Grand Junction – A political fundraiser from California, who was arrested last week but had remained hospitalized at St. Mary’s Hospital while federal and state authorities worked on his extradition, was discharged Wednesday and booked into Mesa County’s jail, authorities said.
Yung Yuen “Norman” Hsu, 56, was arrested Sept. 6 after becoming ill on an Amtrak train while traveling from San Francisco to Denver.
He was booked into Mesa County’s jail on an outstanding warrant from California because he does not have any local charges, sheriff’s officials said. He is expected to be extradited to San Mateo County, Calif., and he’s scheduled to appear in an advisement hearing by video this afternoon.
Last week, Hsu surrendered in San Mateo and posted $2 million bond in connection with a 1992 felony case. He had been convicted of grand theft in a $1 million fraud scheme involving the sale of latex gloves.
Hsu has contributed more than $600,000 in the past three years and did fundraising for candidates, including U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, candidate for a Senate seat from Colorado. Those candidates have since given Hsu’s contributions to charities.
GOLDEN
Corrections employee arrested in sex sting
A Colorado Department of Corrections employee has been arrested on suspicion of attempted sexual exploitation of a child during an alleged Internet chat.
Investigators with the Jefferson County district attorney’s office on Tuesday arrested Richard Jefferson Harris, 52, of Pueblo.
Harris is accused of contacting someone he thought was a girl under the age of 15. An undercover DA investigator posed as the “teen.”
MORRISON
Highway worker killed on I-70 ID’d
A highway worker killed Tuesday in an accident on Interstate 70 was identified Wednesday by the Colorado State Patrol as Kerry G. Lovelace of Denver.
Lovelace, 43, fell off a truck while picking up traffic cones, and the truck ran over him twice.
ON CAMPUS
Colorado colleges’ enrollments up
Colorado State University announced a record freshmen enrollment Wednesday, with 4,392 new students attending the Fort Collins campus.
This brings the total enrollment to 24,983 students – up 1.3 percent from fall 2006.
At the University of Colorado at Boulder, final numbers weren’t ready.
In Colorado Springs, more than 7,600 students enrolled at the CU campus, an almost 2 percent increase from a year ago.
STATEWIDE
$34.2 million parceled in homeland grants
Colorado communities will receive $34.2 million in federal homeland security grants, Gov. Bill Ritter announced Wednesday.
The funds will allow local agencies to improve their ability to prevent, respond and recover from acts of terrorism, the governor said.
COMMERCE CITY
Charges filed in crash that killed 6th-grader
A 24-year-old woman has been charged with careless driving in connection with an accident that killed an 11-year-old Commerce City girl on her way to her first day of school.
Mercedes King, a sixth-grader at Kearney Middle School, died a day after the Aug. 24 accident at East 60th Avenue and Monaco Street. Mercedes’ 19-year-old brother, Marcus, was driving her to school when a Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Yesica Moreno ran a red light and struck the Kings’ car, Commerce City police said.
LIMON
Employee assaulted; prison in lockdown
The Limon Correctional Facility was under lockdown Wednesday night after a man serving a life sentence “physically assaulted” a female supervisor.
The injured corrections employee was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, said Katherine Sanguinetti, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman.
Officials identified the suspect in the assault as 40-year-old Allen Thomas Jr.
He is serving a life sentence for the 1991 murder of a 71-year-old grandmother, Leah Mae Bratsch. He was convicted of breaking into her house in north Aurora to rob it. He wound up raping her and slitting her throat.
GRAND JUNCTION
Mesa County has first W. Nile death
Mesa County reported its first West Nile virus death of the season Wednesday, health officials said.
It is the fifth death related to the mosquito-borne disease to be reported in Colorado this year. There have been 352 confirmed cases this year.
