Mom faces felony charges in 15-month-old girl’s death
A 22-year-old Denver woman was charged Friday in the death of her daughter Monday. Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey filed one count of child abuse resulting in death against Michelle Pickett. The charge alleges that Audrina Montoya died after being left unsupervised in a bathtub. Audrina was 15 months old.
Pickett, a single mother of two, was arrested after police were called Monday night to Decatur Place Apartments, 1155 Decatur St., which is run by Mercy Services, a Denver nonprofit that provides homes for single parents. Pickett moved into the apartments five months ago and recently was hired by a cleaning-services company.
Pickett is in custody in the Denver County Jail. Her bail is set at $200,000. Child abuse resulting in death is a class 2 felony carrying a maximum sentence of 24 years in prison.
Senate president waits for term-limit ruling
Democratic state Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald’s term-limit trial on Friday ended without an immediate ruling from Denver District Judge Catherine Lemon. Fitz-Gerald and Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, were sued by the Senate Majority Fund LLC, a Republican group, that claims the state constitution’s term limits prohibit the senators from seeking re-election after serving in two legislative sessions of another politician’s term.
Fitz-Gerald, of Jefferson County, took office on Jan. 10, 2001, after winning an election to complete the final two years of the four-year term of Sen. Tony Grampsas, who died. She was re-elected in 2002 and sworn in for a four-year term in January 2003. In January 2005, Tochtrop replaced former Sen. Alice Nichol, who was elected county commissioner.
Scott Gessler, lawyer for the Senate Majority Fund, said Fitz-Gerald served half of Grampsas’ term by serving during two full sessions of the Senate. But former Secretary of State Donetta Davidson concluded that Fitz-Gerald served less than half of Grampsas’ term by counting the total number of days in his four-year term and dividing it in half. In October, Attorney General John Suthers said Fitz-Gerald could not run again.
The lawsuit also asks a judge to declare that Tochtrop, who filled an unfinished term starting Jan. 12, will have served a full term between 2005 and 2007 and, if re-elected in 2006, cannot run again in 2010.
Lawyers said the judge’s ruling could come next week.
One pleads guilty in sisters’ Aug. shooting
One of three co-defendants accused in the shooting of two young girls last summer has pleaded guilty. Terra Ramirez, 19, pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree assault and faces up to 15 years in prison when she is sentenced in May.
Shot on Aug. 21 were sisters Celine Venzor, 7, and Kenia Venzor, 12. Ramirez was allegedly angry at another young woman who lived near the two sisters and enlisted the help of Andreas Rubio, 20, and Natalie McFarlane, 19, to retaliate against the woman.
Investigators allege that Rubio, using an SKS assault rifle, went up the 100 block of Osceola Street, where the intended target lived, firing the weapon. But instead of hitting the target’s house, prosecutors say, the bullets ripped into the home where the Venzor sisters lived and into a second home, where the occupant was hit by flying glass. Rubio and McFarlane have pleaded not guilty and will face separate trials in May.
Resort backers to appeal access ruling
Mineral County commissioners and lawyers for the Village at Wolf Creek filed a notice Wednesday that they would appeal an October ruling by a state district judge that, before Mineral County could legally approve the proposed $1 billion resort, developers Leavell McCombs would have to receive approval for new access to U.S. 160 from both the U.S. Forest Service and the Colorado Department of Transportation. Development plans by Texas billionaire Red McCombs include hotels, commercial space and homes for more than 10,000 people on 287 acres of private land atop Wolf Creek Pass.
Ranch offers state 5-for-1 acreage swap
A ranch is proposing to swap 3,378 acres of its land for about 623 acres of state land, where it would like to build a resort near Medicine Bow National Forest.
The land being offered by the Three Forks Ranch is near the southern end of the Atlantic Rim about 27 miles north of Baggs in the Dry Cow Creek drainage. The land has four large spring-fed reservoirs, two small reservoirs and two other springs, all with water rights.
Public roads provide access to the area.
The state land sought by the ranch is on the Colorado line and abuts the Sierra Madre portion of Medicine Bow National Forest.
Outcome of Broncos bet? Tums may win
A gut-busting meat, egg and French fry sandwich and tamales are at stake in a friendly wager between U.S Rep. Diana DeGette and her Pittsburgh counterpart on the outcome of Sunday’s Broncos-Steelers game.
DeGette, D-Denver, and U.S. Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pittsburgh, have agreed that the lawmaker whose team loses the AFC Championship game will buy lunch for the staffs of both representatives.
Doyle has put up Primanti Brothers sandwiches and Iron City Beer. DeGette has offered tamales and Fat Tire beer.
Pittsburgh’s Primanti Brothers Restaurant describes its trademark sandwich as “a big hunk of grilled meat and chilly cole slaw and hot fried egg and fresh tomato and crisp French fries between two slabs of chewy Italian bread.”
“With Big Ben (Roethlisberger) throwing lasers to Hines Ward, the Steelers will melt the snow on Invesco Field,” Doyle boasted.
“Pittsburgh will continue its grand tradition of choking in the AFC championship game,” DeGette countered.
