Girl foils kidnap try at school bus stop
Police are on the lookout for a man who tried to kidnap a 7-year-old girl from a school bus stop Thursday morning in Federal Heights.
The girl was waiting alone at West 103rd Avenue and Clay Street when a man, whom she described as a Caucasian in his 40s, thin with dark hair and wearing clear-lens glasses, picked her up “like a football” and tried to run away, Federal Heights police said. She was able to struggle free.
The girl worked with police investigators and examined a photo lineup of sex offenders living the area, but was unable to pinpoint anyone, police said.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Federal Heights police at 303-428-8538.
Protesters’ names in FBI files, ACLU says
The names and license plate numbers of about 30 people who protested three years ago in Colorado Springs were put into FBI domestic-terrorism files, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado says.
The Denver-based ACLU obtained federal documents on a 2002 Colorado Springs protest and a 2003 anti-war rally under the Freedom of Information Act.
ACLU legal director Mark Silverstein said the documents show the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force wastes resources generating files on “nonviolent protest.”
“These documents confirm that the names and license plate numbers of several dozen peaceful protesters who committed no crime are now in a JTTF file marked ‘counterterrorism,”‘ he said. “This kind of surveillance of First Amendment activities has serious consequences. Law-abiding Americans may be reluctant to speak out when doing so means that their names will wind up in an FBI file.”
FBI Special Agent Monique Kelso, spokeswoman for the agency in Colorado, disputed the claim the task force wastes resources gathering information on protesters.
“We do not open cases or monitor cases just based purely on protests,” she said Thursday. “It’s our job to protect American civil rights. We don’t surveil cases just to do that. We have credible information.”
The documents cover the June 2002 protest of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association convention at The Broadmoor hotel and an anti-war protest at Palmer Park in February 2003, the ACLU said.
The FBI files contain the names and license plate numbers of 31 people at the 2002 protest, Silverstein said.
Hospice worker gets probation in assault
A former hospice worker was placed on 20 years of supervised probation and two years of work release after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a blind, deaf and nearly comatose 10-year-old girl who had a terminal illness.
James Ernest Philpott, 55, apologized to the girl’s family before his sentencing. He had pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.
Police said Philpott told investigators he had sex with the girl because he wanted her to experience pleasure before she died. A licensed practical nurse, Philpott worked at the Hospice of St. John in Lakewood at the time.
The hospice said he resigned in July 2004 for reasons unrelated to the allegations.
EchoStar loses appeal of $2.4 million award
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a $2.4 million arbitration award against Douglas County-based EchoStar Satellite Corp. in favor of Dominion Video Satellite Inc. of Naples, Fla.
The case dates to 2003 when Dominion sued EchoStar for breeching a transponder lease agreement. An arbitration panel found in favor of Dominion. EchoStar opposed the decision.
In 2004, a district court confirmed the award and said that EchoStar had also “unreasonably and vexatiously extended the arbitration hearings and court proceedings” and ordered the satellite company to pay Dominion’s costs, expenses and attorney’s fees.
EchoStar declined to comment late Friday.
