DENVER – Authorities were searching for a prisoner who escaped from Denver Sheriff Department custody Thursday.
Carlos John Romero, 21, was being treated at Denver Health Medical Center for minor injuries to his wrist and shoulder when he escaped, police said.
Romero is a Colorado Department of Corrections inmate serving a sentence for drug possession and auto theft, police said.
MORE BRIEFS
WASHINGTON, D.C.
BLM may move some operations to Denver
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is planning a restructuring that could move some operations to Denver.
The move is intended to cut costs in the face of declining budgets for the agency, which has 12,300 employees and a $1.8 billion budget. BLM manages 258 million acres across the West.
“It’s an effort to … focus on our core mission and what we do best – land management,” said Celia Boddington, BLM spokeswoman.
It’s not yet clear how many BLM jobs would be added in Denver, if any.
DENVER
Man running from police hit by truck
A man was hit by a truck after he ran away from undercover officers Thursday afternoon, Denver police said.
The officers were conducting an undercover drug operation near 17th and Market streets shortly before 1 p.m. Thursday when officers attempted to contact the man. The man then ran into Market Street in an attempt to flee police, said Denver police Detective John White.
The man, who was not identified by police, was arrested on a count of possession of a controlled substance, White said.
The man’s face was cut up, but he was not seriously injured, and he was taken to Denver Health Medical Center.
The driver of the gray delivery van who hit the man was not ticketed or arrested, White said.
CENTENNIAL
Bail request dropped in fire, death of teen
The attorneys for 15-year-old James David Meyer, who police suspect was involved in the death of his younger sister, abandoned a request for bail. A hearing had been set for Thursday.
Meyer’s 13-year-old sister, Jessica, was found dead June 7 in the burned garage of the family’s Littleton home. Investigators have said that they believe the girl died before the fire and that Meyer played a role in both.
Their findings and other records in the case remain sealed, pending a ruling from Judge John Wheeler.
COLORADO SPRINGS
Man found dead at bus stop identified
An autopsy Thursday on a man found dead at a bus stop shows the man died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Colorado Springs police have identified the man as 32-year-old William Dieckmann of Colorado Springs.
As of Thursday, no one had been arrested in the killing, which is the 14th homicide this year in Colorado Springs
BOULDER
El Niño likely to interrupt snowstorms
Scientists are predicting that Colorado’s late-fall snowstorms could disappear by mid-December as a result of El Niño, which occurs when Pacific Ocean surface temperatures are warmer than normal.
El Niño is gaining strength, said Klaus Wolter, a scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Consequently, dry midwinter conditions will probably develop for Colorado and then disappear by late February or early March.
“March has a tendency to produce copious snow amounts with El Niño,” Wolter said. “And another characteristic of El Niño is that the Front Range is more than likely to be on the wet side.”
DENVER
AG to seek funds to enforce new law
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said Thursday that he plans to ask state lawmakers for extra funding to pay for a new illegal-immigration law that he has not been enforcing.
The law gives Suthers the duty of pursuing lawsuits – and fines of at least $50,000 – against people who forge documents used by illegal immigrants to get jobs in Colorado.
A report to the state’s Joint Budget Committee in November found that Suthers has not hired the employee authorized by the law.
Suthers is supposed to pay for enforcement by collecting fines, but he had not pursued any cases.
Gov. Bill Owens signed the bill into law May 30. The attorney general’s office did not contact local district attorneys, who prosecute the criminal cases against forgers, for possible cases to pursue until this week, after a reporter asked about the matter.
