Colorado’s Brock Franklin has been ordered to serve 472 years in prison for heading a violent child sex ring. The punishment is believed to be the longest-ever sentence for a sex trafficker in U.S. history.
Representative Diana DeGette has revealed a past episode of sexual harassment against her, detailing an unwanted physical advance in an elevator by ex-San Diego Mayor Bob Filner when he was a Congressman. This disclosure, made in a November 20 interview on view below, makes DeGette the highest profile Colorado politician to go public with disgusting tales of unwanted contact and more since early October, when shocking tales about allegedly criminal behavior by disgraced Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein unleashed a slew of accusations against powerful men, including retired Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning.
A request for a temporary injunction against the City of Denver for banning organizers of the Denver 420 Rally from staging the event for at least three years over alleged violations at the gathering earlier this year could be filed as early as today. The rally’s attorney, Rob Corry, says the document will make the argument that any marijuana-related event held on April 20 would violate the current crew’s trademark and intellectual property.
On November 20, Kenneth Banks pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Fallon Graham, a mother of two shot down outside Aurora’s Montview Bar & Grill two years to the day earlier. He did the same late last month in regard to two Denver murders, including the slaying of D’Andre Mayfield in a drive-by shooting. All three crimes took place during the same three-day period in 2015, and each is said to have been gang-related. Indeed, the prosecutor who effectively handed Banks the third of three life sentences without the possibility of parole says he opened fire on Graham because her companion had chosen to wear the wrong color shoes.
Bill Franke, the head of the investment firm that owns Denver-based Frontier Airlines, has compared the average passenger to a “teenage spoiled brat” despite the carrier’s recent history of terrible customer service rankings, a well-publicized public spat with 9News anchor Kyle Clark and an entire website devoted to Frontier horror stories.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission has issued an $8.9 million civil penalty assessment notice against Rasier LLC, the parent company of Uber. Why? The PUC maintains that Uber has allowed “individuals with disqualifying criminal or motor vehicle offenses, or without valid licenses, to drive for the company” in the state.
Denver Environmental Health has banned the sale of kratom for human consumption. The decision follows a public health advisory warning individuals not to consume kratom, a popular herbal substance of Southeast Asian origin that’s become more widely available in Colorado over the past few months, issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on November 14. Prior to this alert, reports circulated about more than a dozen deaths associated with, although perhaps not directly attributable to, use of the substance, which is known for its euphoric and pain-relieving effects.
Former Congressman Tom Tancredo is running for governor of Colorado in 2008. It’s Tancredo’s third bid for the office, and he remains as outspoken as ever on topics such as immigration, education, health care, marijuana and more, as he demonstrates in this frank and wide-ranging question-and-answer session.
In September, Hyperloop One, whose high-tech tube transportation concept is central to a firm affiliated with billionaire Elon Musk, of Tesla Motors and SolarCity fame, identified a route largely based in Colorado as one of the ten strongest in the world and entered into a public-private partnership with the Colorado Department of Transportation to launch a feasibility study here. An author who promoted a similar concept in a book published fourteen years ago, cheers this development, but he argues that if the system is built above ground, as opposed to employing tunnels, it won’t succeed and could turn into a disaster.
The Denver Broncos’ 20-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at home on Sunday, November 19, represents the latest low point in a season full of them. On Twitter, fans who’ve previously called for the signing of controversial QB Colin Kaepernick or (God help us) Tim Tebow and the firing of first-year head coach Vance Joseph reacted emotionally, expressing humiliation over the squad’s sorry performance, as seen in our top tweets roundup below.
In 2013, Zackary Moffitt died of a heart attack in Summit County after three days during which authorities essentially ignored escalating medical symptoms associated with alcohol detoxing, including hallucinations and repeated vomiting of green bile. Now, more than four years later, Summit County has agreed to pay Moffitt’s still-young children $3.5 million to settle the case.
What does Google think about certain celebrities? A quick way to find out is to type in the word “is” and a famous name in the query box. You’ll be offered a list of the most popular searches for that person. Back in 2014, we tried this trick with a slew of the best known Coloradans in entertainment, sports and politics, and the results were often weird and consistently funny. Here’s our hilarious update.
Jose Ocampo, the first of two men convicted of murder in the death of aspiring rapper Michael House, has been sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 36 years for his actions. Danielle House, Michael’s sister, is pleased by this punishment, but it hasn’t lessened her sense of loss over the slaying.
Millions upon millions of people have bought and sold items on Craigslist without a problem. But that doesn’t mean horror stories involving the service are unknown, as Anthony Mott understands very well. Last year, the Jefferson County homeowner was tied up, threatened with a knife and robbed by two men who responded to a Craigslist ad, one of whom Mott managed to kill after freeing himself. Now, David Mascarenas, the surviving partner in crime, has pleaded guilty and faces decades behind bars for his role in this nightmare scenario.
On December 5, the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether Denver-based Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips discriminated against a gay couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, by refusing to make them a wedding cake. Phillips justifies his actions because the Craig-Mullins union contradicts his conservative Christian views, and he’s backed by the faith-based Alliance Defending Freedom and President Donald Trump’s Justice Department. But a representative from the Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, which has joined an amicus brief accessible below that opposes this position, says a ruling for Phillips would essentially suggest that one Christian belief system is more important than others.
Last week, authorities in Pueblo conducted a new series of searches in the case of Kelsie Schelling, a onetime resident of Denver (she lived in the Larimer Square area) who vanished more than four years ago after heading south to tell her boyfriend, Donthe Lucas, that she was pregnant. The searches focused on locations associated with Lucas, a person of interest in Schelling’s disappearance, and while they turned up no new evidence linking him to the disappearance, he was arrested days later at Denver International Airport for an unrelated robbery case — although one commenter on the Help Find Kelsie Facebook page saw a connection anyhow.
During a recent interview with Westword, former Congressman Tom Tancredo, who’s running for governor, said City of Denver employees who assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement representatives in ways that go beyond current city policy could be fined up to $1,000. Turns out he’s right, as indicated by a slide from a PowerPoint presentation sent to city employees, one of whom shared it with Tancredo. The graphic, on view below, notes that violations during interactions with ICE agents can lead to fines, jail time and even firing.
Freshly assembled data provides a new angle on Colorado places with the most arrests for intoxicated driving even as it offers fodder in the debate about whether stoned drivers are as big a threat as drunk ones. Areas with the largest number of marijuana businesses tend to have among the lowest rates of filings for driving under the influence or driving while ability impaired in the state. Additionally, less populous regions are apt to have more per capita DUIs and DWAIs than counties with big cities and crowded highways.
Mere months from now, Denver-area drivers traveling near the intersection of Interstate 25 and E-470 will be able to see construction getting underway on a test track for Arrivo, a hyperloop-inspired transportation system previewed in this space yesterday. Newly released images and maps shared here present visions of a future in which vehicles on a magnetic-levitation track will run alongside traditional roadways, except they’ll be moving at a speed of approximately 300 miles per hour, covering distances that currently take an hour or more to cover in mere minutes.
Yesterday, November 13, as we’ve reported, 18th Judicial District DA and Aurora theater shooting prosecutor George Brauchler pulled out of the race for Colorado governor in 2018 in order to run for state attorney general in the wake of AG Cynthia Coffman’s own gubernatorial bid. Shortly after the announcement, Brauchler spoke to us in detail about the motivations behind his decision and his take on both the governor’s contest and the competition for attorney general in a frank Q&A on view below.
While opioid addiction is widely understood to constitute a national crisis, there’s disagreement about how best to tackle the problem, with some advocates arguing in favor of a health-care focus and others backing get-tough law enforcement tactics. But the latter approach fell short in the high-profile case of Sam Brunelus, who was busted on suspicion of manslaughter in the deaths of two men to whom he allegedly provided heroin laced with carfentanil, an extremely powerful synthetic opioid best known as an elephant tranquilizer.
On November 1, the Jewish National Fund announced an event scheduled for today in honor of oil tycoon Jack Grynberg, a past Westword profile subject. The release noted that Governor John Hickenlooper would officially declare November 14 “Jack Grynberg Day,” with his chief of staff, Doug Friednash, scheduled to present the proclamation in person. But the get-together has been called off at the last minute amid uncomfortable headlines about sexual-harassment accusations made against the 85-year-old Grynberg by former employees. And now, all parties concerned, including Hickenlooper, are trying to distance themselves from potential embarrassment over association with an alleged groper in the age of Harvey Weinstein.
