criminal justice

The police officers who shot Ryan Ronquillo were in compliance with department policy and will not be disciplined, the Denver Police Department announced Thursday morning. The ruling, which comes after an extended secondary investigation by multiple agencies, is the same as that made by Denver’s district attorney more than a year and a half ago, devastating Ronquillo’s family.

The Colorado Independent has sued the City and County of Denver demanding the release of videotapes showing sheriff’s deputies’ fatal confrontation with Michael Lee Marshall, a mentally ill, homeless man, in the city jail.

Anyone hoping for hints at a potential motive in Robert Lewis Dear’s first appearance in court didn’t get it. This afternoon, the man accused of a murderous post-Thanksgiving rampage at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood faced a judge in a downtown courtroom on a video feed from the county lockup. Dressed in a grungy protective vest without sleeves, his hands cuffed in front of him and head slightly bowed, Dear didn’t say much beyond ‘yes’ and ‘no’ when a judge asked him questions.

The 948 one-person cells of Colorado State Penitentiary II have been empty for nearly three years. The abandoned facility costs taxpayers $20 million per year. Now, lawmakers say they’re working on a plan to put the facility back to use.

Debate over the death penalty in Colorado continues this election year, as Republican work to make Gov. John Hickenlooper's granting of a temporary reprieve to "Chuck E. Cheese Killer" Nathan Dunlap a campaign issue. A recent interview leaked by a conservative news outlet, as one example, quotes Hickenlooper as considering a full commutation of Dunlap's sentence — along with the governor's growing belief that the death penalty in Colorado (as elsewhere) is no longer a just punishment. The Republican outrage quickly worked itself into ridiculousness.

Oklahoma state officials need to stop shrouding information about its executions, according to a lawsuit filed today. The suit, filed by The Oklahoma Observer and the American Civil Liberties Union, stems from the botched execution in April of Clayton Lockett.

​After the passage of gun safety bills in the Colorado legislature last year, Republicans and their gun lobby allies predicted, we'd even go as far as say hoped for, a crippling boycott of the state's vital tourism industry. This prediction quickly proved unfounded, as the most likely indicator of a boycott by pro-gun tourists — a reduction in hunting licenses — didn't take place. That isn't the only set of numbers showing an explosion in the state's tourism.

Efforts to revoke illegal cell phones in prisons, including celebrated "phone-sniffing" dogs, help serve a shady cottage industry that charges outrageous amounts of money to talk to loved ones or conduct wire transfers. Meanwhile, the ACLU fights in court to cap rates on permitted calls.

Denver Sheriff Deputy Thomas Ford was captured on taped viciously beating a man in the city's downtown detention center. The lies and the cover-up are hard to fathom, especially with this kind of visual evidence.

A Denver police captain was arrested on domestic violence charges. The department tried to cover it up, but the Blue Wall cracked. Internal Affairs is now involved and it looks like the scandal goes to the very highest levels.