The people indicted were members of a “widespread motor vehicle theft ring” accused of stealing vehicles from small airport parking lots, nearby hotels and other locations in Adams, Boulder, Denver, Douglas, Jefferson, Larimer, and Weld counties, according to the news release.

Weiser and Walsh said members of the ring allegedly stole 41 pickup trucks, trailers, and recreational utility terrain vehicles between July 2024 and January 2025. The value of the vehicles, stolen property and damage exceeds $900,000, according to the news release.

The vehicles were allegedly used to commit other crimes and avoid detection by law enforcement and license plate readers before being taken to Mexico and sold to cartels, Weiser and Walsh said.

“This indictment targets a car-theft organization that is alleged to have been operating on an international scale, with ties extending well beyond Colorado’s borders – but its impact has been felt in neighborhoods and communities across the Denver metro-area and the Front Range,” Walsh said in a statement.

The 11 people indicted face multiple charges that range from racketeering and conspiracy under Colorado’s Organized Crime Control Act to second-degree motor vehicle theft to forgery, according to the news release. Their cases were filed in

Chevrier, who goes by Michael, was a Jeffco Public Schools psychologist at Green Mountain and Bear Creek high schools when he was arrested in May 2025 following a Safe2Tell report about the assault.

A jury convicted Chevrier, 39, in January of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust, a felony, as well as two felony drug charges and two misdemeanor charges for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was acquitted on charges of of soliciting child prostitution and attempted child sex assault.

Court officials sealed Chevrier’s arrest affidavit early in the case and few details about the investigation were made public, though the previously confirmed the charges involved three students, as well as separate drug-related crimes.

District Court Judge Diego Hunt — from five years to life — that depends in part on complying with sex offender treatment, the district attorney’s office said in a news release. Prosecutors had argued for the maximum sentence of 12 years in prison for the assault charge.

The victim in the case spoke at the sentencing hearing Thursday about how Chevrier’s actions robbed her of her freshman year of high school and trust in adults, the DA’s office said.

In a statement, said Chevrier used his position of trust to identify, target and exploit vulnerable teen girls who came to him for help.

“The abuse only stopped because the victim was brave enough to testify before a jury, face her abuser and describe the lasting impact of his crimes while he sat only feet away,” Spease said.

Chevrier’s attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment on the sentencing.

Sage Valentine pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular homicide related to reckless driving and DUI in March for the crash on Feb. 20, 2025, according to the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

The crash happened at 6 a.m. when Valentine, driving 60 mph southbound in a Toyota 4Runner near mile marker 2 north of Golden, crossed into the northbound lane. Valentine hit two other vehicles before crashing head-on into a vehicle driven by 64-year-old Cynthia “Cindy” Myers. Myers was killed in the crash, the DA’s office said.

Colorado State Patrol investigators found evidence that Valentine was drinking in Boulder the night before and had not slept before driving to work early that morning.

Myers’ husband, Greg Myers, spoke during Valentine’s sentencing hearing on Monday and said his wife was months away from retirement when she was killed, the district attorney’s office said in a news release.

Valentine also pleaded guilty to a traffic infraction for not having insurance. Prosecutors dismissed one misdemeanor count of DUI as part of the plea agreement.

Christopher Thomas, 30, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, a misdemeanor, and eluding an officer, a traffic infraction, as part of a plea agreement, according to court records. Prosecutors dismissed charges of felony vehicular eluding, misdemeanor reckless endangerment and reckless driving, a traffic infraction, as part of the deal.

Thomas was arrested Dec. 5 after a Colorado State Patrol trooper clocked his truck driving 102 mph in Jefferson County. Thomas, who was off-duty and in the truck with another officer, drove onto Interstate 70 and was headed eastbound at 90 mph before he spotted the trooper behind him and sped up to over 100 mph, CSP investigators said.

The trooper stopped following the truck but used a partial license plate to link the vehicle to Thomas. Another Denver police officer who learned of the incident later reported it to a DPD sergeant, who notified internal affairs.

Investigators also found texts between Thomas’ passenger and one of his family members that discussed reporting the truck as stolen because Thomas “couldn’t get caught up tonight drinking at all 
 because they’re going to associate that with the car tonight and alcohol and the car don’t mix.”

District Court Judge Tamara Russell sentenced Thomas to two years of probation and 48 hours of community service on Monday.

In a statement, First Judicial District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Brionna Boatright said prosecutors sought a sentence that included jail time because the actions involved were a significant public safety risk.

“The defendant was a law enforcement officer at the time of the offense and therefore understood, perhaps better than most, the dangers his actions created for himself, responding officers, and the public,” Boatright said.

“Ultimately, the Court determined that a sentence of probation was appropriate. We hope the defendant takes that opportunity seriously and fully appreciates the potential consequences his actions could have had for the community,” she continued.

Thomas, who was hired in 2021, is working on a non-patrol assignment until the Denver Police Department’s internal review is complete, spokesperson Sean Towle said.

“I’m in so much pain I can’t keep doing this. Do something,” the girl messaged her mother, according to an Arvada Police Department arrest affidavit released Thursday.

Gretchen Ryan, 55, dismissed her daughter’s concerns. She is now charged with second-degree murder in Grace’s death after investigators found she enabled and encouraged her daughter’s alcoholism even when Grace’s health plummeted to the point that the teenager vomited blood and became incontinent.

“If you’re going to do this to me you need to take me to a hospital,” the girl wrote during a text-message exchange with her mother shortly after 4 p.m. on March 4, according to the affidavit.

“Why did you ask me to get more?” her mother responded.

“I’m gonna die,” the teenager said.

“No you aren’t,” her mother answered.

“I’m not doing it,” Grace wrote.

“Don’t drink anymore. Just smoke weed,” Gretchen Ryan responded.

“Call 911,” Grace wrote.

“Seriously?” her mother said.

“I don’t know what else to do,” the girl answered.

“You are going to breathe and stop drinking,” Gretchen Ryan responded. “Are you throwing up?”

“You won’t do anything,” Grace wrote. “I’m in so much pain.”

The 16-year-old girl died March 9 at her home in Arvada. In her obituary, she is remembered as enjoying music, art, church, pets and friends. She hoped to become a social worker, .

In interviews with police, Gretchen Ryan repeatedly said she caused her daughter’s death, according to the 25-page affidavit.

“I feel like I killed her,” the woman said.

The 55-year-old mother, who described herself as an alcoholic, repeated that sentiment several times before and after the teenager’s death, according to the records, even as she ensured her daughter had a heavy supply of available alcohol and worked with the teenager to hide both of their drinking habits from Grace’s father.

“I’m committing child abuse and murder,” Gretchen Ryan messaged her daughter in a string of unanswered texts in January. “And I will go to prison. So we have to do something it is really bad. Do you understand? Vomiting blood is a really bad sign. Look it up. I probably should tell (redacted) and take you to the hospital. Are you reading these? Hello!!!’nnm Respond!!!!!!!!!! Do you want to die? If (redacted) saw you he’d freak out. Quit ignoring me.”

In other messages, Gretchen Ryan said she “tried to be the cool (redacted) and (expletived) up.”

Both mother and daughter consumed about a bottle of vodka a day each, according to the affidavit. Gretchen Ryan frequently ordered the liquor to be delivered to the family’s home, and the pair worked together to hide the severity of their drinking from Grace’s father, using a backpack to secretly move bottles of alcohol through the house, and hiding bottles for each other in a bathroom.

Grace’s father told investigators he’d only discovered his daughter drinking on two occasions, and that he’d confiscated the alcohol. The father declined to comment when reached by The Denver Post on Wednesday.

In November, Grace messaged her mother to say that her father discovered some of her drinking. Gretchen instructed her daughter on what lies to tell to explain away the alcohol bottle, and Grace reassured her mother that her father did not know how often or how much she drank, according to the affidavit.

Gretchen Ryan estimated that her daughter drank to the point of vomiting at least once a week.

On March 3, Grace texted a friend and said she’d been an alcoholic for a year but wanted to get sober.

“I never wanted to be like this,” the teenager wrote to her friend, before expressing fear that her mother would be sent to prison. “I don’t think she wants me to get help which is what really scares me… I’m gonna die.”

Investigators later found 173 empty bottles of alcohol hidden in the teenager’s bedroom, according to the affidavit. The messages reviewed by investigators show the teenager often had to drink alcohol to avoid withdrawal. Her mother pulled her from public school in the fall of 2025 and enrolled the teenager in an online school.

On the night that Grace died, Gretchen told police she heard the girl fall in the bathroom and checked on her. She rolled Grace on her side but believed Grace was experiencing a seizure and would recover. She said Grace woke up and asked her to leave the bathroom. She checked on the girl one more time before going to bed, the woman said.

She messaged her daughter at 9:52 p.m.

“Doing ok?” Gretchen Ryan wrote.

“Pplplplease” her daughter wrote back at 10:07 p.m.

That was the last message Grace ever sent.

Gretchen Ryan, 55, was charged with second-degree murder in mid-May in the death of her , the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release Wednesday.

The teenager died March 9 at the family’s Arvada home in the 6400 block of West 85th Avenue, according to the news release. Investigators found 173 empty bottles of alcohol hidden in the girl’s bedroom and discovered that her mother frequently arranged for alcohol to be delivered to the house, according to the news release.

Gretchen Ryan “took steps to conceal” the teenager’s alcohol use from the girl’s father, who “primarily resided in the basement of the residence,” according to the news release. The mother and daughter often drank and used marijuana together, investigators found, and communicated almost daily about drinking alcohol.

Cellphone records show that Grace’s health suffered in the months before her death, according to the news release. In messages to her mother, the teen described “episodes of vomiting blood, difficulty eating, difficulty walking and the use of diapers due to symptoms associated with excessive alcohol consumption,” according to the news release.

The 16-year-old told her mother she was afraid she was going to die and asked for help, according to the news release, which does not say whether Gretchen Ryan took any steps to seek medical attention for her daughter.

Court records that would further detail the allegations against Gretchen Ryan were not immediately available Wednesday.

Grace sent a message to her mother from her iPad at 10:07 p.m. on March 8, according to the news release. Gretchen Ryan’s responses to that message went unanswered. No one called 911 until 8:15 a.m. the next day, according to the news release. First responders found the girl’s iPad near her body in a bathroom.

The teenager had been pulled from public high school in April 2025 and had been attending online school, according to the news release, which said she “had not participated in activities outside the home for several months” before her death.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office found Grace died from aspiration pneumonia related to chronic alcohol use, and classified her death as natural “due to the volitional component of the alcohol consumption,” according to the news release.

Prosecutors charged Gretchen Ryan with second-degree murder on May 15. She is being held in the Jefferson County Jail on a $500,000 cash-only bail and is next due in court June 17.

She is represented by the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender, whose attorneys, as a matter of policy, do not comment on individual cases. A spokesman for the office did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.

Gretchen Ryan has almost no prior criminal history in Colorado, according to court records and records kept by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Officers with the Northglenn Police Department cited her for driving under the influence in 1993, when she was 22, CBI records show. It was not immediately clear how that decades-old case was resolved.

The girl’s father declined to comment Wednesday.

Jimmy Ray Smith, 41, was one of four people arrested after a man told police the group broke into his room at a home in the 4700 block of South Oak Court, where he had lived for a few weeks, and tied him up, assaulted and tortured him for 14 hours in September 2024.

The man told investigators that the group beat him on the head and knees with a pry bar and baseball bat; poured rubbing alcohol on his face and lit it on fire; and stepped on his neck until he lost consciousness.

Smith’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

A second man charged in the case, 43-year-old Luke Leonard Anaya, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and felony menacing and was sentenced to 12 years in prison in June.

Jefferson County jurors acquitted a third man, Sherell Cortez Allen, of most of the charges filed against him after a trial in March.

Allen, 50, was convicted of false imprisonment, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to 120 days in jail with credit for 554 days he was incarcerated before the trial.

In a statement, his attorney Anna Geigle with the Denver law firm Geigle Morales, said Allen is deeply grateful for the jury’s hard work and attentiveness.

“The jury’s attention to detail, careful interpretation of the law as instructed by the Court, and application of the law to the limited facts that were presented against Mr. Allen led them to the right outcome,” Geigle said. “In the end, after spending nearly a year and a half in jail, Mr. Allen was exonerated and released to return home.”

The last man charged in the case, 50-year-old Jason Edward Carlson, is set to go to trial in August.

The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the outcome of the other cases because of Carlson’s ongoing case.

Brent Metz, a 40-year-old former elected leader in the town of Mountain View, faces four felony charges in the shooting: second-degree assault, illegal discharge of a firearm and two counts of felony menacing, according to court records.

But during opening statements in Metz’s jury trial Tuesday morning, defense attorney David Jones argued that the gun had gone off unintentionally.

Jack Howard, who was 17 at the time, and a 15-year-old friend spotted a lake on Metz’s property from the road in Conifer on Sept. 10, 2024, prosecutor Chris Johnson said during his opening statement.

The two parked on the road in front of the private property and walked up the driveway to knock on the door of a barn that they heard music coming from, hoping to ask for permission to come back and take homecoming photos, Johnson said.

“This is the extent of their intrusion,” Johnson said. “They walk down the driveway, and they knock on a door. They picked the wrong house, and they picked the wrong people.

“They don’t walk all over the place, they don’t look everywhere, they knock on a door where they hear music coming from and, when no one answers, they leave the property,” Johnson continued.

Johnson and Brian Hassing are prosecuting the case for the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office. Jones and Christopher Decker of the are representing Metz.

Metz and his girlfriend, who co-own the property in the 23000 block of Pleasant Park Road, were running errands in town in two separate cars that day, Jones said. The girlfriend arrived back at the house first and spotted the car out front and the two boys walking around the house, he said.

She called Metz, who told her to call 911 as he returned home, and drove down the street to wait, Jones said. Dispatchers told her not to go onto the property and confront them, so she and Metz chose to block in the boys’ parked car with Metz’s truck while waiting for law enforcement to arrive, Jones said.

But, Johnson said, “he doesn’t just trap these boys there, he brings a gun.”

When Metz arrived home, the two boys had returned to their car, and the man decided to confront them. Sometime after he parked to block their car, his gun went off, striking Howard in the face and lodging itself behind the boy’s eye.

“Mr. Metz whips into that spot, cuts these boys off, gets out of the car, pulls his gun out and — as soon as Jack’s opening the door, trying to figure out what¶¶Òőap going on — Metz fires a single shot right into the windshield, right to where the driver-side head would be,” Johnson said. “That bullet passes through the windshield and goes directly into Jack’s nose.”

Howard was shot while sitting in his car and writing a note asking the homeowners to call him, hoping to arrange for permission to take pictures near the private lake, Johnson said. Somehow, he survives.

“This gun went off, it went off in his hand when he didn’t expect it, went off accidentally without his intent and without his command,” Jones said. “The first thing he said when it happened was, ‘Oh, (expletive), my gun went off.’”

The weapon fired as Metz stepped out of the truck, without the man pulling the trigger, Jones said.

Jones told the jury that gun safety experts will testify to the weapon’s history of false discharges and design problems, . He also alleged that the boys’ memories had been affected by the traumatic incident and that their stories had shifted over time, calling the reliability of their testimony into question.

Howard also filed a civil lawsuit against Metz for negligence, but those proceedings have been placed on hold until the criminal case is resolved, according to court records.

That lawsuit alleges Metz “negligently and unintentionally discharged the handgun,” shooting Howard. Metz “acted in a careless and imprudent manner and failed to take into account the safety of others,” the lawsuit stated.

The bullet fragmented, fracturing Howard’s nose and striking his eye, lip, tooth and arm, according to the civil lawsuit. Howard needed “significant medical treatment” with a combined price tag of more than $100,000, the lawsuit alleges. That includes emergency surgery, doctor’s visits and mental health treatment.

Metz was a member of Mountain View’s town council at the time of the shooting, but was recalled by voters the following year.

As of Wednesday, the criminal case’s jury trial was scheduled to run through Friday.

, 42, was arrested on suspicion of 10 misdemeanors after an investigation showed he muted his body-worn camera, including while interacting with a woman who accused him of sexual misconduct. He is also accused of using police databases to search for information connected to a woman he was having an affair with, according to the affidavit.

Gearhart resigned from the Lakewood Police Department on Sept. 15 while on administrative leave. Lakewood’s internal affairs unit was investigating allegations that he propositioned an intoxicated woman after he arrested her on July 8 and was transporting her to a detox facility in his patrol car.

The allegations came to light after Lakewood police, including Gearhart, responded to a 911 call involving the same woman on July 24, and the woman recognized Gearhart and told other officers he tried to have sex with her, the affidavit stated.

Lakewood investigators found Gearhart muted his body-worn camera while transporting the woman to the detox facility during the July 8 call, and kept it muted as he sat in the parking lot for 25 minutes with the woman in the back seat, according to the affidavit.

Lakewood police turned the case over to the DA’s office when they found evidence of possible criminal behavior, the department said Tuesday.

After leaving the Lakewood Police Department, Gearhart worked as a non-sworn detention deputy at the , also known as the , which is operated by The Geo Group.

In a Tuesday email, an unnamed U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Gearhart “is not a DHS employee. He is a contracted employee at the GEO detention center.”

“We can confirm that Mr. Gearhart is no longer employed at GEO’s Aurora ICE Processing Center in any capacity,” spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said Thursday morning. Ferreira did not specify when Gearhart stopped working at the facility or whether he was fired.

Gearhart is not facing criminal charges for the sexual misconduct alleged in the affidavit because of “the passage of time, the evidence available and applicable law,” officials with the DA’s office wrote.

Gearhart slept with “too many, one too many” women while on duty, he told investigators, including women he arrested, pulled over for traffic stops or who were witnesses. He carried out the affairs in his patrol car, at a motel or at their homes while he was on duty.

“(The investigator) asked Agent Gearhart if he was on duty and essentially getting paid to have sex,” the affidavit stated. “Agent Gearhart affirmed but stated, ‘She wasn’t a victim.'”

Gearhart faces six official misconduct and four cybercrime charges for intentionally muting and deleting video from his body-worn camera and searching state and national crime databases for information about one of the women he was sleeping with, as well as information about her ex-husband and family members, according to court records.

He is also accused of muting and deleting body-worn camera footage after he arrested a woman for drunken driving on Aug. 1, 2023. The woman told investigators Gearhart flirted with her and let her use her vape and slip her handcuffs to the front while he was taking her to the hospital for a breathalyzer test.

In a statement Tuesday, Lakewood Police Chief Philip Smith said the department is taking the allegations with “profound urgency.”

“The badge represents a sacred bond between this organization and the citizens of Lakewood. To see that bond violated is not just a breach of policy; it is a betrayal of everything we stand for,” Smith said. “Abhorrent behavior has never been tolerated, and it will never be tolerated, in the Lakewood Police Department.”

Gearhart was arrested Tuesday and released from the Arapahoe County Jail on personal recognizance.

Updated 9:57 a.m. May 21, 2026: This article was updated to include a comment from GEO Group spokesperson Christopher Ferreira.

Cesar Hernandez-Sanchez had pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and vehicular assault in the four-vehicle crash on Oct. 17, 2025, that killed and injured two others.

Judge Christopher Zenisek issued the sentence on Friday.

The Wheat Ridge police investigation found that Hernandez-Sanchez was moving faster than 70 mph westbound on Colorado 58 just after 7 p.m. when he crossed over the dirt median into oncoming traffic, striking Smith’s vehicle head-on, causing a chain reaction involving the other vehicles.

Hernandez-Sanchez told police at the scene he had consumed two beers on the day of the crash, and also said he had a history of alcoholism, according to court records. Two and a half hours after the crash, police measured Hernandez-Sanchez’s blood alcohol content at more than three times the legal limit.

Smith was pronounced dead at the scene. The two other victims were taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Sanchez was hospitalized with serious injuries, then was discharged and booked into the Jefferson County Jail.

After his guilty plea on March 23, Hernandez-Sanchez faced a maximum sentence of 18 years in prison.

“Alcoholism is a disease, but when Mr. Hernandez-Sanchez got behind the wheel that day, he made his disease a risk to our community,” Jefferson County Senior Deputy District Attorney Jacob Mathews said in a statement on Monday.

Mathews said Hernandez-Sanchez was wanted in Texas after failing to appear to face charges for a DUI incident in 2022.

“This case reflects another devastating and entirely preventable loss for our community,” he said. “Mr. Smith’s children lost their father, and the surviving victims will live with the lasting effects of their injuries. These are the real and lasting consequences of that choice.”