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High Country Crime: ‘I hate him so much, I wrote a song about it’

A sheriff’s deputy responded Tuesday, Nov. 7, to an assault call on the 100 block of Silverton Circle in Battlement Mesa.

A 21-year-old woman and her 19-year-old boyfriend were going to drop off her son at the boy’s father’s house. But the interaction took a violent turn.

When they arrived, the father was agitated because he did not like the new boyfriend, she told deputies.



In fact, the 21-year-old father wanted the woman to come into his house so she could listen to a song he had written about how much he hated the new boyfriend, according to an affidavit.

She tried to get her son back in the car and leave, but the father would not let her go. She pulled out her phone, but he smashed it when she said she would call the police.



The 21-year-old then tackled the woman to the ground, and she cut her face in the fall. The boyfriend got out of the car, and the father then tackled him as well and started striking him in the face, the couple told deputies.

The woman was able to get him to stop, but the altercation continued as the father was trying to get his son and keep them from leaving. The woman took her boyfriend to the hospital. He reported that he heard a crack in his shoulder when the man tackled him, and physicians would find he had a broken collarbone.

The next day, the boyfriend reported that the father was at his front door. When the sheriff’s deputies arrived, the father wouldn’t say much about what happened the day before, only that when he wasn’t being allowed to spend time with his son, and that “things got out of hand.”

Asked why the boyfriend had a broken collarbone, the father said that he “must have weak bones.”

—Ryan Summerlin, Glenwood Springs Post-Independent

Man charged with assault after alleged attack with power washer at Aspen airport

A 51-year-old Carbondale man allegedly assaulted a co-worker with a power washer at an Aspen-Pitkin County Airport business and sexually harassed the woman for a month, according to a police report.

Pitkin County sheriff’s deputies arrested Francisco Lopez on Wednesday, Nov. 8, and charged him with felony assault and misdemeanor harassment in connection with the alleged incidents.

Deputies responded to Go Rentals, a car rental agency at the airport, on Wednesday after the business’s owner reported the situation, according to the police report.

The woman, who met with deputies with her husband, reported that she’d been working with Lopez for a month, during which time he “attempted to make contact with (her) breasts and her butt,” the report states.

Lopez also allegedly grabbed her by the neck with both of his hands and repeatedly tried to bite her while they were driving in a car together, the report states. He also allegedly made statements to her, including, “I can kill people without leaving a trace” and “I know where your kids are.”

Then, on Oct. 30, Lopez sprayed the woman with a power washer between her breasts, which pictures showed caused broken skin, blistering and probable scarring, the report states.

The owner of the car-rental business told deputies the woman is one of his best employees and that he believed her, according to the report.

In an interview with deputies, Lopez denied making inappropriate contact with or threatening statements to the woman. He admitted spraying her with the power washer, but said it was an accident that occurred after he slipped, the report states.

Lopez demonstrated how the slip happened but Deputy Cameron Daniel did not believe him.

—Jason Auslander, The Aspen Times

Missouri man arrested in Aspen with 70 stolen credit cards ditches court

A disbarred St. Louis lawyer caught last month with more than 70 credit cards belonging to other people failed to show up for his court date Monday, Nov. 6.

Alan Cohen, 50, posted a $7,500 bond after he was arrested Oct. 9 and was allowed to leave the state, according to court records. After failing to show up in court Monday, District Judge Chris Seldin issued a warrant for Cohen’s arrest asking that he be held on a $25,000 cash-only bond.

Cohen was arrested in Aspen after acting strangely at a series of high-end stores in the downtown core area, including refusing to produce identification to match the credit cards he was attempting to use.

After he was arrested, officers found 12 credit cards in his pockets, none of which displayed his name. When they searched his 2009 Ford Crown Victoria, police found another 60 credit cards, a trove of electronics and two boxes of other people’s unopened mail.

Cohen was caught with scores of credit cards in November 2015 after police found him urinating in the parking lot of an Indiana mall. He voluntarily gave up his law license in 2010 after admitting he stole from clients.

Cohen has so far been charged with identity theft, criminal impersonation and criminal possession of a financial device. Deputy District Attorney Sarah Oszczakiewicz said Tuesday it is “reasonable to assume there might be more charges coming.”

—The Aspen Times staff report


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