Serving Lakewood, Wheat Ridge and beyond
WEEK OF NOVEMBER 7, 2024
VOLUME 41 | ISSUE 14
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Jeffco inmate votes for the first time thanks to new Colorado law
Morrison police sergeant’s arrest affidavit includes allegations of years of stalking and abuse BY JANE REUTER JREUTER@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
for our community. It’s the way that we have our voices heard. I ran for office because I want to make sure that every eligible voter is able to cast their vote, and we just got one step closer today.” Gonzalez said that when she was elected in 2022, she discovered that the county had eligible voters in the criminal justice system who were effectively being denied the right to vote. In Colorado, only those inmates serving time for a felony conviction are ineligible. “But what we found in 2022 was that out of more than 900 people who were in our jail, only three cast a vote,” Gonzalez said. “Having the right to vote is fundamentally different than being able to exercise it.” As a result, Gonzalez said her office teamed up with several communitybased organizations, including the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, to pass the Voting for Confined Eligible Electors Act.
An eight-page arrest affidavit for Morrison Police Sgt. Richard Norton details years of alleged stalking, murder threats and abuse involving Norton’s first exwife, children and girlfriend. Witnesses interviewed by Longmont Police said Norton repeatedly threatened to kill his ex-wife and her new husband, allegedly saying “he wanted to murder someone so he could see what it felt like,” and reportedly “bragging about breaking into people’s homes before to arrest (them) and that he can delete all footage,” according to Norton’s Oct. 3 arrest affidavit. His children were so scared one of them slept by the back door with a baseball bat in case Norton broke in, according to the affidavit. The former Morrison K9 officer is on unpaid administrative leave after an Oct. 4 arrest by Longmont Police on charges of domestic violence, child abuse and unlawful storage of a firearm. Before joining Morrison’s police force, Norton worked in Broomfield and was named in a federal lawsuit alleging he and another Broomfield officer manhandled a disabled 15-year-old girl during a 2017 arrest. An internal Broomfield PD investigation also found Norton sent inappropriate and unwanted sexual messages to four of his female coworkers, creating a hostile and offensive work environment. He resigned from Broomfield in 2022, while under investigation. The affidavit includes stories of incidents with his ex-wife and children that led to his October arrest. Norton and his first ex-wife met in college, according to the affidavit. She told police he proposed to her while standing near a cliff, afterward saying if she hadn’t said yes, “he’d have pushed her off.” During the relationship, the affidavit says he made comments “that if he couldn’t have her, no one could.” Norton’s physical and sexual abuse progressed slowly through the relationship, according to the document. He would reportedly pin his first ex-wife in bed until she was on the verge of a panic attack, then release her and laugh, according to the affidavit. At one time, she told officers he held a loaded handgun to her head.
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Jesus Rodriguez explains what it meant to him to vote for the first time. BY SUZIE GLASSMAN SGLASSMAN@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
As a heavy metal door opened, Jesus Rodriguez walked carefully through the corridors of the Jefferson County Detention Center, taking deliberate steps toward a room that would become a temporary polling place to take part in a deeply embedded American right — a right that he said felt distant and, at times, impossible from behind bars. For the first time in his life, Rodriguez was about to cast his vote, an act made possible by a new Colorado law aimed at expanding voting access to individuals within the criminal justice system. SB24-072, passed this spring, mandates that county clerks and sheriffs establish at least one day of in-person voting at jails and detention centers for eligible incarcerated voters. Rodriquez, who woke up that morning unsure if he would even attempt to vote, said he decided, “Why not try?” after a security guard passed through a second time to grab inmates waiting to
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go to the voter registration room. “I’m 29 years old, and I’ve never voted because I never thought it would mean that much. But in votes like today, I guess one vote means everything,” Rodriguez said. “It made me feel really good to know that my opinion matters in this situation.” Rodriguez acknowledged that while he made mistakes in the past, he cares deeply about the community outside. “People would be surprised to know that those of us who are incarcerated do pay attention to what’s going on out there because while we live every day in here, out there is what really matters,” he said. A milestone moment for voting access in Colorado
WINDOW Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez choked up hearing Rodriguez describe his voting experience as one of the top five in his life. “Voting is so many things,” Gonzalez, who is also a voting rights attorney, said. “It’s the way we express hope. It’s the way that we express love
VOICES: 10 | LIFE: 12 | CALENDAR: 15 | SPORTS: 18
PHOTO BY SUZIE GLASSMAN
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