Crime
Larimer County jail employee resigns amid investigation into accessing of victim database
LARIMER COUNTY, Colo. – A Larimer County Sheriff’s Office worker assigned to the jail resigned Monday amid an internal investigation into allegations she revealed a victim’s information to the suspect in their case.
Bethanie Williamson, 37, resigned from the sheriff’s office on Monday and faces a class 2 misdemeanor of committing a “computer crime.”
The alleged incident happened Jan. 25 during a disturbance in the jail’s day room.
The sheriff’s office says inmates from separate housing areas were in the same day room, which is against jail policy. The sheriff’s office says it found one of the jail employees had violated inmate movement procedure, and it launched an internal investigation.
The guard in question, later found to be Williamson, had gone onto the Colorado courts website and found the contact information of a victim of one of the inmates, whom the sheriff’s office says was in the room while Williamson allegedly accessed the database.
“The employee had no legitimate business reason to access the information,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
But the office also said that investigators contacted the victim whose information was accessed and found that it was not used for any malfeasance.
Williamson resigned Monday and was issued a criminal summons for her charge. She started working as the jail as a non-certified deputy in February 2007.
“When it comes to maintaining records, deputies have access to sensitive information they are not authorized to release to the general public even if that information can be obtained from other sources. If a deputy violates internal policies or certainly the law, they will be held accountable,” Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith said in a news release.
He added that Williamson’s alleged actions “do not reflect the values and principles” of the rest of the sheriff’s office.
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Former Littleton Schools, Regis educator charged with sexually assaulting minor in late ’90s
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. – A former teacher and principal for Littleton Public Schools who also worked as an assistant professor at Regis University faces child sexual assault charges stemming from incidents that allegedly happened in the late 1990s.
Michael Camelio, 70, was arrested Tuesday on five counts of sexual assault on a child – position of trust.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office says a woman recently came forward to report she was allegedly assaulted as a minor. Court documents show the alleged assaults happened between July 1996 and February 1998 and that the victim was aged 15-18 at the time.
The court clerk told Denver7 the arrest affidavit for Camelio is sealed and can’t be released.
Camelio worked in various positions within Little Public Schools from 1982 to 2002. He served as the director of education and principal of Mark Hopkins Elementary from 1982 to 1988, then taught computer science at Newton Middle School from 1988 to 1995.
He then moved to Powell Middle School, where he taught until 2002.
That year, he left the district for a job at Regis University. A 2013-14 faculty booklet shows Camelio was employed as an assistant professor at the university’s School of Education, though his LinkedIn page says he left the university in 2012.
Camelio’s LinkedIn page says he was a consultant and owner at Littleton-based Creatively Affordable Marketing from 2012 to the present day.
A protection order was granted against Camelio in the case on Wednesday as he made his initial court appearance.
His next court appearance is set for April 5. The sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information about the alleged crime or any other incidents involving Camelio to contact Investigator Melinda Schubert at 720-874-4042.
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Mother of deaf Myanmar refugee killed by RTD train: ‘My heart is broken’
AURORA, Colo. – The family of a deaf refugee from Myanmar who was killed Feb. 19 by an RTD train during testing on the new R Line says it is heartbroken over his death, which his family says may have been preventable.
Saw Eh, 35, died after he was hit by the train while it was being tested earlier this month. RTD and Aurora Police Department spokespeople have both said Eh walked passed crossing gates and onto the tracks, where he was struck.
But his family says that since he can’t hear or read English, that he did not heed the flashing lights at the crossing gate.
Eh’s mother, Kyin Shwe, spoke to Denver7 Tuesday. She and her family came to Denver as refugees from Myanmar six years ago. Myanmar has sent more than 5,000 refugees to Colorado since 1997, and the country has sent the third-most refugees to the state, compared to other countries, since 1980.
Shwe says her family is suffering greatly after her son’s death.
“I couldn’t even explain the suffering that I’m going through right now,” she said through an interpreter.
She had gone to church that day, and came back to find the rest of her family distraught.
“When I came back from church, I saw a lot of police were in that location,” Shwe told Denver7. “When I came home, his father told me, ‘Your son’s left for a long, long time.’”
She says police confirmed her worst fears.
“I cried a lot,” Shwe said. “They told me, ‘That train accident killed your son.’”
She said that Eh was very helpful around the house and at his church despite his disability.
“He was very honest and very obedient,” Shwe said of her son.
His family says Eh crossed the same train tracks every day at 30th Avenue and Peoria Street, but likely thought there wasn’t a train coming despite what RTD says were warnings.
“Him being deaf, he would assume there was no train coming because before the lights, the arms were flashing and there was no train coming,” said Eh’s brother-in-law, Antonio Turner. “He was assuming that there was no train coming when the lights were going – it’d be just like normal.”
After he was struck by the train, Eh was pronounced dead at University of Colorado Hospital. The Adams County Coroner’s Office says his manner and cause of death is still pending.
The RTD R Line opened days after the accident.
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Denver DA’s Office reorganizes units for specific focus on juvenile diversion program
DENVER – The Denver District Attorney’s Office is reorganizing its juvenile and drug courts units to make a separate juvenile court unit staffed by attorneys who have expressed interest in working with youth offenders.
As of Wednesday, Denver’s Juvenile and Drug Courts Unit will split into two departments. Denver District Attorney Beth McCann has appointed Deputy District Attorney Courtney Johnston to head the new Juvenile Unit. Several other deputies will work under her.
The DA’s Office says the Juvenile Unit will continue to work to divert first-time offenders from the justice system. McCann says she wants to expand that program, wants to include 18-to-26-year-old offenders in the program, and is looking into diversion programs for people before they are booked.
The office says the juvenile unit will also continue to prosecute cases in Denver Juvenile Court and that the Drug Court Unit would continue its normal activities.
Johnston and others appointed to her position after she vacates it will serve a minimum of five years in the position. The deputy attorneys will serve at least three.
Johnston has several years of experience at the Denver DA’s Office and has also worked with youths in Mississippi and Georgia.
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House to hear Colorado bill allowing people to break into hot cars to save people, pets
DENVER – People would not be subject to any punishment for breaking into a car to rescue an at-risk person or pet if a bill proposed in the Colorado Legislature becomes law.
People who break into cars to rescue kids or animals, most often during the hot summer months when temperatures inside cars can reach more than 150 degrees, are still currently liable to face trespassing, mischief or property charges in the state.
But House Bill 1179, sponsored by Reps. Lori Saine and Joann Ginal, as well as Sens. Lois Court and Vicki Marble, aims to make that a thing of the past.
Their bill, which last week unanimously passed the House Health, Insurance and Environment Committee by an 11-0 vote, would give immunity from civil and criminal prosecution to people who meet certain standards when breaking into a car to try and save a life:
- They would have to believe in “good faith” that the person or animal is in “imminent danger” of great bodily harm or death.
- They would have to verify the vehicle is locked.
- They would have to “make a reasonable effort” to find the vehicle’s owner.
- They would have to contact a law enforcement officer or first responder before entering the vehicle;
- They could “use no more force than reasonably necessary to enter the locked vehicle;”
- And would have to stay with the person or animal near the vehicle until a first responder arrives. If the person has to leave the scene, they must leave a note with their contact information, name and location.
Currently, the term “animal” in the bill applies only to dogs and cats, but there was discussion in committee of extending the protections to certain other animals as well.
The law would apply beyond children in hot cars as well; it would extend protections to people breaking into cars to rescue any “at-risk” person no matter their age.
The bill heads to the House floor for further work on Tuesday.
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Denver Muslim leaders say rock thrown through mosque window in latest hate-related incident
DENVER – Leaders at a Denver mosque say someone threw a rock through its windows Sunday just before one of its prayer sessions in the latest instance of vandalism directed at minority communities over the past several months.
The Colorado Muslim Society says someone threw the rock, which was about the size of a fist, through a window at Masjid Abu Bakr mosque on Sunday.
The Muslim Society says it is “working with the proper authorities” to address the incident.
But the alleged vandalism is one of at least a half-dozen possibly hate-related incidents in Colorado since November.
More threats to at least a dozen Jewish community centers were made again Monday after similar throngs of threats over the past several weeks. The threats also came as at least two Jewish cemeteries – in Philadelphia and St. Louis – were vandalized over the past week, bringing damage to hundreds of headstones.
On Jan. 31, the Boulder Community Jewish Center received an unsubstantiated bomb threat, forcing evacuations.
Days earlier, the FBI joined an investigation into signs left at an Aurora immigrant and refugee center that threatened to “blow up” refugees.
On Feb. 7, the FBI was also called in to help El Paso County Sheriff’s Office investigators work to find out whether or not an Indian family in Peyton, Colo. was the victim of a hate crime. Their home was vandalized with eggs, dog feces, bath tissue, and papers scrawled with messages regarding their racial and ethnic background.
In early January, an 83-year-old Longmont man was pressured by neighbors and the city to take a sign down that read, “Muslim’s kill Muslim’s [sic] if they don’t agree. Where does that leave you, ‘infidel.’”
In November, a Denver transgender woman’s SUV was vandalized with swastikas and transgender hate speech.
Also in January, a self-proclaimed radicalized Muslim shot and killed a security officer working as an RTD guard at Union Station, though officials have not linked that shooting to being a hate crime.
And during the week of Valentine’s Day, Ku Klux Klan members dispersed fliers in at least three Grand Junction neighborhoods urging people to join the group, and to “stop homosexuality & race mixing.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center has identified 16 “hate groups” in Colorado that were operating in 2015, including several anti-Muslim and neo-Nazi groups. More on those groups can be found here.
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Colo. burglary victims unlikely to get results; data shows police have a hard time solving the crime
DENVER – If you’re the victim of a crime awaiting justice, recent law enforcement reports suggest you may be waiting a long time. FBI data shows that clearance rates — the rate in which crimes are solved — for some crimes in particular might be even lower than one would think.
“I think generally society wants the law enforcement to be able to solve all crime, and unfortunately, it’s just not a reality,” Golden Police Department Captain Joe Harvey said.
Clearances are defined by the FBI in one of two ways: by arrest or by “exceptional means.” Clearance by arrest means at least one person has either been arrested, charged or turned over for prosecution in regards to the alleged crime.
Editor’s Note: Watch the full story Friday night on Denver7 at 10 p.m.
Exceptional means clearances happen when all four of the following conditions are met: Law enforcement agencies must have identified the offender of the crime, gathered enough evidence to support an arrest and charge, identified the alleged offender’s location, and have come across a circumstance that prevents them from arresting, charging and prosecuting the alleged criminal.
Nationally, clearance rates for various crimes in 2015 sit as follows: murders and homicides — 62 percent; aggravated assault — 54 percent; rape — 38 percent; robbery — 29 percent; burglary — 14 percent.
In Colorado, the percentages are fairly similar, though Denver, the state’s largest city, bucked some of the trends.
Clearance rates in Colorado similar, but burglaries are biggest problem
Denver’s homicide clearance rate was lower than the national average, at 51 percent. But Denver police cleared 53 percent of rapes – higher than the national average, and cleared 14.5 percent of burglaries.
Burglaries remain the most difficult crimes for law enforcement agencies in Colorado to clear, they say.
According to Colorado Bureau of Investigation data, there were 23,333 burglaries reported in Colorado in 2015 – a 0.9 percent increase from the year before. Burglaries accounted for nearly 51 percent of all major crimes that were reported.
In some Colorado cities, the clearance rate is significantly lower than the national average.
In 2015, Denver saw a 15 percent clearance rate for burglaries. Golden had the highest burglary clearance rate in the Denver metro area, at 22 percent. And northern Colorado’s burglary clearance rates were higher on average as well: Larimer County had a 20 percent clearance rate; Fort Collins’ rate was 15 percent and Weld County’s was 12 percent.
“Sometimes it’s good luck; sometimes it’s good investigative leads,” Golden’s Harvey said.
But he adds that numbers can change quickly, and that sometimes, there aren’t enough detectives to assign one to each case.
A force’s manpower and many other factors come into play when it comes to solving crimes, and that shows when looking at the clearance rates in some other metro-area jurisdictions, which didn’t fare as well.
The burglary clearance rate in ritzy suburb Cherry Hills Village was 11 percent; Aurora’s was 8 percent and Centennial’s was 6 percent. Lone Tree police cleared just one of 50 burglary cases in 2015, and Jefferson County cleared 7.8 percent of its 500 burglaries that year.
But Littleton, a municipality of around 50,000 people, had a burglary clearance rate of just 1.5 percent in 2015 (three out of 199 burglaries were cleared), putting it near the bottom of the list for the entire state.
“It’s very difficult to solve a burglary in any city,” said Littleton Police Department Commander Trent Cooper, who leads the department’s investigations division.
He says there is obviously room for improvement when it comes to solving burglary cases, but told Denver7 Investigates he thinks his department is doing well overall.
“These numbers reflect the difficulty of a burglary in particular,” Cooper said. “Burglary as a crime has got a very low solvability rate.”
Cooper says that numbers in 2016 improved to a 5 percent clearance rate for burglaries, though the FBI data for last year won’t be available until later this year.
But 2015 data for Littleton wasn’t great as a whole, aside from the low burglary clearance rate.
The Littleton Police Department cleared one of seven arson cases, five of 112 motor vehicle thefts, and 93 of 770 theft cases.
For the full Colorado clearance rates per crime, sorted by city and county, click here or see the chart embedded below. (Hit Ctrl+F to search the spreadsheet).
What can be done to stem burglaries?
But both state- and nationwide, burglary victims are often left without closure in their cases.
Dave Read, of Commerce City, came home one day to find a man loading his guns out of his apartment in a wheelbarrow. When confronted, the burglar jumped out of a window.
Chuck Frederick had nearly $15,000 worth of tools stolen from his truck overnight in Castle Rock as his wife and kids slept inside – another unsolved burglary.
Read even had a video of the suspect in the burglary at his home, but despite the footage being broadcast across Denver news channels, the suspect was never caught.
Cooper says it’s unlikely that a detective would be assigned to a case that has no video evidence and in which no one saw a suspect enter or leave the home or vehicle that was burglarized. A scene with no obvious fingerprints is also often times a dead-end for investigators, Cooper says.
Police say that having security cameras is still the best way to help investigators catch any burglary suspects, if a homeowner can afford them.
Video evidence can show a suspect’s face, appearance, or special characteristics such as an odd gait or distinct height and weight features.
It can also show places where the suspected burglar walked or touched, which can narrow down the scope of the area where detectives could search for fingerprints, shoe sole prints or DNA evidence that may help them identify a suspect.
Police also advise people to write down the serial numbers of any electronics or other items that a burglar may target.
Televisions, computers, cell phones, game consoles and many other items come with distinct serial numbers that law enforcement can put into a nationwide database that pawn shops and other stores across the country often cross-check when items are sold, and could help investigators figure out where stolen items end up.
Editor’s note: Each year, the FBI Uniform Crime Report comes with the following disclaimer:
Each year when Crime in the United States is published, some entities use the figures to compile rankings of cities and counties. These rough rankings provide no insight into the numerous variables that mold crime in a particular town, city, county, state, tribal area, or region. Consequently, they lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting communities and their residents. Valid assessments are possible only with careful study and analysis of the range of unique conditions affecting each local law enforcement jurisdiction. The data user is, therefore, cautioned against comparing statistical data of individual reporting units from cities, metropolitan areas, states, or colleges or universities solely on the basis of their population coverage or student enrollment.
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Sheriff’s Office: Rabbit Mountain Fire was caused by people shooting targets at ranch
BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. – Investigators have determined that people shooting targets at Round Mountain Ranch caused Monday’s Rabbit Mountain Fire, which burned 151 acres and four buildings.
The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office says the people were shooting at steel plates and that a bullet fragment sparked a fire in grass near the targets.
The sheriff’s office says the people tried to put the fire out, but it spread quickly because of dry and windy conditions. They were the ones who called 911 to report the fire, according to spokesman Commander Mike Wagner.
The sheriff’s office says the fire burned 151 acres, four buildings and a horse trailer. It said Thursday that no animals were lost in the fire.
The sheriff’s office says it is discussing possible charges for the people with the Boulder District Attorney’s Office.
It said the peoples’ identities are not being released, citing the ongoing investigation.
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Federal judge grants injunction barring Fort Collins from enforcing rule banning topless women
DENVER – A federal judge on Wednesday granted a preliminary injunction that will prevent Fort Collins from enforcing a city ordinance that bans women from exposing their breasts in public, other than for breastfeeding purposes.
U.S. District Court of Colorado Judge R. Brooke Jackson handed down the ruling Wednesday four months after he allowed portions of the lawsuit to proceed on the grounds the ordinance violated the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.
He ruled Wednesday that should the case have gone to trial as the plaintiffs, Free the Nipple – Fort Collins, Brittany Hoagland and Samantha Six, had sought, that he would have found that the ordinance would have indeed violated the clause.
“I also find that the other factors courts must assess in deciding a motion for preliminary injunction weight heavily in plaintiffs’ favor,” Judge Jackson wrote in his granting of the injunction.
The city of Fort Collins had sought to dismiss the claims that the statute violated the Equal Protection Clause after it successfully got some of the other initial claims in the suit tossed by Judge Jackson in October.
The statute in question, which said that “[n]o person shall knowingly appear in any public place in a nude state or state of undress such that the genitals or buttocks of either sex or the breast or breasts of a female are exposed,” was revised in November 2015.
The tailored version barred the exposing of breasts in public areas and on private property if the person could be viewed from a public place.
But Judge Jackson said the code’s modification “did little to mollify plaintiffs’ concerns” in his ruling Wednesday.
He also wrote that Fort Collins’ argument that topless females could disrupt public order is a “negative stereotype…namely, that society considers female breasts primarily as objects of sexual desire whereas male breasts are not.”
He further took the city to task for what he said was seemingly a lack of research for its various arguments in favor of the ordinance, including claims that exposed breasts could endanger children.
“Nor has Fort Collins provided any meaningful evidence that the mere sight of a female breast endangers children,” he wrote. “…It seems, then, that children do not need to be protected from the naked female breast itself but from the negative societal norms, expectation, and stereotypes associated with it.”
He wrote that Denver and Boulder already have legally-sound ordinances “that permit what plaintiffs here seek…But during the hearing, representatives of Fort Collins admitted that they had made no effort to contact either of these neighboring cities or any other jurisdiction to see what their experiences have been.”
“Unfortunately, our history is littered with many forms of discrimination, including discrimination against women,” Judge Jackson continued in his ruling. “As the barriers have come down, one by one, some people were made uncomfortable. In our system, however, the Constitution prevails over popular sentiment.”
He wrote that he also found that Fort Collins’ ordinance discriminates against women because of a “generalized notion” that the exposure of breasts in public “is necessarily a sexualized act.”
“I do not accept the notion, as some of those courts have, that we should continue a stereotypical distinction ‘rightly or wrongly,’ or that something passes constitutional muster because it has historically been part of ‘our culture,’” Judge Jackson writes. “We would not say that, rightly or wrongly, we should continue to recognize a fundamental difference between the ability of males and females to serve on juries…Or between male and female estate administrators…or between military cadets…or between the ability of males and females to practice law…nor should we.”
“After much thought, I have concluded that going out on this lonely limb is the right thing to do,” he continued. “I have no more right to fall back on ‘the way we have always done it’ than those who have reassessed their thinking.”
Fort Collins City Attorney Carrie Daggett issued the following statement to Denver7 in response to the judge’s order Wednesday:
“In light of the Order issued Wednesday, the City is prohibited for now from citing women for exposing their breasts in public under the City Code, pending a final decision in this case,” said City Attorney Carrie Daggett. “While the Judge has acknowledged the other cases upholding similar laws, he concluded he is likely to find the City’s restriction on female toplessness in public is based on an impermissible gender stereotype that results in a form of gender-based discrimination. The City is reviewing the Judge’s decision in this case and City legal, policy and enforcement staff will be considering the City’s options for next steps in light of the Order.”
The plaintiffs in the case could still pursue a permanent injunction via a trial verdict.
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Colo. Bureau of Investigation hands Holly Moore case back to Castle Rock, concurs death was suicide
Nearly two years ago, Holly Moore was found dead, hanging by her neck from an electrical cord in a closet at her Castle Rock apartment. The Douglas County Coroner’s Office ruled her death a suicide.
But Moore’s family has always maintained she was murdered, saying that police botched the scene, failed to collect evidence and rushed to the judgment that she had killed herself. Continue reading