Jury selection begins in court-martial

AIR FORCE ACADEMY — Jury selection began Friday in the court-martial of an Air Force Academy cadet accused of raping another cadet.

Senior cadet Benjamin D. Kuster is charged with rape and commission of indecent acts. He faces up to life in prison if convicted by a jury of officers.

Attorneys were to argue Saturday morning on a change-of-venue motion. They planned to wait until after the jury was selected to argue moving the trial to see how much the jurors knew about the case.

If the change-of-venue motion is rejected, opening statements would begin Saturday.

Kuster, who is set to graduate next week, is accused of raping the woman May 2, 2004, during a cadet diving club field trip to New Mexico. During an evidence hearing earlier this year, the woman said she was too intoxicated to consent to Kuster’s advances.

The alleged victim has graduated and is a commissioned Air Force officer.

The court-martial had been scheduled to begin Tuesday but was delayed after Kuster’s lawyer said new evidence needed to be examined. Lawyers also argued behind closed doors whether the victim’s past sexual encounters could be used as evidence. The alleged victim and Katherine Ivey, Kuster’s girlfriend at the time, took part in at least some of the closed hearing. Ivey is still a cadet.

During a hearing in November, witnesses testified that Kuster said he was drunk and may have mistaken the alleged victim for his girlfriend. The woman testified that she awoke and found a man she believed to be Kuster assaulting her, but said he stopped when she asked “What about Kat?” referring to Ivey.

In the wake of a sex assault scandal in 2003, academy officials have warned cadets to make sure they have informed consent before having sex with anyone. Under Colorado law, a person who is intoxicated cannot give informed consent.

Lt. Gen. John Rosa, academy superintendent, ordered the court-martial after reviewing evidence from the November hearing.

No extra water in Colorado River for endangered fish

GRAND JUNCTION — A voluntary program to put more water in the Colorado River to help endangered fish isn’t feasible this year because all the snowmelt will be used to refill drought-drained reservoirs, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said.

The Coordinated Reservoir Operations Program, established in 1995, arranges releases through six dams in the Colorado River basin in Colorado to improve habitat and facilitate spawning of the Colorado pikeminnow and the razorback sucker.

The Bureau of Reclamation said Thursday the operators of the Granby, Dillon, Green Mountain, Wolford, Williams Fork and Ruedi reservoirs have said they need all the spring and summer runoff from mountain snows to rebuild storage after years of drought.

The drought has allowed extra releases for the fish in just three of the past 10 years.

The snowpack in the Colorado River basin stood at 94 percent of the 30-year average on Friday.

Three killed in separate traffic accidents

PALISADE — Two men were killed and two injured when the pickup truck they were in was struck by a Union Pacific train in Mesa County.

The Colorado State Patrol said the truck’s driver, Warren Scott Hampton, 37, of Loma, and passenger Robert Keith Hampton, 38, of Grand Junction were killed instantly when the crash occurred at a railroad crossing Thursday afternoon. It was unclear whether they were related.

State Patrol Trooper Ron Greasley said a “black box” from the train should help police determine exactly how fast the train was moving and whether the two conductors had activated the emergency brake.

The collision occurred about three hours after another traffic accident near Palisade, in which a 55-year-old Mesa woman was killed in a head-on crash on Interstate 70. The woman drifted into oncoming traffic and struck a minivan.

Bills signed and vetoed by the governor Friday

• Gov. Bill Owens vetoed a bill (Senate Bill 28) that would have outlawed workplace discrimination against homosexuals, but he allowed another measure (House Bill 1014) to become law adding gays and lesbians and the disabled to the list of people

protected under the state’s existing hate crimes statutes.

• Owens also vetoed House Bill 1245 that would have required the state to compile a list of large companies whose workers depend on public benefits programs like Medicaid to cover their health care costs.

• Owens vetoed House Bill 1001, which would have barred lawmakers from raiding user fees to pay the government’s general operating expenses unless they had two-thirds support from the Legislature. A lawsuit was filed and a District Court judge ruled the state did not violate the constitution by using that money to balance the budget the past three years. Owens said it would have eliminated an important fiscal tool needed to balance the budget.

• Owens vetoed House Bill 1109, creating a committee to study sentencing of juveniles convicted as adults.



• Owens allowed a measure raising caps for combined temporary disability payments and permanent partial disability payments by 25 percent to become law. Owens said he is generally against such bills, but allowed it because it reflected a compromise with the private sector dealing with payments that have not increased in 15 years.

• Owens signed House Bill 1035 that will allow police and sheriff’s departments to post sex offender registries on the internet.

• Owens signed a measure (House Bill 1306) that will suspend for six months the driver’s license of adults who provide liquor to minors. Lawmakers said the punishment is warranted even if a vehicle was not used to purchase liquor because of the danger to minors.