Four people were killed and 29 injured in a Tuesday morning crash on Interstate 25 in southern Colorado involving more than 30 vehicles, according to the Colorado State Patrol.
Heavy winds blew dirt across I-25 south of Pueblo around 10 a.m., causing “brown out” conditions along the interstate, state patrol officials said.
“Visibility was next to nothing,” Maj. Brian Lyons of the Colorado State Patrol said.
As of 4 p.m., northbound I-25 remained closed between exit 91 for Stem Beach and Colorado 45 in Pueblo, near milemarker 94, according to state transportation officials. The interstate’s southbound lanes were cleared and reopened around 2:30 p.m..
The northbound lanes will remain closed “for an extended period of time” as the crash cleanup and investigation continue, state patrol officials said in an afternoon update.
Colorado State Patrol troopers responded to the pile-up crash on northbound I-25 involving commercial trucks and passenger cars about two miles south of Pueblo at 10:02 a.m. Tuesday, according to the state patrol. When troopers arrived, they also found a secondary crash in the southbound lanes.
Together, the two crashes involved more than 30 vehicles, including six semitrailers, and four people were confirmed dead, state patrol officials said.
The fatalities and injuries all occurred in the large crash in the northbound lanes, state patrol officials said. The crash in the southbound lanes only resulted in damage to vehicles.
Paramedics took 29 people injured in the crash to hospitals, state patrol officials said. The extent of their injuries is unknown. Another 10 uninjured people remained on scene after the crash.
The victims killed in the crash will be identified by the Pueblo County Coroner’s Office after their families have been notified, according to the state patrol.
A pickup truck hauling a trailer containing goats was among the vehicles involved in the northbound crash. Four of those goats were killed, state patrol officials said, and 28 survived and were safely removed from the crash site.
Information about the cause of the crash was not available, and it’s unknown when the northbound highway will reopen.
The state patrol will not be able to confirm the total number of vehicles involved in the crash until the highway has been cleared, spokesperson Sherri Mendez said.
Federal officials unveiled a slew of charges Tuesday against two Coloradans accused of ripping off a program that provides free rides to Medicaid patients, the first criminal charges filed in response to a sprawling fraud bonanza identified by state officials more than two years ago.
The indictments allege that Ashley Marie Stevens and Wesam Yassin separately participated in the transportation program and fraudulently collected seven-figure payouts — more than $3.3 million for Yassin alone, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Colorado. The two drivers, who ran separate companies, allegedly fabricated rides for appointments that didn’t exist. Stevens is accused of billing for rides for her husband while he was incarcerated, and Yassin allegedly billed $165,000 for driving a patient who was dead.
Both Stevens, of Mesa County, and Yassin, of Douglas County, were charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, money laundering and health care fraud for their participation in the driving service.
The program pays drivers to ferry Medicaid patients to and from doctor’s appointments, but it became a haven for fraud in 2022 and 2023, after state officials increased the service’s reimbursement rates. State officials told The Denver Post last month that an estimated $25 million was lost in the broader fraud.
Yassin’s indictment was still sealed Tuesday evening. In a statement, federal officials alleged that Yassin billed Medicaid for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of rides that never occurred between March 2022 and October 2023. She raked in $283,000 from rides for just one patient, most of which was paid to Yassin after the patient had already died.
Yassin allegedly used the proceeds to buy a home and furnishings, along with luxury vehicles, jewelry and cosmetic surgery. She was released on bond earlier this week, according to court records.
Stevens billed the state for more than $1 million between July 2022 and February 2023, according to the indictment. More than $400,000 came from rides she provided to herself or to her family members, for which there were “very few” actual medical appointments, federal authorities allege.
The trips included rides for her husband, who was incarcerated during some of the time when Stevens claimed she was driving him to the doctor. Another $150,000 was billed for rides that either never took place or were for trips that didn’t involve Medicaid services.
She was also paid more than $450,000 for rides that were at least 400 miles long, authorities allege. From east to west, Colorado is roughly 380 miles wide. Stevens allegedly used the proceeds from the scheme for travel and to buy a luxury car.
Stevens was already in Mesa County jail when she was indicted in December, according to court records. She remains in custody.
Yassin and Stevens are the first drivers to face any criminal repercussions for allegedly bilking the program. The fraud was in its heyday in 2023, state officials previously told The Post: A rash of new drivers entered the program then, shortly after the state increased the rate paid to transportation companies. Unscrupulous drivers, who were paid on a per member, per mile basis, allegedly packed their cars with patients and drove them across the state.
Some targeted homeless people in Pueblo and Colorado Springs, driving them to methadone clinics in metro Denver. Some patients were bribed with cash or drugs, state officials have said. Kim Bimestefer, the executive director of the state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, told lawmakers last month that the fraud scheme was “international.”
COLORADO SPRINGS — Derrick Johnson buried his mother’s ashes beneath a golden dewdrop tree with purple blossoms at his home on Maui’s Haleakalā Volcano, fulfilling her wish of a final resting place looking over her grandchildren.
Then the FBI called.
It was Feb. 4, 2024, and Johnson was teaching an eighth-grade gym class.
“’Are you the son of Ellen Lopes?’” a woman asked, Johnson recalled in an interview with The Associated Press.
There had been an incident, and an FBI agent would fly out to explain, the caller said. Then she asked: “’Did you use Return to Nature for a funeral home?’”
“’You should probably google them,’” she added.
In the clatter of the weight room, Johnson typed “Return to Nature” into his cellphone. Dozens of news reports appeared, details popping out in a blur.
Hundreds of bodies stacked on top of each other. Inches of body decomposition fluid. Swarms of bugs. Investigators traumatized. Governor declares state of emergency.
Johnson felt nauseated and his chest constricted, forcing the breath from his lungs. He pushed himself out of the building as another teacher heard his cries and came running.
Two FBI agents visited Johnson the following week, confirming his mother’s body was among 189 that Return to Nature’s owners, Jon and Carie Hallford, had stashed in a Colorado building between 2019 and Oct. 4, 2023, when the bodies were found.
Even as the Hallfords’ bills went unpaid, authorities said they bought Tiffany jewelry, luxury cars and laser-body sculpting, pocketing about $130,000 clients paid for cremations.
They were arrested in Oklahoma in November 2023 and charged with abusing nearly 200 corpses.
Hundreds of families learned from officials that the ashes they ceremonially spread or kept close weren’t actually their loved ones’ remains. The bodies of their mothers, fathers, grandparents, children and babies had moldered in a room-temperature building in Colorado.
Jon Hallford will be sentenced Friday, facing between 30 to 50 years in prison, and Carie Hallford in April after a judge accepted their plea agreements in December. Attorneys for Jon and Carie Hallford did not respond to an AP request for comment.
Johnson, 45, who’s suffered panic attacks since the FBI called, promised himself that he would speak at Hallford’s sentencing and ask for the maximum penalty.
“When the judge passes out how long you’re going to jail, and you walk away in cuffs,” he said, “you’re gonna hear me.”
“She lied”
Jon and Carie Hallford were a husband-and-wife team who advertised “green burials” without embalming as well as cremation at their Return to Nature funeral home in Colorado Springs.
She would greet grieving families, guiding them through their loved ones’ final journey. He was less seen.
Johnson called the funeral home in early February 2023, the week his mother died. Carie Hallford assured him she would take good care of his mother, Johnson said.
Days later, she handed Johnson a blue box containing a zip-tied plastic bag with gray powder, saying those were his mother’s ashes.
“She lied to me over the phone. She lied to me through email. She lied to me in person,” Johnson told the AP.
The following day, the box lay surrounded by flowers and photos of Ellen Marie Shriver-Lopes at a memorial service at a Holiday Inn in Colorado Springs.
Johnson sprinkled rose petals over it as a preacher said: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”
Caught on video
On Sept. 9, 2023, surveillance footage showed a man appearing to be Jon Hallford walk inside a building owned by Return to Nature in the town of Penrose, outside Colorado Springs, according to an arrest affidavit.
Camera footage inside showed a body laying on a gurney wearing a diaper and hospital socks. The man flipped it onto the floor.
Then he “appeared to wipe the remaining decomposition from the gurney onto other bodies in the room,” before wheeling what appeared to be two more bodies into the building, the affidavit said.
In a text to his wife, Hallford said, “while I was making the transfer, I got people juice on me,” according to court testimony.
The neighborhood mom
Johnson grew up with his mother in an affordable-housing complex in Colorado Springs, where she knew everyone.
Johnson’s father wasn’t around much; at 5 years old, Johnson remembers seeing him punch his mom, sending her careening into a table, then onto a guitar, breaking it.
It was Lopes who taught Johnson to shave and hollered from the bleachers at his football games.
Neighborhood kids called her “mom,” some sleeping on the couch when they needed a place to stay and a warm meal. She would chat with Jehovah’s Witnesses because she didn’t want to be rude. With a life spent in social work, Lopes would say: “If you have the ability and you have the voice to help: Help.”
Johnson spoke with his mother nearly everyday. After diabetes left her blind and bedridden at age 65, she’d ask Johnson to describe what her grandchildren looked like over the phone.
It was Super Bowl Sunday in 2023 when her heart stopped.
Johnson, who had flown in from Hawaii to be at her bedside, clutched her warm hand and held it until it was cold.
A gruesome discovery
Detective Sgt. Michael Jolliffe and Laura Allen, the county’s deputy coroner, stood outside the Penrose building on Oct. 3, 2023, according to the 50-page arrest affidavit.
A sign on the door read “Return to Nature Funeral Home” and listed a phone number. When Joliffe called it, it was disconnected. Cracked concrete and yellow stalks of grass encircled the building. At back was a shabby hearse with expired registration. A window air-conditioner hummed.
Someone had told Jolliffe of a rank smell coming from the building the day before, the affidavit said.
One neighbor told an AP reporter they thought it came from a septic tank; another said her daughter’s dog always headed to the building whenever he got off-leash.
It was reminiscent of rancid manure or rotting fish, and struck anyone downwind of the building.
Joliffe and Allen spotted a dark stain under the door and on the building’s stucco exterior. They thought it looked like fluids they had seen during investigations with decaying bodies, the affidavit said.
But the building’s windows were covered and they couldn’t see inside.
Allen contacted the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agency, which oversees funeral homes, which got in touch with Jon Hallford. Hallford agreed to show an inspector inside the next afternoon.
Inspector Joseph Berry arrived, but Hallford didn’t show.
Berry found a small opening in one of the window coverings, the affidavit said. Peering through, he saw white plastic bags that looked like body bags on the floor.
A judge issued a search warrant that week.
Bodies stacked high
Donning protective suits, gloves, boots and respirators, investigators entered the 2,500-square-foot building on Oct. 5, 2023, according to the affidavit.
Inside, they found a large bone grinder and next to it a bag of Quikcrete that investigators suspected was used to mimic ashes. Bodies were stacked in nearly a dozen rooms, including the bathroom, sometimes so high they blocked doorways, the affidavit said.
There were 189.
Some had decayed for years, others several months, according to the affidavit. Many were in body bags, some wrapped in sheets and duct tape. Others were half-exposed, on gurneys or in plastic totes, or lay with no covering, it said.
Investigators believed the Hallfords were experimenting with water cremation, which can dissolve a body in several hours, the document said. There were swarms of bugs and maggots.
Body bags were filled with fluid, according to the affidavit. Some had ripped. Five-gallon buckets had been placed to catch the leaks. Removal teams “trudged through layers of human decomposition on the floor,” it said.
Investigators identified bodies using fingerprints, hospital bracelets and medical implants, the affidavit said. It said one body was supposed to be buried in Pikes Peak National Cemetery.
Investigators exhumed the wooden casket at the burial site of the U.S. Army veteran, who served in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. Inside was a woman’s deteriorated body, wrapped in duct tape and plastic sheets.
The veteran’s body was discovered in the Penrose building, covered in maggots.
“Ashes to ashes”
Following the call from the FBI, Johnson promised himself he would speak at the Hallfords’ sentencing. But he struggled to talk about what had happened even with close friends, let alone in front of a judge and the Hallfords.
For months, Johnson obsessed over the case, reading dozens of news reports, often glued to his phone until one of his children would interrupt him to play.
When he shut his eyes, he said he imagined trudging through the building with “maggots, flies, centipedes. There’s rats, they’re feasting.” He asked a preacher if his mother’s soul had been trapped there. She reassured him it hadn’t. When an episode of the zombie show “The Walking Dead” came on, he broke down.
Johnson started seeing a therapist and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He joined Zoom meetings with other victims’ relatives as the number grew from dozens to hundreds.
After Lopes’ body was identified, Johnson flew in March 2024 to Colorado, where his mother’s remains lay in a brown box in a crematorium.
“I don’t think you blame me, but I still want to tell you I’m sorry,” he recalled saying, placing his hand on the box.
Then Lopes’ body was loaded into the cremator and Johnson pushed the button.
Justice
Johnson has slowly improved with therapy, engaging more with his students and children. He began practicing speaking at the Hallfords’ sentencings in therapy. Closing his eyes, he envisioned standing in front of the judge — and the Hallfords.
“Justice is, it’s the part that is missing from this whole equation,” he said. “Maybe somehow this justice frees me.”
“And then there’s part of me that’s scared it won’t, because it probably won’t.”
A woman was shot at, and believed to be injured by, a Pueblo police officer after driving into a police cruiser Sunday night, according to the agency.
An unidentified Pueblo officer attempted to pull over a white Dodge Dart at E. Abriendo and Jones avenues, near Interstate 25, shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday, according to a news release from the police department.
The Dodge driver refused to yield, turned around and drove toward the Pueblo officer, police said in the release.
The officer repeatedly ordered the driver to stop, but she drove into a marked police car and a separate parked vehicle, police said. That’s when shots were fired and the driver fled the scene.
Police were searching Monday for 39-year-old Cassandra Lake, who investigators believe was injured. The Dodge was found the night before, under a tarp in the back of a burned-down Pueblo residence in the 1800 block of E. Routt Avenue, police said.
That block is just 1/5 mile away from the intersection where the shooting happened.
No Pueblo officers or other bystanders were injured, police said.
Anyone with information on Lake or her whereabouts is asked to contact the Pueblo Police Department at 719-553-2502.
The 10th Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team will investigate the shooting.
Southbound Interstate 25 was closed in southern Colorado for several hours Wednesdaymorning for a fatal crash involving a pedestrian, police said.
The crash closed I-25 at exit 102 for Eagleridge Boulevard and exit 99A for Colorado 96 in Pueblo, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation.
Southbound lanes were reopened as of 11:20 a.m.
Additional information about the fatal crash or the pedestrian was not available Wednesday morning.
For the past few months, Emmanuel Porter-Taylor and other young men housed at Colorado’s Youthful Offender System detention facility in Pueblo have complained to their parents about being hungry.
Meal portions seem to be getting smaller and smaller. The canteen, where incarcerated teens and young adults can buy snacks and other food items, is only reserved for those who have achieved higher privilege levels based on good behavior.
Porter-Taylor lost 20 to 30 pounds in recent weeks, his mother told The Denver Post. His eyes began to yellow. He couldn’t keep water down. Staff gave him Tylenol and told him to sleep, his mother, Ivory Taylor, said in an interview.
“Mom,” his mother said he told her last week, “I think they’re trying to kill me.”
The 22-year-old ended up in the hospital, where doctors concluded that his condition was caused by malnutrition, according to his family. When Porter-Taylor was stable, the hospital released him back to the detention center with a referral to see a kidney specialist as soon as possible. Doctors also said he needed to double his daily food intake, the family said.
Administrators at the state’s facility for young violent offenders said he’d have to wait six months to see a specialist, the family said. He was not given additional food.
On Sunday, Porter-Taylor was rushed back to the hospital, suffering from full renal failure, according to a letter sent by a juvenile justice advocate to a state senator. He was flown the following day from Pueblo to a Denver hospital.
His family, though, says they have no idea how he’s doing because the Colorado Department of Corrections reported they couldn’t find his “release of information” document, emails show. The family knows they filled it out.
“I want him to pay his debts and get out alive,” Taylor said of her son, who isn’t eligible for parole for two more years. “I don’t want to bury my 22-year-old kid.”
Parents say they’re worried their kids could be next. Ten mothers told The Post this week that they have watched their boys lose concerning amounts of weight over the past few months, as they complain about the lack of sufficient food at the 256-bed facility. Some have yellowing in their eyes. Others have fainted, become dizzy or found blood in their stool.
These accounts led a juvenile justice organization, the National Center for Youth Law, to sound the alarm and alert Colorado lawmakers and state corrections officials.
“They don’t even treat prisoners of war like this,” said one of the mothers. All but Taylor spoke to The Post on the condition of anonymity because they fear reprisal against their children.
A spokesperson with the Department of Corrections, which runs the Pueblo facility, declined to provide information on Porter-Taylor’s condition, citing federal and state privacy laws.
The department has gradually decreased the calorie count provided to those housed in the YOS detention facility in recent years to align with federal guidelines, said Alondra Gonzalez, a DOC spokesperson. Food is never withheld as a punitive measure, she said.
“All individuals in our custody receive appropriate food and medical care,” she wrote in a statement provided to The Post on Friday evening.
‘We hardly get anything’
The Colorado legislature established the Youthful Offender System, known as YOS, in 1993 in response to Denver’s “summer of violence,” a period marked by heightened youth homicides. Senate Bill 93S-009 provided the state with a new “middle tier” sentencing option, where certain youth offenders could be sentenced as adults directly into YOS.
These individuals “serve their sentence in a controlled and regimented environment that affirms dignity of self and others, promotes values of work and self-discipline, and develops useful skills and abilities through enriched programming,” corrections officials said in the 2024 YOS annual report.
The facility, which only houses violent offenders, was originally designed for those between the ages of 14 and 17 at the time of their offense, though a 2009 bill expanded the eligibility criteria to include 18- and 19-year-olds. Sentences cannot be shorter than two years and cannot exceed six years.
YOS touts a three-level model, designed to reward positive behavior. At level 3, individuals get unlimited visits and phone calls, video games, movies and free weights. They can also buy items such as deodorant or snacks from the canteen.
But those at lower levels cannot purchase food from the canteen, nor can they receive food packages from their family.
That leaves them reliant on prison meals that keep getting smaller and smaller, the parents who spoke to The Post said. Portions began to shrink a few months ago, these mothers said. One said entrees could fit in the palm of their hand.
Breakfasts have included an English muffin and a sausage. Lunch could be beans with two tortillas. Dinner might consist of four mini corndogs and a cup of macaroni and cheese.
“You feed our dog more than what we get on our plate,” another parent recounted their teen telling them this week. “We hardly get anything.”
YOS menus provided to The Post by the Department of Corrections show a variety of different meals. One recent lunch included one slice of cheese pizza, a cup of tossed green salad with olives and croutons, one cup of canned fruit and one cup of punch. A recent dinner consisted of one cup of spinach lasagna, salad, a slice of Texas toast and peach crisp.
Parents say their children’s weight loss has been extreme and noticeable. Many lost as many as 30 pounds in less than two months.
Without the ability to send food through the mail or use their canteen funds, parents have been forced to feed their children as much as they can during in-person visits. That means relying on whatever the vending machine in the lobby has left. Sometimes, it’s nearly bare.
“When you see a dog on the street that hasn’t eaten in a week,” a third mother told The Post, “that’s what he looked like.”
One individual who was incarcerated at YOS until last month said he relied on the canteen to supplement their meals. Without it, “it would have been tough,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they’re still on probation and fear reprisal. Sometimes, those on higher levels would try and sneak food to their lower-level friends, he said, but they risked being demoted themselves.
Recently, a group of 12 young people wrote a letter to leadership requesting more food, among other changes, one parent said. The boy who wrote the letter got put in solitary confinement, they said.
Gonzalez, the DOC spokesperson, said the level system is a “standard correctional practice to promote positive behavior,” but that meals are never withheld as a punitive measure. The DOC is “reviewing the current phases to determine whether any adjustments are necessary.”
Last month, another mother wrote a letter to the DOC, pleading with leadership to address the food shortage and punitive commissary policy.
“Adequate nutrition is not a privilege,” this woman wrote in the letter, which was reviewed by The Post. “It is a fundamental necessity for health and rehabilitation.”
The mother said DOC never replied.
In response to inquiries from state Sen. Judy Amabile this week, a corrections official acknowledged that YOS did “reduce caloric intake” for inmates due to the agency’s dieticians and the Department of Human Services “agreeing that the average (body mass index) of YOS offenders was higher than what was considered healthy within the age group.”
The average age of YOS offenders has risen over time, which means less caloric needs, Kayla Shock, the DOC’s legislative liaison, said in an email reviewed by The Post. If an individual requires additional calories, they will be assessed by the medical provider and provided an additional snack, she wrote.
YOS data shows the average age inside the facility has increased to 19.1 years old in 2024 from 16.8 years old in 2007.
During fiscal year 2022-2023, males in YOS received 3,200 calories per day, while females received 2,600 calories, Gonzalez said. Beginning in 2024-2025, those numbers dropped to 2,700 calories for men and 2,200 for women.
Gonzalez said the agency changed its food allotments to align with federal standards updated every five years by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. When these updates occur, she said, the state’s team of registered dietitians reviews the changes to ensure their menus are up to date.
Amabile, a Boulder Democrat who has worked on juvenile justice bills, called the calorie reduction “surprising.”
“If they’re cutting the number of calories that kids get every day — which includes people of different sizes — I would want to know: Is that healthier for them or is that a cost-cutting measure?” she said.
‘I don’t know if my son’s alive’
Porter-Taylor’s biological mother and the woman who had been his legal guardian say they haven’t been able to get updates on their son’s condition.
In an email, a health services administrator told Taylor that “we don’t have anyone designated as the point of contact to release medical information.”
Both Taylor and his former legal guardian, who has the power of attorney and considers him her son, remember these documents being filled out.
“Now it’s been six days since this surgery and I haven’t heard from my son,” Taylor said, “I don’t know if my son’s alive or not.”
If the details surrounding Porter-Taylor’s malnutrition are true, then this facility “now more closely resembles a concentration camp,” Dana Walters Flores, senior program manager for the National Center for Youth Law, wrote in a letter to Amabile this week.
“Young people paying a debt to society by serving time in a secure facility are still our sons and daughters — to turn a blind eye while youth in the custody and care of the state of Colorado are starving is unconscionable,” she wrote.
A man suspected of stealing a truck was shot by police after allegedly leading law enforcement on a chase of more than 50 miles down Interstate 25.
The man, whose identity has not been released, shot at law enforcement an unknown number of times after driving off the road into a Pueblo County field, investigators said. One Monument police officer shot back, wounding the suspect.
Monument police officers in El Paso County responded about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday to reports of a pickup stolen in town, according to a news release from the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office.
Police followed the stolen truck onto I-25 and chased it south, toward Colorado Springs, sheriff’s officials said.
State troopers learned of the stolen car and chase about 3:45 p.m. Tuesday and, minutes later, had an aircraft following the truck as it sped down I-25, according to the release.
The driver exited the highway near Pueblo and fired at least once at the group of law enforcement officers following the truck, sheriff’s officials said.
Pueblo County deputies joined the chase after the driver left the highway. Shortly after, the driver drove off the road into a field near Purcell Boulevard and Fairbanks Drive, according to the sheriff’s office.
The truck stalled in the field, and the suspect shot several more times at law enforcement, sheriff’s officials said.
A Monument police officer, who had followed the suspect from the beginning, returned fire and shot the man an unknown number of times, according to Pueblo County sheriff’s officials. At least one bullet hit the suspect, and he was taken to a Colorado Springs hospital by helicopter.
The 10th Judicial District response team — which includes the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office, Pueblo Police Department, the State Patrol, the Colorado Bureau of Investigations and the district attorney’s office — will investigate the shooting.
The police chief for the Colorado Mental Health Hospital in Pueblo used road-rage-like tactics to confront speeding drivers while he was off-duty, outside of his jurisdiction and in an unmarked state vehicle, prompting drivers to call 911 at least three times last year, an internal investigation found.
Chief Richard McMorran was reinstated to his position Aug. 15 with a 5% pay cut after a 10-month investigation into his actions. He was on paid administrative leave during that investigation, which included a review by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and a referral to prosecutors for potential criminal charges.
In an email Thursday, 10th Judicial District Attorney Kala Beauvais said her office is still considering whether criminal charges are warranted.
“We are nearing a decision,” she said.
McMorran did not return a request for comment Thursday.
On at least six occasions between January and September 2024, McMorran confronted drivers on Interstate 25 who he believed were speeding, the investigation found. The chief tailgated, raced and pulled up beside drivers. He yelled, gestured, swerved into the other drivers’ lanes, refused to let them pass, and “paced” them to gauge their speed, investigators found.
He was in the unmarked vehicle, outside of hospital grounds, off-duty and sometimes wearing plain clothes during the confrontations, the investigation found. It was not immediately clear Thursday whether the unmarked vehicle was equipped with police lights and sirens.
Two of the incidents, in January 2024 and September 2024, ended in actual traffic stops, the internal investigation found.
“You had multiple interactions with members of the public that caused them to fear for their safety and call 911. These interactions were repeatedly inappropriate, unprofessional, demonstrated poor judgment and exhibited a lack of understanding about the impact you have on members of the public when behaving this way,” Chris Frenz, deputy director of operations and legal affairs at the Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health, the agency that operates the state’s mental health hospitals, wrote in an Aug. 13 disciplinary letter.
Drivers called 911 during three of the confrontations. At least one of the drivers was concerned that the chief “had ulterior motives other than traffic enforcement,” Frenz wrote.
The investigation considered whether the chief was specifically targeting women in the confrontations, spokeswoman Stephanie Fredrickson confirmed. She said the targeted drivers were both men and women but declined to give an exact breakdown of their genders “to protect their privacy.”
Frenz concluded that the chief was not specifically stopping women.
“I do not believe you were targeting (name redacted) or anyone specifically, as you admitted that it was common practice for you to identify people speeding and use various techniques to get them to slow down,” he wrote. “However, your practices very clearly gave an initial appearance of some type of targeting or harassing behavior from the viewpoint of any specific person subject to this behavior.”
During the internal investigation, McMorran denied swerving or tailgating, but generally acknowledged the incidents and told internal investigators that he feels he has “an obligation to intervene when people are driving too fast.” He said he pulled alongside drivers to monitor their speeds because his vehicle is not equipped with radar, and that the “perceived yelling and gesturing” was his way of telling the drivers to slow down.
“You were shocked that anyone thought you were trying to run off the road. You’ve never done anything like that before,” Frenz wrote in the letter, summarizing the chief’s positions during the investigation. “…If you had known so many people had been calling in, you would have approached things differently.”
The chief noted during the internal investigation that he is allowed to make traffic stops. He is a POST-certified police officer, state records show. Frenz wrote in his letter that “current policy” gives the chief the authority to conduct traffic stops.
Frenz wrote that he was reducing the chief’s salary by $498 a month, not because he made traffic stops, but because of the way he did so.
“You should have known that pacing people in an unmarked vehicle, with no uniform, without pulling them over, would cause confusion and fear,” Frenz wrote. “Moreover, your repeated conduct on the freeway reflected poorly on the department.”
In addition to the pay cut, McMorran, for the next year, is prohibited from driving his state vehicle outside of the hospital’s sprawling 300-acre campus, is prohibited from conducting traffic stops unless there is an immediate health or safety concern, and cannot drive his state vehicle to his home or use it for personal reasons, according to the letter.
The state mental health hospital’s small police department handles criminal matters at the 516-bed campus in Pueblo. The department includes a handful of certified police officers, as well as a number of security guards.
McMorran was appointed chief in 2018 when his predecessor was abruptly removed from his position, placed on administrative leave and escorted from the premises. The reason for the previous chief’s departure was not clear, but he did not return from leave.
Southbound Interstate 25 is once again open in Pueblo after a vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian Saturday morning, shutting down the roadway.
The Pueblo Police Department announced the crash and closure near 13th Street on social media shortly after 8 a.m., warning travelers to expect delays in the area for “an extended period of time.”
At 10:23 a.m., the agency said the interstate had been reopened.
Officials say Jonathan Avery was part of a network of illegal gambling parlors across the state, stretching from Greeley to Pueblo.
FILE, A gavel in an empty courtroom taken on March 23, 2006.
Joe Gratz/Flickr
A federal grand jury has convicted the operator of Player One Arcade in Denver on one count of conducting an illegal gambling business and one count of conspiracy to commit the same crime.
Matt Kirsch, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado, said Jonathan Avery, 38, of Denver was part of a network of illegal gambling parlors extending from Greeley to Pueblo that started in 2018.
Avery and two other defendants, Nathan Sugar and Jovan Walker, offered several electronic forms of gambling in the establishments through games made to resemble arcade and virtual slot machines, Kirsch said.
Customers could exchange winning game credits for a cryptocurrency called Obsidian Digital Asset Coin, which was then exchanged for cash by paying a transaction fee.
“These gambling dens masqueraded as arcades with a veneer of legitimacy,” said Kirsch in a statement. “I am grateful to law enforcement for digging beneath the veneer and finding that these establishments were causing real harm in our communities.”
Sugar and Walker, face the same charges as Avery, but Sugar also faces three additional counts of money laundering. If convicted, Sugar could be forced to forfeit any property purchased with the profits from the illegal businesses, including a home worth more than $700,000.
Avery’s sentencing is set for Dec. 12. He and Walker face up to five years behind bars along with a $250,000 fine. Sugar, because of the money laundering counts, could face more than 20 years behind bars and steeper fees tied to the properties involved in the crime.
The Colorado Department of Revenue’s Division of Gaming encourages residents to visit the PlayLegitCO websitefor resources on legal gambling options in Colorado.
A mental health evaluation has been ordered for the third and final suspect in last year’s deadly spree of rock-throwing attacks in suburban Denver after the defense claimed his ADHD contributed to the killing and the injury of half a dozen drivers.
Joseph Koenig, 19, was set to begin his jury trial for first-degree murder in Jefferson County district court later this month when his defense requested to introduce additional evidence and expert testimony into the case for an “impaired mental condition” defense, according to court documents.
Koenig’s trial has been delayed until health officials can return a mental health evaluation to the judge determining the 19-year-old’s “mental condition.”
BOULDER, Colo. — Friday marks three years since the mass shooting at a Boulder King Soopers where 10 people were killed.
Rikki Olds, Denny Stong, Neven Stanisic, Tralona Bartkowiak, Teri Leiker, Suzanne Fountain, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray, Jody Waters and Boulder Police Officer Eric Talley were killed in the mass shooting on March 22, 2021.
Boulder King Soopers shooting suspect pleads not guilty by reason of insanity
1:34 PM, Nov 14, 2023
Olivia Mackenzie misses her mother, Lynn Murray, every day. Mackenzie spoke with Denver7 from her car on Thursday — a car that was once her mother’s.
Murray was shopping for Instacart inside the Table Mesa King Soopers at the time of the shooting on March 22, 2021.
“Really, really fun. Really easygoing. And she was the best. She was just such a wonderful person,” Mackenzie said, describing her mom. “I would say that right now, it does feel like three years, but at the same time, I’m also so shocked that it’s been three years. Because yeah, I mean, a lot has happened, but I could go back there like it was yesterday.”
Olivia Mackenzie
Lynn Murray
The loss of her mother in 2021 affected her father greatly, Mackenzie said. Her dad passed away after a heart attack in November 2022. Mackenzie believes he died from a broken heart.
“I don’t want every March 22 for the rest of my life to be about reliving that day because that was the worst day and I would rather remember her, and now him,” Mackenzie said. “I’m feeling a lot better this year. It’s not as rough. It’s not as heavy. But regardless, I mean, it has come up this week. But it comes up no matter what. Sometimes there’s just certain things that send you back to that day.”
The progress in Mackenzie’s personal life has moved much quicker than the court system.
“With it taking so long and being three years down the line, it’s kind of, sometimes it feels like a step back,” Mackenzie said about the amount of time the judicial system has taken. “When we go to court, the rest of the day kind of has that theme — and the next day too. My heart’s pretty heavy and it’s hard.”
She understands there are reasons for the delays in the court proceedings, but says it is still difficult to process.
“I don’t even know if the court process is going to give me closure because I’ve had to kind of find that within myself,” said Mackenzie. “Their lives deserve to be remembered, and that’s what’s helped me get through this loss and this event, and I just think they deserve that.”
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty knows how painful the delays have been for the victim’s families. He spoke with Denver7 generally about the challenges facing CMHHIP, where the shooting suspect is being held.
“The state hospital continues to have difficult and mighty challenges that impact cases, individuals who are charged, victims, and also community safety,” Dougherty said. “We need this state hospital system to have a complete overhaul for it to be better funded, better resourced and to make sure that it’s complying with all the expectations and requirements.”
Dougherty explained the difference between competency and insanity. A suspect can plead not guilty by reason of insanity while simultaneously being deemed competent to stand trial.
“Competency means whether the individual is able to assist in their defense, they understand the legal proceedings against them and they can assist the attorney in defending themselves in court. So they have to have some basic understanding of the court proceedings, what’s going on around them and the ability to assist counsel by communicating with them,” said Dougherty. “Sanity, or a claim that someone’s not guilty by reason of insanity, is on the day of the incident. So if the incident happened last year, it’s about their ability to form intent and understand the consequences on the day of the incident when the crime took place.”
A spokesperson with the state hospital provided Denver7 with background about how competency evaluations work and why the system can be lengthy.
In any court case where competency is an issue, the Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health (OCFMH) is responsible for an initial competency evaluation of the defendant.
Evaluations can be performed in a number of settings, not just at the state hospital in Pueblo. They can occur in one of the two state hospitals, jails or in the community. According to the state, most evaluations happen in jails or on an outpatient basis, so the majority of defendants do not have to be admitted to a state hospital for an evaluation.
OCFMH said the evaluations are completed in compliance with statutorily mandated timeframes.
If a defendant is deemed incompetent, competency restoration treatment begins. When an individual is restored to competency, a court case can proceed.
The restoration treatment can happen in locations that include select jail-based settings, one of the two state hospitals, in a community if a defendant is out on bond, or at a private hospital that contracts with OCFMH.
According to those with the state, delays commonly occur when a defendant is ordered for restoration treatment at an inpatient location, which includes jail-based settings, private hospitals, and the two state hospitals.
State data shows that in fiscal year 2021-22, 2,997 individuals were ordered by the court to receive a competency evaluation from OCFMH. For the next fiscal year, 2022-23, 2,634 people were court-ordered to receive a competency evaluation from OCFMH.
There’s a decrease between the two sets of data, but overall there has been a “significant increase” in court orders for competency evaluations and restoration treatment. For example, in fiscal year 2017-18, only 1,686 competency evaluations were ordered.
The majority of competency evaluations occur while the defendant is in jail or the community if they are granted bond.
“Individuals do not have to be admitted to the state hospital in order to receive an evaluation, unless the court orders it, which is extremely rare,” Jordan Saenz, the communications manager for OCFMH, wrote in an email.
Saenz said when CMHHIP is operating at full capacity, there are 516 beds available to serve patients. The hospital has been hit by the nationwide healthcare worker shortage, meaning CMHHIP can only operate 474 beds currently. Recently, the hospital re-opened two additional units accounting for 43 beds “due to vigorous hiring efforts,” Saenz said.
According to Saenz, two people are waiting in jail for a competency evaluation and 349 individuals are in jail waiting for restoration treatment. Those numbers reflect people waiting for services at an inpatient location, like the state hospitals in Pueblo and Fort Logan, jail-based settings and private hospitals.
Saenz said, “OCFMH is in compliance with the statutorily mandated 21-day timeframe to complete the jail based evaluations, and this isn’t what causes delay in many cases. OCFMH is not in compliance with time frames to admit individuals for inpatient competency restoration treatment.”
Many cases are delayed because of the restoration process, not the evaluation process, according to Saenz.
The state hospital in Fort Logan is operating at full capacity, and efforts at both state hospitals to open beds have decreased the waitlist for restoration treatment from around 460 individuals to 349, according to Saenz.
Dougherty called the system “broken” in Colorado.
“The fact that they’re not being cared for and evaluated means their cases are being delayed, their treatment is being delayed. But also, importantly, they’re taking up space at a county jail that isn’t built for a population the size of Boulder County,” said Dougherty. “It’s having a very real impact on the lives of everybody involved in those cases but also on community safety.”
A critical difference between a jail and a state mental health hospital is the ability to forcibly medicate individuals. Jails cannot do that to inmates while mental health facilities can, according to Dougherty.
“Currently, the largest mental health facility we have in Boulder County is the Boulder County Jail. And I think we’d all agree that that’s a shame and that shouldn’t be the case. So that’s where that Mental Health Diversion Program came from,” said Dougherty.
The Mental Health Diversion Program (MHDP) in Boulder was the first in the state, Dougherty said. The program diverts low-level offenders out of jail and connects them with treatment.
“Now, those are on low-level offenses. But it’s been incredibly successful in helping people get treatment and medication as quickly as possible because the last place someone should be when they’re suffering from a mental health crisis is a jail cell,” said Dougherty.
THE SOLUTIONS
Competency courts are separate courtrooms that handle cases where the issue of competency is raised.
“Competency courts are one of several programs, several approaches, that have been set up, particularly with regards to trying to facilitate more effective and efficient ways to get people through the competency process, given the challenges we have with the state hospital,” said Dougherty.
According to a spokesperson with the Colorado Courts, there are nine judicial districts, plus the Denver County Court, operating competency dockets that serve more than 700 clients. The judicial districts operating competency courts are Districts 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 12, 16, and 18.
Two other districts are in the early stages of implementation. One of them is Boulder, where Dougherty said they are exploring the concept. Recently, a few of their judges went to Larimer County to see their competency court. Dougherty said they are starting to work on bringing a competency court to Boulder.
“A competency court that would allow mental health providers, the defense bar, prosecution and the bench, the judges, to have a docket that specializes in looking at individuals with competency issues and get them connected to treatment and hopefully have them get through the evaluation process and treatment process more quickly,” explained Dougherty. “There are other problem-solving courts that we have in Colorado, and I would put this under that same heading. And if we have people who are able to specialize in a certain area and get a focused approach and treatment, we could do better for them and also for the court dockets as a whole.”
Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said their competency diversion program was started in April 2022. They also have a competency court.
“One of the goals of competency diversion is to get those people out of the system completely so they’re not waiting for an evaluation or restoration. And that will result in a reduction in that waiting time and waiting list that is backlogged,” McCann explained. “Denver is really addressing this head-on, and I think we are doing a good job of trying to get people out of the system who really are so mentally ill that they shouldn’t be in the system. And that’s what our competency diversion program is designed to do is identify these people early so they never get on a waitlist, they never even end up in court. They get wraparound services.”
Denver’s competency court is in district court, but McCann said their county court is getting ready to launch a competency court this summer.
McCann explained that only eligible defendants can participate in the competency diversion program.
“It depends on the nature of the crime. We have criteria for people to be admitted into competency diversion. So we’re not taking, you know, violent, dangerous people. These are people who just cycle in and out of our court system for very minor offenses, clearly mentally ill, and people who need that kind of support. So we’re trying to do a balanced approach,” McCann said.
McCann said people like the Boulder King Soopers defendant would not be eligible for competency diversion. She said suspects in very serious crimes like mass shootings would be able to go through competency court, where they could be evaluated and restored. The goal of competency court is to alleviate the burden of cases dealing with competency from the court dockets.
To date, in Denver’s competency diversion program, there have been a total of 441 referred cases — 145 of those have been accepted.
According to data from the Denver District Attorney’s office, there is a 68% success rate, with 27% of the cases determined as unsuccessful. Those numbers break down to:
56 successful diversions
13 unsuccessful due to receiving new charges that were ineligible
9 unsuccessful due to lack of engagement
4 cases closed
Sixty-three participants are actively being served in Denver by the program, and there are 74 pending referrals at this time. Both McCann and Dougherty mentioned work being done in the Colorado State Capitol, like House Bill 24-1355, which was introduced into the state legislature on March 4. Among other initiatives, the bill would require each judicial district to create a process that identifies and refers eligible defendants to a wraparound program as an alternative to competency proceedings.
Editor’s Note:Denver7 360 | In-Depth explores multiple sides of the topics that matter most to Coloradans, bringing in different perspectives so you can make up your own mind about the issues. To comment on this or other 360 In-Depth stories, email us at 360@Denver7.com or use this form. See more 360 | In-Depth stories here.
PUEBLO, Colo. — The U.S. Forest Service is working to bridge the gap between the federal government and Indigenous communities through the work of tribal liaisons.
“The idea behind this is to better administer these lands by talking to the Indigenous stakeholders here, the people who have always lived here in Colorado, western Kansas,” said Herbert. “There are tribal leads liaisons throughout the federal government, whether you’re talking about the National Forest Service, the United States Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management. There are tribal liaisons everywhere.”
Herbert said the start of his new position consists of a lot of learning, both from other Colorado tribal liaisons, tribal leaders and the landscape itself.
“If I was going to come out here, I felt like I owed tribes my due diligence to come out here and learn these landscapes that they call home,” said Herbert. “My job is to talk to people. And ultimately, that’s all a tribal liaison does is I want to make sure that tribal voices are being heard within our national forest system.”
Ultimately, Herbert said his goal is to ensure everyone benefits from a better administration of the federal land.
“The whole reason we have these national forests is because we have a 250-year-old system of colonialism,” Herbert said. “The reason why I’m out here is because the people who call Colorado home were violently removed from these landscapes. Now, I don’t tell people that to upset them or to make them feel guilty. You didn’t do this, but you are responsible. And by that, I mean, you’re responsible for learning about these pasts, right? So that we can create a better present, so we can create a better future.”
A historian at heart, Herbert said he wants to first establish a real working relationship with tribes based on trust.
“The only way to do that is to be humble, is to be serious about the nature of the job,” said Herbert. “I look at myself here as a guest upon these lands. And in my position, I have to. These are native lands.”
“I don’t think it’s too much to do right by tribes and the United States Forest Service. We can accomplish both of those things,” Herbert continued. “When you change the landscape, you change culture. When you change the culture, you threaten the viability of people. That’s what’s at stake here is making sure that we honor these landscapes and manage them in ways that are appropriate to Indigenous communities.”
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EL PASO, Texas — A Mexican man fatally shot at a U.S. Border Patrol station in Texas had grabbed an “edged weapon” and was advancing toward agents when they opened fire, the FBI said Thursday.
Manuel Gonzalez-Moran, 33, died at an El Paso hospital Tuesday after he was shot by Border Patrol agents. The FBI said Moran was taken into custody at the Ysleta Border Patrol Station for reentering the country illegally.
Agents first used a stun gun on Moran after he charged out of a holding cell, the FBI said, and eventually opened fire.
Moran was released on parole earlier this year and deported to Mexico after serving 11 years in prison in Colorado, the FBI said. He had been convicted in 2011 in Pueblo, Colorado, of assault with a deadly weapon resulting in serious bodily injury, according to the FBI.
