Those looking to live out a festive, Hallmark-style Christmas may not need to venture farther than a small town south of Denver.
“Every year, Hallmark holiday movies drop us into snow-dusted towns full of glowing storefronts, festive markets, and built-in nostalgia,” a holiday-themed analysis stated. “The question is which real U.S. towns actually feel that way.”
Littleton, which stands out for its Main Street charm and thriving local economy, ranked first in Colorado for its Christmas movie charm and placed ninth nationally, according to The Action Network analysis.
“In Hallmark terms, Littleton reads like a Rocky Mountain version of a classic holiday town: festive shopfronts, walkable streets, and a community that feels both lively and close-knit,” spokesperson Kathy Morris said in an email to The Denver Post. “It’s the kind of place where the tree lighting on Main Street draws everyone — including the soon-to-be couple at the heart of the story.”
The Action Network rankings are based on a “Hallmark Likelihood Index” — which pulls data from more than 3,000 towns on population, number of small businesses, historic sites and December snowfall — to determine where a real-life Hallmark holiday story is most likely to happen.
In Littleton, the chances are close to 3.3%, according to the analysis.
The town boasts a population of roughly 45,500 and has more than 36,000 businesses, one of the highest totals in the country, the analysis showed. It also gets about 1 inch of snow each December — just enough for a lightly dusted holiday movie scene.
“We can’t guarantee a high-powered executive is returning to Littleton only to reconnect with her hometown crush — but statistically, Littleton gives her a pretty solid chance,” Morris wrote.
Some might say the new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus that opened recently in a former 255-room hotel is undergirded by one of humanity’s seven deadly sins — envy.
The intent is to turn that feeling into a motivational force. For his part, Mayor Mike Coffman prefers to refer to the three-tiered residential system at the homeless navigation center as an “incentive-based program” — one that awards increasingly comfortable living quarters to those showing progress on their journey to self-sufficiency.
“The notion here is (that) different standards of living act as an incentive,” Coffman said in early November during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the campus, which occupies a former Crowne Plaza Hotel at East 40th Avenue and Chambers Road. “The idea is to move up the tiers into much better living situations.”
Clients in the new facility, which opened its doors on Nov. 17, start at the bottom with a cot and a locker. They can eventually migrate to a hotel room, with a locking door and a private bathroom.
But that upgrade comes with a price.
“To get a room here, you have to be working full time,” Coffman said.
It’s an approach that the mayor says threads the needle between housing-first and work-first, the two prevailing strategies for addressing homelessness today. The housing-first approach emphasizes getting someone into a stable home before requiring employment, sobriety or treatment. A work-first setup conditions housing on a person finding work and seeking help with underlying mental health and addiction problems.
“We’re providing a continuum of services that starts with an emergency shelter,” said Jim Goebelbecker, the executive director of Advance Pathways.
Advance Pathways, the nonprofit group that ran the Aurora Resource Day Center before its recent closure, was chosen through a competitive bidding process to operate the new navigation campus in Aurora — with $2 million in annual help from the city. Goebelbecker said the tiered approach at the new facility “taps into a person’s motivation for change.”
The Aurora Regional Navigation Campus’ debut nearly completes a mission that has been in the works for more than three years. It is the fourth — and penultimate — metro Denver homeless navigation center to go online since the Colorado General Assembly passed House Bill 1378 in 2022.
The bill allocated American Rescue Plan Act dollars to stand up one central homeless navigation center. The plan has since shifted to five smaller centers, with locations in Aurora, Lakewood, Boulder, Denver and Englewood. The Colorado Department of Local Affairs in late 2023 approved $52 million for the centers. The final center, the Jefferson County Regional Navigation Campus in Lakewood, is undergoing renovations and will open next year.
Aurora’s center, with 640 beds across its three tiered spaces, is by far the largest of the five facilities.
Cathy Alderman, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said the opening of Aurora’s navigation campus is “a really big deal.” Aside from serving its own clientele, she expects the center to send referrals to the coalition’s newly opened Sage Ridge Supportive Residential Community near Watkins, where people without stable housing go to address their substance-use disorders.
“A person can go to one place and get multiple needs met,” Alderman said, referring to the array of job, medical and addiction treatment services that give homeless navigation centers their name. “We are excited that the new campus is now up and running.”
The new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus, operated by Advance Pathways, photographed in Aurora on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
‘How do I move up?’
Walking into the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus feels like walking into, well, a hotel.
The swimming pool was removed during renovation, as was a water fountain in the lobby. Everything else stayed, including beds, bedding, furniture — even a stash of bottled cocktail delights. But not the alcohol to go with it.
“They left everything, down to the forks and knives and a wall of maraschino cherries,” said Jessica Prosser, Aurora’s director of housing and community services, as she walked through the hotel’s industrial kitchen.
The kitchen, which was part of the $26.5 million sale of the Crowne Plaza Hotel to Aurora last year, was a godsend to an operation tasked with serving three meals a day to hundreds of people. The city spent another $13.5 million to renovate the building.
“To build a new commercial kitchen is a half-million dollars, easy,” Prosser said.
The layout of the navigation center was deliberate, she said. The hotel’s convention center space is now occupied by Tier I and Tier II housing. The first tier is made up of nearly 300 cots, divided by sex. There are lockers for personal belongings and shared bathrooms. Anyone is welcome.
On the other side of a nondescript wall is Tier II, which is composed of a grid of 114 compartmentalized, open-air cubicles with proper beds and lockable storage. The center assigns residents in this tier case managers to help them treat personal challenges and get on the path toward landing a job.
The Tier II “Courage” space, which offers overnight accommodation for people who are working on recovery, employment and housing pathways at the new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus in Aurora, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Tier III residents live in the 255 hotel rooms. They must have a full-time job and are required to pay a third of their income to the program. Residents in this tier will typically remain at Advance Pathways for up to two years before they have the skills and stability to find housing on the outside, Goebelbecker said.
People living in the congregate tiers can house their dogs in a pet room, which can accommodate 40 canines. (No cats, gerbils or fish). The center also doesn’t accept children. Around 60 staff members, plus 10 contracted security personnel, will work at the facility 24/7.
Shining a bright light on the path forward and upward inside the facility — the windows of some of the coveted private rooms are fully visible from the lobby — is an “intentional design feature,” Prosser said.
“How do I move up?” she mused, stepping into the shoes of a resident eyeing the facility’s layout. “How do I get in there?”
The Tier III “Commitment” space, which provides private rooms that will serve people who are in the workforce and are building towards financial independence, seen at the new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus in Aurora on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
It’s a system that demands something of the people using it, Coffman said, while at the same time providing the guidance and help that clients will need.
“This is not just maintaining people where they are — this is about moving people forward,” the mayor said.
The approach is familiar to Shantell Anderson, Advance Pathways’ program director. She told her life story during the ribbon-cutting ceremony, bringing tears to the eyes of some in the audience.
A native of Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood, Anderson fell in with the wrong crowd. She became pregnant at 15 and got hooked on cocaine. She spiraled into a life on the streets that resulted in her children being sent to an aunt for caretaking.
But through treatment and by intersecting with the right people, she recovered. She earned a nursing degree and worked at RecoveryWorks, a nonprofit organization that operated a day shelter in Lakewood, before taking the job at Advance Pathways.
The Tier I “Compassion” emergency shelter, which provides immediate short-term shelter for those in need at the new Aurora Regional Navigation Campus in Aurora on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
“This is a system that honors people’s dignity,” Anderson said, her voice heavy with emotion.
In an interview, she said assuming the burden to improve her situation was critical to her transformation.
“I actually did that — no one gave me anything,” said Anderson, 48. “If it was handed to me, I didn’t appreciate it.”
How much responsibility to place on the people being helped by such programs is still a matter of intense debate by policymakers and advocates for homeless people. The housing-first approach favored by Denver and many big cities across the country is anchored in the idea that work or treatment requirements will result in many people falling through the cracks and staying outside, particularly those who face mental-health challenges.
The Bridge House in Englewood, one of the five metro area navigation centers, follows a “Ready to Work” model that is similar to that of the upper tiers of the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus.
Opened in May, the Bridge House has 69 beds. CEO Melissa Arguello-Green said the organization asks its clients (called trainees) to put skin in the game by landing a job with Bridge House’s help and then contributing a third of their paycheck as rent.
“We help them find employment through our agency so they can leave our agency,” she said. “We’re looking for self-sufficiency that will get people off system support.”
Arguello-Green said she would like to see more coordination between the metro’s five navigation centers, though she acknowledged it’s still in the early going.
“We’re missing that come-to-the-table collaboration,” she said.
Advance Pathways volunteer outreach coordinator Evan Brown organizes the clothing bank before the Aurora Regional Navigation Campus’ grand opening ceremony in Aurora on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Homeless numbers still rising
Shannon Gray, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Local Affairs, said her department had started convening quarterly in-person meetings across the locations.
“While each navigation campus is unique and reflects community-specific strategies, they are all a part of a regional effort to bring external partners together onsite to provide needed services and referrals,” Gray said. Together, they are “building towards a larger regional system to connect homeless households to a larger network of opportunities.”
The centers are permitted to “tailor their approach to their unique needs and vision,” she said. While Englewood and Aurora use a tiered system, Gray said, the other three centers don’t.
“It is important to understand that DOLA serves as a funder for these regional navigation campuses — we do not oversee their operation or maintenance,” she said.
Denver’s navigation center, which opened in December 2023 in a former DoubleTree Hotel on Quebec Street, offers 289 rooms to those in need, said Julia Marvin, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Housing Stability.
She called the facility an “integral component of Denver’s All in Mile High homelessness initiative,” Mayor Mike Johnston’s ambitious effort to appreciably reduce homelessness in the city. The center is just one of several former hotels and other shelter sites in the system.
Earlier this year, his administration cited annual count numbers showing a 45% decrease in the number of people sleeping on the streets since 2023 — dropping from 1,423 to 785 people, despite overall homelessness continuing to increase in that time.
In fact, homelessness numbers are still going in the wrong direction across the seven-county metro, per the latest Point-in-Time survey from the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative, which captures a one-night snapshot. The January count revealed that 10,774 people were homeless on the night of the survey, up from 9,977 in the count the year before.
Anderson, the Advance Pathways program director, said the new Aurora facility was opening at just the right time. Despite a recent calming in runaway home values in metro Denver, the $650,000 median price of a detached home in October still demarcated a housing market that was out of reach for many.
“I am excited,” Anderson said of the Aurora navigation campus’ debut. “I’m waiting for people to walk through the door and start the next chapter of their journey.”
Three major crashes in Aurora sent six people to the hospital Friday night and Saturday morning, including two along the same section of southbound Interstate 225.
A two-vehicle crash closed southbound I-225 near East 17th Place at around 9:13 a.m., the Aurora Police Department said on social media.
Three adults and one child were taken to the hospital, but additional information about their injuries was not immediately available.
The highway reopened as of 11:45 a.m., according to Colorado Department of Transportation traffic cameras.
A three-vehicle crash on the same section of southbound I-225 sent two people to the hospital at 9 p.m. Friday, Aurora police said.
To the south, a three-vehicle crash closed several lanes of Parker Road east of I-225 just after 11 a.m.
#TrafficAlert Parker Road east of 225 is partially shutdown due to a three vehicle crash—seen in this photo. One lane of NB traffic is still moving. Miraculously no one was injured. This is our 3rd major crash since last night. Please slow down and pay attention to the road. pic.twitter.com/EB52XZ7fhK
Almost 40 years after a passerby found the skeletal remains of missing teenager Donna Sue Wayne in a northeast Aurora field, investigators finally identified a suspect in her death — a man already in prison for the murder and sexual assault of another woman killed in the city seven months after Wayne.
Richard “Ricky” Saathoff, 65, is charged with first-degree murder and second-degree kidnapping in Wayne’s death, according to the Arapahoe County District Attorney’s Office.
While some details of the 18-year-old’s disappearance have long been public knowledge, a newly filed Aurora Police Department arrest affidavit illuminates the winding path investigators trod for nearly 40 years, using DNA and fingerprint evidence along with witness statements to identify Saathoff as a suspect.
Donna Sue Wayne.
Wayne went missing after leaving her Aurora home to meet up with friends at a Montbello house party and bar the night of June 13, 1986.
She was last seen alive early the next morning, when a Stapleton airport worker saw her being physically and sexually assaulted by a man driving her green 1972 Ford LTD in the 800 block of North Picadilly Road.
Earlier reports described the car as red, but the arrest affidavit includes photos of the green Ford. The car was later destroyed. .
Wayne screamed for help before the man forced her back into the car, the woman told police. The woman drove to the nearest house to get help, but by the time police arrived, Wayne and the man were gone.
Wayne’s car was seen abandoned in Aurora’s Hoffman Heights neighborhood the next day, on June 15, 1986, but police did not link the car to Wayne until it was towed away two weeks later, an Aurora cold case investigator wrote in the affidavit.
Police lifted two fingerprints from the driver’s side window, and a neighbor found Wayne’s car keys, tossed in an evergreen bush down the block near Vaughn Elementary School, a few weeks later.
Wayne’s body was found by a passing driver in a northeast Aurora field littered with trash and debris one month after she was last seen alive, with her clothes and purse were strewn about the area, according to the affidavit.
Her exact cause of death was never confirmed because of how much her remains had decomposed, but she had multiple broken bones, including her jaw, ribs, clavicle and in her neck, chest and face.
The investigation seemed to stall after her body was found as police chased leads that did not pan out.
Fingerprint evidence from the driver’s side window was later misplaced and went missing for years, until it was found and retested in 2009, with no matches.
Investigators retested the fingerprints in a new system in 2012 and matched the two prints to Saathoff, who was already in prison after he was convicted of murder in the death of 40-year-old Norma Houston. Houston’s body was found naked, brutally beaten and assaulted near a gas station at 11697 E. Colfax Ave. on Jan. 18, 1987, seven months after Wayne’s death, police wrote.
Like Wayne, Houston had significant trauma to her head and a broken jaw, police wrote.
Houston was sexually assaulted, and though Wayne’s remains were too deteriorated to confirm sexual assault, her pants and underwear had been removed, like Houston’s.
Investigators linked Saathoff to Houston’s murder after his DNA was found on her clothes, and he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in June 1988. He is eligible for parole in June 2027, state records show.
After the 2012 fingerprint match, investigators tried to further link Saathoff to Wayne’s murder, according to the affidavit. A detective interviewed him in prison in 2014, and he denied knowing Wayne (and later denied killing Houston).
Investigators determined Saathoff lived with his parents in the same neighborhood where Wayne’s car was abandoned, and so did his ex-girlfriend.
In May, more than a decade after the fingerprint match, investigators again looked at Wayne’s clothes for a DNA sample, and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found and tested DNA on Wayne’s jeans that had a high likelihood of belonging to Saathoff.
Saathoff remains in prison at the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility in Cañon City, according to state records. His next court date was not available Friday.
An Aurora pedestrian was struck by a train Wednesday morning after trespassing on the tracks as the A-Line approached, according to the Regional Transportation District.
The unidentified victim was a “trespasser” because the Peoria Station crossing areas were closed to pedestrians for the incoming train at the time of the incident, RTD spokesperson Tara Broghammer said.
“When an individual enters railroad property anywhere other than a designated pedestrian or roadway crossing, or when either crossing is closed, it is illegal and considered trespassing,” Broghammer said in an email to The Denver Post.
Broghammer said the victim was hit just after 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, and paramedics took the person to a hospital with unknown injuries at 7:50 a.m. At that time, the pedestrian was still alive.
No one on the A-Line commuter rail train was injured, and buses temporarily replaced the train between the Central Park and 40th & Airport Boulevard stations while police investigated, Broghammer said.
As of 8:45 a.m., the A-Line had resumed service, according to RTD.
RTD’s A-Line takes commuters between Union Station in Denver and Denver International Airport.
A motorcyclist died Tuesday night in Aurora after another driver ran a red light, crashing into the motorcycle and a third vehicle, police said.
The fatal crash happened at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday when a GMC driver headed north on South Buckley Road failed to stop for a red light at East Mississippi Avenue, according to a news release from the Aurora Police Department.
The GMC driver then crashed into a motorcycle and an Acura, the drivers of which were both turning left onto Mississippi, police said.
Police said the motorcyclist, an unidentified man, died from his injuries at the scene of the crash. He will be identified by the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office.
No other injuries were reported. The GMC driver remained on scene and is cooperating with the investigation, according to Aurora police.
Information about the cause of the crash was not available Wednesday, but police said speed and alcohol are not suspected to be factors.
A former Englewood police officer was arrested on suspicion of assault after he pulled a man over for running a stop sign and, after struggling to communicate in Spanish, proceeded to shock the man with a Taser, put him in a chokehold and drag him to the ground, investigators said Tuesday.
Ryan Scott Vasina, 30, faces charges of second-degree assault, third-degree assault and first-degree official misconduct, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. The second-degree assault charge is a felony, while the other two charges are misdemeanors.
He turned himself in at the Denver Sheriff Department on Monday and was released on a $25,000 bail, according to the district attorney’s office.
“This type of conduct is a stain on the profession and is not reflective of the Englewood Police Department or the people who serve our community with honor,” Police Chief David Jackson said during a news conference on Tuesday morning at the district attorney’s office in Centennial.
Vasina, at the time a probationary officer, pulled over 20-year-old Carlos Rangel-Rincones, a Venezuelan national, shortly after 11 p.m. Oct. 8 near South Lincoln Street and East Layton Avenue, according to an arrest affidavit.
Investigators said Rangel-Rincones was seen running a stop sign on dash-camera video.
Rangel-Rincones primarily speaks Spanish and knows minimal English, so he had trouble understanding Vasina during the traffic stop, he told investigators through an interpreter. Vasina never requested an interpreter to respond to the scene, District Attorney Amy Padden said during the news conference.
In the expletive-laden encounter, Vasina repeatedly asked Rangel-Rincones for his license and keys and refused to answer the man’s questions, according to the arrest affidavit. He told Rangel-Rincones to turn off the car, and the man complied, but then asked for the keys, which Rangel-Rincones did not turn over.
Instead, Vasina repeatedly tried to pull Rangel-Rincones out of the car while cursing and insulting him as Rangel-Rincones pulled back and tried to access a translation app on his phone.
Vasina again ordered him to get out of the car and used his radio to tell emergency dispatchers Rangel-Rincones was fighting him, but his body-worn camera footage showed that wasn’t the case.
Instead, the recording showed Vasina telling Rangel-Rincones he was going to shock him and then deploying the Taser one second later, investigators wrote.
Rangel-Rincones then got out of the car, and Vasina told him to get on the ground, but immediately put him in a chokehold and dragged him down.
Rangel-Rincones told investigators that he was trying to send his location to his mother-in-law because he thought he was going to be killed.
Vasina choked him for about 12 seconds and put his weight on the man’s back, further injuring him because he still had Taser barbs in his body, investigators said.
Rangel-Rincones could not breathe during those 12 seconds and was later photographed with bruises on his neck, Padden said. He never fought, resisted or failed to follow lawful orders before Vasina used force, she said.
Investigators also wrote in the affidavit that Rangel-Rincones did nothing to warrant Vasina’s use of force and did not resist even as he was being choked.
The type of chokehold Vasina used in the traffic stop is illegal in Colorado, and all chokeholds are prohibited under the Englewood Police Department’s use-of-force policy unless deadly force is authorized.
Englewood police started investigating the encounter after Rangel-Rincones came to the department on Oct. 9 to file a complaint, Jackson said Tuesday.
Jackson learned about the encounter five days later when an unidentified person from outside the police department emailed him late Oct. 13, he said. Englewood police first reviewed Vasina’s body-worn camera video on Oct. 14 and immediately referred the case to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Vasina was put on administrative leave that day.
Vasina was still a probationary officer and was terminated after his probationary status was revoked, Jackson said. He was hired at the Englewood Police Department in November 2024 and previously worked at the Colorado State Patrol from June 2021 through October 2024.
Vasina did not have a disciplinary record in Englewood and an initial review of his other body-worn camera video did not show similar incidents, Jackson said.
State Patrol officials referred questions about Vasina’s employment, including his disciplinary record and past use of force, to the agency’s records department, which did not immediately respond to a public records request on Tuesday.
Vasina’s state police certification through the Peace Officer Standards and Training board was still active as of Tuesday afternoon and did not show his arrest. His next court date was not available Tuesday.
A man was shot to death Tuesday night in a Westminster motel off of Interstate 25, police said.
Westminster officers responded to the motel near West 120th Avenue and North Melody Drive just after 10 p.m. Tuesday, according to a news release from the police department. The department declined to identify the motel.
When they arrived, officers found a man inside who had been shot, police said in the release. Paramedics took him to the hospital, where he died from his injuries.
Investigators believe two men started a fight in a motel room that escalated into the shooting. Neither man has been publicly identified.
The surviving man was arrested Tuesday night, but released after “new information was revealed about the events of that evening,” police said.
That information was not released Wednesday, but police said officers were not searching for any additional suspects and there was no active threat to the community.
The man killed in the motel will be identified by the Adams County Coroner’s Office.
A passenger in a sedan racing down East Alameda Parkway early Saturday morning died after the driver lost control and crashed, police said.
Aurora officers responded to the rollover crash just west of South Chambers Road on Alameda at about 12:45 a.m. Saturday, according to a news release from the department.
Police said the BMW sedan was street racing down Alameda from Sable Boulevard when the driver, 19-year-old Edwin Rosales-Sandoval of Denver, crashed on a curve.
The sedan left the roadway, struck a grocery store sign and rolled, police said. No other vehicles were involved in the crash.
Paramedics took Rosales-Sandoval and a 17-year-old girl in the car to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Another passenger, an unidentified adult man, died at the scene of the crash, police said. He will be identified by the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office.
Investigators believe Rosales-Sandoval was drunk and driving on a revoked license at the time of the crash. The Denver man’s license was revoked after a previous DUI incident, Aurora police said.
Rosales-Sandoval was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, reckless driving, DUI and driving on a revoked license, police said. As of Sunday morning, he was being held on a $75,000 bail.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday for a filing of charges hearing, court records show.
Law enforcement officials are searching for an Indigenous teenager reported missing Wednesday from Englewood, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Tyrain Willow, 17, is a 5-foot-4-inch, 120-pound boy with black hair and brown eyes, according to a missing Indigenous person alert from the agency. He is affiliated with the Northern Arapaho Tribe.
Tyrain was last seen at about 7 a.m. Wednesday near South Broadway and Eastman Avenue in Englewood, CBI officials said in the alert.
He was wearing a white-and-black Los Angeles Dodgers hat, black jacket, black shirt, gold/tan pants and white shoes, investigators said. He may have been wearing an earring in his right ear.
Anyone who sees Tyrain or has information about his whereabouts is asked to contact the Englewood Police Department at 303-761-7410.
Arapahoe County District Court Judge Darren Louis Vahle sentenced Brian Vondersmith, 38, on Friday to 12 years in prison for leaving the scene of an accident involving death, court records show.
Vondersmith pleaded guilty to that charge, a felony, in a deal that dropped four additional charges from his case: manslaughter, reckless driving, first-degree assault with extreme indifference and vehicular homicide, according to court records.
Officers found a downed motorcyclist on the highway, identified by the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office as 38-year-old Matthew Bouchard of Aurora, police said. Bouchard died from his injuries before officers arrived.
Witnesses told investigators that Bouchard and Vondersmith appeared to be racing when Vondersmith swerved his pickup truck into Bouchard’s motorcycle, knocking the motorcyclist into a guardrail.
Aaron Marshall Mocalkins, 31, was sentenced in Arapahoe County District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to three felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child.
Eighteen other counts — including child sex assault and animal cruelty — were dismissed by prosecutors as part of the plea agreement, according to court records.
Investigators seized his phones and other electronic devices and found thousands of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse, including an infant victim, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Mocalkins also had many photos and videos that showed him sexually abusing children, an infant and a dog, the DA’s office said.
“These crimes leave deep and lasting scars, and while no prison term can undo that harm, this sentence holds the defendant accountable and affirms our unwavering commitment to protecting children and delivering justice,” District Attorney Amy Padden said in a statement.
Mocalkins was represented by the Office of the State Public Defender, which does not comment on criminal cases.
Police chases increased tenfold in the six months after Chief Todd Chamberlain broadened the Aurora Police Department’s policy to allow officers to pursue stolen vehicles and suspected drunk drivers, a move that made Aurora one of the most permissive large police agencies along the Front Range.
Aurora officers carried out more chases in the six months after the policy change than in the last five years combined, according to data provided by the police department in response to open records requests from The Denver Post.
The city’s officers conducted 148 pursuits between March 6 — the day after the policy change — and Sept. 2, the data shows. That’s up from just 14 police chases in that same timeframe in 2024, and well above Aurora officers’ 126 chases across five years between 2020 and 2024.
The number of people injured in pursuits more than quintupled, with about one in five chases resulting in injury after the policy change, the data shows. That 20% injury rate is lower than the rate over the last five years, when the agency saw 25% of pursuits end with injury.
Chamberlain, who declined to speak with The Post for this story, has heralded the department’s new approach to pursuits as an important tool for curbing crime. Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman believes the change has already had a “dramatic impact” on crime in the city.
However, the effect of the increased pursuits on overall crime trends is difficult to gauge, with crime generally declining across the state, including in Denver, which has a more restrictive policy and many fewer police pursuits.
“You throw a big net out there, occasionally you do catch a few big fish,” said Justin Nix, a criminology professor at the University of Nebraska Omaha. “But you also end up with the pursuit policy causing more accidents and injuries.”
Of those 87 arrestees, 67 had a criminal history, 25 were wanted on active warrants, 18 were on probation and seven were on parole, the monitor found.
“What we find is that people who steal cars, it’s not a joyriding thing, it’s not a one-off, they tend to be career criminals who use these vehicles to commit other crimes,” Coffman said. “There seems to be a pattern that when we do apprehend a car thief, they tend to have warrants out for their arrest, and we do see the pattern of stealing vehicles to commit other crimes. So we are really catching repeat offenders when we apprehend the driver and/or passengers.”
The soaring number of pursuits was largely driven by stolen vehicle chases, which accounted for 103 of the 148 pursuits since the policy change, the data shows.
Auto theft in Aurora dropped 42% year-over-year between January and September, continuing a downward trend that began in 2023. In Denver, where officers do not chase stolen vehicles, auto theft has declined 36% so far in 2025 compared to 2024.
Denver police officers conducted just nine pursuits between March 6 and Sept. 2, and just 16 so far in 2025, data from the department shows. Four suspects and one officer were injured across those 16 chases.
“I think there are broader societal factors at work,” Nix said of the decline in crime, which has been seen across the nation and follows a dramatic pandemic-era spike. “When something goes up, it is bound to come down pretty drastically.”
Aurora officers apprehended fleeing drivers in 53% of all pursuits, and in 51% of pursuits for stolen vehicles between March and September, the police data shows.
Coffman said that shows officers and their supervisors are judiciously calling off pursuits that become too dangerous. He also noted that every pursuit is carefully reviewed by the police chain of command and called the new policy a “work in progress.”
“I get that it is not without controversy,” Coffman said. “There wouldn’t be the collateral accidents if not for the policy. So it is a tradeoff. It is not an easy decision and it is going to always be in flux.”
Thirty-three people were injured in Aurora police chases between March 6 and Sept. 2, up from six injured in that time frame last year. Those hurt included 24 suspects, five officers and four drivers in other vehicles.
One bystander and one suspect were seriously injured, according to the police data.
The independent monitor noted in its October report that it was “generally pleased” with officers’ judgments during pursuits, supervisors’ actions and the post-pursuit administrative review process, with “two notable exceptions” that have been “elevated for additional review and potential disciplinary action.”
The monitor also flagged an increase in failed Precision Immobilization Technique, or PIT, maneuvers during pursuits, which it attributed to officer inexperience. The group recommended more training on the maneuvers, which are designed to end pursuits, and renewed its call for the department to install dash cameras in its patrol cars, which the agency has not done.
“It sounds reasonable,” Coffman said of the dash camera recommendation. “They are not cheap and we need to budget for it.”
‘No magic number’
It’s up to city leadership to determine if the benefits of police chases outweigh the predictable harms, and there is no “magic number,” Nix said.
“When you chase that much, bad outcomes are going to happen,” he said. “People are going to get hurt, sometimes innocent third parties that have nothing to do with the chase. You know that is going to be a collateral consequence of doing that many chases. So knowing that, you should really be able to point to the community safety benefit that doing this many chases bring.”
The majority of large Front Range law enforcement agencies limit pursuits to situations in which the driver is suspected of a violent felony or poses an immediate risk of injury or death to others if not quickly apprehended.
Among 18 law enforcement agencies reviewed by The Post this spring, only Aurora and the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office explicitly allow pursuits of suspected drunk drivers. The sheriff’s office allows such pursuits only if the driver stays under the posted speed limit.
Aurora officers pursued suspected impaired drivers 13 times between March and September, the data shows, with five chases ending in injury.
Omar Montgomery, president of the Aurora NAACP, said he is a “cautious neutral” about the policy change, but would like Aurora police to meet with community members to explain the impact in more detail.
“People in the community do not want people on the streets who are causing harm to other individuals and who are committing crimes that makes our city unsafe,” he said. “We want them off the streets just as bad as anyone else. We also want to make sure that innocent people who are not part of the situation are not getting harmed.”
Topazz McBride, a community activist in Aurora, said she has been disappointed by what she sees as Chamberlain’s unwillingness to engage with community members who disagree with him.
“Do I trust them to use the process effectively and responsibly with all fairness and equity to everyone they pursue? No. I do not trust that,” she said. “And I don’t understand why he wouldn’t be willing to talk about it. Why not?”
Montgomery also wants police to track crashes that happen immediately after a police officer ends a pursuit, when an escaping suspect might still be speeding and driving recklessly.
“They are still going 80 or 90 mph and they end up hitting someone or running into a building,” he said. “And now you have this person who that has caused harm, believing that they are still being chased.”
The police department did not include the case of Rajon Belt-Stubblefield, who was shot and killed Aug. 30 by an officer after he sped away from an attempted traffic stop, among its pursuits this year. Video of the incident shows the officer followed Belt-Stubblefield’s vehicle with his lights and sirens on for just under a minute over about 7/10ths of a mile before Belt-Stubblefield crashed.
Police spokesman Matthew Longshore said the incident was not a pursuit.
“The officer was stationary, running radar when the vehicle sped past, and the officer was accelerating (with both lights and siren eventually) to catch up to the vehicle,” Longshore said. “The officer did not determine nor declare that he was in pursuit of the suspect’s vehicle before the suspect crashed into the two other vehicles.”
The officer, who has not been publicly identified, killed Belt-Stubblefield in an ensuing confrontation. Belt-Stubblefield, who was under the influence of alcohol, tossed a gun to the ground and was unarmed when he was shot.
Whether or not a pursuit preceded his death was one of several questions raised in the independent monitor’s Oct. 15 report, which characterized the shooting and the department’s response to the killing as a setback in otherwise improving community relations.
Part of westbound Alameda Avenue in Aurora was shut down Monday morning for repairs after a water main break, according to city officials.
The closure of westbound Alameda Avenue at Moline Street started at 7 a.m. Monday and is scheduled to last between 24 and 48 hours, according to Aurora Water.
Drivers should use alternate routes and expect delays in the area, Aurora Water officials said.
CENTENNIAL, Colo. — With Election Day just 10 days away, Arapahoe, Douglas, and Jefferson county voters must decide how to fund their fire district’s future.
Ballot Measure 7A asks voters to approve a property tax increase for the South Metro Fire District, which faces a significant annual budget shortfall.
The fire district serves around 600,000 people and is facing significant challenges.
“In the last five years, the total call volume has gone up 24%,” said board chair Jim Albee.
South Metro Fire Rescue District
Albee explained that increased emergency calls are just one factor contributing to the financial strain. Recent state legislation reducing property taxes has also cut district revenue, including for South Metro.
“We are 81% funded by property tax, so the effect of that legislation had a significant impact on our resources, and what we believe are our resources to serve the community going forward,” said Albee.
The cost of serving the community has also risen dramatically. Everything from firefighter gear to emergency vehicles has become more expensive, putting additional pressure on the district’s budget.
“Our message is that we want to continue doing that, and it’s going to take a little bit more than what they’ve been paying,” he said.
Over the last several months, South Metro surveyed voters in the district. According to officials, most respondents preferred a sales tax increase over a property tax increase, though Measure 7A proposes the latter.
If the mill levy passes, a homeowner with a $750,000 house — the district’s average — will pay about $140 more per year.
South Metro Fire Rescue District
On Saturday, Denver7 met voter Mary Alice Mehaffy, who was dropping off her ballot in Centennial.
Mehaffy said she would have preferred a sales tax increase and believes areas of growth like Sterling Ranch should bear a greater share of the costs.
“If there is a shortfall, it should go where the new growth is, and the new growth should be picking up the tab for that shortfall,” said Mehaffy.
On the other hand, voter Sandy Britton said personal experience with the department’s services convinced her to vote “yes” on the property tax increase.
“My husband had MS for years and was in a wheelchair,” she said. “He fell quite a few times. I’d call them. They’d come to the house, pick them up, help me. So, yeah, I’m standing behind them.”
South Metro officials warned about potential consequences if the measure fails to pass.
“We will still come. We will still serve as well as we can. It may take us longer to get there. There may be fewer people who arrive initially when we show up on scene,” said Albee.
With the choice now in voters’ hands, Mehaffy emphasized the importance of casting your ballot.
“Your voice does matter, and I just want everyone to know that,” she said.
South Metro Fire District warns of possible delays if tax measure fails
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Nine people were taken to the hospital Friday night after a seven-vehicle crash on southbound Interstate 225 in Aurora that closed the highway several hours, police officials said.
The crash happened on I-225 near Parker Road at 10:24 p.m., Aurora police said on social media. Police initially reported the crash involved nine vehicles, but later revised that to seven vehicles.
While nine people were taken to the hospital, only one had serious injuries, spokesperson Matthew Longshore said Saturday.
Investigators believe the crash happened when one driver, a 17-year-old boy, failed to yield to other vehicles that were slowing down for a separate crash.
The teen hit “numerous” vehicles and injured himself and a teen passenger, Longshore said. He was arrested on an outstanding felony warrant when he was released from the hospital and was also cited for the crash.
Southbound I-225 was closed at East Iliff Avenue until just after 2 a.m., according to Aurora police.
One woman died from her injuries at the scene, and paramedics took a second woman to a hospital with an amputated leg. She died Monday, sheriff’s spokesperson John Bartmann said.
As of Tuesday morning, neither woman’s identity had been released publicly. The Arapahoe County coroner’s office will release their identities and causes of death.
Investigators believe the two women were crossing East Smoky Hill Road near South Waco Street to get to a bus stop when they were hit by a car about 10 p.m. Sunday, Bartmann said.
The unidentified driver was headed west on Smoky Hill when the driver hit the women, who were not crossing in a designated crosswalk, Bartmann said.
The crash site was near Big Sandy Park in Centennial, about 4 miles east of Cherry Creek State Park.
No additional information on the cause of the crash, including whether drugs or alcohol are suspected to have been involved, was available Tuesday.
The driver stayed at the scene of the crash and is cooperating with the investigation, Bartmann said.
A man was struck and killed in a hit-and-run crash on East Colfax Avenue near Chambers Road on Tuesday night, according to the Aurora Police Department.
Colfax Avenue was closed between Laredo Street and Chambers Road at 7:23 p.m. because of the crash, Aurora police said on social media.
The victim, who was a pedestrian, died at the scene.
Further information about the driver who hit the man and fled the scene was not immediately available.
A Sunday night crash in Arapahoe County killed one pedestrian and amputated another’s leg, according to the sheriff’s office.
Arapahoe County deputies responded at about 10 p.m. Sunday to the crash at East Smoky Hill Road and South Waco Street, spokesperson John Bartmann said. One driver struck two pedestrians, he said.
The intersection is near Big Sandy Park in Centennial, about 4 miles east of Cherry Creek State Park.
One pedestrian died at the scene of the crash, and paramedics took the other to the hospital with an amputated leg, Bartmann said.
The Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office will publicly identify the victim who died in the crash.
Bartmann said the driver stayed on scene and is cooperating with the investigation.
No information on the cause of the crash, including whether drugs or alcohol are suspected to have been involved, or on potential charges was available Monday.
