Fremont deputy disciplined for excessive force in arrest
Colorado Springs – Fremont County authorities say a sheriff’s deputy used excessive force in arresting the wife of the Florence police chief after an altercation at a bar in March.
Deputy Carl Dryer was suspended without pay for two weeks and will be on probation for six months, according to documents released Tuesday to The Gazette newspaper. Prosecutors found no criminal wrongdoing on Dryer’s part.
Sheriff Jim Beicker said he takes complaints about officers seriously. “Professionalism and officer conduct are very important to me,” he said.
Regina Ingle, 41, the wife of Florence Police Chief Mike Ingle, was arrested in Penrose after bar staff called the Sheriff’s Office to report a fight. Ingle, whose blood-alcohol level was determined to be 0.281 (the legal limit for driving is 0.08), wasn’t involved in the fight but allegedly struggled with deputies as they escorted her out of the bar.
“I told her if she kept kicking me, I would dump her on the ground,” Dryer wrote in his report of the incident.
Ingle broke bones in her face and lost consciousness. She later pleaded guilty to resisting arrest and third-degree assault.
Her attorney has filed an intent-to-sue letter with the county.
ASPEN
Thompson’s ex-aide negotiating settlement
A settlement may be in the making for a woman who says the late gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson died owing her more than $100,000, her attorney said.
A lawsuit filed in June in Pitkin County District Court claims Thompson did not pay Deborah Fuller for work she did between 1983 and 1996. Denver attorney Bruce Fowler, who represents Fuller, on Friday told the Aspen Daily News that they had been negotiating with Thompson’s estate even before the lawsuit was filed.
Fuller worked as Hunter’s assistant for nearly 20 years and was promised verbally and in writing that she would be paid, according to the lawsuit.
“We were still negotiating when we filed the claim.” Fowler said. Thompson, 67, shot himself to death at his Woody Creek home in February of last year.
Hall Haddon, the Denver attorney representing Thompson’s defunct corporation Gonzo International and the Thompson estate in the dispute, did not immediately return a call.
DURANGO
U.S. 550 construction slated through Nov.
Motorists and cyclists should expect up to 30-minute traffic delays Mondays through Fridays, 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., through late November on U.S. 550 between Durango and Ouray as the Colorado Department of Transportation and Williams Construction of Norwood replace drainage culverts along the San Juan Skyway.
Work will take place at six sites: two along Molas Pass and four at Red Mountain Pass. The work will begin at Molas Pass.
DURANGO
Documentary follows A-LP water battle
Local documentarian Julia Dengel wrote, directed and produced “Cowboys, Indians and Lawyers,” a film on the history of the Animas-La Plata water project, which will air statewide at 9 tonight on Rocky Mountain PBS.
Dengel followed the fight to build A-LP for eight years and captured the last days of two southwestern Colorado legends and fast friends, water attorney Frank “Sam” Maynes and longtime Southern Ute Tribal chairman Leonard Burch.
A-LP, which includes a giant pumping plant at a city park and Ridges Basin Reservoir, is under construction just south of Durango.
KEENESBURG
Last-minute donations help wildlife facility
The Wild Animal Sanctuary in Weld County, home to 155 species of exotic animals, closed to the public last weekend as expected, but news of the sanctuary’s troubles generated $200,000 in donations, founder and owner Pat Craig said Wednesday.
“That’s great, but we needed more like $400,000 to say we’re fine and everything will be OK,” he said.
Craig said celebrities and other big-name donors have said they might be willing to match donations to help save the refuge, but that money has not yet materialized.
The $200,000 bought the refuge three to four more months, he said.
In the meantime he will continue to find good homes for the lions, tigers, bears and other species.
LOGAN COUNTY
Pair killed on I-76 were Iowa residents
The Colorado State Patrol has identified two Iowa residents killed in an accident Tuesday in Logan County.
State Patrol officials said a 2004 Ford F-350 driven by Leonard Steinke, 71, of Fort Morgan, was eastbound on Interstate 76 about 2:45 p.m. Tuesday when a front tire failed and the truck crossed into the westbound lanes and struck a Cadillac Deville driven by Lois Peterson, 73, of Clarinda, Iowa.
The accident occurred about 4 miles west of Atwood.
Lois Peterson and a passenger, Daniel Peterson, were pronounced dead at the scene. Police did not have an age or relationship to the driver.
Steinke was not injured.
GLENWOOD SPRINGS
Woman waited to tell Amtrak that dad died
A suburban Chicago woman traveling home on Amtrak with her ailing father waited up to 23 hours to notify authorities that he’d died on the train, police said.
His daughter told officials that her father died in the sleeper car Sunday evening, just as the eastbound train was pulling into Glenwood Springs.
Daniel Stepanovich, 80, of Hammond, Ind., was pronounced dead of natural causes, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
She said she didn’t tell anyone because she couldn’t afford to ship his body home to Chicago, police said.
GREELEY
Two more arrested in park shooting death
Greeley police arrested two more suspects in the Sunday shooting death of an 18-year-old mother at Island Grove Park.
Sylvia Santillan was shot once in the head while standing with a group of friends and family in the infield of the park shortly after 9 p.m. Four people were arrested in connection with the case early Tuesday.
Later that day, 27-year-old Javier Gallegos was arrested for suspicion of accessory to first-degree murder, said police spokesman Joe Tymkowych.
Also arrested late Tuesday, on two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, was a 15-year-old male, Tymkowych said. Police are still investigating and another arrest may be made, he said.
