A Jefferson County jury convicted a former Lakewood High School security officer on Friday of child sex assault, according to court records.
Rubel Martinez, 68, was arrested in August 2024 and charged with sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust in a pattern of abuse. The Jefferson County convicted him on that charge Friday after three hours of deliberation following a four-day jury trial, according to anews release from the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Martinez repeatedly sexually assaulted a student from 2014 to 2016 during and after school hours, and both on and off school grounds, according to the release. The victim was a junior and senior at Lakewood High School when the assaults happened.
The victim came forward to the police about the assaults in August 2024.
Martinez worked as a campus security officer at Jefferson Junior and Senior High Schools and at Lakewood High School from 2006 to 2022, according to the police department. He also ran an after-school clown club at Lakewood High School and was the pastor at Breakthrough Ministries in Weld County, the release stated.
He is scheduled to appear in court for a sentencing hearing on March 9, according to court records.
Three people, including a minor, were shot and killed in Lakewood on Thursday morning, Jan. 15, authorities said.
Deputies and Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel responded at about 7:55 a.m. to reports of an assault with a deadly weapon in the 5800 block of Lorelei Avenue, near South Street, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
A man, a woman and a girl were found with gunshot wounds and pronounced dead at the scene. Their ages and identities were not immediately released.
A Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman did not provide details about the circumstances surrounding the deaths. However, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman said crews were dispatched after receiving a report of a gunshot victim at the location.
The investigation is ongoing, and no additional information was immediately available.
The Sheriff’s Department asked anyone with information about the case to call its Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500.
LAKEWOOD, Colo. — CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood is preparing for potential public safety power shutoffs (PSPS) that could affect hundreds of patients.
On Tuesday, hospital president Kevin Cullinan showed Denver7 the massive generators that would keep the emergency room and core hospital services up and running during a power outage.
However, Cullinan said these backup systems will not supply power to the outpatient clinics. These are the locations where most CommonSpirit patients receive care for routine or specialized medical needs.
“I think some people are assuming that just because the hospital has a generator, that everything here is going to be fine,” he said. “That’s not the case.”
Denver7
In a back room at St. Anthony Hospital, Denver7 got to see the two generators that would keep the emergency room and core hospital services up and running in the case of a power outage.
The generators won’t power the clinics that offer services such as physical therapy, primary care, and even radiation treatments.
Cullinan explained that hundreds of patients would have their appointments canceled if Xcel Energy triggers the PSPS in this part of Jefferson County.
“We’ll get them rescheduled as soon as we possibly can. But the impact will be dramatic,” he said.
Denver7
Denver7’s Claire Lavezzorio speaking with President of St. Anthony Hospital Kevin Cullinan.
Xcel Energy’s latest update indicates that 50,000 customers in Boulder, Clear Creek, Jefferson, Larimer, and Weld counties are likely to be affected by potential shutoffs.
Despite significant disruption to patient care, Cullinan expressed support for the utility company’s safety measures, saying his staff will do their best to reschedule and support patients.
“If they believe that the risk is high enough, that this is the right thing to do, then we’re going to try and be good community partners…,” he said.
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A pedestrian was killed Thursday in a Lakewood crash near Smith Reservoir, police said.
Lakewood officers responded to the fatal crash at S. Kipling Parkway and W. Jewell Avenue Thursday morning, according to a 6:48 a.m. post from the police department.
The crash shut down southbound Kipling at Jewell, but the northbound lanes remained open, police said.
Police expect a lengthy road closure during the crash cleanup and investigation. Drivers should avoid the area and take alternate routes.
Information about the cause of the crash and whether anyone else was injured was not immediately available Thursday morning, but police said it was not a hit-and-run.
The father and son accused of causing a double-fatal crash in Lakewood while street-racing earlier this month were driving nearly 100 mph before the collision and are believed to have been drinking that night, according to an arrest affidavit.
Gregory Mark Giles, 65, and Bryce Anneaus Giles, 26, turned themselves in to Lakewood police Monday and were arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, engaging in a speed contest and reckless driving.
The multi-vehicle crash happened at 9:08 p.m. Nov. 13 at South Kipling Parkway and West Mississippi Avenue. When Lakewood police arrived, they found three vehicles had been involved in the collision — a 2004 Toyota 4Runner, a 2014 Ford Expedition and a 2015 Ford Explorer, the arrest affidavit said.
A witness told police they saw the 4Runner turn left in front of the speeding Explorer, from southbound Kipling onto eastbound Mississippi, while the light was green, and saw the vehicles’ impact at a high rate of speed.
The driver and passenger of the 4Runner — Dalton Smith, 28, and Demi Iglesias, 26 — were taken to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital, where they later died from their injuries, according to Lakewood police.
Gregory Giles was driving the Explorer with his other son, Brayden, in the vehicle while Bryce Giles was driving the Expedition, according to the affidavit.
Brayden Giles told police they were on their way to go bowling and were driving the speed limit. However, Gregory Giles was seen by traffic cameras and witnesses racing the Explorer, repeatedly driving side by side and exceeding the 45 mph speed limit.
Camera footage showed both the Expedition and Explorer were traveling “faster than normal traffic flow,” according to the affidavit. Police analyzed both vehicles’ data recorders and found the Expedition and Explorer were travelling 99.4 mph and 93 mph, respectively, five seconds before their airbags deployed, according to the affidavit.
In addition, while agents were at the scene of the crash, they reported finding two empty alcohol “shooters,” or 50ml bottles. One of the bottles was 99 Brand Black Cherry and the other was 99 Brand Apples, both labeled as 99 proof alcohol.
The bottles were located in plain view in the driver’s side footwell of the Ford Explorer that Gregory Giles was driving, according to the affidavit.
When police asked Brayden Giles if he had seen his father drink any alcohol prior to the crash, Brayden Giles said that he and his father had each drunk one beer, according to the arrest affidavit.
Brayden Giles told police his brother Bryce had also drunk beer before leaving. When asked how much alcohol Bryce had consumed, Giles said, “I think he had a lot,” according to the affidavit.
When police asked Gregory Giles, he said he had consumed a couple of shots of Jack Daniel’s whiskey before driving, according to the affidavit. Police obtained a warrant to take his blood to test for alcohol, but those results were not available at the time the arrest affidavit was written.
Traffic investigators wrote in the affidavit that Gregory, Bryce and Brayden were trying to conceal their vehicles’ speeds at the time of the collision, hide alcohol consumption and cover up leaving Gregory’s house together in an attempt to reduce their culpability.
The affidavit stated that Bryce Giles’ reckless driving and participation in the race directly contributed to the collision, which caused the deaths of Smith and Iglesias and serious injuries to his brother, Brayden Giles.
Gregory and Bryce Miles were both in custody Friday on $250,000 cash bail, according to Jefferson County inmate records. They are both set to appear in court Wednesday.
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.”
A father and son were arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide after Lakewood police say they caused a crash while street racing that killed two people.
Gregory Mark Giles, 65, and Bryce Anneaus Giles, 26, turned themselves in to the Lakewood Police Department on Monday night and were arrested on suspicion of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, engaging in a speed contest and reckless driving, agency officials said Tuesday.
The multi-vehicle crash happened at 9:07 p.m. Nov. 13 at South Kipling Parkway and West Mississippi Avenue.
Five people were taken to the hospital and two of them, 26-year-old Demi Iglesias and 28-year-old Dalton Smith, died from their injuries, Lakewood police said.
Gregory and Bryce Miles are both in custody on a $250,000 cash bail and are set to appear in court Dec. 3.
Detectives are investigating after a person was shot to death in Lakewood on Thanksgiving.
The shooting was reported at 2:37 p.m. Thursday near the intersection of South Street and Lakewood Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital, where they died of their injuries.
Law enforcement did not release details on the deceased, such as their approximate age or gender.
A person of interest was detailed, LASD said.
Details on what led up to the shooting remain unclear. A description of the gunman was not immediately available.
When a dentist at Lakewood Modern Dentistry told Hailey Hernandez she needed a deep cleaning, a root canal and a crown to treat extensive gum disease and other problems, alarm bells went off in her head.
“I knew that I was taking care of my teeth and there’s no way I have gum disease,” she said.
Her old dentist in Arizona said she was right when she went back for a second opinion, the Golden resident said. Her suspicions rose further when two friends told her they also received gum disease diagnoses from Lakewood Modern Dentistry and were told they’d need deep cleanings, root canals and crowns.
“There’s no way,” she said. “It just does not sound right at all.”
One of those friends, Avery Huffer, said she, too, had been surprised to hear she needed such extensive treatment, but went forward with it. When she returned about a year later, the Englewood resident learned she’d need deep cleanings every three months, plus more root canals and crowns — on teeth that weren’t the ones giving her pain.
Huffer said she decided not to undergo the additional treatment after speaking with coworkers who were told they needed the same procedure.
“Is that just their baseline diagnosis?” Huffer said she wondered.
Lakewood Modern Dentistry is one of more than 50 offices in the Denver area affiliated with PDS Health, a Nevada-based practice-management company working with dentists in 16 states. While each practice has independent ownership, they have nearly identical websites, with the same broad-smiling woman on the home page and the same pitch for financing up to $75,000 in dental work, subject to credit approval.
The majority of the practices also share a perception among some former patients that dentists and staff exaggerated their oral health problems and recommended unnecessarily invasive treatments. Of the 53 affiliated practices in the Denver area, 40 had online reviews in the last three years alleging their dentists had told patients they needed extensive work, such as deep cleanings or root canals, when they believed a less-invasive alternative would suffice.
The Denver Post spoke to six patients, including Hernandez and Huffer, who said PDS-affiliated practices pushed them to pay out-of-pocket for deep cleanings and other invasive work they believe they didn’t need. The five who sought second opinions said they were told their mouths were largely healthy.
While the patients who spoke to The Post believed their dentists were upselling them to make more money, the lack of standardization in dentistry creates challenges in trying to parse why two providers might have dramatically different recommendations, experts said.
With no clear professional standards and limited pushback from insurers on unnecessary procedures, patients are largely on their own to sort out if a practice is upselling them, said Beth Mertz, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco’sSchool of Dentistry. They should get a second opinion if a diagnosis and treatment plan seem off, she said.
“Dentistry is still the Wild West,” she said. “The whole system is not set up to serve the public particularly well.”
PDS Health spokeswoman Ellen Driscoll said the company provides non-clinical support services to independent dental offices, whose owners make treatment decisions based on their patients’ needs. Dentists have a long-standing debate about how best to treat gum disease, which is common and underdiagnosed, she said.
Lakewood Modern Dentistry said it uses advanced technology to detect gum disease early, catching problems other dentists might miss.
“Periodontal disease is both widespread and often missed in its early stages,” the practice said in a statement. “Our team follows national clinical standards and is committed to preventive care.”
Dentists can have good-faith differences of opinion about how aggressively they should manage common conditions such as gum disease, which can cause inflammation that leads to other health problems, said Dr. Brett Kessler, former president of the American Dental Association. Patients need to find a provider whose views are a match for theirs, he said.
“How the patient is treated depends on the patient’s goals and the provider’s philosophy, and how they weigh together,” he said.
Differences in philosophy and training explain some of the gap in what dentists recommend, but the profit motive is a factor, too, Mertz said. “Secret shopper” studies have shown dentists give radically different recommendations if a person’s dress and demeanor signal they can afford expensive care, she said.
“Because dental insurance pays more based on what you do, providers are incentivized to do more,” she said.
Pricey deep-gum cleaning
Most dental insurance covers two routine cleanings each year, though plans vary in how much they contribute toward deep cleaning and other treatment.
Michael Gitomer, of Denver, said the finance person at Edgewater Modern Dentistry and Orthodontics told him he would have to pay $1,000 to $1,500 out-of-pocket for deep cleaning and a crown.
Deep-gum cleaning, also known as scaling and root planing, involves removing plaque beneath the gum line in the same way that dental hygienists scrape it off the visible part of the tooth during a routine cleaning. In some cases, dentists also give antibiotics to help root out bacteria that cause gum disease.
Gitomer had expected only a $30 co-pay that day, so he asked for a routine cleaning while he considered his options.
“They were refusing to give me a regular cleaning unless I paid for all these other things,” he said, though they relented after he “gave them a pretty hard time about it.”
His previous dentist didn’t see any need for invasive work, but recommended flossing more often.
Edgewater Modern Dentistry said it strives to earn patients’ trust through “clear communication and honest assessments.”
“Periodontal disease often advances without pain, which is why we focus on early identification and informed care. Our clinicians are here to listen, explain, and help patients make confident decisions about their oral health,” the practice said in a statement.
Duke Harten, of Denver, said he had a similar experience at City Park Dental Group and Orthodontics: The dentist told him he had serious gum disease and needed deep cleanings every three months, which his insurance wouldn’t cover. He was suspicious because his previous dentist never identified any problems, and he looked up the office’s reviews, which seemed to suggest a pattern.
A dentist he saw for a second opinion said his gums were healthy, Harten said, and even his records at City Park Dental seemed to contradict the idea that he needed extensive care, saying he had “good oral hygiene” and “no problems noted.”
City Park Dental said in a statement that it is committed to clear communication with patients and adheres to best practices for treatment.
“When it comes to conditions like periodontal disease, timing and technology can affect what a provider sees, and how they choose to respond. While care approaches may vary between dentists, our goal is always the same: to help patients stay ahead of disease and maintain their long-term health,” the practice’s statement said.
‘They said I needed all this work’
Samantha Nuyen, of Denver, said Highlands Dentists didn’t identify any problems with her mouth on her first two visits, but told her she had multiple cracked teeth on the third. The dentist she saw for a second opinion didn’t find any cracks or other major concerns, she said.
When she told her provider at Highlands Dentists about the second opinion, they didn’t offer any explanation for the discrepancy or defend their recommendation, Nuyen said.
“They said I needed all this work that I didn’t need,” she said.
Highlands Dentists said oral health is deeply connected to the rest of the body’s well-being and it is treated early to prevent bigger problems.
“We believe in having honest conversations, answering questions, and making decisions together with our patients to support both their oral health and overall health,” the practice’s statement said.
Carlos Paradelo, of Denver, said he had a similar experience. The dentist at Cherry Creek Modern Dentistry told him he needed “deep scaling” because of gum disease, but a provider at another practice said increased attention to flossing would head off any future problems.
Cherry Creek Modern Dentistry said it has hundreds of satisfied patients and is committed to detecting oral health problems early.
“While we cannot comment on individual cases, our treatment recommendations follow national standards and are supported by advanced technology and interdisciplinary collaboration. We’re committed to helping patients understand their care and welcome thoughtful second opinions as part of that process,” the practice said in a statement.
Paradelo said he picked Cherry Creek Modern Dentistry because it was nearby and in his insurance network after he moved to Denver. In the future, he said he plans to check a dentist’s online reviews or ask friends before scheduling an appointment.
“I figured, just by virtue of them being in my insurance network, it would be a good practice,” he said.
The northbound lanes of Wadsworth Boulevard reopened in Lakewood Friday morning after several hours of closure following a fatal crash.
A driver struck a pedestrian near the boulevard’s intersection with West Eastman Place, Lakewood police said in a social media message at 7:47 a.m. The intersection is just north of U.S. 285.
Two people charged in the January shooting death of a Lakewood woman took deals and pleaded guilty on Monday, according to court records.
Manelson Leonel Ramirez, 27, pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in a deal that dismissed three felony charges from his case: first-degree murder, tampering with evidence and witness/victim intimidation, court records show. The deal also dropped two violent crime sentence enhancers.
Flor Maria Contreras-Mujica, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and criminally negligent homicide, both felonies, according to court records.
That deal dropped charges of first-degree murder, witness/victim intimidation, tampering with physical evidence and third-degree assault from her case. It also dismissed two violent crime sentence enhancers
Lakewood police officers responded to the shooting in the 1400 block of Kendall Street at about 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 14. When they arrived, officers found 26-year-old Nairelis “Junior” Castel suffering from a gunshot wound.
Paramedics took Castel to the hospital, where she later died from her injuries, police said.
Police said the three all knew each other before the shooting.
There will be no cliff divers entertaining guests at Casa Bonita on Halloween as the restaurant’s cast of performers initiates a three-day strike.
On Wednesday, the Actors’ Equity Association announced that Casa Bonita’s divers, magicians, roving actors and other unionized performers would picket outside the pink palace, at 6715 W. Colfax Ave. in Lakewood, following unsuccessful efforts to bargain their first contract. The strike is scheduled to take place on Oct. 30 through Nov. 1 from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Casa Bonita serves thousands of diners each week and actors previously told The Denver Post there have been numerous incidents involving guests that had staff concerned for their safety.
The bargaining unit of 57 people has been engaged in negotiations since April, according to the Actors’ Equity Association, and last month, it filed an unfair labor practices charge after performers’ hours were cut to accommodate a Halloween pop-up event.
Now, the union says management failed to deliver responses to key proposals that would move toward a contract. A representative of Casa Bonita could not immediately be reached for comment.
“Casa management came to the table today offering an additional 11 cents over their last unfair wage offer, and very little for future layoff protections,” said lead negotiator Andrea Hoeschen, assistant executive director and general counsel for Actors’ Equity Association, in a statement. “Despite that insult, the negotiating team responded with major compromises to try to get a deal. And then Casa Bonita walked away from the table without responding.”
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.
Lake Avenue will soon be a bit safer for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists.
On Monday, Cleveland City Council passed legislation lowering Lake Avenue’s speed limit by five, from 35 mph to 30 mph. It followed the recommendations of the city’s 2024 traffic study showing that drivers already drove, on average, five mph slower than what Lake’s signs showed.
The new law, passed a year after Council introduced it in May 2024, mirrors what Lakewood okayed for its stretch of Lake Ave. last June following its own two-year traffic study.
Changing street speeds aren’t as easy as swapping one sign for another. Cities have to convince the Ohio Department of Transportation that the new, slower speed designations would help curb crashes and/or match what drivers already drive.
Cleveland’s 2024 survey of Lake Ave. showed just that.
“Every five mph increase in speed can be deadly. Even just that five mph reduction in speed can have a significant outcome,” Ward 15 Councilwoman Jenny Spencer told Scene in a phone call.”
“I’m not saying this is a dream—I would’ve loved to bring it down to 25,” she said. “But, as you know, ODOT regulates the process.”
After years of careful planning and Council backing, the city unveiled Cleveland Moves—a plan to construct a 250-mile bike lane network with its first protected bike lanes being installed on Huron and Prospect in July.
Similar quick-build, protected lanes are also set to rise on St. Clair Ave., Payne Ave. and Berea Road in the near future.
To actually fund these builds, which run into the millions for just a few miles of restriping, the city has often framed their benefits as both climate-friendly and life-saving revamps for public streets. Earlier this month, Cleveland announced it was poised to secure $4 million in grants from NOACA for some 50 more miles of bike lanes.
All of which will undoubtedly save lives.
“I think there’s an insatiable demand for traffic calming; everyone’s worried about crashes and high speeds,” Spencer said.
There’s “a lot of alignment between the Bibb administration and us on this,” she said. “This is a clarion call to make everyone safer.”
Investigations of individuals, organizations and businesses performing or hosting drag performances or non-obscene entertainment involving gender identity or expression will be the “lowest possible priority.”
Investigations of individuals, organizations and healthcare providers in Lakewood facilitating gender-affirming care will be the “lowest possible priority.”
Facilitation of other policies and laws aimed to harm transgender and gender-diverse people will be the “lowest possible priority.”
City employees will be trained to protect confidential health information and not collect unnecessary health information related to gender-affirming care.
The city will continue to provide medical coverage for employees and covered family members who seek gender-affirming care, “even if such care must legally be provided outside the State of Ohio.”
Ohio currently has a law banning gender-affirming care for minors on the books – including a provision that prevents healthcare providers from recommending care outside the state – and a proposed ban currently in the state legislature to ban “adult cabaret performances” in “any location other than an adult cabaret where minors may be present, that is harmful to juveniles or obscene.” This ban would include drag performances.
“There is simply not room in the City’s budget or staff capacity to indulge these unconscionable policies which do nothing but distract us from our primary goals of building a strong, sustainable, and welcoming community,” Kepple wrote in a letter to the Lakewood Observer.
Above and beyond
Although many Ohio municipalities have passed LGBTQ+ equality ordinances over the past few years – from LGBTQ+-inclusive nondiscrimination protections, to proclamations declaring June as Pride Month, to the bans on conversion therapy on minors – Lakewood’s “Gender Freedom Policy” goes far beyond any existing local measure in Ohio.
Strebig said that Ohioans and Lakewoodites deserve better than the discriminatory policies being put forth by the state and federal government and that the “Gender Freedom Policy” is a step towards greater protections.
“With our home-rule authority limited and shrinking under the Republican-controlled [Ohio] Statehouse, we can still identify our priorities and commitments to keeping Lakewood a diverse and welcoming community,” Strebig said at the September 22 meeting.
LGBTQ+ equality advocates praised the resolution.
Dara Adkison, executive director of TransOhio, said that few municipalities in Ohio have been open to making a public statement that LGBTQ+ people – and specifically trans people – are welcome and deserve the same rights as everyone else within city limits.
“Choosing to prioritize the needs and values of residents shouldn’t be bold or not worthy, but this is where we find ourselves, and Lakewood City Council gets that,” Adkison told The Buckeye Flame.
Michael Miller, a Lakewood resident and father of a trans child, thanked the council and expressed hope that the council’s actions would inspire others to pass similar legislation.
“Even in Lakewood, Ohio, those of us who are raising transgender kids often feel like we’re standing alone,” Miller said. “Tonight, by talking about this Gender Freedom policy, we feel like you are standing up with us.”
Originally published by The Buckeye Flame. Republished here with permission.
After nearly a decade of beguiling pedestrians and achieving cult status on and off social media, Lakewood’s Pit is no more.
In other words, the six acres of grassy nothingness between Belle and Marlowe roads in what would otherwise be the suburb’s flourishing town center.
On Thursday, the city announced that developers will be breaking ground on the site, construction that puts an end to the longstanding debate between residents and city officials about what, if anything, should sit on that gaping block instead of grass. (Town square? Condos? A mall?)
The answer: Lakewood Common, a block of retail, parking, 293 apartments and a community-space plaza off Detroit Avenue.
All being a great whoosh of relief for CASTO Communities, the leading developer on the project since preliminary designs first surfaced in 2019. Lakewood Mayor Meghan George also championed CASTO’s vision for The Pit—which tallies roughly $119 million as of late—as one that will bring the city more residents.
“This development will welcome new residents, add economic vitality, and provide wonderful new public space in the heart of Lakewood,” George wrote in a statement to NEOtrans.
“I am thankful to all who were involved in making this day happen,” she said, “from the development team at CASTO to our city staff and City Council, as well as the many residents whose input helped us establish the community vision for the future of this site.”
The Pit, as it stood last year. About 300 apartments will go up here and open for leasing in early 2028, the develop said. Credit: Mark Oprea
Such community vision, outside City Council meetings and Lakewood’s own blog on the site’s evolution, existed in a kind of grassroots tabs-keeping that kept momentum mostly on a Facebook page entitled “Save The Pit.”
Other than a catalog of memes, the page was a soundboard for a range of brainstorming, frustration at city politics, and skepticism surrounding what seemed like a leviathan to actually fund. “Anyone really believe this will ever be developed?” one resident commented. “Imagine owning a condo in a grocery store parking lot,” said another.
Pandemic-era inflation and rising interest rates didn’t help. And neither did grocery stores and insurance companies backing out as lessees. (Hence: more parking.) But regardless, the city accepted CASTO’s designs last summer—Lakewood’s greatest grass lot would become its newest apartment complex of scale.
An outcome about which not everyone in the city is gushing.
“I think it’s a real bummer for the city,” Jason Bilak, who once helped run the Pit’s Facebook page and lives with his wife and child off Marlowe, told Scene in a text. “I don’t like the plan at all.”
But what about the “resort-style pool” atop the apartments? The one-beds with quartz countertops? An appropriate community plaza for Lakewood’s annual Christmas tree!
“Too modern. Cookie cutter. Looks like it should be in Tremont or Avon Lake,” Bilak said. “I’ll take The Pit any day. My son will miss saying hi to the geese.”
One man died and another was arrested after a shooting in Lakewood last month turned fatal, police said.
Adrian Slaughter, 23, was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 49-year-old Joshua Green, according to a news release from the Lakewood Police Department.
Lakewood officers responded to reports of a shooting near Vance Street and W. 13th Avenue on Aug. 28, police said in the release.
When they arrived, they found Green suffering from a gunshot wound. Paramedics took him to the hospital, where he later died from his injuries.
Slaughter was arrested three weeks later and taken to the Jefferson County Detention Center. His next court date had not yet been scheduled on Thursday.
EVERGREEN, Colo. — The two victims of the Evergreen High School shooting from last week remain hospitalized in serious and critical conditions, hospital officials said Monday.
One of the victims remains at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood and is listed in critical condition but stable. A second victim was transferred to Children’s Hospital Colorado and was upgraded from critical to serious condition.
Both victims are students at Evergreen High School and were shot Wednesday afternoon by the suspected shooter and fellow student, Desmond Holly, 16. The suspect died after he turned the gun on himself. It is still unclear how he selected his victims.
One of the victims was identified as Matthew Silverstone, 18 years old. Information on the second victim has not been released.
Classes at Evergreen High School remain canceled following last week’s shooting. It’s not known when they will resume.
It was revealed on Friday by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism that the suspected shooter had been active on an online forum where users watch videos of killings and violence, mixed in with content on white supremacism and antisemitism.
A spokesperson for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Mark Techmeyer, declined to comment on the ADL’s findings or discuss its investigation into the shooting.
The shooting prompted at least one other school district, Aurora Public Schools, to review its safety protocols more closely.
Evergreen High School shooting | Denver7 coverage
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Around 3:15 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 11, officers with the Lakewood Police Department responded to St. Edward High School in Lakewood, Ohio, CBS affiliate WOIO-19 reported.
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A press release from the department said that officers were told a child had a weapon on a school transport van in the parking lot.
Police found a BB pistol under a jacket in the back of the van, WOIO-19 reported.
The 12-year-old suspect was arrested for delinquency. The child was not a student of the high school.
He was taken back to the police station and released to his mother, WOIO-19 reported.
Lakewood Police have turned the case over to prosecutors.
