Crime
Denver grandmother arrested after allegedly slamming baby grandson on bed, causing brain bleed
DENVER – A Denver woman faces child abuse charges for allegedly slamming her 6-month-old grandson on a bed earlier this month.
Rebecca Laca, 56, is charged with child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury, a third-degree felony.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office says Laca was taking care of the boy on Nov. 11. At some point, she “became upset” with the boy and slammed him on a bed.
A probable cause statement written by police says the boy suffered a subdural brain bleed and bleeding in the back of his eyes as a result of the alleged abuse.
Laca has been released after posting a $50,000 bond and is next scheduled in court Dec. 27.
———
Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines.
Or, keep up-to-date by following Denver7 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Former Eagle, Sterling fire chief pleads guilty to theft, misconduct charges; faces max of 8 years
LOGAN COUNTY, Colo. – The former Sterling and Eagle fire chief arrested and fired in August for stealing $120,000 from Sterling pleaded guilty last week to theft and official misconduct charges.
Kurt Vogel was most-recently the chief of the Greater Eagle Fire Protection District after he spent nearly seven years as the head of the Sterling Fire Department.
But he was fired by Eagle County after he and his wife, Hope, were arrested in August on suspicion of theft, attempting to influence a public servant, official misconduct and forgery charges.
Vogel allegedly took firefighting equipment from the city as well. He and his wife allegedly took funds meant for the fire department and put it into their own bank accounts.
Vogel pleaded guilty on Thursday to theft over $20,000 and felony official misconduct charges, and the rest of his charges were dropped, according to The Denver Post.
Hope Vogel’s case remains ongoing. Kurt Vogel is set to be sentenced on Feb. 8, 2017 and faces a maximum eight years in prison, according to The Post.
Calls to the 13th Judicial District Attorney’s Office from Denver7 seeking comment went unreturned Monday.
Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines.
Donald Trump backs off some campaign promises, reinforces others in ’60 Minutes’ interview
DENVER – Americans got their first look at what a Donald Trump White House will look like Sunday in an interview with “60 Minutes,” and the president-elect is already tamping down expectations for some of the promises he made during the campaign season.
Trump’s interview with Leslie Stahl was done last week and released Sunday. The two talked about the election, taxes, the Affordable Care Act, foreign policy, immigration and the economy, among other subjects. Continue reading
Men accused of starting Cold Springs Fire sentenced to work release, probation, restitution
BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. – The two men who pleaded guilty to arson charges for starting the Cold Springs Fire, which destroyed eight homes in the Nederland area in July, will have to pay restitution and serve work release time.
Jimmy Suggs and Zackary Kuykendall, both originally from Vinemont, Alabama, will have to serve two years of work release and four years of probation, in addition to the restitution.
The amount the two will have to pay for starting the fire will be determined in the next 90 days.
Both pleaded guilty to fourth-degree arson charges in November. The fire, which started on a windy day in July, eventually burned around 500 acres and eight homes. At least 1,000 others people were evacuated because of the fire.
Suggs, Kuykendall and a woman named Elizabeth Burdeshaw were camping in the area at the time and failed to put their campfire out all the way before leaving.
Burdeshaw pleaded guilty earlier this year to trespassing charges and was sentenced to three years of probation. Prosecutors said there was no evidence to prove she had anything to do with the campfire.
Both Suggs and Kuykendall were arrested near the evacuation site people were sent to because of the fire.
Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines.
Groups seek changes to Facebook and Google after scourge of fake news during election
DENVER – “I think Trump is in the White House because of me. His followers don’t fact-check anything — they’ll post everything, believe anything.”
That’s what Paul Horner, who The Washington Post calls the “impresario of a Facebook fake-news empire,” told The Post about how he inundated Facebook and the rest of the internet with fake news in the lead-up to the General Election.
The Post spoke with Horner in a story published Thursday about how fake news was propagated across the internet via Facebook, Google and other social media sites, and made its way into the daily reading of both conservatives and liberals alike.
FAKE NEWS SPREAD BY MAJOR CAMPAIGN FIGURES
BuzzFeed News found that fake news stories generated more overall engagement than real news in the final months leading up to Election Day – outpacing the New York Times, Washington Post and ABC News, among many others.
Their analysis found the top-20 fake election stories generated around 8.7 million total reactions, shares and comments during that time, compared to 7.3 million in total engagement for the top-20 stories from major news outlets.
It’s likely you’ve seen, read or shared some of the fake news yourself.
A fake story by fake news outlet the “Denver Guardian” saying an FBI agent involved in the Clinton email scandal was found dead got more than 500,000 comments, reactions and shares, though it was quickly outed as a fake by most Denver news outlets.
The most-shared fake news story came from another fake outlet, “ETF News,” which stated that Pope Francis had “shocked the world” by endorsing Donald Trump for president.
Horner is behind one of the highest-trafficked fake news sites, abcnews.com.co, which many mistook as American news outlet ABC News.
Some of Trump’s closest advisors and family — Kellyanne Conway, Eric Trump and Corey Lewandowski – all tweeted or retweeted an article from his fake site about a “Trump protester” who said he was “paid $3,500 to protest Trump’s rally.”
Thousands of people shared the story, and it is still cited by many people as proof that anti-Trump protesters who have taken to the streets both before and after the election are being paid by liberal groups or the Clinton campaign.
“His campaign manager posted my story about a protester getting paid $3,500 as fact,” Horner told The Post. “Like, I made that up. I posted a fake ad on Craigslist.”
One person who shared the story saw it receive hundreds of shares and reactions, even though Snopes had de-bunked the story as fake several days earlier.
FACEBOOK, GOOGLE ADDRESS FAKE NEWS SITES
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg originally said that the idea that fake news being spread on his platform influenced the election was “a pretty crazy idea” two days after the election.
But days later, he published a long post saying that “more than 99% of what people see is authentic” on Facebook, but that the company had “already launched work enabling our community to flag hoaxes and fake news, and there is more we can do here.”
Some have pointed to the spread of fake news happening after Facebook got rid of the people who controlled its news algorithm over complaints they were censoring conservative content. The company switched to a mostly-automated system that at times put fake news at the top of its “trending news” category.
Google said it was suspending its paid web advertising service, AdSense, for fake news sites after BuzzFeed uncovered a slew of Macedonians creating fake news sites for profit.
“This whole Google AdSense thing is pretty scary. And all this Facebook stuff,” Horner said. “Right now I make like $10,000 a month from AdSense.”
And while many have blamed Facebook, Google and other social media sites for aiding in the spread of such fake stories, Horner blames people themselves.
“Honestly, people are definitely dumber,” he told The Post. “They just keep passing stuff around. Nobody fact-checks things anymore.”
Horner said he started making fake news sites to further his career in parody; he said he aims to be like The Onion when writing the stories. He says he operates at least 10 fakes news sites, but didn’t tell The Post all of them.
But his fake ABC News site has some of the most-shared fake news of the past several months: “Obama Signs Executive Order Declaring Investigation Into Election Results; Revote Planned”; “Obama Signs Executive Order Banning The National Anthem At All Sporting Events”; “DRUGS IN COLORADO: New Deadly Strain Of Marijuana Turning Users Gay”; “Donald Trump Tweets Image Of His Penis – WARNING: Graphic Content” are among a few on the front page of the site.
On Thursday, Poynter published an open letter from an organization of fact-checkers calling on Zuckerberg and Facebook to “start an open conversation on the principles that could underpin a more accurate news ecosystem on its News Feed.”
“Facebook should strengthen users’ ability to identify fake posts and false news by themselves, as the scale of the problem is too vast for a purely top-down approach,” the letter continued.
President Barack Obama criticized the spread of fake news while in Germany Thursday, calling such reports a “threat to democracy,” according to the New York Times.
The ball now appears to be in Facebook and Google’s court. As arguably the two-largest information sharing networks in the world, it will be up to them to determine what changes are necessary and implemented.
Until then, it will take a concerted effort on behalf of news media and consumers alike to out any fake news as false.
Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines.
Transgender woman’s car vandalized with hate speech, pro-Trump message in Denver’s Capitol Hill
DENVER — A transgender woman says she woke up to find her car vandalized with hate speech, a swastika and a pro-Donald Trump message in Denver’s Capitol Hill Wednesday morning, and police are now investigating.
Amber Timmons posted photos of the hate speech spray-painted on her car Wednesday morning to Facebook. Continue reading
Colorado man deported back to U.S. after caught sneaking into Russia illegally
DENVER – Russia deported a Colorado man in recent days who was accused of illegally entering the country through its southern border while looking for a “better life,” according to reports.
The Washington Post was the first American news outlet to report on the arrest and deportation of Julio Prieto, whom The Post says is an insurance salesman, though Denver7 has not been able to verify he is registered as an insurance agent in Colorado.
Court records show his two most-recent addresses were in Englewood and in Monte Vista, located in Rio Grande County in southern Colorado.
The Post’s report was based off reports from Russian media, including the English-language Siberian Times.
According to reports, Prieto tried to enter Russia legally from Kazakhstan but was denied entry to the country because he didn’t have a visa. But he tried to sneak over the border on Sept. 14 and was caught by border agents near Karasuk.
Russian media reports Prieto told prosecutors he was “looking for a better life” and was seeking work in Siberia.
Court records show Prieto pleaded guilty to a 2010 federal charge of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, to wit, in Las Cruces, New Mexico and was sentenced to three years of supervised probation beginning in January 2011. He and another man were bringing marijuana back from Mexico – Prieto’s birthplace – to Colorado.
He was required to complete a six-month home-monitoring program and was affixed with an ankle monitor to monitor his curfew. The judge also required him to complete a substance abuse treatment program and DWI school, and was barred from using alcohol or other substances.
But he was arrested for DUI in Arapahoe County in January 2012, after which his probation was transferred to Colorado while his DUI case was pending.
But Prieto’s trouble didn’t end there. He was arrested for a series of traffic infractions in Jefferson County in January 2013, then arrested in May 2013 on theft charges and traffic infractions in Aurora.
His probation officer had to contact him and ask about the new charges, and though he was required to report to the probation office the next day, he never showed up.
After not showing up to the office for another scheduled meeting, Prieto eventually showed, but admitted to using marijuana – another violation of his probation.
After that meeting, a judge decided that Prieto needed “more guidance, structure and a consequence for his actions,” and his supervised probation was modified to send him to a Denver residential re-entry program for six months.
It was extended at the end of 2013 pending the outcome of his new cases in Colorado.
It’s unclear exactly what transpired with Prieto in the several years afterward, but he ended up in the Urals in September.
The Siberian Times says Prieto was jailed for six weeks as he awaited a court hearing. He pleaded guilty to illegally entering Russia and could have faced up to two years in prison.
But he was fined the Russian equivalent of $105 instead, which was later reduced to a 2,000-ruble fine (approximately $30).
The Post reports Prieto was deported Monday and flown back to New York on the Russian government’s dime.
The Post reports the Tass news agency says Prieto is disappointed at his experience.
“He had been hoping for Russian hospitality, but he failed to get it and was deeply disappointed,” an official is quoted as saying.
Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines.
DA: Man won’t face charges in shooting death of 17-year-old who allegedly burglarized home
ADAMS COUNTY, Colo. – Adams County prosecutors won’t charge a man arrested for a September shooting that killed a teenager.
Levi Sisneros, 33, had faced investigation on first-degree murder charges in the shooting, which killed a 17-year-old boy, identified as Alfredo Chavez.
The boy was suspected of burglarizing the home near 76th and Pecos in early September. Chavez was shot in the back, according to the Adams County coroner.
The Adams County District Attorney’s Office said that it could not disprove Sisneros’ argument that he had shot Chavez in self-defense after Chavez and three others allegedly broke into his home to steal his legally-grown marijuana.
Chavez’s mother tells the Denver Post she plans to file a civil lawsuit against Sisneros.
Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines.
Police say Grand Junction man shot, killed by officers pinned one to wall with car before shooting
MESA COUNTY, Colo. – The Grand Junction Police Department identified the person killed in an officer-involved shooting that happened just after midnight Friday as a 24-year-old man.
The police department identified said Brian Gaither, 24, of Grand Junction, was killed by Grand Junction Officer Jacob Steele.
Police said Friday they received a call there was a suspicious vehicle near South Ninth Street and Pitkin Avenue. The officer who called in the suspicious vehicle said they believed they knew who the suspect was.
Police say Gaither had two warrants for his arrest when the shooting occurred – one for a parole violation and one stemming from a Nov. 7 traffic stop he allegedly fled. In that stop, police said they saw a weapon in his vehicle; it’s illegal for convicted felons to possess a gun.
A warrant had been obtained for his arrest stemming from that traffic stop on possession of a weapon by a previous offender, obstructing a peace officer and reckless driving charges.
Officer Steele called in backup shortly after calling in the suspicious vehicle, and called out that shots had been fired shortly afterward, police said.
When backup arrived, they found Steele pinned between Gaither’s vehicle and a building wall, and Gaither dead in the driver’s seat of the vehicle.
Grand Junction police said they had to break out a window in order to free Steele. He was taken to a hospital for a leg injury, but has since been released.
Steele started with the department in 2008 and officially became an officer in 2010. He is an instructor for de-escalation and defensive techniques, according to the police department.
He remains on standard administrative leave during the ongoing internal investigation.
Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines.
Last of three suspects in deadly shooting of 61-year-old man pleads guilty
DENVER – A jury convicted the third man implicated in the deadly May 2015 shooting of a 61-year-old man, the Denver District Attorney announced Monday.
The jury found Derek Webb, 29, guilty of two counts of felony murder, one count of burglary and one count of aggravated robbery after two days of deliberation.
Webb and two other men – Chad Baluska and Eric Fuhs – had been accused of shooting and killing 61-year-old Samuel Grady in May 2015, then stealing his wallet and truck.
Baluska pleaded guilty to second-degree murder earlier this year, and Fuhs, who was a nephew of Grady’s, was found guilty of first-degree murder, burglary and aggravated robbery charges.
Fuhs was sentenced to life in prison without parole in October, and Baluska is set to be sentenced Jan. 6.
Webb is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 16. He faces up to life in prison without parole at his sentencing.
Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines.