Hour 1 with Kristi Burton Brown 01-02-25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Caples and welcome to today's online podcast
edition of The Dan Caplis Show. Please be sure to
give us a five star rating if you'd be so kind,
and to subscribe, download and listen to the show every
single day on your favorite podcast platform.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Welcome to the Dane Caprick Show tonight. I'm Christy Burton Brown.
Good to have you all with us.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Anytime during the show, you can always call in and
join the conversation eight five five or zero five eight
two five five, or you can text Dan at five seven,
seven three nine. Have a lot of news coming out
today to talk about some very local Colorado news and
then national ones as well, with the attacks in New
Orleans and Las Vegas over the New Year's holiday. One

(00:42):
of the most concerning pieces coming out of Las Vegas
is that the cyber truck driver the attacker, was a
Colorado resident and actually rented the cybertruck here in Colorado.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
He was.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Additionally, he was an active duty Green Beret officer that
was reported today, formerly also in the National Guard the
Army Reserves, and was on leave when he attempted to
set off a bomb in the Tesla's cyber truck.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
He actually shot himself before he.

Speaker 3 (01:14):
Set off the bomb, and he was the only one
I believe as of right now, that died from that attack.
Lots of reports out on how the cyber truck itself
protected the explosion from being as bad as it otherwise
could have been. Even the glass doors on the hotel
that he was parked directly in front of were not
broken at all because the cyber truck is designed in

(01:35):
such a way to contain the majority of the explosion
and the rest of it went up so not into
most people and not into the building.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
So that's the good part of that.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
But as the FBI has continued to investigate the Las
Vegas attack and the New Orleans attack that I believe
as of right now has killed at least fifteen people
with thirty five injured, they.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Do not believe the two are connected.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Did and it's very clear that the New Orleans attack
came from someone who identified himself with ISIS. Whether or
not he was on mission from ISIS is still being
investigated by the FBI and other law enforcement agencies. But
he himself believed that he was doing this on behalf
of ISIS, flew in ISIS flag as he plowed into
the crowd in New Orleans. He also was actually, rather

(02:23):
than being current military, he was former military, and there
are people close to him say that he converted to
Islam and became an isis supporter. I find this clip
to be particularly interesting that I'll play for you. Jay Johnson,
a former Homeland Security secretary, talked about what he would

(02:44):
be concerned about with these terrorist attacks, specifically in New Orleans.
With you.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
You obviously have a lot of experience with needing to
safeguard major events.

Speaker 5 (02:56):
There's Eve on.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
Bourbon Street certainly one of them. And that's even before
we talk about the couple football games that are coming up.
What do you see yesterday that may had went wrong?
Where do you see the investigation going from here?

Speaker 5 (03:07):
Well, if I were still in office, first and foremost,
I'd be concerned about what appears to be the reality
that there are terrorist accomplices still at large and one
of them was willing to take his own life. That
presents a real public safety security challenge in the New

(03:29):
Orleans area. I won't second guess the situation with the Ballards.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
I'm going to stop him right there.

Speaker 3 (03:36):
When he was talking about the Ballards, He's talking about
some of the barricades that New Orleans was still getting
ready for I think the Sugar Bowl that was going
to be played later that day, and they hadn't quite
finished it, and so it was not overly difficult for
the truck to drive down this street that I was
supposed to be blocked off from traffic. And so that's
what Jay Johnson, former Homeland Security Secretary, is saying. He's

(03:58):
not going to question that part of what New Orleans
was organizing, even though in New York, where he's from,
a lot of those cities keep up permanent in barricades
to block anyone from driving onto sidewalks and getting into
streets that are supposed to have locked off for parades
or other events. So you know, obviously that may be

(04:18):
something that in the future, big cities they're going to
have events like this need to consider in order to
protect citizens who live there.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
But the interesting part I think of.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
What he was saying is that in his opinion, with
all his experience in homeland security, he would consider whether
or not there are still terrorist accomplices at large, with
specifically New Orleans' attack due to different potential explosive devices
I believe they found in other areas, and they're obviously
i'd be able to question the guy who drove the

(04:48):
truck down there because he also died and he did
not take his own life like the guy did in
Las Vegas and said he was shot when he attempted
to shoot police officers and in several of them and
then they were able to shoot him, so they won't
be able.

Speaker 2 (05:03):
To question him.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
But the FBI needs to continue and do their investigation
to find out if there are terrorist accomplices still at.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Large in the New Orleans attack.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
But again the FBI is saying they don't believe there
is a connection between Las Vegas and New Orleans, even
though both were former or current military. I don't think
there's been any details yet come out about whether the
cyber truck driver was associated with ISIS or Islam or
any terrorist organization, whereas that has definitely been proven in

(05:33):
New Orleans. Here's another clip on the Las Vegas cyber
attack driver, specifically since he is connected here to Colorado.
A Colorado Springs resident and on active duty with the
Green Beret.

Speaker 6 (05:46):
Hayley has confirmed in just the last few minutes that
he is an active duty US Special Forces soldier assigned
to tenth Special Forces Group. According to four US officials,
that he holds the rank of Master serget, a senior
enlisted rank.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
These officials said. Three officials said.

Speaker 6 (06:03):
He was on active duty serving in Germany and he
was on leave when this happened on New Year's Day.
He has not been identified publicly, and authorities are still
trying to work out whether.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
This was a terrorist attack.

Speaker 6 (06:19):
Just to recap a little bit of what happened behind
us just twenty four hours ago, approximately, There are still
police presence here around the Valet area where you pull
into the Trump International Hotel just off of the Vegas Strip.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
This cyber truck that he.

Speaker 6 (06:34):
Allegedly rented was rented from Colorado from the Truro rental platform.
Authorities say that he drove it here to Las Vegas
by seven thirty am on New Year's Day, that he
drove up and down the strip, and then about an
hour before the explosion drove past the Trump Hotel as well.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
And police did.

Speaker 6 (06:56):
Make note that the damage was really limited because of
the bottom construction of this Tesla cyber truck.

Speaker 3 (07:03):
All right, so there's a clip on the cyber truck
driver and the lack of damage that was really done
to any human being and very many.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Structures in that blast.

Speaker 3 (07:14):
Elon Musk and Tesla have been cooperating and in fact
they actually helped investigators find the charging sites that the
driver used so that he could be identified quickly, and
one was in Monument here in Colorado. It's one of
the places he charged the cyber truck before he continued
on to Las Vegas. They say he rented the truck
at seven thirty am that morning from Colorado and drove

(07:38):
to Las Vegas, obviously with the plan to set off
his bombs. I think he had a lot of fireworks
and other explosives inside the truck. And again because the
cyber truck is built so heavy duty and so in
such a protective way, the blast was contained by the
truck and also went up but not out, so didn't
even break the glass on the hotel doors. I'm Christy

(07:58):
Burton Brown on the Dan Kappl Show tonight. You can
call in and add your thoughts to the conversation. Obviously,
there's a lot of investigations still being done into the
New Orleans and.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Las Vegas attacks.

Speaker 3 (08:09):
You can call in eight five five four zero five
eight two five five or text Dan to five seven
seven threey nine when we come back. In the next segment,
we're going to talk about the latest Democrat here in
Colorado to announce his run for governor, and in fact,
he's the first to do so, but he's already pulling
forth well behind the front runners in the Democrat field

(08:29):
for the governor's race in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 7 (08:32):
All that and more on The Dan Kapla Show. And
now back to The Dan Kaplis Show Podcast Day Caplis Show.

Speaker 2 (08:45):
I'm Kristy Briton Brown. Thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
Tonight we are going to talk about the first Democrat
to announce their officially announced they're running for governor here
in Colorado in twenty twenty six. And if you're thinking
it's much too early to start a governor's race, it's
never too to run a political campaign, if you ask
the politicians. But I think there's some reasons why this
particular candidate is announcing so early. And it is indeed

(09:08):
Attorney General Phil Wiser who today announced that he is
actually running for governor. And I say actually running for
governor because nine News Marshall Zellinger had actually asked him
time and time again if he was running for governor,
and in fact he wrote on Twitter that it is
new ish in Marshall's size. I say new ish because

(09:29):
it's been obvious. I asked him if he's running about
a half dozen times. The most recent denial, on December sixteenth,
was about his focus on Kroger Albertson's and rent collusion
by landlords. Now, obviously, if you know anything about politics
that I know a lot of Dan's listeners, do you
know that politicians don't decide in two weeks that they're
suddenly running for office. So despite his denials, which is

(09:50):
also very common among politicians until they think it's time
to announce, they know what they're doing well in advance,
but like to keep people guessing. Now, what's also interesting
is that there was a poll done recently, I think
about a month ago in Colorado, polling which Democrat would
likely win the nomination. Now, again, we're so early, this

(10:13):
poll result isn't necessarily what's actually going to happen. But
what I find interesting since phil Wiser announced today is
the numbers available for him. So according to the poll,
Jonah Goose, Congressman from Boulder Area, I believe yeah, Congressional
District two, he was at twenty percent.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Twenty percent would go with him.

Speaker 3 (10:31):
Jennat Griswold to everyone's not favorite secretary of State was
in at sixteen percent.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Ken Salazar from.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
A very long time ago, but still remembered by a
lot of Democrats across the state. Eleven percent then came
Phil Weiser at eight percent, which is the same number
of those who selected other eight percent, and then thirty
seven percent in the poll were undecided. The other interesting
point in this poll is that Phil Weiser ranked first
among those who people didn't know. People are like, I

(11:00):
don't know who that guy is. People said that most
often about Phil Wiser. So why is he announcing that
he's running for governor right now, well in advance of
when he needs to. I mean, you know, maybe he
thinks he can clear the field. Maybe that's what he
wants to do, but the reality is that he has
the most work to do in order to get a
nomination like this, because he has the lowest name id,

(11:20):
people don't know who he is, and also last in
the poll among Democrats. I'm going to play you a
clip from Phil Wiser in just a minute. That's back
from I believe twenty twenty two. At that time, I
was chairman of the Colorado Republican Party and Phil Wiser
was obviously running for reelection as Attorney General. John Kellner
running for election on the Republican side, and so we

(11:43):
obviously did a lot of deep dives into phil Wiser,
into his comments, some scandals he's been a part of.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
But specifically how he deals with crime.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
This is one of the reasons I think he would
be a terrible choice for governor in Colorado. He has
not been heavy handed when it comes to crime at all.
And you, according to US News and World Report, colle
It is the third most dangerous state in the nation
when it comes to crime. Well, back in twenty twenty two,
we were number one in the nation for auto thefts.
Now I think we're third or fourth for auto thefts.
Not a big improvement. But here's what phil Weiser said

(12:13):
about we should what we should do with auto thieves.

Speaker 8 (12:16):
After someone commits a third or fourth car theft in
say three months, they should be kept in with a
really high bond because you got a sense they're gonna
get out, they're going to commit more crimes.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Okay, now, if you listen to that. He said, after
how many car thefts by the same person.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Three or four at that point, according to phil Wiser,
after three or four car thefts, then they should be
held without a PR bond, which is a personal recognissance
bond that means they can get arrested and get out
immediately because they basically just say to the judge, oh, hey,
I will make sure and come back, you know, for court,
And that's a personal recognizance bond. Way too many criminals

(12:57):
are getting out on those in Colorado's actually a.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Huge problem right now.

Speaker 3 (13:02):
And I recently, in my capacity with Advanced Colorado met
with some sheriffs in Colorado. We were actually talking about
exactly this PR bonds and how common they are in
Colorado and how many violent and repeat criminals are granted
them by so many judges across the state and the
law allows it, and the judges use their discretion to
grant it.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
Well, what the sheriffs actually brought up was that auto theft.

Speaker 3 (13:23):
Is one of the things where PR bonds should not
be granted because they are some of the most dangerous
criminals in how they treat law enforcement. They are willing
to just literally attempt to run them over, and they
are actually quite violent, especially because they know that they
get out on pr bonds, are arrested, get immediately back
out on the streets, go out and steal another car
the exact same day, and then they're often the ones

(13:46):
who assault police officers who are trying to keep the
community safe and get people's cars backs. My car was
actually stolen that same year. I happened to have one
of the common models of a car that year that
was being stolen all the time. It was stolen out
of parking lot right by Cherry Creek State Parking area
you might think was safe, but the Greenwood Village police
were actually extremely good in getting back my car that day.

(14:10):
But they found it in a storage unit that's where
the auto thieves had taken it, and they believed there
was a ring that they had uncovered actually of auto
thieves who were taking people's cars from outside of Aurora
and then driving into Aurora, which is where this storage
unit was storing the cars there, and then you know,
doing whatever that if they were taking the catalytic converters or.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Doing something else with the cars. But they were able
to recover.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Mine within a few hours, which was really really great
for me. But auto theft in Colorado has just been
exponentially high. And Phil Wiser, who wants to run for
governor that same year in twenty twenty two, when we
were a number one in the nation, said that we
should go ahead and wait until auto thieves have stolen
three or four cars. I notice he also said in
three or four months. If they've done this in three

(14:55):
or four months, then okay, we should make sure they
have a high bond, high bail situation. What he's not realizing,
in my view, this goes to demonstrating that he has
no clue what's actually going on with crime in Colorado.
It doesn't take out of thieves three months to steal
cars three or four times. If you talk to the
actual law enforcement on the ground, they are getting back
out that same day and stealing another car and then

(15:18):
going and doing it the next day, and doing it
the next day. And there's these huge rings of auto
thieves that absolutely should be in jail and get no pr.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Bonds at all. So anyway, that's Phil Wiser for you.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
There's a whole lot more that we could talk about
with him when it comes to fentanyl, and he does
not have a hardline enough position on that to solve
issues in Colorado, and a number of scandals he's been
involved with as well. I don't think he's really going
to do all that well in a Democrat primary. Would
be curious if any of you have thoughts as well.
You can call in eight five five four zero five

(15:49):
eight two five five or text Dan to five seven
seven three nine give your thoughts on who you think
the Democrat.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Front runners will be in the governor's race.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
Because now that of course everyone knows Jared Polis can't
run for reelection, it is going to be a free
for all for every Democrat who thinks they should be
the next governor of Colorado. And Phil Wiser has certainly
kicked it off in the new year by saying he's
in and he's not going to be the.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Only one to do it.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Now. There were a lot of people who thought that
Jenna Griswold, Secretary of State, was going to be a
front runner for the Democrats, and I still think she's
definitely going to get in the race.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
I think that's been clear for a very long time.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
But she's damaged herself a lot over this last election cycle,
in particular with how her office and herself personally dealt
with that leak of passwords on.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
The voting equipment, the voting machines.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
If you listen to the calls that were made public
with Jenni Griswold's office, her deputy secretary of State, and
I believe she was on some of the calls too
with the clerks. I mean, you even have Democrat county
clerks really really mad that secretary of state didn't even
bother to tell them that the passwords releaeked, and they
found out when the media reported it and the call
of Republican Party did it investigation released it. So Jenna

(17:03):
I think, has a lot of problems of just incompetence
that she's going to deal with, and any Democrat who
wants to run for governor can do it. So she's
no longer top of the field. Phil Wiser trying to
get an edge on her by jumping in today. We'll
see who's next. I think there's a lot of people
who think Jonah Goose or Kensel's are if they jump in,
will be front runners in this race. We'll find out

(17:24):
soon enough. You're on the Dan Kaplas Show. I'm Christy
Burton Brown, you can call in over the break eight
five five four zero five eight.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
Two five five.

Speaker 7 (17:38):
You're listening to the Dan Kapliss Show podcast.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
Texter says, I'm so shocked not that Budweiser announced he's
running for gov today. Will he still be able to
attend the AG boondoggle in Hawaii like he previously did,
which was paid for by corporations? Wiser was suing, Hey,
that's a great reminder to everyone of the scandals that
Phil Wiser was caught up in that were brought to
light a little bit when he ran for Attorney General

(18:01):
in twenty twenty two. I actually pulled up an article
in the break about that in Hawaii, and CBS News
Channel four actually did a really good story at the
time about it, and they received video from the annual
AG's conference which was hosted in Maui. But what was
specifically interesting about it is the organizations that were paying

(18:22):
for the Attorney Generals, including Phil Wiser's stay in Maui
was not only paid for by taxpayers because a portion
of the AG stay is paid for by taxpayers, but
the main sponsors were corporations like Google, Facebook, Jewel, and Pfizer,
all of which attorney generals were suing at the time.

(18:42):
It was basically like, sue us, but while you're suing us,
we're gonna host lavish celebrations and stays and vacations for
you in Hawaii and tell me that didn't influence any
attorney general. So this is what we're talking about when
we say they're scandals with Phil Wiser in Hawaii and
big sponsors, corporate donors also involved with people who he

(19:05):
is suing as attorney general.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
I think another interesting points and.

Speaker 3 (19:09):
Is fentanyl and how he's handled the fentanyl crisis in Colorado.
That's going to keep coming up, I think in the
next election cycle. If you talk to any law enforcement
official across the state, they will tell you that not
only is fetanyl itself continues to be a rising danger
in Colorado. The last reported numbers with that nearly two
thousand people in twenty twenty three died from fentanyl overdoses.

(19:33):
But every single drug, including marijuana, is being laced with
fentanyl right now across the state. And so even people
who are taking a legal substance like marijuana are absolutely
at risk of actually getting fentanyl in that drug and
potentially dying by the drug dealers, they don't care right now.
They want to get people addicted to the substances they're selling,
and they can get fentanyl in. It's pouring across our border,

(19:56):
and so they are happy to lace every single drug,
every single.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Type of drug, with fentanyl.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
I think that's a really shocking to a lot of parents,
probably whose kids are going to school, but something absolutely
every parent needs to talk to their kids about. And everyone,
even who takes marijuana, which might be legal, it is
being laced with fentanyl and becoming very, very dangerous. At
the time, though, when Phil Wiser ran for reelection to
Attorney General, he was confronted with the fact that in

(20:25):
twenty nineteen here in Colorado, possession of fentanyl was lowered
to a misdemeanor if it was a gram or less.

Speaker 2 (20:33):
I believe it was lowered to a misdemeanor.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Used to be a felony, but you know, Democrats and
legislature like to be soft on crime, so they lowered
it down to a misdemeanor. And he took no position
at the time, didn't say anything. And the attorney general
is not only supposed to be the state's top law
enforcement official, but they could also use the bully pulpit
to talk about big crime related issues, even if it's
local das that typically prosecute these cases. The attorney general

(20:57):
has the biggest bully pulpit, biggest soapbox. To stand up
there and talk about a law like that and to
oppose a terrible crime related idea like that by the legislature, well,
he acknowledged and admitted that he hadn't said anything about
the law, and hadn't opposed it or supported it. He
just kind of did nothing. Definitely the kind of person
you wants to be governor, someone who does nothing. But
his excuse was that he was very focused on the

(21:20):
Red Flag Bill at the time and passing the Red
Flag Bill, and so he decided that giving the government
more ability to look into gun owners was of higher
importance than opposing lowering penalties for fentanyl, which since then
has spread even wider across the state.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
So that is Phil Wiser for you.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
And that's the first Democrat to jump in the race
for governor. Certainly not going to be the last, but
here we are. If you have thoughts, you can text
them in to Dan five seven seven three nine or
call eight five five four zero five eight two five five.
I'm Christy Burton Brown in for Dan Caplis today and
speaking of fentanyl, we actually have an interview coming up
at the top of the next hour five oh six

(22:03):
that you should not miss. We're going to bring on
Senator Byron Pelton. He is from the Eastern Plains, but
he every year brings drug related bills to crack down
on the drugs and the drug dealers in particular that
are spreading across Colorado. He has a very interesting bill
related to fentanyl that he's sponsoring and bringing this year.

(22:23):
I believe he's starting at the Senate because he is
elected to the Senate. So we'll talk to him at
five oh six about the details of that bill, whether
or not he currently has bipartisan support, and what he
thinks the chances of that bill passing in the House are.
I know, at Abans Colorado, where I'm the executive vice president,
we're looking at a whole host of potential ballot measures

(22:44):
to bring to the ballot in twenty twenty six. We
brought two specific crime related ones this year. In twenty
twenty four that both passed. The Truth and Sentencing Bill
was the most popular citizen initiated ballot measure across the
entire state got the highest percentage of any citizen initiated measure.
And then Prop One thirty was the Law Enforcement funding
bill that, without raising taxes, required the legislature to spend

(23:08):
their general fund money three hundred and fifty million dollars
of it for law enforcement across the state, and also
to provide a one million dollar death benefit for any
the family of any peace officer who dies in the
line of duty. That includes firefighters as well. So those
are the two we passed in twenty twenty four. People
across Colorado want to fix our crime laws and want
to protect the victims and communities, not the criminals. So

(23:31):
we're looking at a whole host of potential ballot measures
for twenty twenty six. We do have to wait until
twenty six. A lot of people ask about that, like
why aren't you bringing more ballot measures in twenty five.
According to Colorado law, the only measures that can come
in odd years on a statewide capacity are ones that
take TABOR funds or deal with TABOR. So typically you'll

(23:51):
see advance Colorado Conservatives opposing measures like prop CC Prop
AGH that come in the odd years because they're usually
grab by the government into your TAPOR refunds. In the
even years, that's when we can bring the substantive ballot
measures that deal with crime, deal with education, or can
cut income taxes. Good ideas like that. Fentanyl definitely being

(24:14):
one of the main issues we're looking at because it
is such a terrible situation across the state that's getting
worse and local law enforcement doesn't have all the tools
they need to deal with it. So don't miss the
interview at five h six with Senator Byron Pelton, who's
going to explain what he's going to try and do
to fix some of.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
The fentanyl crisis.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
What we know in Colorado is that with the legislature
refuses to deal with things that the people are asking for. Thankfully,
we can go right to the ballot and ask the
people to pass the laws that the legislature refuses to pass.
One another big example i'd like to bring up at
PR bonds. We talked about this a little bit in
the last segment, that violent and repeat criminals are getting

(24:55):
out on personal recognizance bonds, meaning they just promised to
the judge that they'll show up for their hearing and
they get out free law enforcement across the state saying
this is a very dangerous situation with auto thieves and
violent criminals that repeat criminals, they go back out and
often do way worse things. But there was a bill
to fix this, to ban pr bonds for violent and

(25:16):
repeat criminals, run just last year in the legislature and
it almost passed committee in the House. Is sponsored by
Gabe Evans, who's now a congressman from CD eight, so
not in the state House anymore, but he sponsored the
bill and got Democrats to supporter. There was bipartisan support,
but they were still one vote short on the Democrat

(25:36):
side of the aisle of getting this through committee. We
have another new state representative, Jarvis Caldwell from Colorado Springs,
who is going to bring that bill again this year
because it's very very clear these are the kind of
things people want to see passed. If they don't pass them,
these are the kind of measures that can go to
the ballot. The truth and Sentencing measure that advanced Colorado

(25:57):
passed in twenty twenty four actually was killed in care
committee for two years in a row on a straight
party line vote, and yet when the voters were asked.
It was the most popular citizen initiated ballot across the state,
and one in every single county across Colorado except I
believe for Boulder. So apparently Boulder wants to keep all
the criminals, but the rest of us don't.

Speaker 2 (26:17):
I'm Christy Britton Brown. You're on the Dankpla Show.

Speaker 3 (26:20):
You can call in over the break eight five five
four zero five eight two five five. When we come back,
we're going to talk about breaking news out of Jefferson
County School District where the very high up official was
arrested for possession of child porn and committed suicide.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Today we'll talk about that in more on The dan
Kapla Show.

Speaker 7 (26:44):
And now back to the dan Kapla Show podcast.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
A terrorist attack in New Orleans and Phil Wiser deciding
that he's going to run for governor, as comes to
a shock to no one here in Colorado, but he
wanted to get ahead of the field because polling showed
that he's only at eight percent, and which is forth
I believe, fourth, behind Jonah Goose, Jennat Griswold, and even
Ken Salzar, which of course he was very popular in

(27:10):
his time. It's just been a very long time and
a lot of Colorados aren't necessarily familiar with him. But
he's still beating out Phil Wiser, the current attorney general.
So I think phil Wiser decided he needed to up
his name might because he's number one in low name
d The same poll showed that he was the person
that the most people didn't recognize when they heard his name,
so he has a lot of work to do.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
I think that's why he's jumped into the race now.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
I really don't think he's going to be the Democrat nominee,
and I'll be very happy about that because he's soft
on crime, not good for Colorado's current needs as a state.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
One thing that we definitely need to.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Cover though, in the last bit of this hour, is
some news coming out of Jeffco Public schools today. Lindsay Datko,
which runs a p she runs a parents group in Jeffco,
wanted to join the show today, wasn't able to do
so I think she will at a future date. She's very,
very familiar with firsthand information in the Jeffco Public schools,

(28:07):
but she did point people to a statement today from
the Jeffco Sheriff's office. I don't know how many of
you been following the story because it kind of happened
over the holidays. But the chief of schools in Jefferson
County here in Colorado was let go, and the Jefferson
County Public Schools haven't provided a lot of information to parents,
which a lot of parents have found concerning. I mean,

(28:27):
I've seen parents even posting saying, Hey, I was gonna
put my kids in this school districts I think they
just moved there, and they're like, I don't know what's
going on with officials at this school and children. I'm
not even sure it's safe to enroll my children here.
And so today though, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department put
out a statement.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
I'm going to read it for you.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
It says, on January first, twenty twenty five, the Maryland,
Washington County Sheriff's Office informed the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
that they were conducting a death investigation of David Weiss
and David Weie is the chief of schools from jeff County.
Statement continues, Weese was in Maryland with family for the holidays.
Information regarding Wesa's death will come from the Washington County

(29:06):
Sheriff's Office in Maryland that Jefferson County Sheriff's Office is
conducting an investigation of Weese involving the possession of child
sexual assault material. That investigation will continue until it is completed.
There will be no further information released. And now I
believe that was the first time there was an official
confirmation that the reason David Weese was removed from Jefferson

(29:27):
County public schools and under investigation was because of possession
of child porn And I think the use of how
that Jefferson County Sheriff's Department worded that the possession of
child sexual assault material. Experts in the area say that
that is actually what child pornography should be called. It
is child sexual assault material. It is used to assault children,

(29:48):
and any child used in the production of child pornography
has been assaulted, and we should be honest with our
terms and call it for what it is. I'm actually
very pleased to see that Jefferson County Sheriff's Office using
the language that's appropriate language and what everyone should be adopting.
What is hugely concerting to parents and called Republic Radio
actually put out a really solid article on this today

(30:10):
is that as Jefferson County Public Schools has not been
revealing enough information to parents. And I understand sometimes when
there's a criminal investigation going on, there's a limited amount
of information you're allowed to provide.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
That can be true.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
Sometimes, but we also know that a lot of school
districts are flat out not transparent with parents and aren't
honest about what is going on so.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
That parents can make a fully informed.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
Decision about whether the school they are sending their child
to is safe for them or not. If you are
running a school, I don't care if it's private, I
don't care if it's charter, I don't care if it's
your neighborhood public school. Your number one priority should be
the safety of children under your care, Not the jobs
of teachers or officials, not the reputation of the school district,

(30:53):
not you know how much information you can hide so
that more people send their kids to the school. Number
one concern should be the safety of children in the schools.
If you read the CPR article, and I'd encourage you
to read it if you're interested in this story, they
published it this morning, but they have confirmed also with
the Jefferson County Sheriff's office that David Weez died in

(31:16):
the middle of this investigation. He committed suicide, is what
the report is saying. I don't think CPR is saying
that he committed suicide, but a number of other people
involved in the situation are saying that's what happened, and
no one is claiming that it's a murder investigation. It's
a death investigation, which means he committed suicide.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
He was fired less than.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
A month ago, and only now our parents having confirmation
that it's because he was in possession of child sexual
assault material. And this article interviewed a number of parents
who have children in the Jeffco Public schools, and you
can just when you read it, you just see how
concerned parents are with what all is going on behind

(31:53):
the scenes in Jefferson County, the school district. They already
were in the news not too long ago for the
hotel room situation on a field trip where a male
was allowed to sleep with a female in the same
hotel room and parents weren't notified or told that was
going to happen. And the CPR article says that the
allegations against David Weiss were the fifth such case in

(32:18):
Jeffco Public schools in twenty twenty four alone. And I'm
looking at the article while I'm telling you this, so
you can go to the source yourself. But they're saying,
first of all, a year ago, in January twenty twenty four, someone,
a paraprofessional or classroom aid at a high school was
taken into custody for several charges, including sexual assault on

(32:38):
a child by a person of trust and multiple other charges.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
The second arrest happened in.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
February, where two boys under the age of fifteen said
a family liaison at the middle school called them into
his office to perform what he called medical exams, and
the police arrested him for sexual assault on a child
by a person of trust. Then another individual who worked
in after school care programs was arrested in May of
twenty twenty four for sexual assault on a child in

(33:06):
jeff coo schools, and then in November, a social worker
in the district was arrested after a kid's parent found
inappropriate messages from the social worker on the child's phone.
She was also arrested with a charge of sexual assault
on a child by a person in a position of
trust and a child was a student was a teenager

(33:28):
at the time. The parents found these messages but told
police the relationship began when he was only eleven years old.
After all of those incidences, and another one that's not
an accusation of sexual assault on a child, but of
another very troubling incidents, there's a lawsuit in Jefferson County

(33:48):
by parents who say that the district claimed their child
was homeless and reported their child as homeless when the
child absolutely was not and lived at home with the
parents along with several siblings who also went.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
To this school.

Speaker 3 (34:01):
So we see a lot of extremely troubling scenarios coming
out of specifically Jefferson County Public schools. And now it's
revealed that the chief of Schools, David Weis, is being
uh well, he was being investigated for a possession of
child sexual assault material. Super troubling scenarios coming out of
Jefferson Public schools. You have thoughts, you can call in

(34:22):
eight five five four zero five eight two five five
or tech Dan to five seven seven three nine.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
I'm Christy Burton Brown. You're on the Dan Kapla Show.
Stay with us.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
We'll have Senator Byron Pelton in our next segment, talking
about fentanyl in his solution to solving the drug crisis
in cala