Northglenn Thornton
Sentinel
October 18, 2012
50 cents
A Colorado Community Media Publication
ournorthglennnews.com, ourthorntonnews.com
Adams County, Colorado • Volume 49, Issue 9
HISTORIC RUN
Nichol cleared
County business practices fell below citizen expectations, report says By Darin Moriki
dmoriki@ourcoloradonews.com
Thornton’s Kenyan Huguley breaks into the open field in the Trojans’ showdown with rival Northglenn last Friday night at Five Star Stadium. Huguley rushed for 501 yards, the second-most in the history of Class 5A, and six scores, but it wasn’t enough as Northglenn pulled out a thrilling 62-57 victory. For complete coverage, turn to Page 21. Photo by Alan Yamamoto
Child safety important as ever By Darin Moriki
dmoriki@ourcoloradonews. com Stephanie Sakal has taught her 3-year-old daughter Addison her entire name, her birthdate and where she lives. But, the 31-year-old Westminster resident said she is always concerned when her daughter wanders off and wants to explore the world on her own. “A lot of the times she feels the need to go run off and do what she wants to do, so I’ve tried to make her understand that she can’t do that,” Sakal said. “She could be taken by some random stranger and they would not ever bring her back.” Sakal said the Jessica Ridgeway’s abduction and murder last week brought the importance of safety home for her daughter, who cried after hearing about Ridgeway’s death. This weekend, Sakal was
not the only concerned parent in the community still holding their children a little closer. On Saturday, she was one of many people who converged on the Pro Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram car dealership to participate in a safety event by DNA LifePrint, a child safety organization sponsored by America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh. “It’s an absolutely amazing response,” said Pro Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram general manager Jeff Schenden, who estimated the crowd at 1,000. “We’re glad that we’re able to help some. We’re kind of figuring that if we can just help one, we’re doing our job.” Throughout the day, Thornton Police Department officers provided child safety information to community members and their young children and created a disk for parents holding crucial information on their children, including fingerprints, palm prints, a journal of information of the child and a digital
POSTAL ADDRESS
Sawyer Filar of Broomfield has his fingerprints taken by Megan Sebastian of the DNA LifePrint Child Safety Program Saturday at Pro Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Thornton. Photo by Andy Carpenean photograph. Schenden said the information is important for parents to have so law enforcement officers can issue an Amber Alert in seconds. “We need to protect ourselves and we need to protect our children and this is one way to make sure that if anything horrible like that ever did happen, they have the information that they need for law enforcement officials to get the message out as fast as possible,” Schenden said. By the end of the day, when the last person filed out of the car dealership at 7 p.m., Schenden said DNA LifePrint was able to provide information and services to 410 children in the community. Schenden said this is the second time the car dealer-
ship has hosted the event. Shortly after the first one was held this April, Schenden said he made arrangements to host the event on Saturday. Schenden said he could not have imagined how timely the event would be. “Kids are our lives and parents understand that more than anybody that the children are our future, and keeping them safe is our number one goal,” Schenden said. “I think safety is at the forefront of parents’ minds and they are more of it because of what happened, but I don’t think it is more important today than it ever has been.”
Adams County Commissioner Alice Nichol will not face any criminal charges following an extensive investigation that scrutinized her alleged involvement in the multiyear Quality Paving and Quality Resurfacing scandal. Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Nichol Storey, the special prosecutor assigned to the case, officially ended his 21-month investigation on Monday. “I’ve been waiting for over two years to find out what I had known this whole time: I did not do anything criminally,” Nichol said on Monday. “I am finally relieved because I was hoping that I would not go out of office with this cloud over my head and over my family, but I always felt that the whole Quality Paving case kept me hostage,” Allegations leveled against Alice Nichol and her husband Ron primarily stem from work done on the couple’s residence in July and August 2005 by Quality Paving and Quality Resurfacing. Those allegations claimed the work was either charged below market value, or charged and returned to the Nichols several years later, but both rested on the premise that the cost reduction contributed to her approval of public works contracts to the paving company. Adams County District Attorney Quick said he turned over the case to the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office in April 2011 amid potential conflict of interest concerns, since both the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office budgets must be approved by the county commissioners. “When we appoint a special prosecutor, you turn the decisions over to them, so I accept and am bound by their decisions,” Quick said. Storey said in a letter to Quick that his office was unable to prove Nichol’s involvement beyond a reasonable doubt. This inability to prove criminal misconduct was hampered by “numerous problems with the procedures and paperwork or lack of paperwork” in the public works department, Storey said. In some cases, he said agreements were either never put into writing, never documented or were too ambiguous and did not provide specific project details, such as cost estimates and authorizing officials. Storey was critical in his assessment of Adams County and its public works department that officials did not follow numerous county policies and procedures, such as approving contacts and change order without fully understanding the terms and conditions and failing to disclose relationships with businesses that work with the county and require Nichol continues on Page 5
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