Author: Blair Miller
Man sentenced to 45 years in brutal 2014 attack on woman at Aurora motel
AURORA, Colo. – A man who pleaded guilty to brutally attacking a woman at an Aurora motel in 2014 will spend 45 years in prison, an Adams County judge ruled Tuesday.
Jamal Michael Miles, 29, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder and attempted sexual assault in the case in July.
Miles had been in the woman’s room at the Pacesetter Motel in March 2014 when he took issue with her asking him to leave.
Miles strangled and stabbed the woman, then slit her throat, raped her and tried to drown her in the motel’s bathtub. He then dragged her into a nearby ditch before a passerby intervened.
“This 45-year sentence means that this defendant will never hurt another member of our community,” Adams County District Attorney Dave Young said.
The woman suffered a fractured skull and deep cuts to her head, neck and hands in the incident, but survived.
A victim statement wasn’t available.
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3 bikers arrested after blocking I-25 in Denver during July ride
DENVER – Three of the motorcyclists accused of blocking off traffic on I-25 near University Boulevard in late July have been arrested and two of their motorcycles seized.
Richard Patton, 33, and Clinton Hawkins, 27, both of Colorado Springs, are being held for investigation on reckless driving and exhibition of speed warrants and are expected to be extradited to Denver to face charges.
Both of their motorcycles have been impounded, Denver Police said Tuesday.
Ryan Easton, 29, of Pueblo, also faces the same misdemeanor traffic charges and will likely be extradited to Denver as well.
Police issued an alert days after the incident in hopes of identifying some of the hundreds of bikers who took part in the “Kill da Streetz” ride, which stopped traffic on the interstate as the bikers performed wheelies and donuts in the middle of the road.
“People look at it and went, ‘what a stupid thing to do,'” said Bob Frank, owner of Black Bag who has been a safety rider coach for 15 years.
Police said videos posted on social media helped them crack the case and lead to the arrests.
“Ultimately, searching records for license plate numbers,” said Lt. Robert Rock with the Denver Police Traffic Investigation Unit. “The risk is extreme. When you are doing stuff like this on a highway, there’s no other place where people are driving faster.”
Rock said the rider’s motorcycles could now be impounded for a year or even crushed.
“It’s one of those things they say the chickens come home to roost. I don’t think they were planning on it happening when they did the civil disobedience that they did,” said Frank.
The group has said the event originated in an attempt to raise awareness for biker safety, but Frank said that message got lost in all the chaos.
“It’s a bigger issue. We’ve had more fatalities in Colorado than ever,” he said. “It’s the wrong way to call attention to that issue.”
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Denver to expand mental health crisis response team
DENVER – The City of Denver will add more mental and behavioral health professionals to its crisis response team to help people during interactions with police.
Six mental health professionals will respond with police when officers are called to handle situations involving people in crisis.
The team’s chief purpose is to reduce the number of people with mental health issues in the jail system, according to the city.
It also aims to lessen the cost of emergency services to those in crisis who may not be able to afford extensive care.
The program was first implemented as a pilot in April, with three co-responders on staff. In the first three months of the program, those workers went to 427 calls and helped get 408 people into treatment or stabilized.
The co-responders are part of the city’s Crisis Intervention and Response Unit, and the program is a partnership between Denver’s Office of Behavioral Health Strategies, the Denver Police Department and the Mental Health Center of Denver.
“The co-responder program is an important step in supporting those experiencing a mental health issue in the community,” Carl Clark, MD, president and CEO of the Mental Health Center of Denver, said in a statement. “By having one of our licensed mental health professionals respond with law enforcement, we are able to provide earlier identification and intervention to those who are in a crisis situation and get them access to treatment and resources that can have a positive impact on their lives.”
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Report: Colorado continues to have nation’s lowest adult obesity rate
DENVER – A report published Thursday shows Colorado is still the leanest state in the country.
The report from Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, titled The State of Obesity, found Colorado’s adult obesity rate remained at 20.2 percent in 2015 – unchanged from the year before.
Colorado also had the nation’s lowest rate of diabetes, at 6.8 percent.
Louisiana had the highest obesity rate at 36.2 percent. Just behind Colorado on the list were Washington D.C. (22.1 percent), Hawaii (22.7 percent) and Montana (23.6 percent).
Montana was among four states where obesity rates decreased from 2014 to 2015, and increased rates were seen in Kansas and Kentucky.
Half of U.S. states saw rates of 30 percent or higher and all had rates above 20 percent. In 1991, there were no states with obesity rates higher than 20 percent, according to the report.
It says the rate of increase has stagnated over the past several years; 49 states saw increases in rates in 2005, compared to two states this past year.
The full report can be found here.
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Suspect shot dead by DPD tried to take officer’s vehicle, gun before shooting
DENVER — The man shot dead by Denver Police officers Wednesday had several outstanding warrants and was on supervised probation for being a sex offender.
The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner identified Michael Ferguson, 20, as the suspect killed Wednesday after he tried to get into a stolen vehicle, then an officer’s vehicle. At some point soon after, he struggled for one of the officer’s weapons and police opened fire.
Ferguson died when police shot him in the 2600 block of West Bates around noon Wednesday.
Three DPD officers involved in the struggle were also injured but were not shot.
Ferguson had active warrants stemming from a car theft case from May 2015 and a careless driving charge from June of this year. He failed to appear in court Monday on the latest case and was also wanted for violating his probation in the theft case.
During the theft case, a judge ordered him to be put on Sex Offender Intensive Supervision Probation, though it is still unclear exactly why.
He served time in the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections system from an unknown charge that happened when he was 14.
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10,000 employees join suit alleging Chipotle wage theft
DENVER — Close to 10,000 current and former Chipotle workers have joined a Colorado woman’s class-action lawsuit alleging employees were forced to work off the clock without pay.
Leah Turner, a former manager at a Parker Chipotle restaurant, initially filed an individual federal lawsuit in March 2013, but it was dismissed. Her attorneys filed the class-action suit in September 2014.
Turner, who was an hourly, non-exempt employee at the store from March 2010 to May 2011, claims she was forced to clock out after working 40 hours in a week, but was required to continue working and attending after-hours meetings without pay.
“I did it because I was tired of getting taken advantage of,” said Turner. “My general manager at the time would call me and tell me to pull my labor reports, and if our labor percentage was over a certain amount, she would start having me clock out and having other employees clock out. And we would continue to work until we finished our stuff for the day.”
It says that the pressure on managers to keep employee payroll costs down weighed into promotions within individual stores and possibly the company.
Denver-based attorney Andrew Quisenberry, who is among the lawyers representing clients in the case, told Denver7 reporter Jaclyn Allen that the number of people who have joined the suit means the accusations levied were happening nationwide.
“It was preached to us over and over about ‘Food with Integrity,’ and yeah, it’s kind of a double standard there,” said Turner, who added that she hopes to send a message with her lawsuit. “I hope they stop taking advantage of people, and they do the right thing. People work hard for their money.”
A spokesman for Chipotle, which operates out of Denver, maintained Thursday the company believes the case has no merit, pointing out that the 10,000 who have joined the suit represent only about 3.5 percent of current and past employees.
“A lawsuit is nothing more than allegations, and…in no way means that we have done anything wrong,” said Chipotle communications director Chris Arnold.
But it is the latest black eye for the company, which has been plagued with negative press in the past year.
An E. coli outbreak last year sickened dozens of people in several states, and a former employee won a lawsuit earlier this year after a judge determined she was discriminated against for being pregnant.
The case is now entering its discovery phase.
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DPD to suspend drug users, dealers caught at parks, Cherry Creek trail
DENVER – Denver Police will begin suspending any illegal drug users or dealers caught in the act at city parks or the Cherry Creek Greenway for 90 days starting Friday in attempt to clean up the areas.
DPD will act on behalf of Denver Parks and Recreation to enact the suspensions. If someone violates the suspension, they will face a fine of up to $999 and up to a year in jail.
The temporary directive will be in place for six months in response to the Greenway becoming “a hub for drug sales and use,” according to DPR.
Parks and Recreation said it also hired a contractor to help clean up areas along the river plagued with used needles and other trash.
The city says police have made 128 arrests in recent months at city parks — the majority of them drug-related. A spokesperson said approximately 3,500 needles have been collected in the same time period as the city and drug treatment specialists work to address a growing heroin epidemic.
“It’s becoming chronic — particularly heroin,” said Cynthia Karvaski, a spokeswoman with Denver Parks and Recreation. “Seeing a lot of needles on the ground, and unfortunately, that’s a safety hazard.”
Denver7 rode along the Cherry Creek trail from 6th Avenue and Broadway Street to Speer Boulevard and Lawrence Street. During the one-hour ride, reporter Jennifer Kovaleski found five used needles.
“We’re hoping that we do make a difference, that it does make a difference in the illegal drug activity,” said Karvaski.
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Men charged with organized crime violations in ‘spice’ cigarette scheme
DENVER – Two Jefferson County men and their respective businesses face racketeering and other charges for selling herbal cigarettes laced with “spice,” seemingly unbeknownst to their customers.
A First Judicial District grand jury indicted Michael Jamal Whitney, 35, John Palmer Swanson, 33, and their respective businesses last week on 169 counts that include violations of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, the sale of synthetic cannabinoids and money laundering, in addition to the racketeering charges.
Both men were arrested Aug. 25.
The indictment alleges the two men used their businesses to manufacture herbal cigarettes called “Next Best Thing” that were sprayed with the cannabinoids, which were not listed in the cigarettes’ ingredients.
The Whitney-owned Integral Industries, LLC was the primary manufacturer of the cigarettes, and Swanson’s company, WUTB Distributing, LLC, served as the distributor.
National smoke shop chain Smoker Friendly was the primary seller of the cigarettes, and according to the indictment paid $6.2 million to WUTB between April and October 2015. It says a “significant portion” of that money was spent primarily on the “spice”-laced cigarettes.
Swanson’s company paid Integral $2.5 million for the cigarettes in that period, and Integral sold another $737,000 of the product in what the district attorney determined was a racket.
“This is an unusual situation to find illegal drugs following a legitimate, traditional retail supply route to consumers,” said First Judicial District Attorney Pete Weir in a statement.
Whitney and Swanson are being held at the Jefferson County jail on $1 million bonds. They are set to be arraigned Oct. 21.
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U.S. researchers identify possible breakthrough Zika treatments
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PNM working to lure Facebook data center to New Mexico
Facebook appears to be interested in building a new data center in New Mexico, according to filings made with the state Public Regulation Commission Friday by the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM).
PNM filed a motion with the PRC Friday asking it to consider fast-tracking an application it filed that would provide Facebook special service rates and allow PNM to build new renewable energy infrastructure specifically for Facebook.
The filing says Facebook approached PNM earlier this year to see what could be done that would entice the company to build a new data center in New Mexico.
In June, a power company in Utah filed a similar application with Utah’s public service commission that is expected to be approved or denied by August 31.
PNM’s filing requests the PRC rule on the fast-tracked application by the same date in order to stay in contention with Utah for the new data center.
“Lengthier regulatory proceedings in New Mexico will jeopardize New Mexico’s chances of [Facebook] selecting New Mexico as the site for its new data center,” the filing says.
But PRC will have to forgo several of its typical procedures in order to approve the application by August 31. PNM’s motion asks the PRC to approve the contract without a public hearing; to vary from its 60-day requirement if no protest to the contract is filed; to shorten the time by which the initial purchase agreement will be approved and to extend a purchase agreement into a long-term agreement after six months.
PNM is looking to initially provide the new renewable energy resources – likely through new solar infrastructure – for 100 percent of Facebook’s possible energy needs, which the utility company would recover from the company.
The agreement also seeks to provide an opportunity to increase infrastructure and power needs should the proposed data center grow over time.
PNM says the initial power procurement would be 30 MW of solar energy, which could increase to 60 MW and possibly 100 MW in the future according to other documents attached in the filing.
“PNM’s filing is a necessary step to ensure that we could meet the very specific needs of the potential new customer. We regularly participate in state and local economic development efforts to attract new businesses and jobs to New Mexico,” said PNM spokeswoman Ryan Baca. “This is a responsible and creative strategy to support the effort to bring new business and jobs to New Mexico.”
Late last month, the Los Lunas Village Council authorized the first $5 billion of what is likely to be six equally-sized industrial revenue bonds for an internet data company called Greater Kudu, LLC, which is a subsidiary of a larger, yet-undisclosed internet company.
The proposed center in Los Lunas would be built at the 850-acre Huning Ranch business park near I-25 and Highway 6.
It’s unclear if Greater Kudu, LLC is linked to Facebook. Facebook has not yet committed to where it will build its new data center, but a spokesperson said the company is always evaluating potential new sites. More details of the filings can be found here.