On Friday, we told you about the nineteen locals caught up in Project Big Freeze, a nationwide sweep by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, aka ICE, that targeted “transnational gangs with ties to drug-trafficking organizations” in 83 cities, including Denver. That doesn’t mean, however, that all 447 alleged gang members…
The wife of notorious swindler and former fugitive Thomas Quintin is set to face charges stemming from reported schemes that date back as far back as 1990, when she and Quintin ran a diesel distribution company that failed to report fuel taxes in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska. Sandra Westphal, 68,…
Earlier this week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, popularly known as ICE, announced the results of Project Big Freeze. ICE says the operation targeted “transnational gangs with ties to drug-trafficking organizations” in 83 cities, including Denver. A total of 447 alleged gang members were rounded up, with early reports saying…
You might say Steven Clay Romero sped off with our dishonor this week, dragging his freedom and dignity behind him, bloody and lifeless. How? By dragging a stranger’s dog to death behind his car…
On January 21, we told you about Joseph Trujillo, who reportedly left his infant alone for six or seven hours while he was boozing at a bar — and when he returned, the child was dead. In its initial release about Trujillo, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office explicitly stated that…
On The Simpsons, Mr. Burns frequently says, “Release the hounds!” But not having any vicious canines at his command earlier this week, Joshua Alger made do with the resources he had at hand — and released the children! Alger, 28, reportedly passed out drunk in the play area of a…
Eighteenth Judicial District Attorney Carol Chambers has had her ups and downs in her efforts to obtain the death penalty for two Limon inmates accused of killing a prison snitch. Almost two years ago, Lincoln County District Judge Stanley Brinkley removed her office from the prosecution of one of the…
Actress Halle Berry is reportedly planning to star in a film called Who Is Doris Payne?. But plenty of police officers already know the answer to that question — including the ones who just busted her for allegedly swiping a Burberry coat from a Saks Fifth Avenue in Costa Mesa,…
People in charge of a place called the Colorado Humane Society may not seem like logical candidates for Shmuck of the Week recognition. But back in December 2008, owners executive director Mary Warren, her husband, Robert Warren, and Mary Warren’s daughter, Stephenie Gardner, more than earned this honor after Attorney…
Swiping televisions used to be easier when they didn’t all used to be so friggin’ huge — especially if you’re as relatively small of stature as a suspected robber who was in the midst of trying to manhandle a 46-inch set in Boulder when the home’s owner confronted him earlier…
Two weeks ago, David Lane, attorney for Balloon Boy dad Richard Heene, griped that a $47,000-plus restitution charge for leading law-enforcement officials on a wild experimental-craft chase was way too high. That complaint has now been formalized: A motion challenging the amount was filed on Friday — and this morning,…
The world will have to wait a little bit longer to learn the fate of the Niwot urine-drinker. According to the Boulder Daily Camera, the retrial of Joseph Cardillo has been postponed because his new attorney needs time to catch up on the case. And what a case it is…
Some individuals accused of crimes wind up generating a significant amount of sympathy — but that’s unlikely to happen for Steven Clay Romero — because of what he’s accused of doing to a dog named Buddy. Late yesterday, a grand jury indicted Romero on one charge of animal cruelty. According…
Last Friday U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn threw out a plea bargain deal for former Rose Medical Center employee Kristen Parker, who admitted infecting surgical patients with hepatitis C through needles contaminated by her own drug use. No real surprise here: Blackburn is even more of a control freak than…
It seems like only a couple of weeks ago that a passenger caused a flight to make an unscheduled landing in Colorado due to inexplicable behavior (including his insistence on shaving topless). That’s because it was only a couple of weeks ago. Now, a similar act: A thus-far unnamed man…
Thomas Quintin, 62, a Denver man with a long history of felony tax fraud, is facing new scrutiny after he walked away from his sentence at a half-way house and allegedly started a scheme investigators traced to caches totaling at least $1.3 million in government money last month. With 641…
View Larger Map Earlier today, we told you about a shootout at Aurora’s T&R Liquors, pictured in the graphic above (if you have problems seeing the image, click “View Larger Map”). Now, the Aurora Police Department has confirmed that one of the three people wounded in the melee has died:…
View Larger Map Getting your drink on proved risky last night at T&R Liquors in Aurora, pictured in the graphic above (if you have problems seeing the image, click “View Larger Map”). According to the Aurora Police Department, an argument outside the store led to multiple gunshots that hit multiple…
On December 1, Colorado’s ban against texting while driving went into effect, and in an interview with Westword, Representative Claire Levy, who co-sponsored the original bill, defended the measure despite complaints by Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle about the difficulty of enforcing it. “When confronted with the difficulty of enforcement,…
Stories of alleged neglect don’t get much more horrific than the one related by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in regard to Joseph Trujillo, 23. Shortly after midnight, according to the JCSO, Trujillo’s mother heard crying, which makes sense given that she lives with her son and his five-month-old child…
Plea bargains are a necessary evil given how overtaxed our judicial system is these days. But it’s still frustrating when someone who seems to deserve a long, long sentence gets a lighter one simply because he made a deal saving the state the time and expense of putting him on…
The Rocky Mountain Safe Streets Task Force is rightly championed for the clever names it assigns to wanted men and women, including the Hopping Hooded Bandits, the $83 Bandit, the Shaggy Bandit and, of course, Bonnie and Clyde. Now, the Aurora Police Department has gotten into the act, putting out…
