AURORA PARES MAYORAL LIST DOWN TO FOUR
The Aurora City Council this week winnowed its list of candidates for a new mayor to four people from the 13 hopefuls who put their hats in the ring to replace Steve Hogan, the longtime mayor who died of cancer last month.
Council members on Monday night agreed to interview Councilman Bob LeGare; former council members Renie Peterson and Debi Hunter Holen; and Tim Hogan, the former mayor’s son. The interviews are scheduled to take place at 5 p.m. June 15.
The council has until June 27 to name Hogan’s successor to lead Colorado’s third-largest city. The person chosen to become mayor will fill out the rest of Hogan’s four-year term, which ends in December 2019.
Residents warned about wildfire near Bailey.
A wildland fire near Bailey on Tuesday afternoon prompted a pre-evacuation warning as firefighters used helicopter drops to battle the blaze.
Crews from the Platte Canyon Fire Department and elsewhere battled the fire, near Holmes Gulch Way, at about 4:30 p.m., according to the fire department.
At 8 p.m., the fire was reported to be about 5 acres and two air tankers were ordered to assist firefighting efforts.
Some residents of the area received a Level 1 Evacuation notice, alerting them about the fire and advising they prepare for possible evacuation orders.
Elsewhere in the state, the 416 fire, burning in southwest Colorado, had grown by another 600 acres, but no homes or structures have been lost.
The 416 fire, burning about 10 miles north of Durango in the San Juan National Forest, remains at 10 percent containment.
Woman sentenced in fatal DUI.
An Aurora driver was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison for hitting and killing a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol and fleeing the scene.
Prisma Rodriguez-Ramirez, 22, was sentenced by Adams County District Judge Don Quick for vehicular homicide DUI and leaving the scene of an accident involving death, according to the district attorney’s office.
Rodriguez-Ramirez was convicted by a jury in March of the two felony charges.
At about 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 30, Rodriguez-Ramirez was driving a black Land Rover SUV near East Colfax Avenue and Nome Street when she hit 36-year-old Antonio Colson, who was crossing the street with his wife. Colson died of his injuries. His wife was not injured.
Rodriguez-Ramirez sped away, but turned off her headlights and returned to the scene, according to a news release. “She claimed to not know she had hit anyone, but the impact was so hard it caused Colson to fly 60 feet into the air, broke one of her headlights and crushed her car door,” prosecutors said.
Rodriguez-Ramirez had been drinking beer and tequila. She had a blood alcohol content of 0.172.
24-year sentence in death of boyfriend.
A 48-year-old woman has been sentenced to 24 years in prison in the stabbing death of her boyfriend, authorities say.
Originally charged with firstdegree murder, Elaine Gallegos entered a plea agreement to a reduced charge of second-degree murder in March, according to Ken Lane, spokesman for Denver District Attorney Beth McCann.
On April 1, 2017, Gallegos fatally stabbed 56-year-old Leslie Southern Jr. in the 2100 block of Stout Street following a fight between the couple.
After she killed Southern, she called 911 and told a dispatcher that when she returned to her apartment she found Southern on the floor bleeding, Lane’s news release says.
Before police arrived, Gallegos fled the scene.
Hickenlooper signs bill shoring up PERA.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has signed a bill to shore up the state’s troubled pension.
The new law calls for sweeping changes to pay off the pension’s $32 billion unfunded debt within 30 years.
The measure — Senate Bill 200 — cuts cost-of-living raises for retirees and requires employees and government agencies to contribute more from each paycheck. Colorado’s pension program is called the Public Employees Retirement Association.
The state will also chip in $225 million a year to pay down the debt.
Monday’s bill signing marks the second time since 2010 that Colorado has enacted a major pension rescue plan. The prior reforms fell short, leaving Colorado’s public pension among the most poorly funded in the country.
Man who killed deputy gets 70 years.
A man who killed a western Colorado sheriff’s deputy while trying to evade arrest has been sentenced to 70 years in prison.
The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported that 20-year-old Austin Holzer was sentenced Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to second-degree murder in the February 2016 death of Mesa County sheriff’s deputy Derek Geer.
Holzer was 17 years old at the time of the shooting,