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Denver deputies disciplined for what resident caught them doing in park

DENVER — Two Denver County Deputies are being disciplined for what they were caught doing in Washington Park.

A resident, who is afraid to be identified, contacted the FOX31 investigative team, after he saw the deputies parked illegally right across from the running trail.

He said when he approached the cops he noticed they were both smoking cigars in a Denver county van and scoping women. “They are not the police, they are the sheriff and they were both kicking back smoking cigars in a taxpayer vehicle.”

The resident asked the deputies what they were doing in the park, but the deputies brushed him off. The resident told us it was obvious that the deputies were there for the “women running around, scantily clad.”

The resident snapped several pictures of the illegally parked van and the smoking guns inside, then he sent them to the Denver County Sheriff’s Department and FOX31 along with an email demanding answers:

Adams County tells Denver to return land annexed for DIA in 1988

DENVER — A dispute between Adams County and Denver over development near Denver International Airport went to a new level Friday.

Adams County demanded Denver return land annexed 25 years ago to build DIA.

Heidi Miller, the acting Adams County attorney sent a letter to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock saying Denver’s plans to develop DIA violate the agreement signed between the two governments decades ago. Read the letter here.

Denver Zoo gets new elephant in effort to support endangered species

5-year-old Billy. Courtesy Denver Zoo.

5-year-old Billy. Courtesy Denver Zoo.

By Stephanie Wolf
For KDVR.com

DENVER – Later this summer, the Denver Zoo plans to welcome a young, male Asian elephant from Belgium’s Antwerpen Zoo. The 5-year-old elephant will be the third bull in the zoo’s newest $50 million state-of-the-art animal exhibit, Toyota Elephant Passage.

Previously named Budi, Denver Zoo plans to rename him Billy in honor of the late William Chenoweth, a long-time zoo supporter.

Parker Police investigate possible kidnapping of child

PARKER, Colo. — Police were looking for a 9-year-old boy Thursday night who may have been kidnapped.

They were searching for a child by the name of Marcel who they say called 911 on a cell phone to say he had been kidnapped and was in the back of a car.

The call came between 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. according to Parker Police spokesman Sgt. Andrew Coleman.

The caller on the phone told a dispatcher he was walking to a grocery store when a white man grabbed him and put him inside the trunk of a blue Subaru wagon.

Police: 13-year-old rollerblader hit pickup in east Denver

DENVER — Police originally issued an alert about a hit-and-run driver they were looking for in a black pickup truck Thursday evening. But they quickly decided the case wasn’t quite what they first thought it was.

They determined later that a 13-year-old boy was rollerblading in the 9200 block of E. 13th Ave. in the Stapleton neighborhood and ran into the pickup truck.

Denver Police spokesman Sonny Jackson says the impact was so minor and the way the wind was howling, it’s possible the driver never even knew the teen ran into the truck.

Officers say it happened at about 5:50 p.m. Their initial investigation revealed the 13-year-old was at fault.

Man who kidnapped, sexually assaulted young girl sentenced to at least 24 years

DENVER – A man convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl was sentenced to at least 24 years in prison Thursday.

Bret Lee Thompson, 28, was convicted of snatching the victim from an alley on June 2, 2011, driving her to his Aurora home and assaulting her. He then dropped her off at a gas station.

“My daughter has been marked by this and will be the rest of our lives,” the victim’s mother said Thursday. “She will no longer be able to live a normal life now.”

During the trial, the victim took the stand, pointing out Thompson as the man who had attacked her.

Thompson, who pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity due to a dissociative disorder, wrote a letter to the judge in the case in an apparent attempt to apologize. The letter included a few poems and a note.

Former preschool teacher pleads guilty in child porn case

DENVER — Former preschool teacher David Moe pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography Thursday.

Moe, 46, taught at Paddington Station in Denver for 18 years.

In federal court today, he admitted he had been receiving and distributing child pornography since 2000.   Moe told investigators he preferred to look at sexually explicit pictures of girls as young as four years old.

He faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in September.

Detectives found about 380 CDs as well as DVDs in his home. He was arrested in July.

“At least 800,000 child pornography/erotica images and over 13,000 child pornography/erotica videos were located on the defendant’s computers and computer media, including the video that had been made available to the undercover detective in May 2012,” said US DA spokesman Jeff Dorschner.