Author: Christopher Osher
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Colorado Watch | Criminal Injustice: The Gazette launches ongoing look at Colorado’s criminal justice system
The Gazette today launches its first installment in an ongoing look at Colorado’s criminal justice system. Crime and punishment in the state has been in tumult for years. Politicians, policymakers and corrections administrators have tried to find ways to reduce prison populations, scale back punishments and focus on rehabilitation with a raft of reforms, including…
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Colorado Watch | Home-owned: Better results at Larimer County halfway house
Tim Hand, department director of Larimer County Community Corrections Facility, greets a program participant. Skyler Ballard, The Gazette At one Colorado halfway house delivering better outcomes than other programs in the state, residents are eager to share their stories of success and give praise to the staff for helping them become productive members of society.…
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Colorado Watch | Criminal Injustice: Sex assault in a Denver halfway house
J.H. (not his real name) was sexually abused by a counselor in 2018 while serving time for his third DUI at the Tooley Hall halfway house in Denver. J.H. is suing GEO Group over sexual assaults he suffered while in a halfway house in Denver from a counselor who worked at the facility. J.H. was…
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How one ER doctor is preparing for a COVID-19 ‘war zone’ in Colorado
For one emergency room doctor who works at a Denver area hospital chain, a projected onslaught of COVID-19 patients has meant alternating between urgently posting on Facebook and Nextdoor in search of extra protective face masks to practicing peaceful meditative techniques to calm himself when he thinks of what’s to come. Dr. Aaron Wolfe, 35,…
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Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser says investigation of Juul likely to produce impact, action
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said last week that his office continues an investigation into the sales practices of vaping products by Juul Labs, Inc., including whether the company targeted children as a lucrative market. Because the investigation is ongoing Weiser said he could not give specifics. But he stressed that in the coming months…
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Multibillion-dollar fraud by Colorado oil giant alleged
Allegations from a former engineer for Anadarko Petroleum who now lives in Colorado are at the center of a federal lawsuit filed on Wednesday alleging the company engaged in a multibillion-dollar fraud against investors by misstating the value of an oil field it owned in the Gulf of Mexico. Lawyers filed the investor fraud lawsuit…
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Informant: 211 Crew members predicted Clements would be murdered before assassination
The day before the assassination of Colorado corrections chief Tom Clements, two members of the white supremacist gang the 211 Crew revealed during a prison cell discussion details about how the killing would go down, a prison informant claimed in previously undisclosed interviews with police. “They were anxious,” the informant recounted to investigators with the…
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Lawsuit: USOPC medical boss fired for blowing whistle in wake of Nassar sex assault scandal
The Colorado Springs-based United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee fired a high-ranking employee there in May because he blew the whistle on the organization’s failure to protect a 15-year-old paralympic athlete from sexual abuse and raising other issues, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges. Dr. William Moreau. File photo. The lawsuit, filed in Denver District Court,…
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Past president of state Police Officers Foundation given deferred sentence in theft from charity
Former Denver Sheriff Department Division Chief Frank Gale earlier this month received a deferred sentence and four years of probation under a plea agreement with Denver prosecutors to resolve felony charges alleging he stole a vehicle and about $50,000 from a charity assisting refugees. The deferred sentence allows Gale to ask the judge to toss…
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State vows again to reform Colorado’s youth corrections system
State officials on Thursday again promised to implement meaningful changes in Colorado’s youth corrections system, after years of surging violence, drug contraband seizures and controversies over staff use of isolation cells and restraint devices. The state will abandon a model based on large groups of incarcerated youths and punitive compliance measures, they pledged, in favor…