Greeley – Prosecutors will not file charges against a 19-year-old Greeley man who drove a vehicle during a stunt that went wrong and led to his friend’s drowning.
Darren Bucklen was behind the wheel of an altered 1984 Ford Tempo that he drove into a 25-foot-deep lake at Bucklen Enterprises Sand and Gravel Pit on July 6.
Bucklen and his friend David Griego Jr. had built a dirt ramp and driven the vehicle into the Bucklens’ private lake as a friend filmed the stunt.
Although both men emerged from the car after it hit the water, Gri ego struggled to swim and subsequently drowned. His body was recovered the next morning.
Griego also suffered a neck injury, but it was hard to determine if it resulted from the stunt and directly caused his death, said Weld County district attorney spokeswoman Jennifer Finch.
“The facts of this case led to the consideration of two possible charges: vehicular homicide or careless driving,” Finch said. “For either charge, the district attorney would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the driving directly caused the death of Griego.”
GOLDEN
Pair face charges over fliers without permit
Two people involved in distributing fliers advertising a paid website listing sex-offender registrations were arrested Thursday and charged with distributing handbills without a permit.
Golden police contacted several people who were handing out the fliers. The two who were arrested were described as supervisors, said Sgt. Ryan Custer.
There are no recent new sex-offender registrations in the city, Custer said. Police recommend visiting the Colorado Bureau of Investigation website, www.cbi.state.co.us, which provides the information for no charge.
DENVER
Police ID victim, make arrest in fatal shooting
Denver police Thursday identified an elderly woman found fatally shot a day earlier in the 3900 block of Lowell Boulevard as Laurna Gerken.
Police also arrested 48-year-old Keith Gerken, who was being held for investigation of first-degree murder.
Officers had been dispatched to 3933 Lowell Blvd. on Wednesday afternoon on a report of a shooting. When the officers arrived, they discovered the victim, who was believed to be about 85 years old, police said.
Keith Gerken was apprehended at the scene without incident. Police were trying to determine the suspect’s relationship to the victim, Detective John White said.
BOULDER
Dems vying for Udall seat report donations
The three Democrats vying for Congressman Mark Udall’s seat have raised within about $80,000 of each other during the first leg of the race for contributions.
Joan Fitz-Gerald, president of the state Senate, raised $221,385, while former state school board member Jared Polis collected $301,541. Boulder environmentalist Will Shafroth raised $298,318, according to filings this week with the Federal Election Commission.
Polis, an Internet entrepreneur, threw an additional $154,956 into his campaign. Fitz-Gerald contributed an extra $15,000 of her own money, and Shafroth added $2,300.
Contributions to the Polis campaign included $1,000 each from Denver attorneys Norm Brownstein and Steven Farber, $2,300 from Alex Cranberg of Aspect Management Corp. and $2,300 from Boulder attorney Michael Huttner.
Fitz-Gerald’s contributions included $4,600 from Denver attorney Collon Kennedy, $250 from Dottie Lamm, $1,000 from Congressman Ed Perlmutter and $1,000 from former Gov. Roy Romer.
Contributions to Shafroth included $4,600 from Colorado Conservation Trust chairman Michael Dowling, $500 from Environmental Defense regional director Daniel Grossman and $2,300 from Daniel Ritchie, chief executive of the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
DENVER
Democrats deciding on earlier caucuses
Colorado Democrats are expected to decide this weekend whether to move up their presidential caucuses from March to Feb. 5 to be part of “Super Duper Tuesday.”
About 20 states have scheduled their primaries or caucuses on that date in hopes of influencing the presidential race.
State Democrats will meet in Pueblo to make their decision. Colorado Republicans expect to make a decision on whether to move their caucuses to Feb. 5 through a mail-in vote of their central committee members later this month.
DENVER
Quarantined Arizona TB patient transferred
A man who has been quarantined at a Phoenix hospital with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis for nearly a year was transferred Thursday for treatment at National Jewish Medical and Research Center.
Robert Daniels, 27, had been kept under armed guard in Arizona because health officials thought he had extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR TB, and failed to wear a mask in public, attorney Linda Cosme said.
But, she said, initial tests at National Jewish show that the man has multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, which has a survival rate twice as high as the more resistant strain.
Under an agreement between Arizona and Colorado authorities, Daniels will have a security guard posted outside his door around the clock.
