MSNBC’s prison-reality show and the death of a pedophile

Lockup, MSNBC’s voyeuristic peek at life inside America’s nastiest prisons, launched its new season Saturday (*corrected) night with some cell floodings and tough talk by thick-necked inmates at Colorado’s own Limon Correctional Facility. This season (titled “Extended Stay: Colorado”) will focus on Limon, a simmering high-security hoosegow that houses close…

Amateur Poker Tour head Matt Sowash sentenced to five years

Matt Sowash, the former head of the Amateur Poker Tour, has been sentenced to five years in prison and five years of probation for illegal actions related to his attempts to solicit investors in a new poker tour that would have held tournaments in bars. Sowash and business partner Andrew…

Dan Tang pleads guilty in exchange for reduced sentence

This morning, prominent Thornton restaurant owner Dan Tang pled guilty to one count of money laundering for his role in what investigators labeled the “Dan Tang Drug Trafficking Organization.” When authorities took down the drug ring in February 2008, they came away with 24,000 marijuana plants growing in 25 suburban…

James C. Bird and young boys allegedly a very bad combination

It’s a sad truth that sexual abuse and assault sometimes goes unreported for years. That’s reportedly the case with 62-year-old James C. Bird — and while there are currently four counts of sexual assault on a child pending against him, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office thinks there could be more…

Mile High Murder, No. 54: Homicide at 3356 Blake Street

View Larger Map Early this morning, the Denver Police Department responded to a call at 3356 Blake Street, an area captured in the graphic above (if you have problems seeing the image, click “View Larger Map”). There, they found a man who’d been shot to death. No name of the…

Two ex-cons’ choices: Go straight or straight to hell

The movies teach us that there are good guys and bad guys — and then there are bad guys named Angel, as in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. But two new books by former Colorado prisoners trace wildly divergent paths through the thickets of crime and punishment –…

Mile High Murder, No. 47: Do you recognize anyone in surveillance videos taken near Sunrise Restaurant shooting that killed Roger William Harris?

The Aurora Police Department has released three surveillance-camera clips taken near the Sunrise Restaurant around the time a shooting took the life of Roger William Harris. In a release included with the other videos below, the APD doesn’t say if the individuals seen in these snippets are considered suspects or…