Lawyer wants Archdioceses of Santa Fe to publish the full list of perpetrators – Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
Lawyers representing a woman who says she was abused by a priest in 1957 say the Archdiocese of Santa Fe is reneging on a promise to publicly post the names of such clergy.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the woman says she was abused by the Rev. Richard Spellman and that under a bankruptcy settlement agreement the archdiocese must disclose the names of alleged abusers.
Attorneys for the archdiocese dispute that assertion.
The archdiocese paid $121 million to about 400 survivors of sex abuse. Its attorneys have stated the organization is required to list the names on its website of all known past and present clergy who have been determined by the Archbishop, in consultation with an independent review board, to be credibly accused of the crime.
Since 2017, the archdiocese has voluntarily published a list of those credibly accused. It considered Spellman for inclusion, but the independent review board recommended against it.
One of the attorneys representing the woman who accused Spellman has filed a motion asking the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New Mexico to intervene.
An attorney for the archdiocese did not return Journal calls seeking comment for this story.
State budget includes $200,000 for new task force on missing and murdered Indigenous people - By Bella Davis, New Mexico In Depth
The state budget awaiting Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s signature contains $200,000 for Attorney General Raúl Torrez to create a new task force concentrated on a crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
The money adds weight to the Legislature’s non-binding request that he take such action. Senate Joint Memorial 2 (SJM 2) passed on the last day of the 30-day legislative session.
The task force’s fate now falls to Lujan Grisham and Torrez, in that sequence.
The governor could eliminate the $200,000 appropriation using her line-item authority, which would leave Torrez to decide to form the task force anyway, without funding, or ignore the state Legislature’s request.
Torrez’s office did not respond to New Mexico In Depth’s request to comment on his plans.
The dollars are included in a special section of the budget that was added in the final days of the session. That section contains allocations by individual lawmakers. Which lawmakers provided $200,000 for the proposed task force is unknown, but will be published on the legislative website 30 days after Feb. 15, the day the session ended.
Sponsors introduced SJM 2 — which, unlike a bill, doesn’t have the force of law — in response to Lujan Grisham’s decision last year to disband an earlier task force dedicated to finding solutions to the crisis, “leaving questions unanswered,” the legislation reads.
The governor’s staff argue the previous group met its objectives and the state is now executing its numerous recommendations. Some task force members and affected families, meanwhile, believe they still had much work to do.
Lawmakers, including two who served as policy advisors to the group, agreed.
“There’s still a place and a role for those stakeholders to participate,” Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, one of the sponsors, said in an interview in January. “You have to have buy-in, not just the state coming in and saying ‘we know best.’ “
The Senate and House both passed the memorial unanimously.
The memorial advises the task force be made up of no more than 40 members, including tribal representatives, survivors and families, and law enforcement, who could provide legislative proposals and update a 115-page plan the defunct group delivered in 2022.
Lujan Grisham has until March 6 to take action on bills the Legislature passed, including the state budget.
Former District Attorney Marco Serna wants his old job back - Santa Fe New Mexican, KUNM News
Marco Serna announced Wednesday that he’s running to reclaim his former post as First Judicial District Attorney. Serna left the office to run unsuccessfully for Congress in 2020. It’s currently held by Mary Carmack-Altwies. The two will run against each other in the Democratic primary in June.
In his announcement, Serna criticized the DA for what he called her administration’s “selective approach” to DWI prosecution. He vowed to prosecute all cases “to the fullest extent of the law."
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports Carmack-Altwies has praised a policy where prosecutors dismiss DWI cases in an effort to get more time to obtain evidence for a conviction. She says a 45-day deadline to gather facts could lead cases to fail in court.
Serna was also criticized when he held the office. District Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer accused him of making factually and legally untrue comments about the First Judicial District’s plan to resume in-person proceedings in 2020.
In anticipation of running, Serna resigned from his position at the New Mexico District Attorney Association.
Jury selection begins for trial of 'Rust' armorer in fatal 2021 shooting by Alec Baldwin - By Morgan Lee Associate Press
Prosecutors in New Mexico are pursuing accountability for the 2021 death of a cinematographer who was fatally shot by actor Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal for the Western film "Rust."
Before Baldwin's case progresses, the armorer on the set is being tried on charges of involuntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence. Jury selection in Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's trial started Wednesday in Santa Fe.
Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to the charges and maintains she's not directly to blame for Halyna Hutchins' death. Baldwin also has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge in a separate case.
The process for selecting 12 jurors began with a pool of 70 residents from the Santa Fe area, including non-English speakers, a welder, a teacher, a graduate student and a mother who provides for six children. A prosecutor began with questions for jurors about their exposure to intensive media coverage and social media chatter about the case.
Prosecutors plan to present evidence that Gutierrez-Reed loaded a live round into the gun that killed Hutchins after unknowingly bringing live ammunition onto a set where it was expressly prohibited. They contend the armorer missed multiple opportunities to ensure safety on the movie set.
Defense attorneys have said they have evidence that will show otherwise.
The evidence and testimony has implications for Baldwin, who was pointing a gun at Hutchins during an October 2021 rehearsal outside Santa Fe when she was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded.
Here are some things to know about the Gutierrez-Reed trial:
CHARGES
Gutierrez-Reed, the stepdaughter of renowned sharpshooter and weapons consultant Thell Reed, was 24 at the time of Hutchins' death. "Rust" was her second assignment as an armorer in a feature film.
Gutierrez-Reed faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine if convicted of involuntary manslaughter. The evidence tampering charge stems from accusations she handed a small bag of possible narcotics to another crew member after the shooting to avoid detection by law enforcement.
Her attorneys say that charge is prosecutors' attempt to smear Gutierrez-Reed's character. The bag was thrown away without testing the contents, defense attorneys said.
More than 40 people are listed as witnesses during the trial that's scheduled to run through March 6.
AMMUNITION
Authorities located six rounds of ammunition on the movie set in locations that included a box, a gun belt and a bandolier worn by Baldwin. Baldwin has said he assumed the gun only had rounds that couldn't be fired.
Special prosecutors have argued in court filings that Hutchins died because of a series of negligent acts by Gutierrez-Reed. They say she should have noticed live rounds and intervened long before the shooting.
Gutierrez-Reed's attorneys say she's unfairly been scapegoated. They contend live rounds arrived on set from an Albuquerque-based supplier of dummy rounds. They also pointed to a broader atmosphere of safety failures that were uncovered during an investigation by state workplace safety inspectors that go beyond Gutierrez-Reed.
Additionally, Gutierrez-Reed is accused in another case of carrying a gun into a bar in downtown Santa Fe in violation of state law. Her attorneys say that charge has been used to try to pressure Gutierrez-Reed into a false confession about the handling of live ammunition on the "Rust" set.
WORKPLACE SAFETY
Gutierrez-Reed was responsible for storage, maintenance and handling of firearms and ammunition on set and for training members of the cast who would be handling firearms, according to state workplace safety regulators.
Live rounds are typically distinguished from dummy rounds by a small hole in the dummy's brass cartridge, indicating there is no explosive inside or by shaking the round to hear the clatter of a BB that is inserted inside. A missing or dimpled primer at the bottom of the cartridge is another trait of dummy rounds.
The company Rust Movie Productions paid a $100,000 fine to the state following a scathing narrative of safety failures in violation of standard industry protocols. The report included testimony that production managers took limited or no action to address two misfires on set before Hutchins was shot.
Prosecutors urged a judge to keep regulators' conclusions out of the trial because those might be used to argue that "Rust" management was responsible for safety failures, not Gutierrez-Reed.
The judge in the case sided last week with Gutierrez-Reed. The report says the production company did not develop a process for ensuring live rounds were kept away from the set and that it failed to give the armorer enough time to thoroughly inventory ammunition.
BALDWIN
Baldwin, the lead actor and a co-producer on "Rust," was indicted in January on an involuntary manslaughter charge.
Baldwin has said he pulled back the gun's hammer — not the trigger — and the weapon fired.
The charge against Baldwin provides two alternative standards for prosecution, one based on the negligent use of a firearm and another tied to negligence without due caution or "circumspection," also defined as "total disregard or indifference for the safety of others."
Legal experts say the latter standard could broaden the investigation beyond Baldwin's handling of the gun. Alex Spiro, a defense attorney for Baldwin, says that's unlikely to be allowed in court.
"There's a theory that, by being the producer, he also has criminal liability," Spiro said Tuesday before a judge in a scheduling hearing. "We don't think that will withstand scrutiny."
Prosecutors Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis initially dismissed an involuntary manslaughter charge against Baldwin in April, saying they were informed the gun might have been modified before the shooting and malfunctioned. A more recent analysis of the gun concluded the "trigger had to be pulled or depressed sufficiently to release the fully cocked or retracted hammer of the evidence revolver."
Industry-wide guidance that applied to "Rust" says to "treat all firearms as if they are loaded."
A trial date hasn't been set for Baldwin.
___
This story has been corrected to show that Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was 24 at the time of the shooting, not 25.
A man tried to open an emergency exit on an American Airlines flight. Other passengers subdued him - Associated Press
An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing in New Mexico after a disruptive passenger allegedly tried to open an emergency exit door, authorities said.
Albuquerque International Sunport officials said Flight 1219 to Chicago returned to the airport shortly after takeoff Tuesday afternoon "due to a disturbance in the cabin involving a disruptive customer."
Albuquerque TV station KOAT interviewed several passengers including Emma Ritz, who said the man tried to open an emergency door while the jetliner was airborne.
"He was sitting at the emergency exit and he cracked open the window that was protecting the handle," Ritz said. "He ripped down the handle where it exposed some of the emergency exit and all the wind came rushing down."
KOAT reported that six other passengers on the plane wrestled the man down and restrained him in the aisle until the flight ended by duct-taping his feet and putting on flex cuffs.
"The guy was screaming 'I want to get out' when he was restrained," Ritz told KOAT.
The plane landed safely at Sunport, where passengers said local law enforcement took the man away.
Neither the FBI nor Albuquerque police have released any information yet about the man who caused the disturbance. A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday that the agency is investigating.
"I'm just curious what was going on with him, why he needed to get out of the plane," Ritz said.
A Colorado man is dead after a pet Gila monster bite - By Mead Gruver Associated Press
A Colorado man has died after being bitten by his pet Gila monster in what would be a rare death by one of the desert lizards if the creature's venom turns out to have been the cause.
Christopher Ward, 34, was taken to a hospital shortly after being bitten by one of his two pet Gila monsters on Feb. 12. He was soon placed on life support and died Friday, Lakewood Police Department spokesman John Romero said Tuesday.
Jefferson County coroner's officials declined Tuesday to comment on the death, including if tests showed yet whether Ward died from the pet's venom or from some other medical condition.
Ward's girlfriend handed over the lizard named Winston and another named Potato to Lakewood animal control officer Leesha Crookston and other officers the day after the bite.
Ward's girlfriend told police she had heard something that "didn't sound right" and entered a room to see Winston latched onto Ward's hand, according to Crookston's report.
She told officers Ward "immediately began exhibiting symptoms, vomiting several times and eventually passing out and ceasing to breathe," according to the report.
Ward was placed on life support in a hospital. Within days, doctors had declared him brain dead.
Ward's girlfriend reportedly told officers they bought Winston at a reptile exhibition in Denver in October and Potato from a breeder in Arizona in November, according to the animal control officer's report. Told that Gila monsters were illegal in Lakewood, the woman told officers she wanted them out of her house as soon as possible, the report said.
Officers working with the Colorado Department of Natural Resources sent the lizards to Reptile Gardens outside Rapid City, South Dakota. Twenty-six spiders of different species also were taken from the home to a nearby animal shelter.
Gila monsters are venomous reptiles that naturally inhabit parts of the southwestern U.S. and neighboring areas of Mexico. Their bites can cause intense pain and make their victims pass out but normally aren't deadly.
New technologies let classrooms hop away from dissecting frogs - By Algernon D’Ammassa, Las Cruces Bulletin
Lauren Apodaca’s classroom at Vista Middle School in Las Cruces was buzzing with conversation as students working in groups focused on the internal anatomy of frogs on the table before them, turning over heart, liver and other internal organs with forceps.
If you have memories of dissecting frogs or other animal specimens in science class, you probably remember the smell of formaldehyde and other chemicals used to preserve the specimens. That distinct odor was absent from this classroom. The frogs on the tables and their innards were all produced in the classroom on a 3D printer.
The equipment was purchased through the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Animalearn, which promotes humane science education as a division of the American Anti-Vivisection Society. Apodaca, who is in their seventh year of teaching, recently earned honorable mention as a nominee for Animalearn’s 2023 Humane Science Educator of the Year award.
The honor came with a $750 cash grant used to purchase the printer that spawns specimen frogs that are much harder to spoil with a careless incision and do not require harsh chemicals to store them.
“I do love the idea of preserving animals,” Apodaca said in an interview, including a fondness for holding on to animal bones. “But there’s something about the dissecting that was not for me.”
When Apodaca was a student growing up in southern Florida, dissecting real animals was no longer a requirement, and Apodaca said they don’t feel as though they missed out on much: There are ample teaching methodologies and products available to present alternatives.
New Mexico has been a “dissection choice” state since 2005, when the Public Education Department ruled that classrooms engaging in dissections “shall provide virtual dissection techniques as alternative activities for any student who is opposed to real dissections for ethical, moral, cultural or religious reasons.”
While artificial specimens are nothing new, the alternatives are increasingly sophisticated, particularly in mobile technology.
At one table in the classroom, students worked not with a plastic frog but a black cube with codes embedded on it. Viewed through a camera on a mobile electronic device, what appeared on screen was a detailed illustration of a frog with interactive displays of its anatomy.
Apodaca said the technologies are inexpensive and allow their students to meet all of the instructional goals and content standards without the liabilities of handling animals, preservatives shown to be harmful to health or the stresses of performing surgery on a dead creature.
Instead, Apodaca’s students watched as the printer produced their frogs.
“At first, when I told them about the award and how I wasn’t really wanting to do dissection, they were a little disappointed,” Apodaca said. “But then you see it 3D printed and they’re like, ‘Wow, you made this out of nothing, this is actually really impressive.’ They aren’t too disappointed with the alternative.”
Apodaca has plans to produce plastic models for other lessons as well, such as cells and their anatomies, possibly other microscopic objects, to make elusive bodies more tangible.
Besides the risks to human health, Animalearn objects to real animal dissections on ethical grounds. They say animals harvested for science classrooms are often obtained taken from natural habitats and acquired cheaply to market for profit, which means they may be sourced from dealers or slaughterhouses that do not engage in humane practices.
The ethical concerns extend to damaged ecosystems as well as the dangers presented by preservatives, from classroom exposure to the disposal of the specimens.
Since its founding in 1990, Animalearn has advocated for alternative teaching methods and materials, and promoted its own “science bank,” a free lending program that makes models, software and virtual technologies available for loan to classrooms.
“To see the technology that’s available for today’s students, it’s pretty amazing,” Animalearn’s director, Nicole Green, said in an interview.
One product manufactured by the SynDaver company, the SynFrog, offers model frogs made entirely from a proprietary material it calls SynTissue designed to imitate the appearance and sensation of handling organic tissue, with fully removable anatomical parts. The models retail for up to $268 apiece through the company’s website.
“It’s giving that typical learning experience that you would if a student was dissecting a real frog, without harming any frogs,” Green said.
For its annual educator awards, Animalearn begins searching and calling for nominations each November, according to Green. The awards have been issued for approximately 20 years.
“All of our awardees stand out as role models not just for their students but also for their peers in the field of science education and we hope this recognition will encourage more science teachers to embrace compassionate science practices in their classrooms,” she said.
Green said the number of educators who remain passionate about using real animal specimens is dwindling as alternatives improve, especially over the last decade: “Because technology has so rapidly advanced, I think there are just so many tools that teachers can take from the toolbox now and utilize in their classrooms. Students can learn just as well using some of these technologies as with specimens.”
City staffers credited for drastically reducing unsolved Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases - By Bethany Raja, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ.
The City of Albuquerque is one of the top five cities in the United States where Indigenous people go missing or are murdered, according to a report by the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle.
But, the city says, over the last two years Dawn Begay, the city’s Native American Affairs Coordinator and Commander Gerard Bartlett of the Albuquerque Police Department have worked with local law enforcement agencies to bring the number of unsolved cases down from 500 in 2019 to 78 in 2023.
In fact, the two recently won the national Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Community Partnerships for Public Safety because of their work coordinating agencies for a massive Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative. They went to Washington D.C. late last month to receive the award.
The Albuquerque field office of the FBI has also played a big role in this initiative. FBI representatives joined Begay and Bartlett in accepting the award, along with the Indian Affairs Department, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
But, the FBI, said it’s unclear how these missing people cases were resolved.
“It is difficult to understand the genesis of the 500 unsolved cases statistics cited in 2019 because we do not know or have access to the underlying source of data,” a spokesperson for the FBI said. “However, it appears that the 500 unsolved cases reflects the number of missing Indigenous persons reported to law enforcement over the course of the entire year and not the total number missing on any given day.”
HOW IT BEGAN AND HOW IT’S GOING
Michelle Melendez, director of the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, said the FBI was able to start a pilot program in New Mexico because of the groundwork Begay has done in the last two years to bring 50 jurisdictions together in New Mexico.
In 2022, the Albuquerque FBI field office began looking into cases of MMIP in New Mexico by working with the Criminal Justice Information Center in Virginia, which provided weekly reports from the NCIC on missing Indigenous people.
The project wrapped up in July 2022 and resulted in the publication of a list to give the public an opportunity to verify missing Indigenous people in the NCIC.
“We saw that initial list increase from 177 to the current number of 207 as the list became more accurate. Only then did we have the confidence to begin to cite our numbers to the media and speak publicly about the data,” an FBI spokesperson told City Desk ABQ in an emailed statement.
The FBI said this project not only looked at missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, but also men. It found that roughly 60% of missing person cases involved Native American men, while 40% involved women.
One thing the FBI said that complicated matters, is that it is possible for someone to be reported missing in a calendar year more than once.
“Over an 18-month period, July 2022 – January 2024, there were approximately 1,400 Indigenous Persons reported as missing to law enforcement,” FBI officials said.
But 91% of those cases have been resolved and the individual is no longer included in the NCIC as a missing person.
“Unfortunately, we don’t always know why or how the cases were resolved because that information remains with the law enforcement entity responsible for that case and is not captured in NCIC,” the FBI said.
The FBI said this work provides an accurate picture of who is missing in New Mexico and the city.
“As of mid-January 2024, there are 207 individuals missing in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation,” the FBI said. “As of February 2024, there were 23 Indigenous persons listed as missing in the greater Albuquerque area by APD, BCSO, Bernalillo PD, and NM State Police – Albuquerque District.”
THE CITY OF ALBUQUERQUE’S EFFORTS
The FBI said it credits the City of Albuquerque with establishing its Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Tribal and Metro Public Safety Meetings, and the NM Indian Affairs Department’s production of the State Response Plan, so law enforcement agencies and the public understand the importance of investigating these cases and reporting loves ones missing as quickly as possible.
“Both the City of Albuquerque and Albuquerque Police Department are key partners in our investigative and outreach efforts to Native communities,” the FBI said.
Since the start of their work, the FBI said they continue to assess their progress.
“We cannot speculate on the numbers in 2019 because it was prior to our work,” it said. “However, one thing we can point to with pride is the decrease in the length of time for a family to report a missing female to law enforcement—a 43% decrease between July 2022 and January 2024.”
Advocates for family and children say budget provides benefits for children - By Susan Dunlap, New Mexico Political Report
The legislature passed a budget of $10.2 billion this year. The budget now awaits the governor’s signature.
Some highlights from the budget that will benefit children include an increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates, Bill Jordan, interim co-director and government relations officer for New Mexico Voices for Children, told NM Political Report.
Jordan said increasing the reimbursement rates for Medicaid both encourages more providers to accept Medicaid patients and it also helps to attract more providers to the state.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during a press conference held after the legislative session that the budget passed by the legislature contains $100 million for Medicaid.
Jordan said this is of particular importance since nearly half of the state’s population relies on Medicaid. Between 70 to 80 percent of all births in New Mexico are covered by Medicaid, as well.
Jordan said the legislature also passed some progressive tax policy. He said the tax omnibus bill, HB 252, sponsored by state Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, contains a restructuring of personal income tax rates that mostly lowers rates for lower and middle income families. At the same time, the tax omnibus bill trimmed back a state tax break on capital gains earnings.
Related: Tax omnibus passes Senate
Jordan said the capital gains tax break affects individuals who earn investment income.
“They paid 40 percent less taxes just for making money on investments. We work for our money. They let their money work for them and they get a 40 percent discount on their taxes. It’s not fair and it doesn’t provide any economic benefit to the state,” Jordan said.
By reducing the tax credit, “that made our tax system more fair,” he said.
Jordan said one disappointment was that the legislature did not address taxes on alcohol or tobacco products. He said one of the primary disincentives for young people taking up vaping is when they pay a higher price for the product.
“New Mexico has a particularly high rate of vaping use among young and a higher tax would have helped discourage that. The price point is a big factor,” he said.
In addition to the budget, this legislative session priority included public safety. Jordan said that the two public safety bills that await the governor’s signature – one a seven-day waiting period to buy a gun and the other to prohibit guns in polling places – are “steps in the right direction.”
He said the seven-day waiting period bill, HB 129, sponsored by state Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, can help to reduce suicide among youth. New Mexico has a high rate of suicide. Jordan said that when youth attempt death by suicide and use a gun, completion is almost certain.
But when youth use a different method, they will complete the suicide less than half of the time, he said.
He said the hope is that when that happens, the youth are more likely to get the help they need to process through the stress that led them to contemplate suicide.
Jordan said the bill passed by the legislature that prohibits guns in polling places “is an acknowledgment that guns are not the way we want to solve problems.”
That bill, SB 5, was co-sponsored by House Majority Whip Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe.
“Guns are a problem, not a solution. That’s the kind of message we need to be sending to the public and we think that bill helps to do that,” Jordan said.
Reporter Nicole Maxwell contributed to this story.
Sandia Tram to Reopen in March – By Elizabeth McCall,City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ.
The Sandia Peak Tramway will reopen on March 14 after a temporary maintenance closure.
On January 9, the Sandia Peak Tramway—which transports riders to the 10,378-foot crest of the Sandia Mountains—announced it would close to upgrade to a more energy-efficient system, since its current system has been used since 1966. This project, Tram 2024 Modernizing for the Future, includes renovations and new additions.
“Over the last 57 years, the tram has taken over 12 million passengers up the frontside of the Sandia Mountains and with these updates and upgrades that the tram is going to be experiencing in the beginning of 2024, is going to help us continue taking passengers up the mountain for the next 50 plus years,” said Jessica Fox, Sandia Peak Tramway’s marketing and communications director.
Upgrades include a new brake system, updating the drive and control system, renovating the lower and upper terminal’s tram consoles, adding solar-powered cameras and weather stations on both towers and replacing the old DC motor with a new AC motor that has higher efficiency and stronger durability.
The TEN 3 Restaurant will also reopen next month. To see the behind the scenes of the modernization, visit the Sandia Peak Tramway’s website.
Farmington oil and gas company owner charged with fraud – Albuquerque Journal, KUNM News
An oil and gas company owner in Farmington has been indicted by a federal grand jury for fraud.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that Teresa McCown is suspected of having defrauded the U.S. government, Navajo Nation and Jicarilla Apache Nation out of oil and gas royalties and taxes.
McCown owns two companies, which have operated dozens of leases since 2017, but underreported their oil and gas production.
The civil penalties in the case amount to $1.7 million dollars. McCown could serve up to 20 years in prison and pay additional fines totaling up to $300,000.
The Journal could not immediately reach McCown’s attorney for comment. The trial is set for April 1.
A Colorado man is dead after a pet Gila monster bite - By Mead Gruver, Associated Press
A Colorado man has died after being bitten by his pet Gila monster in what would be a rare death by one of the desert lizards if the creature's venom turns out to have been the cause.
Christopher Ward, 34, was taken to a hospital shortly after being bitten by one of his two pet Gila monsters on Feb. 12. He was soon placed on life support and died Friday, Lakewood Police Department spokesman John Romero said Tuesday.
Jefferson County coroner's officials declined Tuesday to comment on the death, including if tests showed yet whether Ward died from the pet's venom or from some other medical condition.
Ward's girlfriend handed over the lizard named Winston and another named Potato to Lakewood animal control officer Leesha Crookston and other officers the day after the bite.
Ward's girlfriend told police she had heard something that "didn't sound right" and entered a room to see Winston latched onto Ward's hand, according to Crookston's report.
She told officers Ward "immediately began exhibiting symptoms, vomiting several times and eventually passing out and ceasing to breathe," according to the report.
Ward was placed on life support in a hospital. Within days, doctors had declared him brain dead.
Ward's girlfriend reportedly told officers they bought Winston at a reptile exhibition in Denver in October and Potato from a breeder in Arizona in November, according to the animal control officer's report. Told that Gila monsters were illegal in Lakewood, the woman told officers she wanted them out of her house as soon as possible, the report said.
Officers working with the Colorado Department of Natural Resources sent the lizards to Reptile Gardens outside Rapid City, South Dakota. Twenty-six spiders of different species also were taken from the home to a nearby animal shelter.
Gila monsters are venomous reptiles that naturally inhabit parts of the southwestern U.S. and neighboring areas of Mexico. Their bites can cause intense pain and make their victims pass out but normally aren't deadly.