In the year following the 2013 murder of state prison chief Tom Clements by a parole absconder, parole officers working for the Colorado Department of Corrections put in for an unprecedented 8,858 hours of overtime pay — and nearly a third of that overtime was logged by one small, elite…
When security guards Christina Kolk and Cameron Rust heard the first gunshot, they headed toward the north hall of Arapahoe High School. Only moments earlier, a janitor had called them on the radio, saying something about a suspicious individual at the north entrance. Three more shots erupted in the next…
Between Buena Vista and Salida, the Arkansas River sweeps through Browns Canyon, an area of granite cliffs and rugged backcountry that’s popular with elk, bighorn sheep, mountain lions and black bears — not to mention hunters, anglers, rafters, hikers and campers. But this quintessential slice of Colorado wilderness is also…
Update below: Late last Friday afternoon, a Denver jury returned a $695,000 verdict against the University of Denver in a long, involved dispute with the local chapter of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. On the surface, the five-day trial was mostly about how property is valued in an area of…
Despite the state’s efforts to beef up its movie industry, it’s still unusual to see a crew actually filming on location in Denver. And it’s even rarer that one of those productions announces it’s holding open auditions for scores of extras — all ages and types, no experience necessary –…
Twelve years ago, based almost entirely on the testimony of a troubled adolescent girl with a long history of telling preposterous stories, an Arapahoe County jury found Charles Farrar guilty of a horrible crime. That testimony was recanted not long after the trial, but Farrar is still in prison, serving…
Some folks are always jumping the gun when it comes to holiday decorations. Still, the idea of trotting out the Christmas ornaments before Halloween arrives is so bizarre that it’s just not done — particularly in oh-so-stylish Park Hill. Unless, of course, you happen to be shooting a movie. A…
This week’s cover story, “A Sporting Chance,” traces the rise of the Niyakko Rush, a grassroots youth soccer club made up primarily of refugees living in a single apartment house in Aurora. Many of the players have come from countries ravaged by political and military upheaval, including Myanmar, Somalia and…
Jeff Miller’s grandfather never talked much about how he happened to meet Jeff’s grandmother while he was assisting civilian relief efforts in German-occupied Belgium during the Great War. That reticence stirred Miller’s writerly curiosity about the little-known exploits of the American-led Commission for Relief in Belgium, which went to ingenious…
Like a lot of newcomers, Jason Hicks was a bit flummoxed by his first visit to the Shadow Tree apartments last year. The complex, just a short stroll off East Colfax in Aurora, is home to a growing number of refugee families, relocated from places like Nepal and Burma and…
If, as Fred Allen once suggested, a celebrity is someone who works hard at not being recognized, then the folks featured in the soon-to-be-released 2015 calendar put together by The Arc Pikes Peak Region are true superstars. The models — all people with developmental disabilities and Arc clients — have…
This weekend marks a grim anniversary in the Autobee household. It was twelve years ago — October 18, 2002 — that Eric Autobee, a 23-year-old correctional officer, was murdered in the kitchen of the Limon Correctional Facility. His killer, Edward Montour, was a mentally ill inmate who was off his…
Update below: Doubtless there were many reasons behind a federal jury’s decision on Tuesday to stick it to the City of Denver over the 2010 death of Marvin Booker in the downtown jail, handing out a staggering $4.65 million in punitive and compensatory damages to the victim’s family. The video…
Determined to demonstrate just how far he believed Arapahoe County prosecutors had strayed over the line in the effort to obtain the death penalty against his client, defense attorney Jim Castle resorted to a visual aid. During a hearing late Friday, he presented District Judge Gerald Rafferty with a wheeled…
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is bullish on the idea of increasing water storage at Chatfield Reservoir, plunging ahead with a reallocation project that its planners believe will help meet future water needs across the metro area without diverting more supplies from the Western Slope. But a lawsuit filed…
There are folks who consider climbing all of Colorado’s fourteeners a life’s work. Then there’s a small, hardy corps of peak-baggers who compete with one another to nail those babies all at once, in the shortest amount of time; the current record runs at about ten days. And then there’s…
Dexter Harris has provided the police with information on so many murders committed by other people that it’s hard to keep it all straight. Yesterday morning, grilled in great detail in Arapahoe County District Court about his role as a confidential informant and key witness in the 2008 death sentences…
A highly successful parole program that helped inmates serving decades-long sentences transition back to society — and had the potential to save the Colorado Department of Corrections millions of dollars each year in reduced housing and medical care costs for geriatric prisoners — has been scuttled without adequate explanation, say…
Only days before the United Nations Climate Summit, the environmental group Food & Water Watch has released a wide-ranging critique of the oil and gas industry, linking the practice of fracking to a host of adverse economic, health and climate impacts — from scarred landscapes, declining air quality and community…
Earlier this week, when Governor John Hickenlooper announced the names of the nineteen people selected for a special oil and gas task force intended to address fracking-related land use and health issues across the state, he boasted of the group’s “balanced and informed representation.” It was as if he was…
Here’s an idea: If, like me, you are bored to tears with the corporatization of sport and want to celebrate in some way those who play for pure love of the game — and maybe grab a burger, some hot dogs, and a cheap car wash in the bargain –…
It’s been a long, long road from the 1993 murder of four people at a Chuck E. Cheese in Aurora to Colorado’s lethal injection chamber, and convicted killer Nathan Dunlap isn’t there yet, thanks to the temporary reprieve from execution granted by Governor John Hickenlooper last year. That controversial move…
