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Stories used here are reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Pueblo woman arrested after Interstate 25 chase
Violence — and solutions — not simple in Denver
Security woman runs over rival and leaves her for dead
Denver woman assaults boyfriend with shoe
Denver Nuggets' top draftee Julius Hodge accused of assault by woman on probation for domestic violence
According to the Wednesday, January 19, 2005, Colorado Springs Gazette (p. Metro 3) 25-year-old Rosita Espinoza of Pueblo broke her estranged husband's car windows and then led police on an 18-mile high-speed chase on Interstate 25 on Tuesday.
El Paso County Sheriff's Office said Ms. Espinoza broke her ex-husband's car window with a shovel during an argument in El Paso County and fled before deputies arrived. She was spotted 45-minutes later heading south on I-25.
Police gave chase at speeds up to 110 miles per hour until she lost control trying to avoid spikes put on the road by the Colorado Highway Patrol. She was not injured in the crash and tried to run from police.
Ms. Espinoza was arrested on suspicion of criminal mischief, harassment, eluding police, and felony domestic violence.
© 2005 by Jim Spencer, Denver Post
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
Friday, January 21, 2005 — I guess it was the sight of the old man that forced our hand. He sat in a puddle of melting snow where he had fallen, leaning against the side of a parked car for support. Had he had the strength to stand — which he clearly didn't — he could not have risen.
Above him, in broad daylight before a small parade of passers-by, a tall woman beat the tar out of a short woman in a red hooded sweat shirt.
Finishing up a lunchtime jog Wednesday, Post reporter Chuck Plunkett and I ran headlong into the urban violence that many of Denver's poor and homeless face all the time. Most of us in the city's middle class never have to deal with it. When we do, we face the very dilemmas with which we happily judge the less fortunate.
Plunkett and I saw people calling 911 on cellphones. We knew the police would be there soon.
Plunkett would say later that he' d have passed by but for the old man. I wish I could muster the same moral certainty. Had I been alone, I fear I would not have intervened under any circumstances.
As it was, we stepped into the melee to try to stop the fight. My timing was less than impeccable. The short woman nailed me in the chin with a roundhouse right meant for her taller adversary, who was about my height, 6 feet.
Plunkett and I shouted for the women to stop. The old man cowered.
We herded the taller woman away. She reeked of alcohol. It was 1 in the afternoon.
Truth in the eye of the beholder filled the void in the violence.
The tall woman hissed that the short woman had on “my man's red sweat shirt.”
Not true, replied the short woman, who had a black eye and a fat lip.
The tall woman had knocked the old man down, the short woman charged.
Not true, the tall woman shouted. The old man had tried to choke her.
That's right, piped in the tall woman's sidekick, who was watching it all go down.
No, it's wrong, croaked the old man, who said he was only trying to pull the tall woman off the short woman.
Here was the essence of the violence that so bedevils America. It's never as simply distinguished or as easily extinguished as we want. Even when you can tell the good guys from the bad, circumstances extenuate. And as the sore spot on my jaw attests, there's a point where physics overtakes intent.
Violence rushes on a torrent of raw emotion, fueled by anger, fear, adrenaline, confusion and substance abuse. In real time, the recipe leads to neither reason nor restraint.
The tall woman kept coming after the short woman and the old man, pointing past me at the red sweat shirt and promising all manner of havoc to reclaim it. Finally, Plunkett pushed her away and told her to leave.
Cursing, she spit on him twice. First, saliva hit his legs, then his bare chest.
Now, Plunkett was the focus of her rage, and you got a glimpse of how a street fight between two people could suck in any number of folks who really have no stake in it.
Finally, the tall woman and her sidekick walked away.
As they disappeared around a corner, a guy in a suit helped me lift the old man from the ground, wet and uncomfortable but otherwise unhurt.
The old man told us the tall woman used to live with a guy who rented a basement apartment from him. The old man said he had thrown the tall woman out for “doing things.”
I didn't get a chance to ask what. The police arrived. Plunkett and I wrote our statements along with a half-dozen other witnesses. Then, the two of us jogged down the street.
We joked about me being beaten up by a girl. But we both knew that judging anyone for their reaction to what we' d just encountered wasn't funny. Individually, we sorted through our motives for what we did. Mostly, though, I wondered if I could do it again.
Jim Spencer's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
According to the March 25, 2005, Colorado Springs Gazette (p. Metro1) Meagan Marie Holland, 28, fled in her car after deliberately running down Novella Jean Clark, 25, as she walked along Alturas Drive in Security Tuesday evening, March 22 nd . Ms. Clark was left for dead. She was found critically injured and unconscious on the side of the road about 4:40 AM on Wednesday morning by a delivery man.
Ms. Clark was taken to Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs where she was found to have suffered a fractured skull. Her condition was listed as critical but she is expected to recover.
Investigators got a break in the case Wednesday afternoon when an acquaintance of Ms. Holland came forward with information about the hit-and-run attack. Peggy Sue Jones, 41, told police that she heard from one Richard Thorpe that their mutual friend, Meagan Holland, had hit a woman with her car. When contacted, Thorpe, 29, told investigators that Ms. Holland and Ms. Clark were arguing Tuesday evening in his front yard about a man. Apparently Ms. Clark was alleged to have had sex with Meagan Holland's common-law husband.
According to Mr. Thorpe, Ms. Clark then walked away along Alturas Drive and Meagan Holland left in her 1996 Pontiac Grand Am. A few minutes later Meagan called Mr. Thorpe and told him to go to bed. Then shortly afterwards Ms. Holland called Thorpe again and told him she had run over Ms. Clark according to an affidavit.
Novella Clark was found about one-tenth of a mile from Thorpe's home where Ms. Holland and Ms. Clark had been sharing a room in Richard Thorpe's house. However, Mr. Thorpe is apparently not Meagan Holland's common law husband.
After her arrest Ms. Holland confessed to running down Novella Clark and then fleeing. Her car was found abandoned at Fillmore Street and Union Boulevard in Colorado Springs on Wednesday.
Meagan Holland told investigators that she used methamphetamine before deliberately running down Novella Clark. Ms. Holland's prior criminal record in Colorado includes a conviction for possession/consumption of alcohol by a minor, menacing, theft, and two counts of driving with a revoked or suspended license.
As of March 23, 2005, Meagan Marie Holland was being held for attempted first-degree murder with bond set at $100,000.
According to the July 27, 2005, edition of the Denver Daily News (p. 7) a 23-year-old Denver woman was arrested on July 26 th after assaulting her boyfriend, sending him to the hospital at about 3 AM in an altercation that occurred in the 700 block of South Krameria.
A witness told police that the woman became furious with the man and began yelling at him. She took off her high-heel shoe and began to beat the victim with it, causing a laceration to his head.
Denver Police arrived a short time later and arrested and jailed the woman. She will face multiple charges, including aggravated assault.
The victim was taken to Denver General Hospital where he received stitches to his head and was treated for other injuries.
Abstracted from articles by Jim Kirksey, Adam Thompson, and Kirk Mitchell, Denver Post
Reproduced under the Fair Use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use.
October 18, 2005 — In a case reminiscent of the Kobe Bryant fiasco Denver police are investigating an accusation that the Nuggets' No. 1 draft pick, and former North Carolina State guard Julius Hodge attempted to sexually assault a 37-year-old woman in his near-downtown condominium at 300 West 11 th Avenue on October 12, 2005, between 11 and 11:15 PM. Earlier that day she was fired from a restaurant job she had held for two weeks.
Denver police Detective John White said: “What is being alleged is criminal attempt sexual assault. It is an active investigation. We are taking it seriously. No arrest has been made, but Mr. Hodge is cooperating.”
Police did not ask Hodge to leave the team on its road swing and return early to Denver and he hasn't yet been interviewed regarding the complaint, Hodge's attorney Rick Kornfeld said. “We are in the process of trying to arrange that.” Plans are for Hodge to be interviewed when the team returns. “The DA was comfortable with that,” Kornfeld said. “We are cooperating. We think these allegations are baseless. No equivocation. He categorically denies these allegations and categorically denies he did anything wrong, committed any crime.”
Hodge didn't know the woman well according to Kornfeld and apparently the woman expected him to “wine and dine” her, and he wasn't willing to do that. “There's also some evidence to indicate she was aware he was a professional basketball player,” he said, and “The allegation is completely false and appears to be financially motivated.”
“Unfortunately these guys are in a very vulnerable position because of what they do for a living,” Kornfeld said. “For somebody in the position of being a professional athlete, the mere allegation can be devastating to their career and to their family. Here's a guy who hasn't even played a game yet. He did not do this. He did not do anything.” [EJF note: Such allegations are a disaster for any man.]
Further investigation reported in the October 27, 2005, Denver Post (p. 1B-4B) revealed that the woman who accused Julius Hodge has been convicted of crimes in four states, including domestic violence in Colorado and perjury in California.
The woman, 37, was arrested days after she reported the alleged incident with Hodge for violating conditions of her probation on a menacing conviction in which she held a butcher knife to her husband's throat according to Jefferson County District Court records. She was released on bail October 21, 2005, from the Jefferson County Detention Facility.
According to records, the woman was sentenced to probation in 1985 for misdemeanor larceny in New Hanover County, North Carolina.
In 1989, she was named in two misdemeanor check-writing cases in Alamance County, North Carolina, according to a court clerk. Authorities have not served her with an arrest summons, but those cases are still pending.
In 1999, she served 2 1/2 months in the Bucks County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania for an aggravated assault conviction, a jail official said.
In 2002, prosecutors in Fresno, California, charged her with four counts of perjury and welfare fraud after she was overpaid $9,798 in food stamps and welfare payments, according to Fresno County Superior Court records. She failed to report child-support payments she received from her former husband, records show. She served a 45-day jail sentence and was on probation for three years after she pled no contest to one felony county of perjury.
On November 24, 2003, the woman held a butcher knife to the throat of another former husband, according to Jefferson County records. She was convicted of felony menacing in April 2004 and sentenced to three years probation.
In a July 7, 2005, letter, she gave a judge a glimpse of what her life was like after felony menacing conviction. A pregnancy ended in a stillborn delivery after a doctor discovered her fetus was dead. She has been in and out of a domestic violence shelter [EJF note: She is convicted of domestic violence and then given shelter at taxpayer's expense!] and was forced to deal with the molestation of her daughter by a former day-care owner. She began drinking to self-medicate and said: “I am having a hard time coping with my personal life,” she said in the letter to the judge.
In a group therapy session, she called herself a
“predator of men,”
and was subsequently prohibited from having men at her house, records show.
She has also violated terms of her probation several times by breaking her 7 PM curfew, according to a report by her probation officer. The incident with Hodge proved that she had violated her curfew again, according to court documents.
The Denver Post is withholding the woman's name because she alleges she was a victim of an attempted sexual assault. Efforts to reach the woman for comment were unsuccessful.
In an obligatory, ideologically-based redfem dogmatic statement, Sandi Garcia, spokeswoman for the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said she is concerned that rehashing the woman's background might prevent victims in other sex-assault cases from coming forward. “If it was a mugging, we wouldn't begin to look at her past,” Ms. Garcia said. Unfortunately, reports of similar false allegations are a routine occurrence for the Equal Justice Foundation and we strongly recommend a background check on the accuser in all such cases. We maintain the naive assumption that a citizen should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Fortunately for Louis Hodge, spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough for Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey pointed out that “The bottom line is that there is an inability to prove a charge beyond a reasonable doubt. We've declined to file,” according to the November 4, 2004 Denver Post (p. 1B-3B).
December 13, 2005 — According to the Denver Post (p. 2B) a man was stabbed at a downtown Denver intersection just before 5 PM Monday, December 12 th , and a woman was taken into custody, said police Detective Virginia Lopez. Police believe the stabbing stemmed from an argument between the woman and the man.
Lopez said the stabbing occurred at 16 th and Stout streets and the suspect climbed on a Regional Transportation District light-rail car in an attempt to escape.
Thanks to witness descriptions of the woman, Denver officers were able to stop the train, find the woman and take her into custody. Officers impounded the southbound train for the investigation.
The identities of the victim and the suspect have not been released.
The man was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, but his condition wasn't known.
[EJF note: This short statement is all the information on the public stabbing of a man in a domestic argument in downtown Denver. Had it been a woman stabbed in similar circumstances there would have been headlines, pictures, and many column inches with follow-up interviews with the NCADV, CCADV, and other sob sisters.]
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