News
Denver Sheriff Department suspends 3 deputies, sergeant over time card fraud
DENVER – The Denver Sheriff Department suspended a sergeant and three other deputies without pay for 18 days in late June after they were found to have left their courthouse duties early without clocking out.
Sgt. Gabriela Velez and deputies Jon Bruno, George Rodriguez and Jharquis Scott all received disciplinary letters in late June informing them they’d be suspended without pay and would be losing hours of vacation accrual for the time card fraud. Continue reading
Rep. Coffman grilled on Obamacare replacement at town hall, talks VA wait times in interview
HENDERSON, Colo. – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman voted against the House Republicans’ latest efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and has been talking about bipartisanship in crafting a health care solution for months, yet health care was still the prime topic of discussion at Tuesday’s town hall meeting at Prairie View High School.
Hundreds of his constituents from Colorado’s 6th Congressional District packed into the high school in Coffman’s first town hall meeting since April. Watch the town hall meeting in the player embedded below or by clicking here. Continue reading
Man convicted of shooting teens, killing 1, who got into illegal backyard marijuana grow
DENVER – The man accused of shooting two teenagers, killing one, who had gotten into his illegal backyard marijuana grow was found guilty of murder and other charges Monday.
A Denver jury found Keith Hammock, 49, guilty of second-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, one count of manufacturing marijuana and one count of cultivation of marijuana.
He’d originally faced a first-degree murder charge, but the jury found him guilty of the lesser second-degree murder charge.
A 15-year-old boy died after being shot by Hammock, while a 14-year-old was shot and possibly paralyzed, according to police. They had broken into Hammock’s backyard and gotten into his “mature” marijuana plants, according to police.
The shooting happened near High Street and 28th Avenue last October, and the district attorney said at the time Hammock had been implicated in a similar shooting that happened a year earlier.
Hammock had originally told officers that he’d only seen a motion-activated light turn on in the backyard, but they later found guns inside his home—one that was at a vantage point where he could have shot the teens.
Hammock will be sentenced on Oct. 4.
Rep. Mike Coffman hosting town hall in Henderson Tuesday
HENDERSON, Colo. – U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman will host a town hall meeting Tuesday evening at Prairie View High School in Henderson—in Denver’s northeast suburbs.
The town hall meeting comes amid confusion and shake-ups in Washington—particularly in the White House.
Coffman has held several town halls this year amid pushes to fix the Affordable Care Act, and Tuesday’s town hall comes as he tries to push for bipartisan changes to the health-care law. His most-recent town hall in the Denver area was in early April.
Coffman voted against the House’s version of the Republican effort to repeal and replace the ACA, the American Health Care Act, in early May, and his since been pressing for bipartisan solutions as the Senate GOP push fell apart.
He said Monday he and a bipartisan caucus of congressmen and women had put together a new proposed solution to stabilizing insurance markets in each state.
Coffman’s Tuesday town hall is free and open to constituents of Colorado’s 6th Congressional District, but tickets to the event were sold out Monday.
People who have tickets will have to bring a photo ID to be cross-checked. Each person in attendance will be given a raffle ticket, which will be drawn at random to determine who will ask questions.
There are a few more rules for those planning to attend, which you can find by clicking here.
For those not able to attend, Coffman plans to live stream the event on his Facebook page.
The town hall meting starts at 6 p.m. at Prairie View High School in Henderson, and is scheduled to last for an hour.
4 men charged in string of Denver robberies
DENVER – Four men have been charged with multiple felonies related to a string of six robberies and attempted robberies at various banks and businesses earlier this year.
The Denver District Attorney’s Office announced the charges against the four men on Monday.
Alfredo Ray Garcia, 39, Celestino Mendoza, 28, Angelito Arechiga, 21, and his cousin, Louis Arechiga, 19, all face felonies in relation to the robberies, which happened between May 23 and June 14 this year.
Garcia faces 44 counts, including violations of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, kidnapping, first-degree burglary, aggravated robbery, escape and others. He’s currently in custody in New Mexico after being arrested there on a warrant out of Colorado.
Mendoza faces 40 charges, which also include violations of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, kidnapping, first-degree burglary, aggravated robbery and others. He’s already in custody in the Colorado Department of Corrections in Crowley County.
Both of the Arechigas face two counts of felony aggravated robbery and two violent-crime sentence enhancers. They were both arrested mid-July and remain in custody at the Denver jail.
Garcia is accused of being involved in all six robberies or attempted robberies. The Arechigas are accused of being involved in one of them, a May 23 robbery of a Community Banks of Colorado branch on W. 32nd Avenue.
Mendoza is accused of helping Garcia with five other robberies or attempted robberies:
- A June 6 robbery of the Premier Inusrance Group on S. Sheridan Boulevard;
- A June 9 attempted robbery of Kentucky Fried Chicken on N. Federal Boulevard;
- A June 12 robbery of a Cricket wireless store on W. Alameda Avenue;
- A June 13 robbery of Pleasures on W. Alameda Avenue, and;
- A June 14 robbery of the BBVA Compass Bank on W. 32nd Avenue.
Garcia and Mendoza face escape charges because they are accused of leaving a halfway house without being allowed to do so.
Louis Arechiga is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 2; his cousin is next due in court Aug. 9, and Mendoza is next scheduled to appear on Aug. 15 for his second advisement on his charges.
5,300+ Colorado voters withdraw registration as state prepares to send info. to Trump commission
DENVER – More than 5,300 Coloradans have withdrawn their voter registration over the past month, new figures from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office showed Monday as the office prepares to send voter roll information over to President Donald Trump’s election integrity commission.
Secretary of State Wayne Williams will send the information over to the controversial commission by the end of business Monday, his office confirmed. Continue reading
In wake of GOP Obamacare repeal’s failure, calls for bipartisan fixes get louder in Colorado
DENVER – In the wake of the failure of Senate Republicans’ efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act early Friday, Colorado’s lawmakers and governor said they weren’t ready to give up on fixing issues with the nation’s health care system that both parties have acknowledged need to be addressed.
While Democrats were pleased that the “skinny repeal” bill Republicans threw together Friday in an effort to get to conference committee discussions with the House failed in a narrow 49-51 vote, they said there was still work to be done going forward. Continue reading
Arapahoe Co. deputy charged in crash with CSP trooper
ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. – An Arapahoe County sheriff’s deputy has been charged with careless driving and driving on the wrong side of the road in connection with a June crash near the Front Range Airport that seriously injured a Colorado State Patrol trooper, in addition to the deputy.
Deputy Dale Davis, 35, is accused of causing the crash with the Trooper, Corporal Ivan Alvarado, on June 17 while they were both responding to a request for assistance from Adams County.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office says Davis was found to be at-fault in the crash, which happened near East 48th Ave. and Manila Road in Aurora. The Aurora Police Department investigated.
The 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office served Davis a summons on Thursday. He faces misdemeanor careless driving resulting in injury and failure to drive on the correct side of the road charges. The latter is a traffic infraction.
Davis, who has been with the sheriff’s office for more than 6 years, has been on leave since the crash while he recovers, the sheriff’s office said.
In addition to Davis’s criminal case, the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs unit is conducting its own investigation—something that is the case with all on-duty deputy-involved crashes, the office said.
He is due in court on Sept. 29 to be advised of his charges.
Colorado to send voter info. to Trump commission Monday; no evidence any withdrawals were ineligible
DENVER – Colorado will send the voter roll information requested by President Donald Trump’s election integrity commission over by the end of Monday, after the secretary of state’s office received a new request for the information on Wednesday.
The vice chair of the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, said in his latest letter to Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams that the commission had addressed issues Williams and others brought up by implementing a new file transfer system for the voter roll information that will send it straight to the White House securely. Continue reading
Aurora to pay $110K to black man Tased, arrested last year who had charges dropped
AURORA, Colo. – The city of Aurora will pay $110,000 to a black man who police used a Taser on while detaining him without telling him why last year, the ACLU of Colorado announced Thursday.
The ACLU took up Darsean Kelley’s case and released the police body camera video of his arrest last September.
The incident in question happened on Feb. 19, 2016. According to the ACLU, Kelley and his cousin were walking along 14th Avenue when police stopped them. Continue reading