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Michael Roberts

Michael Roberts began his career with Westword in 1990 as music editor. In 1999, he took on a new role, full-time media reporter, as author of a column called The Message. In 2008, he became the lead writer for Westword‘s news blog, The Latest Word, a position he held until January 2023. Michael continues to freelance for Westword, covering everything from business to sports and the media; he also contributes to Jazziz, a national music magazine. He holds a bachelor’s degree from what is now Colorado Mesa University and master’s degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles, and Northwestern University.

michaelrobertscolo@gmail.com

Why Gunsmoke Guns’ Rich Wyatt, Ex-Reality TV Star, Got 78 Months in Prison

By Michael Roberts

Rich Wyatt, the star of American Guns, a once-popular Discovery Channel program that showcased him, his telegenic family, including wife Renee and kids Paige and Kurt, and his business, Wheat Ridge’s Gunsmoke Guns, has been sentenced to 78 months, or six-and-a-half years, in prison for conspiring to deal firearms without a license and multiple tax charges. The verdict, which comes nearly a year after he was found guilty of these offenses, represents the ultimate comedown for a once-prominent TV personality who rubbed shoulders with celebrities such as rock star Ted Nugent and even a former President of the United States, George W. Bush.

First Breckenridge Skier Death This Season, Tenth in Past Three

By Michael Roberts

A thus-far-unidentified male skier died at Breckenridge ski area yesterday, March 8. He is the first fatality at Breckenridge during the 2017-2018 season but the tenth since 2015-2016. In addition, the skier is the third person to lose his life on or near Breckenridge’s Peak 8 during that span.

Claude Wilkerson: Just 6 Years for Ex-Death Row Inmate’s Awful Abuse Case

By Michael Roberts

In early 2016, we told you about the Western Slope arrest of former Texas death-row resident Claude Wilkerson for allegedly keeping a woman chained to his bed and repeatedly raping her. Just over two years later, Wilkerson has agreed to a plea deal in the case, and it’s a sweet one. He’s admitted guilt to a pair of lesser charges, for which he’ll serve just six years behind bars and three on probation — an astonishingly brief sentence given the initial description of his crimes.

How Power Elite Kept Michael Hancock Out of Prostitution Ring Scandal

By Michael Roberts

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s apology for sending inappropriate texts to Denver police officer Leslie Branch-Wise in 2011 and 2012, when she was on his security detail, has sparked renewed interest in reports from that same period of him having been a client of the Denver Players/Denver Sugar prostitution ring. How did Hancock skate out of trouble back then? A recording of a conversation between Scottie Ewing, the enterprise’s central figure, and the Denver Post’s Chuck Plunkett, now the paper’s editorial page editor, demonstrates how Denver’s power elite managed to prevent Hancock, the mayor-elect at the time, from being brought down by the scandal. And you can bet similar dynamics are at play today in regard to the Branch-Wise matter.

Sam Failla: The Mysterious Eleven Hours Before Vail Ski Instructor’s Tragic Death

By Michael Roberts

On February 6, as we’ve reported, 24-year-old Sam Failla was declared dead just outside Vail ski area, where he worked as an instructor. Today, the circumstances of Sam’s tragic passing, and particularly the eleven hours or so that elapsed between an exhausted companion’s first 911 call and the discovery of Failla’s body in a stream only about a mile from the base of a major ski lift, remain mysterious. And while the investigation is ongoing, John Failla, Sam’s father, believes multiple opportunities to save his son’s life were missed.

Free Pot Case Lawyer: Attorney General Coffman Not Licensed Under Her Name

By Michael Roberts

Last July, as we’ve reported, Joseph Hopper and twelve others associated with Hoppz’ Cropz stores in Colorado Springs were indicted for alleged illegal distribution of marijuana (nearly 200 pounds’ worth) in a variation on the sort of “free” pot giveaway schemes that date back to the days before and just after the launch of legal recreational cannabis sales in the state. Now, Rob Corry, Hopper’s attorney, has filed a motion to dismiss the charges based on a technicality — specifically that Colorado Attorney General Cynthia H. Coffman isn’t licensed to practice law in the state under the name listed in the document. And he’s right.

How Denver’s Average Single Family Home Price Rose to More than $500,000

By Michael Roberts

According to the latest report from the Denver Metro Association of Realtors, single family home prices in Denver now average more than $500,000, the highest number ever recorded for such residences in the Mile High City. But this benchmark wasn’t achieved by way of a sudden spike. The climb to this sum has been inexorable over the past year, with occasional clues that the market had plateaued proving false.

Michael Hancock Is a Sexual Harasser and Must Resign, Police Union Says

By Michael Roberts

Ever since Denver Mayor Michael Hancock apologized for sending inappropriate texts to Denver police officer Leslie Branch-Wise during the 2011-2012 period when she was on his security detail, various organizations related to local law enforcement have made their displeasure with the situation clear. The latest: Hours after Nick Rogers, president of the Denver Police Protective Association, told us that Hancock had lost the respect of cops in the Mile High, the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, the state’s primary police union, sent a scathing letter to Governor John Hickenlooper demanding that the mayor resign over his treatment of now-Detective Branch-Wise and plenty more.

Resigning Manual Principal “Targeted by Those That Called Me N*gger”

By Michael Roberts

On Friday, March 2, news broke that Nick Dawkins had resigned as principal of Manual High School, and the initial letter describing the reasons behind his decision was exceedingly polite, albeit with an edge of sadness. But the following day, in an essay entitled “Why I Left Denver Public Schools,” Dawkins was much more blunt, revealing that a controversy over reports of a confederate flag at a Manual-Weld Central High School football game last September was among the factors that led to his departure. “For weeks as this situation played out I was targeted by those that called me a nigger and vowed to bring harm to me,” Dawkins wrote.

Michael Hancock Sexy Text Scandal: He’s Lost Respect of Police, Critic Says

By Michael Roberts

The fallout continues following Mayor Michael Hancock’s apology for inappropriate texts sent to Denver police officer Leslie Branch-Wise. The scandal has led to veiled lawsuit threats from an attorney representing Wayne McDonald, a former Hancock pal who won $200,000 in a previous suit over over his 2012 firing from a position with the mayor; he’d supposedly made similarly problematic comments to Branch-Wise. And it’s also emboldened critics such as the Colorado Latino Forum’s Lisa Calderón, organizer of a March 7 march to call for his resignation. Nick Rogers, president of the Denver Police Protective Association, doesn’t go quite as far as Calderón. But he sees the Branch-Wise matter as another example of Hancock’s flawed leadership.

Richard Darling Dismemberment Murder: A Survivor’s Story

By Michael Roberts

Earlier this month, Richard Darling was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for allegedly killing, dismembering and “filleting” the body of Rey Pesina in an Aurora homeless encampment on Halloween of 2015. The sentence would seem to offer some solace to Candace Chamberlain, who was romantically involved with both men before getting caught in the middle of their fatal conflict. But more than two years later, she’s still struggling to deal with her memories from that awful day.

How Nurse Tom Moore Got Away With Groping Patients for a Decade

By Michael Roberts

In 2016, as we’ve reported, at least eleven women accused nurse Tom Moore of improperly touching them while he was supposed to be providing medical care. Now, he’s been given a twelve-year sentence for unlawful sexual contact in the 17th Judicial District, to run concurrently with a dozen year jolt previously doled out in Weld County. But according to one of Moore’s multiple arrest affidavits, the amount of time he’s been ordered to serve is only a little longer that the decade during which he allegedly used his profession as a means to violate one female victim after another.

This Is the Day Accused Pit Bull Bandit Is Going to Die

By Michael Roberts

The owners of Bandit say that the dog is a boxer mix. But as we’ve reported, officials in Aurora believe he’s a type of pit bull, a breed banned in the community for a decade-plus, and they’ve spent more than a year trying to put him to death over a January 2017 biting incident. Today, March 2, they’ll succeed. He’s scheduled to be euthanized at the Aurora animal shelter this morning.

Did Hancock Throw Ex-Pal Under Bus to Save Himself in Sexy Text Scandal?

By Michael Roberts

The fallout has been considerable in the wake of Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s apology for inappropriate texts sent to Denver police officer Leslie Branch-Wise. The latest example comes from an attorney representing Wayne McDonald, a former Hancock friend and onetime City of Denver employee who won a $200,000 settlement four years after filing a lawsuit over his 2012 firing, which had reportedly been prompted by “inappropriate comments” he’d made to Branch-Wise, then a part of the mayor’s security team. According to the lawyer, Milwaukee-based William Sulton, corresponding via email, Hancock told untruths about McDonald after sacking him, and in alluding to him during his video apology to Branch-Wise, “Mayor Hancock caused the same false statements to be published about Mr. McDonald.”

Claim: Rep Said Killers Lobbied for Gun-Free Schools Before Columbine Attack

By Michael Roberts

An attendee at a town hall in Erie held following the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida says pro-gun state representative Lori Saine supported her argument that teachers should be armed by claiming Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold had supported gun control and lobbied the state legislature to make schools gun-free zones to prevent return fire during the lethal April 20, 1999 attack that took the lives of twelve students and a teacher. Moreover, the account is backed by two others who were also at the town hall.

Michael Hancock Text Scandal Fallout: Angry Cops, Sex Harassment Training

By Michael Roberts

The fallout from Denver Mayor Michael Hancock’s apology for inappropriate texts sent to Denver police detective Leslie Branch-Wise when she was on his security detail in 2011 and 2012 has been fast, furious and, at times, contradictory. Hancock has been lambasted by two different police organizations and chided by powerful politicos, with one former city council member calling on him to resign. Meanwhile, the City of Denver has announced that it is developing new sexual harassment training for city employees even though Hancock continues to insist that he didn’t sexually harass Branch-Wise, and the head of a notorious Denver prostitution ring says the mayor was a client.

Why Cops Assaulted the “Most Vulnerable Person in Brighton”

By Michael Roberts

Joshua Sands is “the most vulnerable person in Brighton” according to attorney David Lane, and that makes what happened to him even more shocking. Sands, who has autism, was assaulted and tased by six members of the Brighton Police Department after being mistaken for a murder suspect who was already behind bars at the time.

“I Need a F*ck Buddy”: The Case Against Representative Steve Lebsock

By Michael Roberts

On the evening of February 27, around the same time that Denver Mayor Michael Hancock issued a video apology for inappropriate text messages sent to a Denver police officer, representatives for KC Becker, the Colorado House of Representative’s majority leader, publicly issued documents about alleged impropriety by Representative Steve Lebsock, a Thornton Democrat accused of sexually harassing at least eleven women, including fellow rep Faith Winter and lobbyist Holly Tarry. One passage maintains that Lebsock said to one complainant, “Don’t you need a fuck buddy? I need a fuck buddy.”