera dump Murphy’s body in the pond.
The Englewood officer signed the affidavit for Murphy’s murder on March 22, and official charges against Purpera were filed May 19.
He faces first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, possession of a weapon by a previous offender, possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest, obstructing a peace officer, possession of drug paraphernalia and theft charges out of Englewood for the case.
He is currently being held at the Denver County Jail on the murder charge out of Denver.
Colorado set to use marijuana money to implement opioid treatment program in worst-hit counties
UPDATE: The governor signed this bill into law on Wednesday, a day after this story was originally published.
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DENVER – Colorado is set to use a half-million dollars of its marijuana sales money each year for at least the next two years to implement an opioid addiction treatment program for two of the state’s counties hit hardest by the surging opioid crisis. Continue reading
Police say it ‘appears’ Erie man stabbed wife, son to death before committing suicide
ERIE, Colo. – Police are treating the case involving three people found dead in an Erie home Saturday as a murder-suicide, they said Tuesday.
Erie Police Chief Kimberly Stewart said Tuesday that “it appears” that John Paul “JP” Farrar, 48, stabbed his wife, 40-year-old Elizabeth, and 4-year-old son, Ian, to death before committing suicide by a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
She said the case was being treated as a domestic violence-related murder-suicide, though the Boulder County Coroner’s Office will make the final determination on the family’s manners and causes of death.
The three were found dead late Saturday morning inside their home on Gordon Court, near Brennan Street in Erie.
Police said they had received a tip that there was a “possibly deceased” person inside the home before they went to investigate. They had said they were not looking for any outstanding suspects at the time.
Stewart said Tuesday she didn’t anticipate she’d release any more information on the case before the coroner’s report is finalized.