Month: July 2017
Sen. Cory Gardner votes for repeal of Obamacare in failed effort, staying true to his past
DENVER – U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner voted Wednesday to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act in another failed effort by Senate Republicans—keeping in line with how he voted in his first days as a senator in 2015 and holding true to his years-long promise that he’d repeal the health care law.
Gardner and his staff have avoided answering any questions in recent weeks about how he might vote in the latest efforts by the GOP to reach a party-wide compromise to repeal the ACA, also known as Obamacare, and possibly replace it later. But he’d spoken out in recent months against a straight-repeal bill, as well as against any bills that wouldn’t adequately cover the Medicaid population or people with pre-exisiting conditions. Continue reading
Man sentenced in Colo. shooting preceded by $10K sale of broccoli that was supposed to be marijuana
AURORA, Colo. – One of two drug dealers who sold two people a $10,000 bag of broccoli, then shot the buyers when they got angry for being duped in what was supposed to be a marijuana deal, was sentenced to 16 years in prison late last week.
Sababu Colbert-Evans, 26, received the sentence after being convicted in May of attempted first-degree murder and several lesser charges. He’ll serve the sentences concurrently, and will be on parole for 5 years after he’s released from prison.
The attempted murder charge carries a mandatory minimum of 16 years in prison, and he’ll serve his sentences on the other charges concurrently
His partner in the crime, Tercell Davis (a.k.a. 22 Jump Street), has already pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder and will be sentenced Aug. 7.
The shooting happened at Aurora’s mall on March 15 of last year.
A day earlier, Davis had given the bag of recently-purchased broccoli to the prospective buyers in exchange for $10,000.
But the buyers left the scene without realizing they had bought broccoli instead of pot, so they arranged another deal for the next night while using different names.
Around 7:30 p.m. on March 15, the buyers showed up to the parking lot of the Town Center at Aurora to get the marijuana they thought they’d bought the day before.
Davis brought Colbert-Evans along with him this time, and brought another bag of broccoli as well.
The parties started to fight, and Davis and Colbert-Evans shot at the buyers 11 times. One of them was hit in the torso, but recovered.
“This may be the first time that broccoli has been bad for someone’s health,” 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler said after Colbert-Evans’ sentencing.
Weld County deputy arrested on child abuse, assault charges
WELD COUNTY, Colo. – A Weld County sheriff’s deputy was arrested Tuesday on felony assault and misdemeanor child abuse charges and has been placed on unpaid leave.
The deputy, 32-year-old Derek Kinch, most recently worked in the courts division of the sheriff’s office, and has been a deputy in Weld County since 2008.
The sheriff’s office first found out about the possible child abuse involving its own deputy early on July 21, it said. The alleged abuse happened at a home in the 11000 block of Montgomery Circle—near Longmont in unincorporated Weld County.
Since Kinch’s arrest affidavit wasn’t available Tuesday, there are few details surrounding the case currently available. The sheriff’s office says that Kinch was allegedly involved in “ongoing child abuse.”
Kinch was arrested Tuesday around 7 p.m. on second-degree assault and child abuse charges.
He also faces an internal investigation by the sheriff’s office, and has been placed on unpaid administrative leave pending an outcome in his criminal case.
The sheriff’s office says the investigation remains ongoing and asks anyone with information on the case to call 970-356-4015.
Sen. Cory Gardner votes ‘yes’ on motion to proceed to GOP health care bill; what comes next?
DENVER – U.S. Senator Cory Gardner voted Tuesday in favor of the motion to proceed to a Senate floor debate on Republicans’ efforts to repeal, and possibly replace, the Affordable Care Act—despite not knowing what bill the Senate might take up to debate first.
The final vote came down to Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who came back to the Senate just days after being diagnosed with brain cancer to cast a vote. Continue reading
La Plata County officials, Dylan’s mother give Redwine case update after arrest, court appearance
LA PLATA COUNTY, Colo. — Authorities in La Plata County and the mother of Dylan Redwine both held news conferences Tuesday to talk about the arrest of Mark Redwine in the five-year-old case surrounding the death of his 13-year-old son, Dylan Redwine.
On Tuesday, authorities in Washington state released police body camera footage of Redwine’s arrest, which happened in Bellingham, Washington late Friday, just before midnight.
A day earlier, a judge in Washington ordered Redwine be held on a $1 million bail pending an Aug. 17 extradition hearing. He will fight extradition back to Colorado. Continue reading
Mark Redwine will remain held on $1M bail, will fight extradition back to Colorado
BELLINGHAM, Wash. – Mark Redwine will remain held on a $1 million bond in northeastern Washington while he awaits extradition back to Colorado on murder and child abuse charges related to the 2012 death of his 13-year-old son, Dylan.
But Denver7 has learned that Redwine will fight extradition back to Colorado. The judge at Monday’s hearing set his extradition hearing for Aug. 17. Continue reading
Suspect in deadly Texas immigrant truck incident has criminal history in Colorado
DENVER – The truck driver charged with having nearly 100 undocumented immigrants—10 of whom died—inside a sweltering truck inside a Texas parking lot, also has a criminal past in Colorado.
James Bradley, 60, faces federal charges for transporting people he knew were in the country illegally, and could face an unending prison term or death if convicted.
But Denver7 Investigates has learned that Bradley had a spotted history of criminal behavior in Colorado as well. Continue reading
Brauchler says he’ll bring Aurora shooter James Holmes back to Colorado if elected governor
DENVER – George Brauchler says he’ll bring Aurora theater shooter James Holmes back to Colorado to serve his sentence if Colorado elects him as its next governor in 2018.
“As governor, I will return Aurora Theater Shooting mass murderer back to CO to serve his sentence here, where he committed his evil crime,” Brauchler tweeted early Friday. Continue reading
Western Conservative Summit 2017 kicks off in Denver with Gardner, Buck, Sekulow among speakers
DENVER – The Western Conservative Summit kicks off Friday in Denver, and though President Donald Trump won’t be there this year as he was in 2016, the event is packed with high-profile Republicans and comes in the midst of a trying time for the GOP in Washington.
The yearly summit comes as Senate Republicans are expected to try for a last-ditch effort to get one of three possible health care bills to the floor early next week, though some of the senators who have opted to oppose bringing the Senate’s bills to the floor remain on the fence.
It also comes after a week of discord in the White House, as President Trump seemed to throw Attorney General Jeff Sessions under the bus over his recusal from the Justice Department probe into the 2016 in an interview with the New York Times on Wednesday, and White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigned Friday after Anthony Scaramucci was appointed as new White House communications director.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will be at the summit, and announced Friday that Colorado’s Canyons of the Ancients National Monument would remain a national monument after a review of designations made under presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama that was ordered by President Trump in April.
U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., is scheduled to speak at the summit on Friday evening, though it’s unclear exactly what time or what he’ll talk about.
He’s been among the most under-pressure Senate Republicans regarding the GOP’s attempts to repeal and/or replace the Affordable Care Act, as he’s yet to definitively take a public stand one way or another on any of the three proposals laid out by the Senate GOP over the past two weeks.
Earlier this week, he seemed to tip his hand on how he felt when he said he wasn’t happy with people who he said were “spiking the football” after efforts to get a repeal-now, replace-later bill to a floor vote.
But in an interview with the Denver Post Thursday, he said he “would prefer a solution that would be a replacement” for the Affordable Care Act, perhaps a hint he wasn’t pushing for the repeal-only bill that some of his Senate colleagues have sought to vote on.
But Gardner said he wouldn’t speculate on if he’d support that bill.
“I don’t know that’s what would come up and I don’t want to say that I’m going to vote for this, that or the other before I see it and before I know what’s in it,” Gardner’s told The Post. “I don’t see why anybody should be concerned about fighting for legislation that they believe will do better than what we have.”
But Gardner also told The Post he wouldn’t focus only on health care in his speech to the Western Conservative Summit on Friday.
A group of advocates is expected to gather outside the convention center at 4 p.m. Friday to protest.
Many Colorado’s Republican governor candidates for 2018 will also be at the summit. Victor Mitchell will speak Friday night, and George Brauchler and Doug Robinson are scheduled to talk Saturday.
State Sen. Owen Hill, who is running for Colorado’s 5th Congressional District seat in the Republican primary for 2018, will also speak Saturday afternoon, and Rep. Ken Buck will speak Saturday night.
Also scheduled to speak Saturday night is Jay Sekulow, who President Trump has hired to represent him in the Russia scandal and who on Friday denied reports that Trump and the White House were discussing the possibility of pardons in the future.
The conference kicks off at 1:30 p.m. Friday, and the final session will start Sunday at 9:30 a.m. at the Colorado Convention Center.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos speaks at ALEC conference in Denver day after protests
DENVER – U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos gave a speech to the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council in Denver around noon Thursday in Denver—one day after hundreds of educators and others protested her appearance at the state Capitol.
DeVos’ speech started just before 12:50 p.m. You can watch a replay of her remarks by clicking here.
DeVos was heavily scrutinized before she was appointed and confirmed as Education Secretary because of her longtime ties to controversial school choice and voucher programs.
DeVos criticized Denver Public Schools in March during a speech at the Brookings Institute in Washington, which ranked the DPS school choice system as tops in the nation for the second straight year this year.
But DeVos implied at the time that DPS was pushing a false agenda when it comes to school choice. She said Denver does not provide parents a voucher program, which the state Supreme Court has twice ruled was unconstitutional.
“Choice without accessibility doesn’t matter, just as accessibility without choices doesn’t matter. Neither scenario ultimately benefits students,” she said.
She also faced criticism from the DPS superintendent, and several of Colorado’s Democratic members of Congress for those comments.
Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner split their votes to confirm DeVos in early February after weeks of protests against her confirmation. Vice President Mike Pence had to break a tie in the Senate to confirm her as the new education secretary.
Tap the image below for a gallery of images from Wednesday’s protest at the state Capitol, or click here.
