Cookie money thief given work release in sentencing

A former Girl Scouts leader who stole more than $4,000 from her troop’s annual cookie fundraiser was sentenced Monday to serve six months in Mesa County’s work release program and spend eight years on probation. Carmen Wysong, 27, of Eckert, must also complete 100 hours of useful public service and pay $4,807 in restitution to Girl Scouts of Colorado. District Judge Richard Gurley ordered restitution despite skepticism about Wysong’s ability to pay. Employed at a local ...

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Drug probe taints eatery?

You can find great salsa at Grand Junction’s El Tapatio. And that’s no code for a drug deal, according to the ownership. “We have nothing to do with this and we’re against illegal stuff,” Francisco Espinoza, co-owner of El Tapatio, 1145 North Ave., said during a recent interview with The Daily Sentinel, made possible by a Spanish-language translator. On a Tuesday last week, around the time when Francisco said they once saw steady noon-hour business, about ...

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‘No contest’ bid nixed; Brainard guilty

Grand Junction City Councilor Rick Brainard pleaded guilty Friday after a thwarted bid to end his domestic-violence case with something less than a guilty plea. Brainard, 51, tried to plead “no contest” under a deal with the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office in which he would have been placed on a deferred judgment and sentence for 18 months, aside from a suspended jail sentence. Brainard sought permission to travel out-of-state. County Court Judge Craig Henderson, ...

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2 indicted in attempted Palisade bank robbery

Two men are accused in an aborted armed robbery at a Palisade bank in 2011 — possibly the first of its kind in the town’s 109-year history ­— when a police officer was disarmed at gunpoint. Jose O. Jimenez, 27, of San Bernardino, Calif., was arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver after a grand jury indictment on three counts, including attempted robbery with a firearm at Palisades National Bank on Aug. 20, 2011, according to the U.S. Attorney’s ...

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Brainard sentenced; judge rejects ‘no-contest’ plea

Grand Junction City Councilor Rick Brainard on Friday pleaded guilty after a thwarted bid to end his domestic-violence case with something less than a guilty plea. Brainard, 51, had initially sought to plead no-contest as part of an agreement with the District Attorney’s Office in which he would have been placed on a deferred judgment and sentence for 18 months, aside from a suspended jail sentence. Brainard sought permission to travel out-of-state. County Court Judge Craig ...

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Feds arrest two in failed Palisade bank robbery

Two men have been charged in connection with the failed robbery at the former Palisades National Bank in 2011 when a Palisade police officer was disarmed at gunpoint, federal authorities confirmed this morning to The Daily Sentinel. Jose O. Jimenez was arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver following a grand jury indictment on three counts, including attempted robbery with a firearm at Palisades National Bank on Aug. 20, 2011, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The ...

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DA: Cases similar to Brainard’s often involve no jail time

A plea agreement resolving the domestic violence case of Grand Junction City Councilor Rick Brainard may look something like this: deferred judgment and sentence, treatment and no jail. This, under a scenario laid out Wednesday in a Daily Sentinel interview with Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger. Brainard’s case is scheduled for a plea and sentencing hearing at 4 p.m. Friday at the Mesa County Justice Center before County Court Judge Craig Henderson. The judge could ...

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Mother owes $38,000 for welfare fraud

A Fruitvale mother will have two decades to repay more than $38,000 in public assistance which she admitted Wednesday to stealing from the Mesa County Department of Human Services. Saying a plea agreement in the case of 34-year-old April Creasman was “marginally acceptable,” District Judge Richard Gurley signaled he’d have preferred tougher sanctions in a case he called “reprehensible.” “You were taking food out of the mouths of people who really ...

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Police seek man who allegedly stole condoms

The Mesa County Sheriff’s Department is asking for help finding a man suspected of shoplifting condoms from Clifton’s City Market on Sunday. Photo surveillance released by the agency shows an adult man appearing to stuff a box in his pants. Deputies were called to the store, 569 32 Road, at 4:42 p.m. Sunday on a report of a shoplifter. The adult, white male was described as 5 feet, 10 inches tall. The Sheriff’s Department said the suspect was believed to have paid for ...

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Woman gets 20 years probation in ‘reprehensible’ fraud

A Fruitvale mother will have 20 years to repay more than $38,000 in public assistance which she admitted Wednesday to stealing from the Mesa County Department of Human Services. While finding a plea agreement in the case of 34-year-old April Creasman, 34, to be “marginally acceptable,” District Judge Richard Gurley signaled he’d have preferred tougher sanctions in a case the judge called, “reprehensible.” “You were taking food out of the mouths of ...

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Police: Missing man found safe

A 42-year-old Grand Junction man reported missing by family this morning has been found and is safe, the Grand Junction Police Department said this afternoon. Thomas Love, who has Down Syndrome, was last seen last night at his home in the Spring Valley subdivision near Patterson and 28 roads. Police have been searching the area this morning. Police confirmed Love’s whereabouts around 3:15 p.m. The circumstances were not immediately revealed.  ...

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Identified skeleton closes case of 26 years

Wearing a brace and carrying an oxygen tank with him, 65-year-old Ronald Vasey got in his 1966 Chevrolet station wagon and drove away from his home in the 2700 block of B 1/2 Road without a trace. He hadn’t driven in months, Vasey’s daughter told The Daily Sentinel in a story published Aug. 11, 1987. Skeletal remains recovered Friday from a vehicle southwest of Gateway were confirmed to be Vasey’s, the Mesa County Coroner’s Office said. Vasey had attempted suicide ...

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Denied by war, vet finally walks with Central grads

The class of 1945 at Oklahoma’s Merritt High School had six students. Half couldn’t walk across the stage at graduation because of service to country during World War II. Among them was Edward Reed Jr.—once thought killed in combat. On Monday, he was very much alive and experiencing things denied by war and circumstance seven decades ago. Escorted by his graduate granddaughter, Destinee, 17, and his son, Central High School teacher Ed Reed III, Reed Jr., 86, received ...

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Skeletal remains near Gateway linked to 26-year-old case

Skeletal remains recovered Friday from a vehicle southwest of Gateway are confirmed as belonging to a 65-year-old man reported missing 26 years ago, the Mesa County Coroner’s Office said today. Ronald Vasey had attempted suicide and made similar threats prior to his reported disappearance by family in Mesa County in 1987, the coroner’s office said in a release. “All evidence gathered points to this being a suicide,” the coroner’s release said. Mesa County ...

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Disputed sentence upheld in bias killing

A Clifton man who claimed he was misled about a plea agreement in the 2009 murder of a man has lost his latest appeal. Michael Simpson, 28, who is serving 72 years in the unprovoked shooting death of 50-year-old Marco Acosta-Estrella in Clifton, claimed in separate appeals that his attorney had represented he was to receive no more than 55 years in prison under a plea agreement. Simpson claimed if he’d known 72 years was a possibility, he’d have pleaded not guilty and gone to ...

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Kids on 2 wheels run amok at fest

Children ruined Saturday’s first-ever 500 Block Push-Bike Grand Prix in downtown Grand Junction, business owner Chris Brown said in his tongue-in-cheek analysis. “They cry a lot and sometimes wreck while just standing there,” the owner of Brown Cycles, 549 Main St., observed while obstructing a steady stream of small bicyclists zipping up and down the sidewalk in the 500 block of Main Street during Saturday’s Art & Jazz Festival. “Children can’t ...

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Man charged 
in shoplifting 
was nabbed 
at Two Rivers

A man who allegedly filled his backpack and pants pockets with items without paying for them at a downtown Grand Junction store was eventually caught after burglarizing another business, according to court records. Caleb Hovland, 21, was ordered jailed on $10,000 bond following his arrest Thursday afternoon on suspicion of misdemeanor theft and first-degree burglary with a weapon. An arrest affidavit in Hovland’s case says while Grand Junction police officers were responding to a ...

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Skeleton found near Gateway

A human skeleton recovered Friday from inside a partially buried car southwest of Gateway may resolve a missing person case that’s more than two decades old, a spokesman for the Mesa County Sheriff’s Department said Friday. “We have a family that’s been left without answers a very long time and we’d certainly love through our work and that of the coroner’s office to bring some closure to them,” said Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Matt Lewis. A ...

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Cops: Man admits assault on girl, 7

A former Clifton volunteer firefighter was arrested Wednesday after admitting he’d sexually assaulted a 7-year-old girl last year at a Fruitvale apartment, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Russell Dogert, 23, of Eckert, was ordered jailed Thursday on $50,000 bond following his arrest on suspicion of sexual assault on a child, sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and child enticement. According to the affidavit, investigators pursued a warrant for ...

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Informants: Drug ring behind 2 murders

Police informants who kick-started an investigation into a western Colorado drug ring rumored to have operated for a decade claimed the organization was linked to two murders and the recording and sale of child pornography, among other activities, according to thousands of records reviewed by The Daily Sentinel. The records, including reports to a judge filed by law enforcement, show wiretaps intercepted more than 30,000 phone calls or text messages over four months among 11 targeted ...

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Notes at boys’ grave pique cops’ interest

A hand-written letter and photos with a birthday card discovered last weekend at the Palisade graves of young William and Tyler Jensen may have been sent by the boys’ incarcerated mother, the boys’ grandfather said Thursday. Robert Mathena of Clifton, grandfather of William and Tyler, said his stepson, Johnny, discovered a series of items tucked in an envelope near the headstones of William, Tyler and their father, Eric, at Palisade Municipal Cemetery on Sunday. The items were ...

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Pair guilty in killing in fall 2012

Two men charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of a man on Orchard Mesa are assured prison sentences after making guilty pleas Thursday. Aaron Ungles, 26, will serve anywhere from 20 to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder under an agreement with the District Attorney’s Office relating to the October 2012 slaying of 38-year-old Rigoberto Luna. Ungles’ co-defendant, Nathan Dennis, 28, faces 28 to 40 years in prison after pleading guilty ...

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Plea deal offered to Jensen

A plea offer has been made in the case of a Palisade mother accused of causing her young sons’ deaths by overheating last winter. Thea Reiff, a public defender representing Heather Jensen, said the District Attorney’s Office formally extended an agreement her client is considering, but didn’t mention details Wednesday during what was scheduled to be a preliminary hearing before District Judge Valerie Robison. Assistant District Attorney Rich Tuttle later declined to ...

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Plea offer made in Jensen case

A plea offer has been made in the case of a Palisade mother accused of causing her young sons’ deaths by overheating last winter. Thea Reiff, a public defender representing Heather Jensen, said the District Attorney’s Office formally extended an agreement her client is considering, but didn’t mention details Wednesday during what was scheduled to be a preliminary hearing before District Judge Valerie Robison. Assistant District Attorney Rich Tuttle later declined comment ...

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Judge gave meth dealer chance, and she blew it

Mesa County Chief District Judge David Bottger on Tuesday said he had “no regrets” about his decision to alter a sentence for a reputed large-scale methamphetamine dealer — opting for treatment over prison — despite the dealer’s recent arrest after walking away from treatment. Starlyn Marie Tait, 31, was sentenced on Tuesday by Bottger to serve eight years in prison. She could potentially be parole eligible in less than two years. “I don’t regret ...

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No flight of fancy

“When you leave,” a joking voice says in the distance to a reporter, “we’ll put the missiles and hand grenades on it.” On a quiet, windswept spring afternoon off 32 Road, Mesa County Sheriff’s Department quartermaster Ben Miller was having fun in his element: demonstrating the latest application for the agency’s fixed-wing unmanned Falcon airplane. The shows are old hat for Miller these days. He appeared recently in National Geographic, right ...

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36 indicted in huge drug sting

In a sweeping investigation by local and federal law enforcement with suspects moving between destinations such as Southern California and Atlanta, a grand jury indictment accuses 36 people of various roles in an alleged drug organization that was selling pounds of methamphetamine and cocaine in Mesa County and being supplied by a source in Mexico. The organization, accused of crimes dating back to December in Mesa and Garfield counties, was brought down by surveillance including ...

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Teen drunk in triple-fatal canyon crash

A teenager behind the wheel of an Audi who was killed along with two passengers in Glenwood Canyon earlier this month had consumed more than three times Colorado’s legal limit for alcohol while driving. The driver, Brianda Zavala, 18, of Glenwood Springs, registered a blood-alcohol concentration of .241 percent, according to a toxicology report released Tuesday by the Garfield County Coroner’s Office. Zavala on April 14 was wearing her seatbelt when the Audi she driving ...

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Man killed in crash with dump truck

The Colorado State Patrol is investigating a fatal two-vehicle accident Tuesday south of Montrose involving a Montrose County-owned dump truck. Blaine Tankersley, 26, of Montrose, was driving south on U.S. Highway 550 in a Ford F250 pickup truck when he crashed into the rear of a Montrose County dump truck, which had slowed to turn left on Racine Road, Trooper Nate Reid said. The crash was reported at 7:52 a.m. The dump truck driver, Jack Veete, 46, of Delta, was treated and released ...

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Brainard seeks 
OK to return to 
Redlands home

Grand Junction City Councilor-elect Rick Brainard wants to go home. Through attorney Stephen Laiche, Brainard, 51, filed a motion seeking to modify bond conditions and allow him to return to his Redlands home. The filing says Brainard’s alleged victim in his domestic violence case has communicated her intent to leave the home by today. “She has confirmed the same with counsel and will confirm same with the Deputy District Attorney,” Laiche wrote in the motion, filed on ...

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Sex offender’s ‘immunity’ appeal rejected

The Colorado Court of Appeals rejected an appeal last week from an imprisoned Grand Junction sex offender who claimed his confinement was illegal because of “diplomatic immunity” and sovereignty from the United States — an argument he apparently made in writing to President Barack Obama. Tye J. Smith, 40, who is being held at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex, is serving 10 years to life after his 2001 guilty plea to sexual assault on a child by a person in a position ...

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Montrose rural fire district lands grant of $382,000

The Montrose Rural Fire Protection District has won a $382,051 competitive grant to enhance firefighting efforts in the region, the office of U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., announced Friday. The grant, administered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, will be used to purchasie supplies and personal protective equipment. “Coloradans know weather conditions throughout the state can change quickly, and the persistent dry conditions have firefighters preparing for another ...

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Chamber hedges bets on Brainard

Choosing to reply to queries on its Facebook page, the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce says it is “troubled” by domestic violence allegations against Councilor-elect Rick Brainard and pledges to review its position on Brainard at a later point. “The Chamber is concerned about the allegations against Mr. Brainard ... and while these are indeed troubling allegations they are just that at this point,” reads a chamber reply to the several Facebook posts from ...

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Affidavit: Suspect cites weeklong meth binge

A man whose alleged wild ride around Grand Junction on Wednesday saw him crashing into a police car said he’d used methamphetamine for about a week straight — not sleeping in as many days — and couldn’t remember what happened on Wednesday, according to an arrest affidavit. Karl Carothers, 33, said Thursday when contacted by police he could have intentionally slammed into a police patrol car driven by Grand Junction officer Marshall Dixon on Wednesday, but he had no ...

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Cops seek driver who hit officer, then fled

Police Wednesday night were looking for a driver who allegedly sideswiped a Grand Junction police patrol cruiser. Neither the officer nor the prisoner he was transporting were injured in a collision which witnesses said happened around 4 p.m. in the 1200 block of Ute Avenue. A witness said the driver of a PT Cruiser appeared to intentionally hit the officer’s vehicle, police said in a news release. Several officers were initially called out on a report of a reckless driver on North ...

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Man agrees to plea deal in 2012 slaying

A man whose testimony helped convict his brother of first-degree murder may avoid prison in connection with the fatal stabbing of a Fruita man last spring. Jose Ortiz, 31, pleaded guilty Wednesday to criminal trespass of an auto, tampering with physical evidence and misdemeanor third-degree assault for his role in the March 1, 2012, stabbing death of 31-year-old Abel Roper. Jose Ortiz faces as little as probation and a maximum four-year, six-month sentence to prison under the terms of an ...

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GJ Police: Driver wanted after sideswiping officer’s cruiser

Police this evening are looking for a driver who sideswiped a Grand Junction police patrol cruiser. Neither the officer nor the prisoner he was transporting were injured in a collision which witnesses said happened around 4 p.m. in the 1200 block of Ute Avenue. A witness said the driver of a PT Cruiser appeared to intentionally hit the officer’s vehicle, police said in a news release. Several officers were initially called out on a report of a reckless driver on North Avenue ...

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Suspect in 2011 crime wave back in Mesa County

A man accused in a crime wave in Mesa County during 2011 appeared Tuesday in a local courtroom to face charges. Dartanin D. Mitchell, 35, may have his two local felony cases set for trial during his next court appearance on Tuesday before District Judge Richard Gurley. Mitchell was returned to Mesa County after being sentenced on April 1 to serve 16 years in prison in connection with four armed robberies in Denver and Jefferson counties. Mitchell is charged locally with child abuse ...

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Abandoned BB gun links suspect to robbery in 2012, affidavit says

A man who was arrested following a standoff with police on Thursday was linked to a September 2012 armed robbery in Grand Junction after his DNA turned up on a BB gun left behind after the robbery, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Skylar D. Kesterson, 23, who was already serving felony probation, was taken into custody around 11:30 p.m. Thursday at Mesa Inn, 704 Horizon Drive, shortly after Grand Junction police SWAT officers fired tear gas inside his room. Officers who searched ...

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Affidavit: DNA links Horizon standoff suspect to robbery

A man who was arrested following a standoff with police on Thursday was linked to a September 2012 armed robbery in Grand Junction after his DNA turned up on a BB pistol believed to have been used during the robbery, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Skylar D. Kesterson, 23, who was already serving felony probation, was taken into custody around 11:30 p.m. Thursday at Mesa Inn, 704 Horizon Dr., shortly after Grand Junction police SWAT officers fired tear gas inside his room. ...

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Man not drunk or high in Crawford confrontation

A Montrose County man who shot a sheriff’s deputy before turning a gun on himself last month was not under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs, according to the Montrose County Coroner’s Office. Toxicology tests, the results of which were received late last week, showed 52-year-old Kent Calhoun had a blood-alcohol level “well below” 0.08 percent, Colorado’s legal threshold for driving under the influence of alcohol, Montrose Coroner Dr. Thomas Canfield ...

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Judge won’t excuse Brainard from court

Embattled City Councilor-elect Rick Brainard must show up for court, a Mesa County judge ruled Friday. County Judge Craig Henderson issued an order denying a request, lodged by Brainard’s attorney, Stephen Laiche, which asked the judge to waive Brainard’s required presence during a status conference scheduled for 8 a.m. May 6 at the Mesa County Justice Center. “Defendant must appear as previously ordered,” Henderson said in a handwritten notation to the order ...

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DA: Father killed son in self-defense

Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said Friday that he won’t pursue criminal charges against a 75-year-old father who shot and killed his adult son after the father said he was attacked in bed at the family’s Grand Junction home in February. “Given the totality of the circumstances I am in fact convinced that Gary Meier was acting reasonably and legally when he took the actions he did,” Hautzinger wrote in a letter to Grand Junction police detective Sean ...

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Molester faces 15 years-to-life

A former Palisade music instructor faces prison after pleading guilty to charges he molested a young girl. James David Tiner, 59, faces a sentence of 15 years to life in prison after pleading guilty Friday to sexual assault on a child as a pattern of abuse and a separate count of sexual assault on a child. “I don’t want people to have to go through this trial,” Tiner said when asked why he was pleading guilty. He will be sentenced June 14 by District Judge Richard ...

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Man gets life
 plus 146 years 
for murder 
in 2012 case

A 30-year-old man was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his first-degree murder conviction in the 2012 stabbing death of a Fruita man. Julio Ortiz was also sentenced by District Judge Brian Flynn to serve 146 years following his conviction on habitual criminal charges. Ortiz had five prior felony convictions. Deputy District Attorney Bo Zeerip said his office decided to press for a sentence in the habitual criminal case — despite the mandatory ...

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Affidavit: Man dealt synthetic drug

A Clifton man was arrested Thursday night on allegations he sold several sheets of a relatively new synthetic drug to a police informant. Joseph E. Bounds, 25, was booked on suspicion of several drug-related charges, including a special offender charge, after Western Colorado Drug Task force officers last night arranged a deal to purchase a hallucinogen — “25c” or “25i” — through a confidential informant at Bounds’ residence, 532 34 Road, Unit A, ...

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Voter organizes protest urging Brainard to quit

A Grand Junction woman who said she voted for City Councilor-elect Rick Brainard is organizing a demonstration today calling for Brainard to decline elected office. Linda Moran was granted an application, which was filed with the City Clerk’s office Wednesday, for a “demonstration against domestic violence, Rick Brainard.” It’s scheduled for 11 a.m. today on the south side of City Hall, 250 N. Fifth St., which faces Rood Avenue. Moran reserved the space for two ...

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DNA helps seal fatal crash arrest

DNA testing — made possible by attentive traffic investigators and crime-scene technicians of the Grand Junction Police Department — helped show a Grand Junction man was driving in a January 2011 rollover crash on D 1/2 Road that killed a 39-year-old man, according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Jason W. Shriver, 38, was ordered held Thursday at the Mesa County Jail on $10,000 bond, one day after his arrest on suspicion of vehicular homicide while under the influence of drugs ...

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Demonstration planned at City Hall against Brainard

A Grand Junction woman who said she voted for City Councilor-elect Rick Brainard is now organizing a demonstration Friday morning calling for Brainard to decline elected office. Linda Moran was granted an application, which was filed with the City Clerk’s office Wednesday, for a “demonstration against domestic violence, Rick Brainard.” It’s scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday along the south side of City Hall, 250 N. Fifth St., which faces Rood Avenue. Moran’s ...

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Authorities: Cause of lodge fire a mystery

While an investigation was still in its early stages Wednesday, there was no immediate indication a blaze that destroyed a decades-old lodge on Grand Mesa had suspicious origins, Delta County Undersheriff Mark Taylor said. Delta sheriff’s investigators, accompanied by agents of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, spent a good portion of Wednesday at the charred remains of Thunder Mountain Lodge, 20658 Baron Lake Drive. Taylor said the lodge owner, Mark Stewart, called 911 around ...

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