RTD driver charged in pedestrian’s death
Bus driver James Bauman, 59, has been charged with careless driving resulting in death in connection with a bus-pedestrian accident last week.
Bauman was driving an RTD bus Jan. 5 and hit 45-year-old Breona Taylor as she was walking across Speer Boulevard at Larimer Street. Taylor later died of her injuries.
The charge alleges that Bauman drove “in a careless and imprudent manner, without due regard for the width, grade, curves, corners, traffic and use of the streets and highway and all other attendant circumstances.”
He faces up to 18 months in jail and a fine of up to $5,000 if convicted.
Mold discovery closes county justice center
The Elbert County Justice Center in Kiowa has been shut down again because of mold.
It was discovered this week, and officials have moved all court and probation business to the Douglas County facility in Castle Rock.
In September 2004, the justice center was ordered shut down after a worker got sick from mold. The center underwent a two- month, $60,000 cleanup and reopened, but the problem has resurfaced.
Court officials don’t know how long the center, which was built in 1985, will be shut down.
Scientist’s slaying brings 4th conviction
A fourth person was convicted Thursday in the death of an 82-year-old Lakewood paleontologist.
A Jefferson County jury found Michael James Wessel guilty of first-degree murder among other felony counts that included burglary and robbery of an at-risk adult.
Charles Repenning, who survived a Nazi prison camp, was beaten and strangled in his Lakewood home during a burglary. His body was found Jan. 5, 2005.
Wessel, 41, received a life sentence with the first-degree murder conviction. He will be sentenced for additional counts in the case Feb. 9.
Richard Kasparson; his wife, Ginny Kasparson; and Nicholas Savajian also have been convicted in the case.
Meeting to weigh citywide voting
Denver residents can share their opinions on a plan to do away with precinct-style elections and let residents vote anywhere in the city at a meeting Wednesday. The Denver Election Commission Stakeholders Committee, which is holding the meeting, is looking into the suitability of places such as recreation centers, arenas and theaters as voting centers.
The meeting will be at 3 p.m. in the second-floor conference room of the Denver Election Commission, 200 W. 14th Ave.
3 more lawsuits allege molestation by priests
Three more lawsuits were filed this week in Denver District Court by men who say they were molested as children by Roman Catholic priests, bringing to 18 the total number of suits lodged against the Denver Archdiocese since accusers began coming forward last summer.
Two of the plaintiffs – whose names are not disclosed – are former altar boys of Harold Robert White, who was removed from the priesthood in 2004.
One of the John Does, a 55-year-old Pueblo man, alleges he was 14 when White molested him while counseling the boy at his Sterling home.
The other plaintiff, 58, claims White molested him from 1960-63 in White’s car, his family cabin in Grand Lake and while White was piloting a plane.
In the third lawsuit, George Roskop of Idaho Springs alleges the Rev. Leonard Abercrombie molested him from 1960-62 on retreats and trips. Abercrombie died in 1994 and is the subject of two other lawsuits in Colorado and one in California.
Immigration town hall to air Saturday
A town-hall meeting on immigration hosted by 9News will air Saturday at 6 p.m. There will be a rebroadcast Jan. 21. The program, “Immigration: Bordering on Reform,” features top Colorado policymakers and community advocates, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, Gov. Bill Owens, state Rep. Terrance Carroll, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and former Gov. Dick Lamm.
No charges in break-in attempt, shooting
A drunken man who mistakenly tried to enter a neighbor’s home and the neighbor who shot him will not face criminal charges, the Weld County district attorney’s office announced Thursday.
Nathan Weathers, 19, was shot by James Haflich in the early- morning hours of Sept. 14.
Before the shooting, Weathers had crashed his motorcycle near Weld County Roads 5 and 26 and then walked to Haflich’s home in the Meadow-Vale subdivision, which he mistook for his own.
Weathers, who lived a block from Haflich, was trying to break into the home when he was shot.
“Evidence in the case does not, beyond a reasonable doubt, establish that Mr. Weathers knowingly and unlawfully entered the … home or wished to commit a crime inside the home,” the district attorney’s office found.
Science academy to honor East High grad
The National Academy of Sciences will present its most prestigious award in April to Norman R. Augustine, retired chairman and chief executive of Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. and a 1953 graduate of Denver’s East High School.
The Public Welfare Medal honors Augustine’s scientific leadership, especially in the fields of aerospace and military technology and science. From 1982 to 1985, he was president of Martin Marietta Astronautics Co., the predecessor to Lockheed Martin’s Waterton Canyon facility in Jefferson County.
