Tag: Investigative journalism

Judge rules Colorado school district denied care for student with special needs
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A Colorado judge on Monday ruled that a Colorado Springs school district denied care for one of its students with special needs.

Leah and Ronnie Broyles, the parents of 10-year-old Victoria Broyles, filed a complaint against Academy District 20 (D20) in February alleging the school district violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The trial began in June.

Victoria was born with severe special needs, including spina bifida and other conditions. She also has autism and is non-verbal.

When the family moved to D20, they sought an individualized education program (IEP) for Victoria, allowing her to be taught at home. That request was denied, meaning Victoria would have to attend school in person.

The original complaint included two notes attributed to Victoria’s doctors advising she be home-schooled to avoid exposure to viruses.

A judge on Monday ruled in favor of the Broyles. According to the judge, D20 violated the IDEA by:
1. Failing to justify its dramatic departure from prior placements
2. The creation of goals wholly inconsiderate of her individual circumstances
3. Denied a homebound placement on the basis of district policy which too narrowly interprets regulations and is inconsistent with case law
4. Obdurately predetermined her placement in general education 40-79% of the time.
Ronnie said he was “excited” when he learned about the judge’s decision.
“It proved what I was saying all along. The district predetermined placement. The district arbitrarily made these decisions without any input from us. They didn’t care about anything that we thought. They didn’t give a thought to her medical records. Nothing,” said Ronnie.

In a statement, a spokesperson for D20 said, “Academy District 20 received the Administrative Law Judge’s decision late on Monday. The District is currently reviewing the decision and considering our options. As such, we appreciate your understanding and will not be making any further comments at this time.”

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Use the form below to send us a comment or story idea you’d like the Denver7 Investigates team to check out. You can also email investigates@Denver7.com or call our newsroom at 303-832-0200.
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Natalie Chuck

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July 23, 2024
Customers left looking for vehicles after car repair shop abruptly closes

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DENVER — The case of Nekia Johnson’s missing 1988 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme led her to a private residence in north Denver.

Last summer, Johnson took her vehicle to Harley’s Garage in Aurora for an engine replacement. Not long after, multiple customers told Denver7 Investigates that the business owners closed up shop and disappeared with their cars.

“We just wanted a simple engine rebuild for my husband’s old-school car for his birthday,” Johnson said. “It’s been a horrible experience.”

Johnson said she and her husband tried to track down the car for quite some time, despite not hearing from the business, but then she received a call from a homeowner in north Denver.

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Their car was in the backyard, along with roughly a dozen others from Harley’s Garage. The homeowners were trying to find the rightful owners of the cars.

Homeowner Jayne Tucker said people from the business rented space in their yard, which they had been renting out for vehicle storage for extra money. But she said the cars just sat there.

“There was always some reason why they weren’t coming by,” Tucker said.

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Both Tucker and Johnson said they mainly dealt with Jack Truex. In a phone call Monday, Truex identified himself to Denver7 Investigates as the general manager of Harley’s Garage.

He said that the company was locked out of its computer system after the closure, but that the owner, who is currently in rehab, is committed to getting people their money back.

Digging into Truex’s background, Denver7 Investigates found Truex has a lengthy rap sheet, including guilty pleas for felony vehicle theft in 2014 and 2016.

Truex declined an on-camera interview for this story. He said his past charges were unrelated to this current situation and reiterated that he does not own the company.

“(The owner) is adamant that he wants to make sure all these customers get their money back,” Truex said.

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Meanwhile, Tucker said she is in the process of evicting Harley’s Garage from her property but is still trying to find as many owners as possible.

“We have been opening up the cars to kind of look for registrations, proof of insurance, anything like that,” she said. “I have paid for a license plate reverse search service just to try and find people.”

Truex promised refunds to customers. Johnson said she paid a $1,000 deposit for the engine replacement, but no work was ever done. After recovering the car, Johnson and her husband took it to another auto shop.

“Hopefully we can get our money back and move on with life,” Johnson said.

Anyone else trying to locate their car from Harley’s Garage should reach out to Jaclyn Allen at investigates@denver7.com.

Customers left looking for vehicles after car repair shop abruptly closes

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Got a tip? Send it to the Denver7 Investigates team

Use the form below to send us a comment or story idea you’d like the Denver7 Investigates team to check out. You can also email investigates@Denver7.com or call our newsroom at 303-832-0200.

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Jaclyn Allen

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June 24, 2024
Promising Journalism Student Already Self-Censoring To Parrot Corporate Talking Points

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EVANSTON, IL—Finding it impressive that a young and largely inexperienced writer could create such professional work, journalism professors at Northwestern University reportedly praised a promising student Monday for his proficiency in parroting corporate talking points. “Incredible! Martin is watering down the facts to appease company shareholders at a level that took me years to achieve,” Medill School of Journalism professor Ronald Simpson said of a first-year graduate student, remarking that he “clearly has what it takes” to push corporate agendas for a major metropolitan newspaper after graduation. “Typically, it takes years to unlearn journalistic ethics, but this student is way ahead of the curve in terms of silencing his own skepticism in favor of regurgitating quotes from those in power. In one piece alone, he seamlessly wove a Democratic operative’s vague response to a sex scandal with sponsored content for Buick—and somehow avoided saying anything at all despite writing 1,800 words on the matter. He hasn’t even taken the coursework on finding and obscuring questionable sources yet, but he’s already quoting his parents’ powerful friends in stories over and over again without disclosing the personal connection. It’s both refreshing and inspiring to find such militant obedience in a young student.” At press time, Simpson was said to have teared up when the student turned in a word-for-word reproduction of a police department press release as his final project in an investigative journalism class.

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October 10, 2022
Medill Justice Project Discovers Revelatory Information in Shaken-Baby Syndrome Case Where Convicted Mother Maintains Her Innocence

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Expert: Miller’s case is a “poster child” for “false conviction for shaken baby”; Multi-part examination co-published with Life of the Law

Press Release
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updated: Dec 20, 2016

Battle Creek, MI, December 20, 2016 (Newswire.com)
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A Medill Justice Project investigation has discovered several accidents and medical episodes experts say could have played a role in the death of a Michigan woman’s infant daughter. Accused of shaking her child to death, Tonia Miller was convicted of second-degree murder in 2003 and is serving a 20 to 30 year prison sentence.

After a nine-month examination, MJP co-publishes with Life of the Law its multi-part investigation of Miller’s case, which includes a podcast—available in English and French—that delves into the infant’s short life; two in-depth articles that explore experts’ opinions on alternative explanations for her death and examine the use of demeanor to assess if someone is culpable of a crime; and a video that reveals the impact on Miller’s family and friends in the wake of the tragedy. The stories can be accessed via Life of the Law’s website at www.lifeofthelaw.org or via MJP’s website at www.medilljusticeproject.org.

Since 2012, MJP has been probing shaken-baby syndrome, creating the world’s largest publicly available database of cases, uncovering evidence that played a role in a federal judge’s decision to free from prison a Chicago-area woman and partnering with The Washington Post on a two-part series published on page one of the newspaper. Its reporting on the subject has been honored with an IRE Award, a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and a Sigma Delta Chi Award, among others.

About The Medill Justice Project

The Medill Justice Project, founded at Northwestern University in 1999, is an award-winning national investigative journalism center that examines potentially wrongful convictions, probes national systemic criminal justice issues and conducts groundbreaking research. As journalists, MJP advocates only for the truth.

About Life of the Law

Life of the Law is a national podcast produced by award-winning investigative reporters, editors, producers, researchers and legal scholars. We ask questions, find answers and publish what we discover about the law in our sound-rich, bi-weekly podcast.

For more information:

Prof. Alec Klein, Northwestern University
Director, The Medill Justice Project
(847) 467-4476
alec-klein@northwestern.edu

Amanda Westrich
Director of operations, The Medill Justice Project
(847) 467-5307
amanda.westrich@northwestern.edu

Nancy Mullane
Executive director/producer, Life of the Law
(415) 250-5459
n ancy.mullane@lifeofthelaw.org

Source: Medill Justice Project

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December 20, 2016