A Lochbuie man is accused of stealing nearly $600,000 worth of property from a Fort Lupton renewable energy company and selling it as scrap metal.
Dustin Ulmer, 42, faces two counts of theft between $100,000 and $1 million, according to an affidavit for his arrest.
Just before noon on Oct. 14, Fort Lupton police responded to Sphere Renewables, 13516 Weld County Road 8, on reports that an employee had been scrapping company property and pocketing the money.
Managers at Sphere Renewables said they had spoken with All Recycling in Brighton and learned that Ulmer had been recycling tower feet weekly since August, according to an affidavit for Ulmer’s arrest. Sphere Renewables declined to describe what tower feet are.
Managers said 149 units, each retailing at $4,000, were missing, the affidavit states. In total, the Sphere Renewables estimates Ulmer recycled approximately $600,000 worth of tower feet, according to the affidavit.
Ulmer was paid out just under $10,000 from All Recycling, the affidavit states.
He is set to appear for an advisement hearing Monday in Weld County District Court.
Todd Lynn Washington, 42, was convicted of reckless endangerment in August, but the Denver jury could not reach a verdict on first-degree murder charges in the case.
Washington’s second trial was held this month, and on Monday, a Denver jury ruled he was guilty of two lesser counts of manslaughter and not guilty on two counts of first-degree murder, court records show.
He was sentenced to six years in the Colorado Department of Corrections by Denver District Court Judge Eric Johnson on Wednesday, with credit for nearly 2 years of time served while his case was ongoing.
Washington was also sentenced to 240 days in jail for two counts of reckless endangerment, both misdemeanors.
Washington’s attorney, Anna Geigle with the Denver law firm Geigle Morales, in a statement thanked the jury and court “for their professionalism and commitment to ensuring that justice was fairly administered.”
“The subject matter of this case was profoundly serious, and we deeply appreciate the time and care each juror devoted to hearing the evidence and reaching a verdict,” Geigle said.
In a statement, Denver District Attorney John Walsh said his office respects the jury’s decision and “are pleased that Todd Washington and Shon McPherson – who was sentenced in September to life in prison for his role in the murders — are being held accountable for their crimes.”
Washington and McPherson, 34, were arrested in November 2023 after police said the pair opened fire outside Hell’s Lovers Motorcycle Club, killing Michael David, 43, and Joshua Batts, 39, and injuring three others.
Washington and McPherson were accused of planning the shooting after a security guard put his hands on Washington’s daughter and she was kicked out of the club.
A 39-year-old man died after being hit by a car while riding an electric scooter in Thornton last week, police said.
The scooter rider, whose identity has not been released publicly, was headed west on West 88th Avenue when he was hit by an eastbound Dodge Caravan turning north onto Lipan Street, according to Thornton police.
The crash happened about 7:45 p.m. Thursday, police said. The intersection lies between Bell Roth Park and Sky Park in southwest Thornton.
Paramedics took the scooter rider to the hospital, where he died from his injuries, according to the department. He will be identified by the Adams County coroner’s office.
The 22-year-old man driving the Dodge Caravan was not injured and remained on scene after the crash, police said.
Additional information about the crash was not available Wednesday.
Anyone who witnessed or has information about the crash is asked to call investigators at 720-977-5069.
A cash-strapped school district that’s looking to unload a shuttered elementary school.
A nonprofit human services agency that’s in need of a bigger home as it serves more than 60,000 households a year.
And a judge who’s telling Colorado’s fifth-largest city not to make any moves on the whole situation — a complex deal that would allow the agency to move into the school — until she can determine whether everything is on the up and up.
That’s the strange nexus at which Lakewood, Jeffco Public Schools and The Action Center have found themselves after their proposed real estate deal was challenged in court by a former Lakewood city councilwoman who thinks the whole arrangement is “taking place in secret.”
“Government should have to do this in a way that’s transparent and above board — and includes the public in this kind of decision-making,” said Anita Springsteen, who’s also an attorney. “I think it’s unethical. I think it’s wrong.”
The deal on the table calls for Lakewood to purchase Emory Elementary — which closed three years ago because of declining enrollment — from Jeffco Public Schools for $4 million. At the same time, the city would buy The Action Center’s existing facility on West 14th Avenue for $4 million.
The Action Center, in turn, would buy Emory from the city for $1 million when the organization, which for more than a half-century has provided free clothing and food, family services and financial assistance to those in need, moves to its new home in the former school on South Teller Street.
The core problem, Springsteen says, is that Lakewood did not properly announce two September 2024 executive sessions during which officials discussed details of the deal in private. In a lawsuit, she accused the city of violating Colorado’s open meetings law, which requires governments to state, in advance and “in as much detail as possible,” what will be discussed behind closed doors “without compromising the purpose for the executive session.”
Jefferson County District Judge Meegan Miloud had enough questions last week about how Lakewood gave public notice of its executive sessions that she imposed a temporary restraining order on the City Council — forbidding it from voting on three ordinances that would authorize the deal to move forward.
The council had been scheduled to consider the measures Monday night.
Miloud said the city’s executive session notices on the council’s September 2024 agendas were “so vague that the public has no way of identifying or discerning what is being negotiated or what property is being assessed.”
On Tuesday morning, the judge conducted a hearing on the matter but did not make a ruling. She called another hearing for next Monday and said in a new order that her injunction remains in effect.
The fast-moving situation has Lakewood playing defense. A special council meeting that had been set for Wednesday night — to once again put the ordinances up for a council vote — will now have to be rescheduled, city spokeswoman Stacie Oulton said.
Lakewood, she contended, has been open throughout the process.
“The public process has included updates from the city manager during public City Council meetings, and the city has followed the public notification process for these agenda items,” she told The Denver Post in an email this week. “Additionally, the proposed end user of the property, the Action Center, has had several public community meetings about its proposal.”
Anita Springsteen, a lawyer and former Lakewood city councilwoman, is leading a challenge to a complex land deal between the City of Lakewood, Jeffco Public Schools and The Action Center that would bring the humans services nonprofit to the former Emory Elementary School in Lakewood on Oct. 28, 2025. She posed for a portrait outside the former school. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
Questions about meetings, market value
Jeff Roberts, the executive director of the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition, said it was “unusual” for a judge, via a temporary restraining order, to preempt a city council from casting a vote.
But case law, he said, makes it clear that governing bodies in Colorado must provide as much detail as possible when they announce closed-door sessions — short of disclosing or jeopardizing strategies and positions that are crucial in real estate negotiations.
“In general, an announcement that doesn’t give any indication of the topic is not enough information for the public,” Roberts said. “In most cases — and that’s why it’s in the law — you must tell the public what the executive session is about.”
That standard, he said, was upheld by the Colorado Court of Appeals in 2020, when it ruled that the Basalt Town Council violated the state’s open meetings law several times in 2016 by not properly announcing the topic of private deliberations it would be having regarding a former town manager.
In the Lakewood school matter, the alleged open meetings violations are not the only thing that bothers Springsteen. She objects to the structure of the proposed real estate transaction, saying it would be a sweetheart deal for The Action Center and a waste of money for taxpayers.
“They are stealing money out of our pockets,” said Springsteen, who served on City Council from 2019 to 2023.
Lakewood, she said, would be underpaying for the 17-acre Emory Elementary School parcel, overpaying for The Action Center’s current facility and basically giving the school property away to the nonprofit.
“For the city to not intend to own the property, but to buy it on behalf of a nongovernmental organization — when did we become an agent for other agencies?” Springsteen said.
According to the Jefferson County assessor’s site, The Action Center’s buildings on West 14th Avenue have a total value of about $2 million, while the city has proposed purchasing them for double that. The assessor’s office lists Emory Elementary as having a total value of up to $12 million.
Springsteen said she is flummoxed by the Jeffco school district’s willingness to sell the elementary school to Lakewood for a third of that valuation.
“What bothers me most is the way Jeffco schools is handling this,” she said. “The district didn’t even have a school resource officer at Evergreen High School because of budgetary issues.”
A spokesperson for Jeffco schools said a decision on whether to sell Emory Elementary to Lakewood hadn’t been made yet. That vote, by the district’s school board, is expected Nov. 13.
Raven Price picks out food at The Action Center’s food bank in Lakewood on Oct. 28, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
‘We need to bring this into our community’
Pam Brier, the CEO of The Action Center, said property values don’t tell the full story.
“There are many instances locally and nationally of municipalities helping to support the affordable acquisition of properties for organizations like The Action Center — who are serving such a critical need in our community,” she said, “and ultimately saving taxpayer money by helping to meet people’s basic needs.”
On Wednesday, she provided The Denver Post a May 2024 appraisal done by Centennial-based Masters Valuation Services that valued the organization’s current facility — made up of a 14,960-square-foot building and a 15,540-square-foot building — at $4 million.
Her organization, Brier said, serves 300 households a day. It provides a free grocery and clothing market, financial assistance, free meals, family coaching, skills classes and workforce support to people who are down on their luck.
“As public dollars dwindle, our work is more important than ever,” she said. “Without organizations like The Action Center to provide food, clothing and other critical support, individuals and families fall into crisis, needing assistance that will cost taxpayers and cities so much more.”
Oulton, the Lakewood city spokeswoman, said it was not unusual for cities and counties across metro Denver to “provide financial support in a variety of ways to nonprofits that serve their communities.”
“Additionally, Jeffco Public Schools has clearly communicated to the city that the district views the value of this project in more than the dollars involved, because the district’s priority has been to see former schools used in a way that will continue providing services and support to Jeffco Public Schools students and their families,” Oulton said.
Diana Losacco, a 48-year resident of Lakewood who lives about a mile from the Emory site, was one of more than three dozen people who urged the city to pursue the purchase and sale of the school to The Action Center on the Lakewood Speaks website.
Raven Price and her 4-year-old son, Gabriel Luna, head home with a wagon full of food they selected from The Action Center’s food bank in Lakewood on Oct. 28, 2025. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
“This will provide opportunities to people to become self-sufficient, which will provide significant financial savings for our community,” Losacco told The Post in an interview. “We need to bring this into our community. It needs to be in a neighborhood.”
But not her neighborhood, said Katherine Byrne. Byrne has owned Stockton Pet Hospital on South Wadsworth Boulevard for six years. The business, which was founded in 1964, sits just a few hundred feet west of Emory Elementary.
There are enough challenges with assaults, shots fired and drug dealing in the vicinity, especially along the nearby bike path, Byrne said. Because The Action Center won’t be providing overnight shelter space at its new location for people who are homeless, she worries about where people using the organization’s services might go once the doors close.
And she wonders why the city didn’t look at wealthier areas of Lakewood for potential sites to relocate The Action Center.
“It’s just a ridiculous, unsavory plan to put this center in the middle of a neighborhood that didn’t know it was coming,” Byrne said.
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.
An armed man was shot and killed Monday night by Denver police officers while attempting to rob a gas station, according to the agency.
Denver officers responded to reports of an armed robbery at the Maverik convenience store in the 3200 block of South Parker Road at about 8:45 p.m. Monday, Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas said in a news briefing.
When officers arrived, a security guard told them the armed man had locked himself inside the store with two gas station employees, Thomas said. Officers were developing a tactical plan outside when, less than a minute later, they heard gunshots and forced their way inside.
Officers confronted and shot at the suspect, who was already firing at them. The suspect went down, and officers rendered medical aid until paramedics arrived.
Paramedics took the suspect to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries. He will be identified by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner.
The two gas station employees were shot but are expected to survive, Thomas said. Whether they were shot by the suspect or by responding officers remains under investigation.
Six Denver officers responded to the reported robbery, and “a number of them” exchanged gunshots with the suspected robber, Thomas said. It’s unclear how many officers shot at the suspect.
One officer was injured during the gunfight with the suspect, who has not been publicly identified, Thomas said. The officer was shot in the leg and went into surgery Monday night. He was released from the hospital on Tuesday.
Paramedics took both gas station employees and the officer to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
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.
Prosecutors announced in September that Michael Clark, 50, would be prosecuted again in the 1994 killing of Boulder city employee Marty Grisham after his 2012 murder conviction was overturned in April. Clark’s conviction was the first to be overturned because of faulty DNA evidence connected to a statewide scandal. The case is set for a May jury trial.
After serving more than 12 years of a life prison sentence, Clark was released on bail while prosecutors considered whether the case against him should continue. Clark has maintained his innocence.
Adam Frank, Clark’s attorney, filed 12 subpoenas seeking records from the first 48 hours of the unsolved Ramsey investigation and information about CBI policies related to DNA testing this month. Frank said the Ramsey records could demonstrate that the Boulder Police Department at the time was “woefully incompetent,” according to court documents.
Boulder District Court Chief Judge Nancy W. Salomone called the Ramsey records a “worm can” during a Tuesday hearing in the case. Salomone said the records were irrelevant, and the jury shouldn’t see them.
“The jury would, very likely, because of the degree of public exposure of that case, be very interested in information that it might gather about that homicide,” Salomone said. “The court doesn’t believe that … there’s much, if any relevant evidence.”
The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office had asked the court to deny all 12 subpoenas.
Salomone also denied a request for information about DNA tests in all cases that were returned invalid or undetermined from August 2009 to August 2011. The judge called the request “burdensome and difficult” because CBI would need to review many cases.
In September, CBI’s new director, Armando Saldate III, told Fox31 in an interview that he does not believe any innocent people are in jail as a result of evidence that was mishandled by now-former CBI scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods. Clark’s defense team asked to see every record about Clark’s case that Saldate reviewed before giving that statement.
Karen Lorenz, a lawyer with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, said in court that the director did not review any records from Clark’s case before giving that interview.
Lawyers and Salomone are expected to discuss whether some or all motions in Clark’s case should be sealed once filed. Assistant DA Kenneth Kupfner said he plans to ask Salomone to order that motions be reviewed before being made available to the public.
Kupfner said he wants to avoid letting the public litigate the case using press coverage.
Frank, Clark’s lawyer, said the public deserves court documents. He separately asked that CBI be ordered not to say that there are no innocent people in jail as a result of Woods’ misconduct. That order could also involve preventing the DA’s office and the defense from making public statements while the case is pending.
Salomone said she wants to talk about public statements and information during a future hearing.
Clark is scheduled for a review hearing on Dec. 4.
A defense attorney for a man accused in a 1994 Boulder killing is seeking records from the early hours of the investigation into the death of JonBenet Ramsey that he says could demonstrate that police at the time were “woefully incompetent,” according to court documents.
Prosecutors announced in September that Michael Clark, 50, would be prosecuted again in connection with the 1994 Boulder killing of Boulder city employee Marty Grisham after the previous murder conviction was overturned in April, in part because of faulty DNA evidence connected to a statewide scandal. The case is set for a May jury trial.
After serving more than 12 years of a life prison sentence, Clark was released on bail while prosecutors considered whether the case against him should continue. Clark, who has maintained his innocence, was originally convicted in 2012 in Grisham’s death.
A judge this year overturned Clark’s conviction after his attorneys found evidence that DNA testing in the case was mishandled by now-former Colorado Bureau of Investigation scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods, one of several problems with the original murder prosecution.
Woods was charged in January with 102 felonies connected to widespread misconduct during DNA testing over her 29-year-career with CBI. Her case is pending.
Adam Frank, Clark’s attorney, filed 12 subpoenas, seeking records from the first 48 hours of the unsolved Ramsey investigation and information about CBI policies related to DNA testing.
The Boulder County District Attorney’s Office filed a motion to void all 12 subpoenas and questioned the relevance of some of the defense’s requests, including the request for records from the Ramsey investigation, according to court documents.
In a response to the DA’s motion, Frank writes that the Boulder Police Department “committed colossal mistakes” when investigating the death of 6-year-old beauty pageant star by failing to conduct searches and collect evidence. Ramsey’s body was found in the basement of the family’s home.
The department “made the exact same sort of colossal mistake” in its investigation into Grisham’s death, Frank argues in the motion, and the subpoenaed records would show that the “exact same types of incompetence” that led the department to fail to solve the Ramsey murder also led them to fail to solve Grisham’s killing.
The defense is also seeking information about DNA tests that were returned invalid or undetermined from August 2009 to August 2011, according to court documents. It also is seeking information on CBI policies from the same period related to invalid and undetermined results, and policies related to having evidence and reference samples on the same plate or workbench.
The case is scheduled for a review hearing at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Boulder County Justice Center.
Updated 10:24 a.m. Oct. 28, 2025: This article was updated to clarify that Marty Grisham was a city employee at the time of his death.
The suspect in a fatal hit-and-run on the edge of Denver’s 16th Street pedestrian mall abandoned his car and fled the scene on foot, according to court documents.
Milton McBride, 27, allegedly drove through the gate of a Denver parking garage early Sunday morning, hit another vehicle on Market Street and hopped the curb near the 16th Street intersection, according to his arrest affidavit.
When he drove onto the sidewalk, McBride struck a billboard-type sign and pushed it onto the victim, who died at the scene, police wrote in the affidavit.
McBride was arrested Sunday on suspicion of vehicular homicide. As of Tuesday morning, he had not yet been charged, and his next court date had not been set.
Denver officers responded to the fatal crash at 16th and Market streets shortly after 2:15 a.m. Sunday. When they arrived, they found the dead victim and the suspect vehicle, but the driver had fled the scene.
Witnesses told investigators that the driver got out of his vehicle after the crash and left on foot without calling 911 or rendering medical aid, police said.
Officers found McBride roughly 1/5 mile away, in the 1700 block of Wazee Street, at about 2:45 a.m. Sunday, according to court documents.
When they contacted McBride, officers noted his speech was slurred, his breath smelled like alcohol, he was staggering and stumbling and his eyes were bloodshot, according to the arrest affidavit.
McBride was not offered a voluntary field sobriety test because he was immediately detained and, after being positively identified by a witness as the suspect driver, arrested, police said in the document.
Paramedics took McBride to a nearby hospital for blood testing. During that time, he repeatedly told officers that he hadn’t hit anyone and no one had died, according to the affidavit.
The results of the blood test were not publicly available as of Tuesday.
McBride’s license was suspended at the time of the crash, and he had a warrant out for his arrest from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office for a domestic violence and child abuse case, court records show.
McBride previously took a deal and pleaded guilty to DUI and assaulting a police officer in a separate El Paso County case in 2022, according to court records.
The deal dropped multiple drug and weapons charges, another count of assault and a charge for driving without a license, court records show. He was sentenced to 3 years in jail.
Westminster Police Department officers responded to calls about gunshots in the 8400 block of Decatur Street just before 8 p.m. Monday, agency officials said on social media Tuesday night.
Police found a woman in a vehicle who had been shot and was unresponsive. She was taken to the hospital, where she died from her injuries. Her name will be released by the Adams County Coroner’s Office.
Westminster police did not release any further information about suspects in the case but said the shooting is being investigated as a homicide. Anyone with information about the shooting can contact the department at 303-658-4360.
Two lanes of northbound Interstate 25 were closed Tuesday morning in Lone Tree for a fatal crash, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
As of 7:30 a.m., the lanes were closed at exit 192 for RidgeGate Parkway, causing roughly six miles of standstill traffic on the highway, according to CDOT. Cameras in the area showed traffic stretching back more than two exits, past Castle Pines and Happy Canyon Road.
The single-car crash killed one person, Lone Tree spokesperson Melissa Gallegos said. The RidgeGate off-ramp is also closed for the police investigation.
Additional information about the crash, including the cause, was not immediately available on Tuesday.
Snow forced the closure of Interstate 70 between Silverthorne and Loveland Pass on Monday night.
The highway was closed in both directions between exit 205, near Silverthorne, and exit 216, near Loveland Pass for safety concerns, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. Images taken near the Eisenhower Tunnel show snowy roads and heavy traffic.
The following arrests were made recently by local police departments. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Massachusetts’ privacy law prevents police from releasing information involving domestic and sexual violence arrests with the goal to protect the alleged victims.
LOWELL
• Cyrinus Morris, 56, 17 Equestrian Lane, Lowell; public drinking.
NASHUA, N.H.
• Andrew Gordon Cannon, 28, no fixed address; disorderly conduct.
• Jaden Peter Davies, 21, 254 Greenville Road, Mason, N.H.; two counts of traffic control device violation, disobeying an officer, reckless operation of motor vehicle, lane control violation, two counts of failure to use required turn signal, yellow/solid line violation.
• Luis Antonio Fernandez Feliciano, 47, 31 Vine St., Nashua; violation of protective order, theft of services ($0-$1,000), two counts of stalking.
• Jennifer Smith, 41, no fixed address; stalking.
• Jacob Kenney, 33, no fixed address; theft by unauthorized taking ($0-$1,000).
• Paul Nolin, 69, 12 Hunters Lane, Nashua; theft by deception ($0-$1,000).
• Matthew Dozibrin, 52, 2 Quincy St., Nashua; warrant.
• Michael William Bedard, 39, 5 Shedds Ave., Nashua; six counts of simple assault.
• Rasmei Ung-Cora Flores, 45, 13 South St., Nashua; driving under influence.
• Matthew Brian Young, 33, 10 Winchester St., Nashua; out of town warrant, disobeying an officer, three counts of lane control device, three counts of failure to use required turn signal, two counts of reckless operation of motor vehicle, four counts of traffic control device violation.
• Luis Carlos Pacheco, 37, no fixed address; driving motor vehicle after license revocation/suspension, suspension of vehicle registration.
WILMINGTON
• Giancarlo Danao Ybanez, 38, 165 Pleasant St., Apt. 101, Cambridge; uninsured motor vehicle, unregistered motor vehicle.
• Carlos Mendez, 33, 463 Eastern Ave., Apt. 3C, Lynn; unlicensed operation of motor vehicle, failure to stop/yield, no or expired inspection/sticker.
• Thomas Doyle IV, 40, 59 North St., Wilmington; malicious destruction of property (less than $1,200), threatening to commit crime.
• Liam Patrick O’Brien, 41, 1037 Main St., Apt. 1, Woburn; operation under influence of alcohol, possession of open container of alcohol in motor vehicle.
• Eneias Silva, 50, 20 Locust St., Apt. 102, Medford; speeding in violation of special regulation, operation of motor vehicle with suspended license.
The estranged husband of a woman found dead last year in the stairwell of a South Loop high-rise was charged with murder on Monday, the first anniversary of her death.
Adam Beckerink, 47, a Chicago attorney, is accused in a criminal complaint of throwing Caitlin Tracey, 36, over a railing of the 24th floor in a stairwell in a building in the 1200 block of South Prairie Avenue, according to court records.
Caitlin Tracey, 36, of New Buffalo, Michigan, was found dead on Oct. 27, 2024, in the stairwell of a South Loop high-rise apartment building. (Family photo)
The new charges in Chicago came just as a case against Beckerink concluded in Michigan.
He pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence, and contempt of court for violating his bond, along with a felony for interfering with a 911 call by his wife. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped a charge of resisting arrest.
Last year, Tracey’s parents successfully won custody of her remains after arguing in court that Beckerink, who was married to their daughter for six months, had a history of abusing her.
He had filed a motion last year to temporarily prevent Tracey’s parents from proceeding with her funeral. He argued in an affidavit that he would be “irreparably harmed and deprived of the ability to direct the disposition of his wife’s remains for which he is entitled to and has priority under both Illinois and Michigan law.”
According to a police report, Tracey was found dead at the bottom of the stairwell of the building at approximately 7:20 p.m.
A resident of the building had found a severed foot near a railing in the east stairwell and reported it to a building manager, the report said. While responding officers searched the area, the manager spotted Tracey’s body at the bottom of the stairwell.
The mother of two Colorado children found safe Sunday in Texas, who she does not have custody of, is accused of abducting the pair and violating a protection order, according to law enforcement.
Adams County sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of a parental abduction in the 8600 block of Faraday Street, north of Denver, on Saturday, according to a news release from the agency.
The guardian told deputies that two children — a 13-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl — were taken by their mother, sheriff’s officials said.
Sheriff’s officials said the mother was restrained from contacting her children and was only allowed to have supervised visits. She allegedly told the children’s guardian that she planned to take the pair to Mexico.
Investigators determined that the mother and children were in Texas and issued a statewide Amber Alert.
Police officers in Fredericksburg, Texas, found the children and arrested the mother on suspicion of violating a protection order early Sunday morning, according to the news release.
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.
A pedestrian died early Sunday morning in a hit-and-run crash on the edge of Denver’s 16th Street pedestrian mall, blocks away from Union Station, police said.
Officers responded to the fatal crash at 16th and Market streets at 2:18 a.m. Sunday, according to the Denver Police Department. Information on the cause of the crash was not available.
Milton McBride, 27, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, police said in a 9:57 a.m. update. He is scheduled to appear Monday morning in Denver County Court.
The victim killed in the crash will be identified by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner.
An undated photo of Terri Ann Ackerman, who was reported missing on Aug. 24, 2018, from her home in Lochbuie.
Lochbuie police this week confirmed the remains of 56-year-old Terri Ann Ackerman were found at her northern Colorado home, more than seven years after she was reported missing in the Weld County town of Lochbuie.
The Weld County Coroner’s Office announced Wednesday that Ackerman’s remains were found at a home in the 100 block of Poplar Street on Sept. 10 — the same area where she was reported missing from her home in August 2018, according to the Greeley Tribune.
Lochbuie police officials this week confirmed Ackerman’s remains were discovered at her home, but did not say where they were found or why they were not discovered for more than seven years.
The cause and manner of her death are also under investigation.
Officials with the police department and Weld County Sheriff’s Office could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ackerman’s family, who are raising funds to cover funeral costs, described her as “a loving, caring, and social person who meant the world to her family and friends.”
“She was always there for those she loved, filling every room with warmth and conversation,” her family wrote on GoFundMe page. “Terri Ann’s dedication to her family was unmatched, and her absence has been deeply felt by everyone who knew her.”
Nathaniel Ellis says he was the victim of a politically motivated attack when he was hit over the head with a hockey stick by a man on in-line skates on Thursday evening. (Photo provided by Nathaniel Ellis)
A University of Colorado Boulder student says he was the victim of a politically motivated attack when he was hit over the head with a hockey stick by a man on in-line skates Thursday evening.
Nathaniel Ellis, a CU Boulder sophomore who is the secretary of CU Boulder’s Turning Point USA chapter, said he was leaving a meeting on his bike when he was followed by someone on in-line skates with a hockey stick. Turning Point USA is a group that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college and university campuses. It was founded by Charlie Kirk, who was shot and killed at Utah Valley University in September.
Ellis said the person on in-line skates followed him at about 6:50 p.m. Thursday as he left the Ekeley Science building, which is next to Norlin Library and where the Turning Point meeting was held, until he got to the area near Baseline Road and 27th Way.
“He came up behind me and broke a hockey stick over my head and yelled something to the effect of ‘f— you, fascist,’” Ellis told the Daily Camera.
The attack comes after social media posts about Ellis circulated online in the past few days. Boulder Students for a Democratic Society posted on Thursday, accusing Ellis of being a “Nazi activist” who is responsible for “white supremacist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ vandalism” on campus and across Boulder. Torch Antifa Network posted on X that Ellis is “a member of the white supremacist organization Patriot Front.” Ellis also told the Daily Camera he’s gotten direct messages on social media, including one that said, “Get out of Boulder.”
Ellis believes the attack is related to the online harassment.
“Last night, antifa physically attacked me for my America first values and actions,” Ellis said. “… Like Mr. Kirk, I will not let threats dissuade me from my TPUSA involvement or beliefs.”
The Boulder Police Department is not releasing any information about what was said to the victim, any possible motive or any identifying information about the victim.
Boulder police are looking for a man they say attacked a cyclist near the intersection of 27th Way and Baseline Road with a hockey stick Thursday night. The man was using inline skates and was dressed in all black at the time of the alleged attack. (Courtesy of Boulder Police Department via X.com)
“In the interest of transparency, we can confirm that detectives are aware that the victim was the subject of some social media posts and a digital flyer circulated by others prior to last night’s incident,” a Boulder Police Department spokesperson wrote in an email. “Whether these played a role in the reported assault is part of the investigation.”
University of Colorado Boulder spokesperson Nicole Mueksch didn’t confirm or deny that Ellis was the victim of the attack, but she said the university has received reports that a CU Boulder student was involved in the alleged assault.
“The CU Boulder Police Department is supporting the Boulder Police Department (BPD) in the investigation, and the university is conducting outreach to the student,” Mueksch wrote in a statement. “As BPD is the lead agency on this case, CU Boulder cannot offer further comment at this time. Any questions about the investigation should be directed to BPD.”
Boulder police are seeking the public’s help in identifying the assailant. Police responded to an assault call from a man, who Ellis says was himself, who said he was riding his bike when another man on inline skates approached him from behind, verbally assaulted him and physically assaulted him with a hockey stick, according to a post on the police department’s X.com page.
The victim was not seriously injured and refused medical treatment, police said.
The assailant is a white male, of medium-tall height and slender build, police said. He was wearing all black clothing, a black ski mask, and had a green Gatorade bottle with an orange top in his back right pants pocket.
The assailant fled the scene after the victim called 911, and Boulder Police and CU Police officers searched the area but did not locate him.
Anyone who has any information about the incident or the assailant is asked to call Boulder Police Detectives at 303-4471-1974. This incident is being investigated under Boulder Police case number # 25-10213.
