Churchill says he will forgo Columbus parade protest
Boulder – Embattled University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill said he won’t participate in this year’s protest of the Columbus Day parade, saying his presence might be distracting.
“It’s not necessary that I be there right now,” Churchill said in an article published Tuesday in The Campus Press, a student newspaper at CU-Boulder. “If I were to show up and pull out a statement, then it would be all about me, and I’m not the issue. Columbus Day is the issue.”
Organizers of Saturday’s parade said it is meant to honor Christopher Columbus for his discovery of the New World, which protesters say started the genocide of indigenous people.
Churchill ignited a firestorm of controversy with an essay comparing some World Trade Center victims to Adolf Eichmann, one of the Nazis who orchestrated the Holocaust. He has refused to retract the statement but said he wishes he had phrased it differently.
After the university determined he couldn’t be fired for his essay, an investigation was launched into allegations involving plagiarism, misuse of others’ work, falsification and fabrication.
Last year’s parade resulted in the arrest of about 240 people for disruption. Eight protest leaders, including Churchill, were acquitted in a January trial in Denver County Court. Charges against all remaining defendants were then dismissed.
DENVER
Saudi man’s attorneys cite “terrorist” label
Attorneys for a Saudi man accused of holding a woman as a virtual slave say the government has branded Homaidan Al-Turki as a terrorist and is using scare tactics to keep potential witnesses from helping his defense.
In a flurry of motions recorded Tuesday in federal court, Al-Turki’s attorneys say the Aurora man has been accused of supporting terrorists and has been a “person of interest” to various government agencies since arriving in the U.S. in 1995.
In April, when Al-Turki was pulled over in Illinois for a traffic infraction, his name came up in a national law-enforcement database as having “possible ties with terrorism,” according to court documents.
Al-Turki’s attorneys are asking the court to force prosecutors to turn over evidence and names of witnesses that the government is relying on to make those assertions.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office said Tuesday that the government had no comment. Instead, it would confine its response to formal pleadings.
Al-Turki and his wife, Sarah Khonaizan, were indicted in June, accused of enslaving an Indonesian woman in their home for four years, forcing her to cook and clean without pay. Al-Turki also is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting the woman, records show.
ADAMS COUNTY
Teen accused in fire faces juvenile charges
A 15-year-old Westminster boy accused of locking his stepfather in the basement of the family home, then setting the house on fire, will be charged as a juvenile, the Adams County district attorney said Tuesday.
The boy will face counts of attempted murder and arson in juvenile court, District Attorney Don Quick said. At a hearing Tuesday morning, a magistrate ordered the boy to undergo a mental-health evaluation. He is not being named because he is being charged as a juvenile.
The boy’s stepfather escaped through a basement window and was unharmed in the ordeal on the afternoon of Sept. 27. The boy was arrested that night after his stepfather gave interviews to local television stations saying that the boy suffers from bipolar disorder and needs treatment.
GREELEY
Teen found guilty in attacks on siblings
A 15-year-old was found guilty Tuesday of first-degree assault with a deadly weapon, causing serious bodily injury, in an attack where he punched his younger sister in the face and stabbed his older brother.
A jury took less than three hours in Weld County District Court to convict Ryan Allen Munoz, who was charged as an adult in the attacks on his 14- and 18-year-old siblings in December, said Thea Mustari, spokeswoman with the Weld County district attorney’s office.
He faces up to 32 years in prison for the charge.
DENVER
Alleged street racers given 58 citations
Denver police cited 58 suspected street racers and spectators late Sunday for trespassing and various traffic violations.
Officers found a large group of spectators and racers in a parking lot at 303 S. Broadway just after 9 p.m., and they began writing citations, police said.
Street racing is illegal in Denver under an ordinance that was passed recently. Police can seize vehicles that are involved.
LITTLETON
Memorial set Friday for missing hiker
A memorial service will be held Friday for the 35-year-old Lakewood mother of four who is presumed dead after disappearing while climbing in the Colorado backcountry.
A massive search for missing hiker Michelle Vanek was called off late Saturday, a week after she disappeared in the upper reaches of the 14,005-foot Mount of the Holy Cross outside Vail.
Family and friends will gather Friday at 1:30 p.m. at St. Frances Cabrini, 6673 W. Chatfield Ave. in Littleton.
Family spokesman Bob Davis said family members had no intention of continuing the search.
