A troubled Western Slope mental health care center falsified assessments of its patients’ conditions for at least nine years in an effort to make its treatment programs seem more effective and secure funding from the state, whistleblowers say. The state overlooked what former workers describe as a long practice by the Grand Junction-based Mind Springs […]
Susan Greene, Colorado News Collaborative
Colorado News Collaborative
Email: Susan@colabnews.co Twitter: @greeneindenver
Posted inCrime and Courts, Equity, News
Kiowa County will pay $9.5 million to settle wrongful death of man shot 3 times in the back by deputies
Kiowa County has reached a $9.5 million settlement with the family of Zach Gifford, the unarmed local handyman shot three times in the back by its undersheriff and a rookie deputy in 2020. The amount exceeds the county’s $7.5 million annual budget, but is less than the $10 million maximum its insurance policy would cover. […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
Fatal shooting lawsuit alleges culture of excessive force in Kiowa County
By Susan Greene, Colorado News Collaborative Kiowa County Sheriff’s Department’s pattern of condoning illegal searches and tolerating excessive force led to last year’s killing of a handyman by the local undersheriff and a rookie deputy, a federal civil rights lawsuit alleges. The complaint, filed Wednesday on behalf of the late Zach Gifford’s family, comes as […]
Posted inCrime and Courts, News
Kiowa County deputy accused of killing unarmed man had history of using deadly force
An Eastern Plains deputy had twice used deadly force under questionable circumstances in the months before his involvement in the killing of an unarmed man during a routine traffic stop last year, public records show. Documents obtained by the Colorado News Collaborative also reveal that the same former Kiowa County sheriff’s deputy, Quinten Stump, had […]
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, News
How a rural Colorado traffic stop left a man dead and a sheriff’s deputy facing criminal charges
KIOWA COUNTY – Nearly a year has passed since a traffic stop ended with Undersheriff Tracy Weisenhorn and Deputy Quinten Stump shooting Zach Gifford, the unarmed passenger, in a nearby field, three bullets in his back. In the 11 months since the 39-year-old handyman’s death in Brandon on April 9, 2020, a state criminal investigation has concluded, […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, Health, News
On Edge: After wanting to die, an Aurora teen is now learning to live
Navee Essien has grown up keenly aware of her gifts. More times than she can count, people have reminded the senior at Aurora’s Rangeview High how fortunate she is to have a close family and strong support system, academic and athletic talent, ease making friends, and the kind of smarts, beauty and confidence that make […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
On Edge: How friendship has been a mental-health safety net for two Colorado nurses battling coronavirus
It started about four years ago when Laurel Carpenter and Melissa Humphrey bought matching parkas and then matching comfort shoes. Soon enough, the nurses-slash-best friends from Grand Junction found themselves with matching Chihuahua-print leggings and matching hoodies with fleece-lined pockets in which they carry their matching Chihuahuas. Then came the matching housecoats they exchanged for […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health
On Edge: With family missing in Ethiopia’s civil war, Denver woman says her “mind is the hardest place to be”
Millete Birhanemaskel, a refugee, long-time Denver resident and businesswoman, grappled with 2020 as many others have: She tried to protect her family, her employees, her tenants from COVID’s reach. She worried about the presidential election. And she managed to keep her coffee shop, the Whittier Cafe, from going under. She knew already what it was […]
Posted inHealth
On Edge: Colorado’s behavioral health chief opens up about his own severe depression
Some words fail us, and for Robert Werthwein, “depression” is one of them. The 41-year-old director of Colorado’s Behavioral Health Office prefers to say “everything turned to complete shit” when his identical twin, Ryan, died of a brain tumor a week before their 15th birthdays, and that his life pretty much sucked for the decade […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Health
On Edge: Heightened anxiety, depression are testing Colorado’s already-frayed safety nets
On Denver’s west side, an elderly man had been managing his solitude just fine until the pandemic hit, taking with it what social life he had and leaving in its place a loneliness he had not felt for years. Not far from his house, a young woman fights panic attacks after COVID-19 killed her grandfather […]