A woman who publicly urged her eldest son to turn himself in to police following a robbery spree says she did so because another son linked to the same crimes had been beaten earlier.
Ruby Santistevan, 52, said she had worried that police would shoot her son Manuelito Santistevan, 26, because they believed he was involved in 23 robberies in nine Denver area cities and counties attributed to the “Hooded Safe Bandits.”
She asked the media to witness Manuelito’s capture so authorities wouldn’t beat him like they did her younger son, Roman Santistevan, 23, when he was arrested in Greeley at his girlfriend’s house, she said today.
“I believe they are using scare tactics on Roman,” she said. “I know they beat him up.”
Rene Vonder Haar, spokeswoman for the FBI, which has spearheaded the robbery spree investigation, said she is not aware of any police brutality allegation in the case.
“I have not heard one iota about that,” she said.
Roman Santistevan is being held at the Denver County Jail on $300,000 bond for investigation of robbery and kidnapping.
Haar said he and his brother face possible federal criminal charges in connection to the robbery spree.
Santistevan said when her older son Manuelito Santistevan son safely turned himself in to FBI and Wheat Ridge police officers early this morning she was relieved. “I have some color in my face,” she said.
Santistevan said her sons have been in trouble before but she doesn’t believe either of them were involved in the recent robbery spree.
Both of them are hard workers who earned GEDs, she said.
Santistevan said it was tough raising her sons after her husband died 22 years ago. “I was a single mother,” she said. “I did my best.”
Other family members say Manuel Santistevan, her husband, had moved to California with the boys after she filed for divorce.
His sister, Donna Santistevan, of Alamosa, said Ruby Santistevan’s attorney mailed him a letter at the time indicating she would contest custody of their boys.
The day her brother received the letter he drank alcohol until he asphyxiated on his own vomit, Donna Santistevan said.
She said Ruby Santistevan repeatedly got into trouble while raising the boys.
According to a Colorado Bureau of Investigation report, Ruby Santistevan was arrested for numerous charges between 1975 and 1999 including assault, drunken driving, shoplifting, larceny and drug possession.
She served a deferred sentence in the 1999 drug possession case and was fined or served jail sentences for two shoplifting convictions. The CBI report did not include dispositions of several other cases against her.
“I made mistakes,” Ruby Santistevan said.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
