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On days with severe weather, school closures and government office closures will be updated throughout the day.
A status of “Other” means there is an early closing or some cancellations — check the website by clicking the name in the list.
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Tynin Fries
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A 31-year-old man who allegedly tried to abduct a student walking near Mountain Range High School was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, kidnapping and attempted kidnapping, according to the Westminster Police Department.
Police began investigating after a girl walking to school near West 125th Avenue and Delaware Street on the morning of Oct. 25 reported that a man in a silver vehicle had approached her, threatened her with a gun and told her to get in.
The girl refused, and the man grabbed her backpack and took off, according to police officials.
Investigators identified Jeremiah Mullins as a suspect and arrested him in the 12000 block of North Melody Drive hours later, Westminster police said in a news release Friday.
He is also charged with aggravated motor vehicle theft and possession of a weapon by a previous offender.
Mullins was previously arrested in 2019 after he kidnapped an Aurora woman while she was warming up her car.
He pleaded guilty to attempted aggravated robbery in the case and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, according to court records. Information on when he was released from prison was not immediately available Friday.
Mullins is in custody on a $1 million cash bail.
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Katie Langford
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The following Colorado snow totals have been reported by the National Weather Service for Oct. 30, 2024, as of 10:15 a.m. on Wednesday:
Cattle Creek, CO — 1.5 inches at 7 a.m. MDT
Dove Creek, CO — 2.5 inches at 6:30 a.m. MDT
Leadville, CO — 1.9 inches at 11:59 p.m. MDT – 10/29/2024
Mount Crested But, CO — 1.5 inches at 7 a.m. MDT
Redstone, CO — 1.1 inches at 8 a.m. MDT
Ridgway, CO — 1.5 inches at 8 a.m. MDT
Silt, CO — 2.8 inches at 7 a.m. MDT
Skyway, CO — 6 inches at 6 a.m. MDT
Sweetwater, CO — 1.1 inches at 8 a.m. MDT
Toponas, CO — 4.3 inches at 7:35 a.m. MDT
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Tynin Fries
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By DIANE JEANTET
AVIGNON, France — They are, on the face of it, the most ordinary of men. Yet they’re all on trial charged with rape. Fathers, grandfathers, husbands, workers and retirees — 50 in all — accused of taking turns on the drugged and inert body of Gisèle Pelicot while her husband recorded the horror for his swelling private video library.
The harrowing and unprecedented trial in France is exposing how pornography, chatrooms and men’s disdain for or hazy understanding of consent is fueling rape culture. The horror isn’t simply that Dominique Pelicot, in his own words, arranged for men to rape his wife, it’s that he also had no difficulty finding dozens of them to take part.
Among the nearly two dozen defendants who testified during the trial’s first seven weeks was Ahmed T. — French defendants’ full last names are generally withheld until conviction. The married plumber with three kids and five grandchildren said he wasn’t particularly alarmed that Pelicot wasn’t moving when he visited her and her now-ex-husband’s house in the small Provence town of Mazan in 2019.
It reminded him of porn he had watched featuring women who “pretend to be asleep and don’t react,” he said.
Like him, many other defendants told the court that they couldn’t have imagined that Dominique Pelicot was drugging his wife, and that they were told she was a willing participant acting out a kinky fantasy. Dominique Pelicot denied this, telling the court his co-defendants knew exactly what the situation was.
Céline Piques, a spokesperson of the feminist group Osez le Féminisme!, or Dare Feminism! said she’s convinced that many of the men on trial were inspired or perverted by porn, including videos found on popular websites. Although some sites have started cracking down on search terms such as “unconscious,” hundreds of videos of men having sex with seemingly passed out women can be found online, she said.
Piques was particularly struck by the testimony of a tech expert at the trial who had found the search terms “asleep porn” on Dominique Pelicot’s computer.
Last year, French authorities registered 114,000 victims of sexual violence, including more than 25,000 reported rapes. But experts say most rapes go unreported due to a lack of tangible evidence: About 80% of women don’t press charges, and 80% of the ones who do see their case dropped before it is investigated.
In stark contrast, the trial of Dominique Pelicot and his 50 co-defendants has been unique in its scope, nature and openness to the public at the victim’s insistence.
After a store security guard caught Pelicot shooting video up unsuspecting women’s skirts in 2020, police searched his home and found thousands of pornographic photos and videos on his phone, laptop and USB stick. Dominique Pelicot later said he had recorded and stored the sexual encounters of each of his guests, and neatly organized them in separate files.
Among those he had over was Mahdi D., who testified that when he left home on the night of Oct. 5, 2018, he didn’t intend to rape anyone.
“I thought she was asleep,” the 36-year-old transportation worker told the panel of five judges, referring to Gisèle Pelicot, who has attended nearly every day of the trial and has become a hero to many sexual abuse victims for insisting that it be public.
“I grant you that you did not leave with the intention of raping anyone,” the prosecutor told him. “But there in the room, it was you.”
Like a few of the other men accused of raping Pelicot between 2011 and 2020, Mahdi D. acknowledged almost all of the facts presented against him. And he expressed remorse, telling the judges, “She is a victim. We can’t imagine what she went through. She was destroyed.”
But he wouldn’t call it rape, even if admitting that it was might get him a lighter sentence. That led prosecutors to ask the court to screen the graphic videos of Mahdi D.’s visit to the Pelicot home.
In June, authorities took down the chatroom where they say Dominique Pelicot and his co-defendants met. Since the trial started on Sept. 2, it has resonated far beyond the Avignon courtroom’s walls, sparking protests in French cities big and small and inspiring a steady flow of opinion pieces and open letters penned by journalists, philosophers and activists.
It has also drawn curious visitors to the city in southeastern France, such as Florence Nack, her husband and 23-year-old daughter, who made the trip from Switzerland to witness the “historical trial.”
Nack, who noted that she, too, was a victim of sexual violence, said she was disturbed by the testimony of 43-year-old trucker Cyprien C., a defendant who spoke that day in court.
Asked by the head judge, Roger Arata, whether he recognized the facts, Cyprien C. answered that he “did not contest the sexual act.”
“And the rape?” Arata pressed. The defendant stood silently before eventually responding, “I can’t answer.”
Arata then began to describe what was on the videos implicating him. They are only shown as a last resource and on a case-by-case basis. But for many in the courtroom, such detailed descriptions can last several minutes and be just as heavy as watching them. Gisèle Pelicot, who is in her early 70s, has chosen to remain in the courtroom while the videos are shown. Unable to watch, she usually closes her eyes, stares at the floor, or buries her face in her hands.
Experts and groups working to combat sexual violence say the defendants’ unwillingness or inability to admit to rape speaks loudly to taboos and stereotypes that persist in French society.
For Magali Lafourcade, a judge and general secretary of the National Consultative Commission of Human Rights who isn’t involved in the trial, popular culture has given people the wrong idea about what rapists look like and how they operate.
“It’s the idea of a hooded man with a knife whom you don’t know and is waiting for you in a place that is not a private place,” she said, noting that this “is miles away from the sociological, criminological reality of rape.”
Two-thirds of rapes take place at private homes, and in a vast majority of cases, victims know their rapists, Lafourcade said.
It can be difficult at times to reconcile the facts with the personalities of the accused — described by loved ones as loving, generous and considerate companions, brothers and fathers.
Cyril B.’s tearful older sister told the court: “It’s my brother, I love him. He’s not a mean person.” His partner described him as “kind, his heart on his sleeve and full of attention.” She insisted that he isn’t “macho” and that he had never forced her to do anything sexually that she wasn’t comfortable with.
Although Lafourcade does not believe “all men are rapists,” as some have concluded the trial shows, she said that unlike the #MeToo accusations that have ensnared French celebrities, the Pelicot case “makes us understand that in fact rapists could be everyone.”
“For once, they’re not monsters — they’re not serial killers on the margin of society. They are men who resemble those we love,” she said. “In this sense, there is something revolutionary.”
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Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, centered on suburban Jefferson County, hasn’t had a Republican in the seat since Bob Beauprez left Congress nearly 20 years ago.
But Sergei Matveyuk, an antiques repairman from Golden and the GOP contender for the seat in the Nov. 5 election, urges voters not to count him out in his battle with incumbent Brittany Pettersen. The first-term Democratic congresswoman is seeking reelection.
“People are hurting economically,” Matveyuk, 57, told The Denver Post. “They want someone who feels the pain.”
He’s running in a once-battleground district that has turned decidedly blue in the last decade or so, with Democratic former Rep. Ed Perlmutter winning election eight times running, until his retirement announcement in 2022 ushered in an open race.
Pettersen, 42, a former state lawmaker from Lakewood, won the 2022 election by 16 percentage points over Republican Army veteran Erik Aadland. The bulk of the district’s electorate calls left-leaning Jefferson and Broomfield counties home, while redder areas in the district — such as Teller, Custer and Fremont counties — simply don’t have the populations to give Matveyuk a sizable boost.
As of Sept. 30, Pettersen had raised more than $2.2 million this cycle, compared to about $35,000 collected by Matveyuk, according to campaign finance filings. There are two minor party candidates on the ballot this time: Former state lawmaker Ron Tupa is running on the Unity Party of Colorado ticket, while Patrick Bohan is running as the Libertarian candidate.
Matveyuk, a political neophyte, said that as a small business owner, the historically high inflation of the last two years has hurt those like him who are particularly sensitive to escalating prices. But it’s his personal story that he thinks will resonate with voters in the current political climate, in which border policy has taken center stage. Matveyuk, who is of Polish descent, and his family left the Soviet Bloc in the late 1980s after experiencing life under communist rule and immigrated to the United States.
“As an immigrant myself, I know how hard it is to start a new life — but it has to be legal,” he said.
Matveyuk doesn’t echo former President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations but says migrants who “are hurting our people and committing crimes need to be deported, for sure.”
“We need immigration reform — 40 years ago we had a regulated border and now we have a porous border,” he said.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data through August, there have been more than 8.6 million migrant “encounters” at the southern U.S. border since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. That influx has prompted many big city mayors across the country, including Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, to cut city services to pay for migrant housing and plead for help from the federal government.
Pettersen acknowledged that the U.S. asylum system is “absolutely outdated.” But many of the arriving migrants are filling jobs that businesses in the district, like nursing homes, are desperate to staff, she said.
Making people wait years before getting work permits is an unworkable policy, Pettersen said.
“We don’t have the people in the U.S. to meet our economic needs,” she said. “We need legal pathways based on economic need.”
Though Pettersen is in the minority party in the U.S. House, a bill she sponsored was recently signed into law by Biden. It directs the federal government to study and report on illicit financing associated with synthetic drug trafficking.
Last month, she introduced a bill that seeks to incentivize more states to offer substance use treatment through Medicaid, six years after she sponsored a bill in the state House requiring Colorado to provide that care. Pettersen has often spoken publicly of the struggles her mother faced battling opioid addiction.
If reelected, she said in The Denver Post’s candidate questionnaire that she would work to protect abortion rights and to address the opioid epidemic. Her top priority would be “modernizing our tax code to rebuild the middle class.”
“We need to lower costs by reinvesting in access to affordable housing, childcare, health care, and higher education,” she wrote.
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John Aguilar
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No team in the NHL is going to win much when five of the top nine or 10 players on the roster are not available.
For the Colorado Avalanche, that’s just the state of things right now. But the issues for the Avs during an 0-3 start, particularly in an ugly 6-2 loss Monday night to the New York Islanders, go beyond just missing some very good players.
It’s a pretty simple message: Focus on the process and clean up the areas that the healthy players can control.
“I think we recognize what we have to improve on,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “We played good enough in games one and two to sort of try and replicate that. Then, for whatever reason, we deviated from our entire game plan and you saw the result (against the Islanders). It wasn’t pretty for us.
“We know the aspects of the game that we have to focus on.”
Most of those aspects involve the part of the game where Colorado does not have the puck. It’s still an incredibly small sample size, but the volume of what the Avs are yielding to the other team has not been the issue.
It’s the quality. The Avs entered their game Wednesday night against Boston ranked 10th in the NHL in scoring chances against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, and in the top five in shot attempts allowed per 60.
High-danger scoring chances are another matter — Colorado is 19th. Given the troubles the goaltenders have had, and the missing players, the margin for error is very slim. Allowing too many Grade-A chances is a recipe for disaster, as the Avalanche has found out.
“Defensively, we’re giving up too many rush chances, too soft in front of our net,” O’Connor said. “I think it’s just stick to the habits that have given us success in the past, the execution and the competitiveness. That’s an area we probably lacked in last was our competitive urgency, especially in the defensive zone.
“Giving guys too much time and space, not playing hard enough at our net front — I think those are areas that if we clean those areas up within our structure, we should be able to have success. We have been pretty good offensively with generating chances, but we’re giving up way too much.”
The Avalanche began this season without Gabe Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen, three forwards who are all dynamic offensive players. Colorado lost Jonathan Drouin after the first game, and defenseman Devon Toews is set to miss his second straight contest against the Bruins.
While those are all strong offensive players, the Avs have not felt their absence with the puck nearly as much as they have without it. All of the offensive numbers, traditional or advanced, have been strong.
But those four forwards are also all strong two-way players. They make a significant impact without the puck as well. That’s the part of their games that Colorado appears to be missing the most so far this season.
“They’re very trusted, highly reliable, good-to-great defensive players,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “But, the message is … realistically, checking and playing away from the puck — yeah, there’s skill and ability involved in that, but it’s hard work and commitment. Those are two (things) that we keep bringing up.
Bednar thought Toews could be a possibility to play Wednesday night, but he remains out with a lower-body injury. There isn’t a timeline for any of the four forwards right now, though Lehkonen could return early next month if the checkup on his surgically repaired shoulder at the end of this month goes well. Nichushkin can’t return until mid-November at the earliest, but he’ll likely need time after being reinstated to get up to game speed.
Avs GM Chris MacFarland said he doesn’t want his team to wait for the calvary to return right before the season began. The number of key missing players has grown since then. It’s going to be on the players who are in the lineup to sort out the defensive issues and at least get back to having a strong process, let alone improving the results.
“Right now, it’s about us, with some of the things we have to do to have success,” Bednar said. “(Playing the Bruins) is just another opportunity for us to get our game in order and back on track.”
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Corey Masisak
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More than 10 people are trapped underground in a Colorado gold mine on Pikes Peak after an equipment malfunction, according to the Teller County Sheriff’s Office and Denver7.
The sheriff’s office was responding to an equipment malfunction at the Mollie Kathleen Mine, a tourist destination near Cripple Creek, as of 2 p.m., agency officials said in a post on Facebook.
There are more than 10 people trapped 1,000 feet down the mine and 11 people have been rescued so far, according to reporting from Denver7.
Gov. Jared Polis is “closely monitoring” the situation and state emergency personnel are on scene responding with more on the way, the governor’s office said in a news release.
“The state is assisting Teller County and sending resources to rescue those inside the mine. We will do everything possible and assist the county to ensure a speedy and safe resolution of the situation,” Polis said in a statement.
The now-defunct mine offers hourlong tours by taking visitors 1,000 feet down the shaft into the southwest side of Pikes Peak, according to the tour company’s website.
The mine has offered tours in some format since it opened in the 1890s, with mine tours becoming the main focus after production ceased in 1961.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Katie Langford
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Colorado Springs officers fatally shot a suicidal man allegedly wielding a knife early Tuesday morning, police said.
Around midnight Tuesday, officers responded to reports of a suicidal man causing a disturbance with his roommates in the 5100 block of Prairie Grass Lane, according to a 4:32 a.m. statement from the Colorado Springs Police Department.
When officers contacted the man — who has not been identified by police — he allegedly approached them “aggressively” with the knife and one officer shot him, police said in the statement.
Paramedics took the man to a hospital where he died from his injuries, police said.
The El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting and the officer’s use of force.
This is a developing story.
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Lauren Penington
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JERUSALEM — A year after Hamas’ fateful attack on southern Israel, the Middle East is embroiled in a war that shows no signs of ending and seems to be getting worse.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive was initially centered on the Gaza Strip. But the focus has shifted in recent weeks to Lebanon, where airstrikes have given way to a fast-expanding ground incursion against Hezbollah militants who have fired rockets into Israel since the Gaza war began.
Next in Israel’s crosshairs is archenemy Iran, which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other anti-Israel militants in the region. After withstanding a massive barrage of missiles from Iran last week, Israel has promised to respond. The escalating conflict risks drawing deeper involvement by the U.S., as well as Iran-backed militants in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
When Hamas launched its attack on Oct. 7, 2023, it called on the Arab world to join it in a concerted campaign against Israel. While the fighting has indeed spread, Hamas and its allies have paid a heavy price.
The group’s army has been decimated, its Gaza stronghold has been reduced to a cauldron of death, destruction and misery and the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah have been killed in audacious attacks.
Although Israel appears to be gaining the edge militarily, the war has been problematic for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, too.
Dozens of Israeli hostages are languishing in Hamas captivity, and a year after Netanyahu pledged to crush the group in “total victory,” remnants of the militant group are still battling in pockets of Gaza. The offensive in Lebanon, initially described as “limited,” grows by the day. A full-on collision with Iran is a possibility.
At home, Netanyahu faces mass protests over his inability to bring home the hostages, and to many, he will be remembered as the man who led Israel into its darkest moment. Relations with the U.S. and other allies are strained. The economy is deteriorating.
Here are five takeaways from a yearlong war that has upended longstanding assumptions and turned conventional wisdom on its head.
A long list of previously unthinkable events have occurred in mind-boggling fashion.
The Oct. 7 attack was the bloodiest in Israel’s history. Young partygoers were gunned down. Cowering families were killed in their homes. In all, about 1,200 people died and 250 were taken hostage. Some Israelis were raped or sexually assaulted.
The ensuing war in Gaza has been the longest, deadliest and most destructive in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Gaza health authorities say nearly 42,000 people have been killed — roughly 2% of the territory’s entire population. Although they do not give a breakdown between civilians and combatants, more than half of the dead have been women and children. Numerous top Hamas officials have been killed.
The damage and displacement in Gaza have reached unseen levels. Hospitals, schools and mosques – once thought to be insulated from violence – have repeatedly been targeted by Israel or caught in the crossfire. Scores of journalists and health workers have been killed, many of them while working in the line of duty.
Months of simmering tensions along Israel’s northern border recently boiled over into war.
A growing list of Hezbollah officials – including the group’s longtime leader — have been killed by Israel. Hundreds of Hezbollah members were killed or maimed in explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies. Israel’s ground offensive is its first in Lebanon since a monthlong war in 2006.
Fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has displaced tens of thousands of Israelis and over 1 million Lebanese. Israel promises to keep pounding Hezbollah until its residents can return to homes near the Lebanese border; Hezbollah says it will keep firing rockets into Israel until there is a cease-fire in Gaza.
When the war erupted, the days appeared to be numbered for both Netanyahu and Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
Netanyahu’s public standing plummeted as he faced calls to step aside. Sinwar fled into Gaza’s labyrinth of tunnels as Israel declared him a “dead man walking.”
Yet both men — facing war crimes charges in international courts — remain firmly in charge, and neither appears to be in a rush for a cease-fire.
The end of the war could mean the end of Netanyahu’s government, which is dominated by hard-line partners opposed to a cease-fire. That would mean early elections, potentially pushing him into the opposition while he stands trial on corruption charges. Also looming is the prospect of an unflattering official inquiry into his government’s failures before and during the Oct. 7 attack.
Fearing that, his coalition has hung together even through mass protests and repeated disagreements with top security officials pushing for a deal to bring home the hostages. After a brief period of post-Oct. 7 national unity, Israel has returned to its divided self — torn between Netanyahu’s religious, conservative, nationalist right-wing base and his more secular, middle-class opposition.
Sinwar, believed to be hiding in Gaza’s tunnels, continues to drive a hard bargain in hopes of declaring some sort of victory. His demands for a full Israeli withdrawal, a lasting cease-fire and the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for scores of hostages have been rejected by Israel — even as much of the international community has embraced them.
With cease-fire efforts deadlocked and Netanyahu’s far-right coalition firmly intact, the war could go on for some time. An estimated 1.9 million Palestinians remain displaced in Gaza while an estimated 68 hostages remain captive in Gaza, in addition to the bodies of 33 others held by Hamas.
Early in the war, Netanyahu promised to destroy Hamas’ military and governing abilities.
Those goals have been achieved in many ways. Israel says it has dismantled Hamas’ military structure, and its rocket barrages have been diminished to a trickle. With Israeli troops stationed indefinitely in Gaza, it is difficult to see how the group could return to governing the territory or pose a serious threat.
But in other ways, total victory is impossible. Despite Israel’s overwhelming force, Hamas units have repeatedly regrouped to stage guerrilla-style ambushes from areas where Israel has withdrawn.
Across the Middle East, bitter enemies are witnessing the limits of force and deterrence.
Israel’s deepening invasion of Lebanon and repeated strikes on Hezbollah have failed to halt the rockets and missiles. Missile and drone attacks by Iran and its allies have only deepened Israel’s resolve. Israel is vowing to strike Iran hard after its latest missile barrage, raising the likelihood of a broader, regionwide war.
Without diplomatic solutions, the fighting is likely to persist.
Israel is still deeply traumatized as people try to come to terms with the worst day in its history.
The Oct. 7 killings and kidnappings had an outsized impact on a tiny country founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Israelis’ sense of security was shattered, and their faith in the military was tested like never before.
Photos of Israeli hostages are everywhere, and mass demonstrations are held each week calling on the government to reach a deal to bring them home. The prospect of ongoing war looms over families and workplaces as reserve soldiers brace for repeated tours of duty.
The trauma is far more acute in Gaza – where an estimated 90% of the population remains displaced, many of them living in squalid tent camps.
The scenes have drawn comparisons to what the Palestinian call the Nakba, or catastrophe – the mass displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the war surrounding Israel’s creation in 1948. The Palestinians now find themselves looking at a tragedy of even greater scale.
It remains unclear when displaced Palestinians in Gaza will be able to return home and whether there will be anything to return to. The territory has suffered immense destruction and is littered with unexploded bombs. Children are missing a second consecutive school year, virtually every family has lost a relative in the fighting and basic needs like food and health care are lacking.
After a hellish year, the Palestinians of Gaza have no clear path forward, and it could take generations to recover.
The international community’s response to this bloodiest of wars has been tepid and ineffective.
Repeated cease-fire calls have been ignored, and a U.S.-led plan to reinstate the Palestinian Authority in postwar Gaza has been rejected by Israel. It remains unclear who will run the territory in the future or who will pay for a cleanup and reconstruction effort that could take decades.
One thing that seems clear is that old formulas will no longer work. The international community’s preferred peace formula – the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel – seems hopelessly unrealistic.
Israel’s hard-line government opposes Palestinian statehood, says its troops will remain in Gaza for years to come and has further cemented its undeclared annexation of the West Bank. The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has been pushed to the brink of irrelevance.
For decades, the United States has acted as the key mediator and power broker in the region – calling for a two-state solution but showing little political will to promote that vision. Instead, it has often turned to conflict management, preventing any side from doing anything too extreme to destabilize the region.
This approach went up in smoke on Oct. 7. Since then, the U.S. has responded with a muddled message of criticizing Israel’s wartime tactics as too harsh while arming the Israeli military and protecting Israel against diplomatic criticism. The result: The Biden administration has managed to antagonize both Israel and the Arab world while cease-fire efforts repeatedly sputter.
This approach has also alienated the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, complicating Kamala Harris’ presidential aspirations. The warring sides appear to have given up on the Biden administration and are waiting for the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election before deciding their next moves.
Whoever wins the race will almost certainly have to find a new formula and recalibrate decades of American policy if they want to end the war.
___
Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/mideast-wars
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Josef Federman
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The chief of the Center Police Department and a sergeant, twin brothers, have been charged with theft and placed on administrative leave.
Aaron Fresquez, the police chief, and Sgt. Adam Fresquez are accused of operating a private K-9 training business while on duty at the department in the San Luis Valley and using city resources. The 35-year-old brothers trained dogs for other police agencies and then kept the money that should have gone to the town of Center, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation said in a statement Friday.
Aaron Fresquez was also cited with a misdemeanor count of official misconduct.
The charges were filed after a yearlong investigation by the CBI at the request of the 12th Judicial District Attorney. The district attorney has asked the 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office serve as special prosecutors to avoid a conflict of interest.
The brothers were served summons to appear in the court at a later date.
The city has appointed Lt. Eidy Guaderama as interim police chief.
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Judith Kohler
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After nearly 10 months of extensive repairs and cleaning, the Colorado Supreme Court building will reopen its doors to the public on Tuesday.
“The Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center is an important symbol in our legal community — it is the hub of activity for a number of agencies critical to our judicial system,” Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez said in a news release. “Its partial reopening marks a significant milestone in the recovery process from the devasting events that severely damaged the tower complex earlier this year.”
Brandon Olsen, 45, allegedly shot through a window and broke into the court building in the early morning of Jan. 2 while fleeing from a car crash at 13th Avenue and Lincoln Street, police said.
The 45-year-old faces charges of arson, robbery and criminal mischief in connection with the incident, according to court records. He is accused of holding a security guard at gunpoint and starting a fire on the seventh floor of the building.
The seventh-floor fire was extinguished by the building’s sprinklers, which ran for a couple of hours and caused significant water damage. In total, the break-in caused $35 million in damages and left four floors unusable, court officials said.
Floors 3 through 7 are currently being rebuilt from scratch and are expected to reopen next summer, building officials said.
During the building’s initial reopening next week, the public will have access to floors 1 and 2 of the office tower between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Access to floors 8 through 12 will be available by appointment only.
Olsen is next scheduled to appear in court on Nov. 18 for an arraignment hearing, according to court records.
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Lauren Penington
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A 27-year-old man who shot two of his Topgolf coworkers — killing one of them — in December has pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder.
Victor Salazar-Guarache took a plea deal in Adams County District Court on Thursday, according to court records.
Salazar-Guarache pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder, court records show. The plea deal dropped charges of first-degree murder, two counts of first-degree attempted murder and a violent-crime sentence enhancer from his case.
The then-26-year-old Topgolf dishwasher was arrested in December after a midnight shooting in the parking lot of the Thornton Topgolf, 16011 Grant St., left one man dead, police said.
Police said Salazar-Guarache got into an argument with one of his coworkers, clocked out early and waited in the parking lot for an hour to ambush him.
Bryce Holden, a 22-year-old Topgolf dishwasher, was shot multiple times and died from his wounds, police said. The kitchen manager who walked out with Holden also was shot.
As Holden and the manager exited the building and entered the parking lot, Salazar-Guarache got out his car and fired 12 shots at the pair, continuing to shoot even after Holden fell, according to his arrest affidavit.
A Lyft driver who was picking up another employee told officers he saw Salazar-Guarache exit his vehicle and, when he returned to his car after the shooting, it appeared Salazar-Guarache was laughing, the affidavit stated.
Salazar-Guarache will next appear in court for a sentencing hearing Oct. 11, according to court records.
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Lauren Penington
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One person was injured in a crash involving six motorists on the westbound side of Interstate 70 on Monday, Denver police announced.
The injured person has been taken to the hospital with serious injuries, the Denver Police Department wrote in a post on X.
The crash occurred on westbound I-70 where it crosses Havana Street on the east side of the city. Police are warning commuters to expect delays in the area.
No further information about the cause of the crash was immediately available.
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John Aguilar
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A pedestrian was killed in a crash near South Parker Road near Interstate 225 on Sunday morning, according to the Aurora Police Department.
Southbound lanes of South Parker Road are closed at South Peoria Street because of the crash investigation, Aurora police said in a post on X. There is no estimated time of reopening and drivers should seek alternate routes.
The crash occurred around 6 a.m., according to police officials. Additional information about the crash was not immediately available.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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Katie Langford
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A 34-year-old was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in connection with a woman’s death at a home in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood.
Paramedics found the woman’s body at a home in the 2000 block of North Broadway on Sept. 9 after responding to a welfare check, Denver Police Department officials said Tuesday.
Investigators determined the woman died “under suspicious circumstances” from an assault on Sept. 7 and identified Jasmane Taylor as a suspect through witness interviews and surveillance video.
Taylor was arrested Friday during an unrelated investigation and is currently in custody at the Downtown Detention Center on a $1,000,000 cash bond, according to jail records.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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Katie Langford
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Lawyers for Washington state will have past grocery chain mergers – and their negative consequences – in mind when they go to court to block a proposed merger between Albertsons and Kroger.
The case is one of three challenging the $24.6 billion deal, which was announced nearly two years ago. The Federal Trade Commission is currently fighting the merger in federal court in Oregon, where closing arguments are expected Tuesday. Colorado has also sued to block the merger.
But if the merger goes through, Washington residents would feel the impact more than the people of any other state. Albertsons and Kroger own more than 300 grocery stores in the state and control more than half of grocery sales there.
Under a plan to ease regulators’ concerns, Kroger and Albertsons would sell 579 overlapping stores, 124 of them in Washington, if the merger goes through. That’s the highest number among the 19 states with stores on the list. The state attorney general’s office says the proposed buyer, C&S Wholesale Grocers, has little experience running stores or pharmacies.
Washington seeks to avoid the situation it found itself in a decade ago, when Albertsons bought the Safeway chain. To satisfy regulators concerned about that deal’s potential impact on supermarket competition and consumers, Albertsons sold 146 stores to Haggen, a small grocery chain based in Bellingham, Washington.
But Haggen struggled with the expansion. Within six months, it had closed 127 stores — including 14 in Washington — and laid off thousands of workers. Haggen sold its remaining stores to Albertsons in 2016. Now, 10 Haggen stores in Washington are on the list to be sold if the merger happens.
“It’s pretty terrifying,” said Tina McKim, a founding member of Birchwood Food Desert Fighters, a group that sprang up in 2016 after Albertsons closed a store in Bellingham’s Birchwood neighborhood.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who is running for governor, wants to block the merger not just in the state but nationwide. In its complaint, filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle, Washington says eliminating the “robust competition” that exists between Albertsons and Kroger would lead to higher prices, lower quality and, most likely, store closures.
Albertsons and Kroger say the merger would help them better compete with growing rivals like Walmart and Costco. They are trying to get the case dismissed, arguing a state court isn’t the proper venue to consider a nationwide ban.
“Under our federalist system, Washington cannot wield its antitrust law to dictate merger policy for the rest of the country,” Albertsons and Kroger said in a court filing.
Brad Weber, a Dallas-based partner with the law firm Locke Lord who specializes in antitrust issues, said the Superior Court judge could decide to halt the merger nationwide or limit his ruling to Washington. Judge Marshall Ferguson might also order the companies to make changes to their plans to divest stores to preserve competition.
Ferguson may also decide to delay the case until there’s a ruling from the U.S. District Court in Oregon. Weber said. In that case, the Federal Trade Commission has asked a judge to temporarily block the merger until it is considered by an in-house judge at the FTC.
Albertsons and Kroger insist that their plan, including the sale of stores to C&S, will lower grocery prices and preserve competition. But Washington residents like McKim remain skeptical.
In 2016, Albertsons acquired a Haggen supermarket and then promptly closed an Albertsons store about a mile away in Birchwood. When it sold its former store two years later, Albertsons included a restriction: for the next 20 years, no grocery store could open in the Birchwood shopping plaza.
Albertsons says these types of restrictions — occasionally used when there is a store in close proximity to the store that’s closing — can help grocery companies stay competitive.
But it was a huge blow to the community, McKim said. For 35 years, the Birchwood store had served older adults, students, people with disabilities and lower-income residents who suddenly had no easy access to fresh food.
“We were all really shocked by that. How is it possible to deny food access to a neighborhood?” McKim said. “It made it really hard for anyone without a car to be able to go to another grocery store.”
McKim’s group tries to fill the void by collecting food donations and bringing in produce from local farms, but “it’s nowhere near the level of access people need,” she said.
This summer, after an investigation by Washington’s attorney general, Albertsons removed the restriction on the shopping plaza. A Big Lots that moved into the former grocery store is closing soon, McKim said, and she hopes the space will attract another supermarket. But even if it does, the community may never get back the unionized jobs it lost when Albertsons shut its doors, she said.
McKim said her area does have a Walmart, but it’s even further away from Birchwood than the Albertsons-run Haggen store, which is on the list of stores that would be sold to C&S. She’s also not convinced Kroger and Albertsons need to merge to compete with Walmart.
“This city is growing so quickly, the need for food is absolutely critical everywhere,” McKim said. “When you see other stores succeed, it’s because they curate to the neighborhood’s needs.”
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Dee-Ann Durbin
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Hunter Goodman was working on a nice game when he stepped into the batters’ box in the bottom of the eighth inning.
He made a career night with one more swing.
Goodman’s go-ahead grand slam was the exclamation point on a 9-5 victory Friday night for the Colorado Rockies against the Chicago Cubs in front of 38,406 at Coors Field. It was Goodman’s second home run of the game and his third hit. He had seven runs batted in, the most by a Colorado hitter since Elias Diaz had seven in a Sept. 9, 2022 game against Arizona.
The Rockies’ bullpen has been a strength of late, but Michael Busch crushed a three-run homer off reliever Victor Vodnik to pull the Cubs even in the eighth inning. Chicago had put two guys on with no outs twice since the first inning without scoring, but Busch left no doubt with a moonshot into the second deck in right field.
Adalyn Gomber’s dad didn’t work out his first-inning issues while on leave for her birth, but he pieced together an excellent outing in his first start back.
Austin Gomber allowed a pair of runs on three hits and a walk in the first inning. He’s now allowed 33 runs on 47 hits and 12 walks in 28 first innings, an ERA of 10.61.
He now has a 2.84 ERA in the 130 innings he’s pitched after the first this season.
Gomber entered the game with an MLB-high 27 home runs allowed. A big key to this one: He kept the ball in the field of play, while the Cubs pitchers could not.
The Cubs had multiple chances against Gomber after the first inning, but he induced an inning-ending double play in the fourth and then got back-to-back-to-back weak fly ball outs after the first two guys reached base in the sixth.
Goodman had the big hit during a three-run second inning to put the Rockies in front. His 430-foot, two-run homer to left field gave Colorado a 3-2 advantage. Brendan Rodgers got the Rockies on the board with a double down the left-field line that scored Ryan McMahon before Goodman’s two-out heroics.
Goodman also pushed across the club’s fourth run in the fourth inning with a soft line drive to left that plated Michael Toglia. He didn’t miss another home run by much in the sixth inning, sending Cubs centerfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong toward the wall with a 401-foot out that would have been gone in five of the 30 MLB parks.
Since hitting five homers in eight days in mid-June, Goodman had been mired in a 13-for-86 slump (.151) with 28 strikeouts and just two home runs in his past 31 contests.
Ezequiel Tovar provided what looked like insurance at the time with an opposite-field home run in the seventh to make it a 5-2 advantage. Tovar has also been slumping at the plate during the stretch run. He was hitting .196 with a .226 on-base percentage and four home runs since Aug. 1 (36 games), but singled in the second along with his 23rd homer of the year.
NOTES: Rockies manager Bud Black confirmed before the game that Antonio Senzatela will make his first start since May 10, 2023 on Monday night. Senzatela had Tommy John surgery in July 2023 to repair the ulnar collateral ligament sprain in his right elbow.
Black also said that Kris Bryant (back) is not close to returning to the lineup, and said it’s “increasingly possible” that his 2024 season is over. Bryant has two home runs in 37 games.
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Cubs RHP Jameson Taillon (6-1, 3.92 ERA) at Rockies LHP Kyle Freeland (6-4, 3.30)
6:10 p.m. Saturday, Coors Field
TV: Rockies.TV (streaming); Comcast/Xfinity (channel 1262); DirecTV (683); Spectrum (130, 445, 305, 435 or 445, depending on region).
Radio: 630 AM/94.1 FM
Freeland is 5-4 with a 3.36 ERA in 14 starts since returning from injury in late June. He’s been rolling of late, yielding a total of five earned runs in his past four starts. His two September outings have included nine strikeouts and no walks in 11 innings, with one earned run allowed combined. Freeland’s 3.17 K/BB ratio leads Rockies pitchers with at least 40 innings pitched.
Tallion has also allowed just one run combined in his past two starts. He struck out six in six innings of one-run ball in last start against the New York Yankees after seven shutout frames against the Pittsburgh Pirates in his first September outing. Taillon’s striking out fewer batters per nine innings (6.9) than any year of his career, but his OPS against (.689) is his lowest since 2019.
Sunday: Cubs RHP Kyle Hendrickson (3-11, 6.51) at Rockies RHP Paul Quantrill (8-9, 4.63), 1:10 p.m.
Monday: Diamondbacks TBA at Rockies RHP Antonio Senzatela (0-0, 0.00), 6:40 p.m.
Tuesday: Diamondbacks TBA at Rockies TBA, 6:40 p.m.
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Corey Masisak
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The suspect in Thursday’s fatal hostage situation and shootout at Broomfield’s Arista Flats apartment complex and the woman he held hostage lived in the same apartment, property managers said.
In an email to residents, Arista Flats management said the hostage and gunman lived together, but the relationship between the two is still unknown.
“As you likely know, there was a domestic violence incident in our community early in the morning of Sept. 12, 2024, that involved a male resident firing shots inside and outside of a unit and injuring a female resident who resided in the same unit,” management wrote in the email. “The incident ended after a short stand-off with law enforcement and the resident was taken into custody.”
The hours-long standoff with police at the Arista Flats complex ended with the death of the woman hostage and police taking a seriously injured gunman into custody.
Police did not specify who shot the woman, but said Thursday at least one Broomfield officer fired his weapon at the suspect.
Police have not publically identified the gunman and the woman he’d held hostage, but Broomfield Police Department spokeswoman Rachel Haslett said criminal charges against the 34-year-old suspect “are forthcoming.”
Residents who were evacuated from Arista Flats during Thursday’s hostage situation and investigation can return home Friday, police said.
The number of residents evacuated from the apartment complex was not available Friday.
The south stairwell in building 15 of Arista Flats — 11332 Central Court — remains closed for the investigation, police said. Residents can use any other entrance.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
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Lauren Penington
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Police are searching for a 16-year-old cognitively impaired Commerce City boy who was reported missing Monday.
Liam Sweezey, 16, was last seen walking in the 14000 block of East 104th Avenue in Commerce City around 6 p.m. Monday, according to an alert from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The 16-year-old is described as a white, 6-foot, 160-pound teenager with black hair and brown eyes.
Sweezey was last seen wearing a black hoodie sweatshirt, black jeans and a white hat, investigators said in the alert. The teenager was also carrying a black handbag.
Police said Sweezey has cognitive impairments and requires medication.
Anyone with information on Sweezey’s whereabouts should call 911 or the Commerce City Police Department at 303-288-1535.
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Lauren Penington
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Wisconsin health officials initiated a recall of eggs following an outbreak of salmonella infections among 65 people in nine states — including Colorado — that originated on a Wisconsin farm.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services said in a statement Friday that among those infected by salmonella are 42 people in Wisconsin, where the eggs are believed to have been sold.
“The eggs were distributed in Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan through retail stores and food service distributors,” the department said. “The recall includes all egg types such as conventional cage-free, organic, and non-GMO, carton sizes, and expiration dates in containers labeled with ‘Milo’s Poultry Farms’ or ‘Tony’s Fresh Market.’”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed in a statement on its website that 65 people in nine states were infected by a strain of salmonella, with 24 hospitalizations and no deaths as of Friday. The states include Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Virginia, Colorado, Utah and California, the agency said.
One case has been reported in Colorado to date, according to the CDC.
The egg recall was undertaken by Milo’s Poultry Farms LLC of Bonduel, Wisconsin, the CDC said.
“Anyone who purchased the recalled eggs is advised to not eat them or cook with them and to throw them away. Restaurants should not sell or serve recalled eggs,” the Wisconsin health department said.
The department advised anyone who ate the eggs and is experiencing symptoms to contact a health care provider. Symptoms include diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and vomiting lasting for several days, the statement said.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in July announced new measures to limit salmonella in poultry products. The proposed directive included requiring poultry companies to keep salmonella levels under a certain threshold and test for the presence of six particularly sickening forms of the bacteria, three found in turkey and three in chicken.
Bacteria exceeding the proposed standard and identification of any of the strains would prevent poultry sales and leave the products subject to recall.
The CDC estimates salmonella causes 1.35 million infections annually, most through food, and about 420 deaths. The Agriculture Department estimates there are 125,000 infections from chicken and 43,000 from turkey each year.
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The Associated Press
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