George Brauchler, 23rd district attorney, fills in for Dan and is joined by Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain, discussing his crackdown on drag racing in city streets - and George's deputy DA in the 23rd, Chase Helseth.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Dan Capless 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 (00:14):
It is George Brockler starting off the week for mister
Dan Kaplis, who is busy crushing it on behalf of
his clients. I'm just thrilled to be back. I thought
after that last show that we did last week, we
would never be invited back. And no one's obviously reading
Ryan's memos. But I'll tell you what, to the extent
(00:35):
that you've got the district attorney for the best judicial
district in the state of Colorado, which contains a portion
of a magnificent city called Aurora. It is the second
largest police department in the state of Colorado. And my goodness,
how they have been active under their new chief who
joins us right now, Chief Todd Chamberlain, thanks for joining
(00:56):
us on the Dan Caples Show.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
It's great to be here, Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Chief.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thrilled with the very proactive and public and I got
to say that public approach you're taking the law enforcement,
because I'm guessing here that you like me recognize that
sometimes it's not enough to be kicking butt on behalf
of the community if the community doesn't know about it,
and if the people who might seek to violate the
(01:21):
laws out there don't know about it either. So I
really appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
It's wonderful and it's a big part of what we
want to do here. When we talk about transparency, a
lot of times you think it's just about, you know,
to certain groups or certain entities, but we really want
to be transparent to the entire community and let people
know exactly what we're doing here, what our objectives are,
and how we plan on doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Aurora has had a pretty good public comms team for
some time now, and this is what caught my eye
this morning. The reason I reached out. It was a
tweet I think it was from yesterday, but it says
street racers, Aurora isn't your playground. Our street Racing task
Force is taking back the streets and last weekend, two
more cars got hauled away. What racers call their quote
(02:05):
prize possessions are now sitting in the impound lot. We've
heard our community loud and clear, and we're not letting up.
If you choose to race illegally in Aurora, expect arrests, citations,
and your car on a tow truck. Illegal street racing
is reckless, dangerous and not welcome here. See it happening,
report it at and then you put a great link
(02:25):
to report that. First off, talk to us about how
how much of an issue is this in Aurora. I
can tell you just in the I twenty five portion
that runs through my county, it's happening. What do you
see in an Aurora?
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, Well, first I want to really express my thoughts
ause you identified it to our pios. They do absolutely
an amazing job and getting that information out. Again, we
don't want to do the gotcha on anybody. We want
everybody to know exactly what we're going to do and
how we're going to do it, and there, without question
a big component of that to project that what the
objectives are and how we want to achieve it. So
to them for you acknowledging that, thank you, and to
(02:58):
them who do the work every day and our PIO team,
I couldn't be more thankful. But again, it is a problem.
Street racing, without question is an issue. I think a
lot of people they look at it as kind of
it's just a nuisance. Well, it's not a nuisance. It's
it's reckless behavior. It puts life at risk, and it
really not only the people that are involved in the racing,
(03:19):
but it puts the life and risk that or the
community bystanders and everybody else. And it's just something that
cannot be tolerated, and unfortunately, I think it's been tolerated
for too long, and so we have really changed the
dynamics and trajectory of how we are going to address
this issue.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
When you talk about the things that took place over
the weekend, is there a particular Are there particular places
in Aurora that are more susceptible? Is it two twenty
five that has always looked to me like a launching
pad at some types of night when when cars are
racing down the road. Are there are other parts that
are susceptible to this?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, there's different locations, And to be quite honest with you,
I think that these three racers too are pretty verse
in how they communicate and what they do, and that
is something that we track as well as something that
we make sure that we're aware of because they don't
choose just one particular place, one particular city, or one
particular location. They go to where there's not going to
(04:12):
be an enforcement. They go to where they feel that
they have the liberty to do what they say, take
over a street, and that's exactly what they do. And
so it's not one particular location. We see locations that
kind of bring them back time and time again. But
just like any type of preventative law enforcement, we're pretty
active about getting there before they have the opportunity to
(04:34):
gain any momentum. And that's what we really have been
focusing on this year, and I think it's having an
impact that we like we're.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Talking to a roor Chief of Police, Todd Chamberlain, we
have run into this same thing, and maybe your conversations
with Da Amy Padden out there and Da Brian Mason
a little bit in the north part of the Adams
County part of the same. We've tried to figure out,
we get so few of these right, we catch so
few of them happen way more. How do we make
(05:03):
an example of these people? And one of the things
we've talked about is taking that next step, which you
have already started, which is impounding the vehicles, that's huge,
and then seeking to forfeit them. Have you had conversations
about the potential for that from the das.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Yeah, we've Actually that's the one big thing that's been
such a positive about this is that when you look
at the impact of the criminal justice system, it depends
on everybody working together, and that's law enforcement, courts and corrections.
And that's the partnership again with you, George personally, and
then as well with the other das involved, is making
sure that we are going in the same direction on this,
because if we just arrest them and they keep getting
(05:41):
out over and over and over and there's no cases
that's filed, there's no criminal impact to them long term
in regards you know, corrections, that's not going to have
the same thing that we're hoping to achieve here. And
so that collaboration, that partnership outside of just law enforcement
is absolutely pivotal.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I agree, and I the forfeiture thing is and it's
not available in every case, but where it's available, we
are trying to get more aggressive in its application because
I think that in and of itself would send a
huge pr message that it's like No, you're not just
going to get arrested. You're not just losing your car
for the night. You're losing your car forever. That to
(06:17):
me sends a message maybe you either stop doing this
or go somewhere else. Can you talk to us about
the Street Racing Task Force? Is that something you created?
Has it been around a bit?
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Did it exist before you had to dust it off?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, it's gone through modifications. It's known as our SOS program.
So basically it's officers that are assigned specifically to address
a myriad of different things that are community issues and problematic.
We'll use it for party cars and for you know,
pop up parties that occur. We use it specifically a
lot for free racing. And really what this allows us
(06:53):
to do is to get some subject matter expertise, get
a group of officers that are aware of situation, that
have that ability and knowledge of how to be proactive.
And that's really what I think is the most important
thing out of this is being proactive. We are not
just waiting for them to take over streets. We are
actually trying to find out where those streets are they're
(07:14):
going to go to, where their locations are. We have
a zero tolerance approach to this. We are not going
to allow them to accumulate and just stand by and
watch this happen and say, hey, go off to the
next location or the next city. We are going to
take our resources. We are going to try to contain
the location and the venue, and we are going to
(07:34):
cite or arrest anybody who's in and around there. That
includes the operators of these vehicles, It includes the bystanders
that are onlookers that are causing issues. If we have
the probable cause to institute some enforcement of a violation
of an arrest, we are going to do it, and
we have been doing it.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
One of the challenges, and this is from a guy
who was driving home and I've had this happen a
couple times on I twenty five, mostly southbound. You see
those cars start to slow down, and I don't know
if they're blocker cars or whatever, trying to clear a path,
you know, in front of them for these guys to race.
And I find myself saying, hey, I know what's going
on here, and I want to take out my phone
and I want to like video it or take pictures
(08:14):
of it. And then I'm like, well, Wait, I'm not
supposed to be on the phone while I'm outside of
the website. Is there something that people can do that
witness this that won't clog down the emergency system? Like
I'm reluctant to say, everybody call nine one. I mean,
is there some other thing that they should do when
they encounter this?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, you know that reports tree racing dot com. You
know an a APDA, AAPD in action those the onestree
racing dot Com is a state site. It's a website
that goes to the state, has a lot of information
the APD one in action. Again, that's local, that's for us.
But really the hard part about this is, I guess
is we cannot normalize it and think, oh, I don't
(08:54):
want to jam up a roar nine to one one
with calls, because this is not, you know, a non
island event. This is not an event that cannot cause harm,
cause injury, cause death. And if people start to see
that unfolding in front of them, if they start to
see one the mere fact that these street racers feel
that they can take over a street, that they feel
(09:16):
that they have the ability the right to basically turn
everybody else's world around in the community because they want
to play a game or what they think is a game,
and it's an incredibly dangerous game that's not going to
be tolerated in two when they actually get involved in
the racing aspect. We have enough accidents in Aurora, which
is people who have bad driving patterns, with speed, with neglect,
(09:38):
with the lack of oversight. We've had tragedies in the
past month where we have had children who have been
killed in crosswalks, where we've had people that have been
you know, an eighteen year old who was driving too
quickly killed herself, and again that's a loss of the life.
So I guess what I really want to say is
just don't look at it in and downplay and think, oh,
it's just street racing, because it's not just street racing.
(09:59):
Like I said the beginning, this isn't just a nuisance.
This is reckless and this puts this people at life
like any other crime, you know, where the people are neglectful,
where people don't care about someone else. And I think
it's time as a city, I think it's time as
a state that this isn't normalized, that we don't think, oh,
it's just kids having fun. Because it's not. There's crime
(10:19):
going along with this, there's activities that shouldn't be tolerated,
and there's death that go along with this. And so
if you need to call nine one one, you call
nine one one and we will do the best we
can to get there and stop that behavior.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, last thing too, and I know you know this, folks,
may not you think the street racing thing is the
biggest problem. You commit a crime out there on the
street where you hurt or god forbid, kill someone, those
are felonious acts, reckless driving, SBI homicide. It could be
not only vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, but you get a
particularly aggressive DA in the right facts, they could pursue
(10:54):
you for extreme indifference murder and that is the rest
of your life. In the Department of Corrections. This is
something that's going on all the time. I'm really impressed
with the aggressive way that you guys have taken this
thing on. Chief Todd Chamberlain from a roar PD man,
thank you so much for spending some of your time
with us on the air.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
That is great to be here and I'm glad to
get this message out because I think it's really important.
And again I think this really needs to be stressed
to the individuals involved in street racing and to the
community as a whole. The community. We hear the problems,
we see what goes on, and we are not going
to tolerate into the street racers that are involved in
this activity and think it's no big deal. Well it is.
(11:33):
And I have some really good stats that back that
up on traffic site, on criminal prosecutions, on municipal codes,
thirty one arrests that we've made, forty seven toes that
we have done. So again, we take this very seriously.
It's something that's not going to be tolerated in our
community and having the opportunity to get this out is
really important. So thank you so much for that.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Keep up the great work. We'll see you soon. Thanks Chief,
look forward to it.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Hey, this is George Brockler filling for Dan Caplis. What
did you hear there? And first off, do you run
into this yourself? Give us a text at five seven
seven three nine five seven seven three nine and put
Dan in there even though it'll come to me, and
then you can give us a call. It three O
three seven to one three eighty two fifty five three
O three seven one three eighty two to fifty five.
Is this a big deal? What should we do with
these people? What should we do with the people that
(12:22):
take their cars out in street race in our community?
George Brockler filling in for Dan Caplis on The Mighty
Dan Capleas Show.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And now back to the Dankaplas Show podcast for the.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Fighting in Court, Dan Caplis, My thanks to Chief Todd
Chamberlain from the Aurora Police Department for making time in
his busy day to come talk to us about something
that they're tackling. It's a big one. It's one we
have had conversations in our own office about.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I'm thrilled though that Aurora is doing two things, one
being very proactive in pursuing it and trying to discourage folks,
but two that PRPCE matters. I've often wondered why more
DA's offices don't take a more aggressive approach to trying
to discourage criminal behavior through a very aggressive pr campaign,
(13:14):
especially one that's backed up by action. And here's one
where Chief Chamberlain is backing up what they're doing by
going to and I love the way to catch it too.
That the term was we don't want to sneak up
on anybody and do gotcha. Yeah, that's right. So we're
gonna let you know, do this here and we're gonna
grab you up. I love that kind of thing. Our
number three O three seven one three eighty two fifty five.
Brian from Arvada. You're on the Dan Kapla Show.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
Hey, George, nice to speak to you again. Congratulations on
protecting Douglas County as happy this that you got it.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Me too, Thanks man, longtime note chat. How are you doing.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
I'm not doing too bad, but I think you're being
a little hard on the boys. I mean, boys will
be boys. We all had our thing in our generation,
like we tried to get away with a lot of
non since growing up. So now we try to be
a little harder on the next ones. They're racing now
there's just an inherent you know, risk to life. So
this taking their car away and stuff, I probably wouldn't
(14:12):
be down with.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
What do you think should happen to? What do you think?
Speaker 7 (14:17):
Well, if they get caught, they get fined and everything.
But how much are we going to micromad manage these
young men? We'll send them in the army and the
Marines and stuff. But then you know, there's a certain
we all grow up and there's an inherent risk to freedom, right,
So we did our bad things. Now that this is
(14:37):
their bad thing, I don't think it's overly bad. It's
dangerous and it can get people killed, but then they
got to suffer the consequences.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Once it happens forgiving men. But they're not the only
ones to suffer the consequences. The people they killed or
maimed or crippled also suffer the consequences of their Let
boys be voice thing. Doesn't that cause you some pause?
Like maybe we ought to discourage them? You know what?
Speaker 7 (14:59):
This same time, I'm wondering where we draw the line,
because if.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
There's always a there's always a risk.
Speaker 7 (15:05):
To everything, right, So how how much do we micromanage?
And do we want our kids just sitting at home
playing video games and being completely useless or do we
realize are we smart enough to realize? Hey, when we
were their age, we took inherent risks. Some of us
made it through it, some of us didn't. But whoever
didn't pay the consequence. So I guess there's a line
(15:26):
between micromanaging everything you know, but I do understand it's
dangerous and all that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
But Brian, did you do this when you were a kid?
Speaker 7 (15:37):
I you know, I we probably had a few beers
and got away with driving a few times, probably did
a little bit of race and stuff like that. You know,
it's all part of growing up. Now you look back,
you know, when you're older and you go, oh my god,
that's and you hope your kids don't do what you did.
But there's just a certain way of life.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
You know.
Speaker 7 (15:57):
So how how far do you micromanage?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I'm not sure if I I agree that there is
something to do with kids that causes them to make
decisions that you and I wouldn't make. Ryan still makes them,
but nobody else.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
Are growing up.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
But I would say this too, Those decisions get captured
in the juvenile justice matrix. They don't get into adult court.
But I'll tell you what I'm seeing is that these
folks that are doing this are not juveniles. There are
some that participate, but by and large they are adults
because they own big adult toys that they've souped up
to do this, that or the other. So it's it's
beyond a boys versus a Boys'll be boys thing. This
(16:36):
thing strikes me as there are guys out there who
just don't care. They think they know better. They're gonna
put your family and my family at risk, and they're
willing to do it.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
Go ahead, sir, Well yeah, Georgia, maybe it could be both. Right,
are they in their like twenties, they know they're taking
a risk. Yeah, so you know, maybe it can be both. Yes,
they know they have souped up toys. Yes, when we
were younger, we knew we did dumb stuff that was probably,
you know, not very recommended when we look back at it.
(17:08):
But that's why I'm saying, how far do we micromanage something?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
But is it micromanaging? Is it micromanaging? Because we have
a lot of the books that says doesn't do it,
don't do it. So the issue is do.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
We mat If you get caught, you got to pay
the consequences. I'm just saying, what are the consequences? Well, great,
it's their job out run, you know, to beat the law,
and the last job is to beat them. That's the
way it is. It's always been that way.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
My concern is that this conduct isn't just lowercase de dangerous.
It's dangerous in that when there's a mistake on the road,
especially at those high speeds in and around traffic, it's
not a fender bender. People get hurt or killed. And
so our goal shouldn't just be to say, well, if
you do that, then we'll punish you. It's to discourage
(17:54):
people from doing it to begin with. And one of
the ways to do that is to take away the
implements of that criminality. I mean, if your neighbor goes
outside and takes his gun and starts shooting around the neighborhood,
which is a crime to do that, it would be
a fair response from government to say, we can't trust
you with that anymore. We're going to take that away
from you.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
On that Dan, it goes back to the same thing,
where do you draw the line. That's when they're out
shooting a gun, and then they obviously got bad intent.
But if these guys are racing, they like in their
minds they're not. You know, there's Bryan, buddy.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
It's always great to hear from you. That music tells
you that Ryan's about to kick us both off the year. Man.
Thank you for that phone call. Hey listen, you're text
five seven seven three nine. When we come back, a
deputy district attorney who just sent someone to prison for
running from the man. When we come back, George Brockler
filling in for Dan Camplish. I'm the Mighty Dan Kaplas Show.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
You're listening to the Dan Kaeplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I'm filling in for Dan cap tod. Hey, George Brockler
filling in for the Mighty Dan Kaplis. Listen, great conversation.
We're gonna get to Jill from Elizabeth here in a
little bit, but I wanted to bring someone on board
to talk about another side of this coin. And let
me tell you why it's important to me. The roads
out there are the one place short of you and
(19:20):
your family being shut ins in your basement, that you
can't protect yourself. You could be the best driver on
the planet Earth, you are subjected to the lowest common
denominator of judgment behind the wheel right next to you.
I mean, folks, think about this paint. Paint on the
road separates cars going seventy five miles an hour from
(19:44):
careening off into each other and going over bridges and
all this other stuff paint and signs. So it's a
lot of trust the other people that have to deal
with this on a daily basis. Aren't just the folks
that are trying to navigate their way home or to
pick up a kid, and there's the street racers. There's
also law enforcement who are out there trying to enforce
the law. And as it turns out, some people, by
(20:06):
golly just don't want to be arrested, and so they
do crazy stuff. Like ron to talk about a case
that we just wrapped up today. One of the great
young prosecutors in the twenty third Judicial District. His name
is Chase health Seth Chase. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Thanks so much for having me on. George.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I know that early on you were sweating the decision
whether or not to be on the radio. How's it
going so far?
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Yeah, so little sweaty over here, but we're doing well
so far.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, thank you for that. We'll get into details later.
First off, congrats on being part of the best DA's
office in state of Colorado.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Thank you very much. I think I have one guy
to thank for that, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, I don't know who that is. But nonetheless, you
had a case today and I want to say it's
unusual but it's not. This is kind of like part
and parcel of what we do in district court. And
Chase is a felony prosecutor. That means he handles everything
for everything from the low level F six charges all
the way up to first Green murder. But today there
(21:06):
was something that kind of touches upon this topic of
trying to run away from the cops. Talk to us
about what it was.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Yeah, we had a defendant, mister Blodgett. He was at
a King Supers in Highland's ranch. He's in a stolen
car and law enforcement had run the plates on that car,
so they knew that this was a stolen car. So
they had set up a sting for lack of a
better term, to try to apprehend the folks in this car.
(21:33):
And if he gets in the car, there's officers on
either side, sort of is in one of those aisles
you know, at the King Supers And he backs up
and points his the nose of his car to drive out,
and a deputy comes right in front of him and
blocks his way, blocking him in, and instead it puts
on his lights, skits out and instead of just surrendering
(21:56):
to the deputy at that moment, and it puts the
car in reverse and forlors it and it's pouring reversing
down this crowded parking on the middle of the day,
going towards actually towards the King Supers and so really
really dangerous. He's running away from police. He's actually going
right towards the entrance to the store. You'd see we have,
(22:18):
you know, surveillance cam of folks, you know, walking in
and out of the grocery store like they would any
other day. And there's another deputy who's sort of in
the in the waiting, in the wings, you know, because
these law enforcement never just when they notice a song car,
they're often not just there one one person, but they're
there in multiple And he was really quick thinking and
sees this guy going back and realizes he's gonna hit
(22:42):
innocent civilians as he's backing up as fast as he
can to get away from the cops. And he quickly
moved his car to close off the aisle to the
kind of crashed into the back of the deputy's car,
and just a really really dangerous situation in the middle
of the day at the King Supers.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Now this guy gets charged, merged with is the top
count vehicular eluding felony eluding.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
It is, yes, talk about that charge. Yeah, the vehicular
eluding requires that you're trying to get away from the cops,
and while you're doing that, you act in a reckless manner,
and so you're acting in a way that's putting people
at risk. And so I think this is a lot
of times. I think we think about that as you know,
you're on the highway running as fast as you can,
(23:24):
you know, speeding, and we certainly see lots of those cases.
But I think this is unique in just how confined
it was and just how dangerous it was with not
just other cars on the road, but pedest and people
just shopping for groceries.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Now under the caption, Colorado continues to have some of
the weakest laws protecting drivers on the road in America.
This particular charge is a fifth class felony that's on
the lower end of a scale of one to six.
The bigger the number, the smaller the charge, and it
is a presumptive range sentence of one to three years,
(23:59):
but it's probation eligible. You can commit this crime, frankly,
over and over again and never have to face prison
and yet what did you get on this guy?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Well, we got the judge sentenced him to four years
in prison today, and so we were pleased with that.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
How did you get above the one to three year
presumptive range sentence and get prison on this guy?
Speaker 5 (24:23):
So in Colorado, there is a way to expand the
range on an f FI from one to three as
you're talking about George, to two to six if there's
some certain aggravating factors in One of those is if
someone is on parole. And so this Senate was actually
on parole being supervised I guess by some parole office
(24:45):
while this happened. Yeah, when this when this occurred, and
so that legally opened us up to a larger range
than the maximum that otherwise would have been there.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
We're talking with Deputy District Attorney Chase Helsath. Helsath from
the mighty twenty third you have now touched upon and
this is another reason I like this story. Another fact
that we have been trying to promote to at least
our jurisdiction, and that is most of the people that
commit crimes in our jurisdiction are not from our jurisdiction.
And this is another example. This cat was from Littleton.
(25:17):
He was on parole for a domestic violence assault charge
out of a Rapahoe County. None of those things took
place in Douglas. And yet where does he go to
commit his crimes. It's down here in Douglas. In terms
of the parole, you took some looking into this, and
I'm not going to pin you down on every single
detail because I know it was painful. But what did
(25:38):
you discover about this guy's past leading him to being
on parole?
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Yeah, I even looked a little bit further into You
looked into it a little bit further. He back in.
It looks like twenty twenty one, Clid guilty as you
alluded to, to a domestic violence selony assault, was given
a sentence of four years in something we call community corrections,
which is sort of like a halfway house. I mean,
it looks like at some point after that in twenty
(26:06):
twenty two, he must he escaped. He didn't come back
to his bed, and so at that point, in August
of twenty twenty two, he was sentenced to then four
years in prisons in the Department of Corrections. So I
was back in August of twenty twenty two, I'll be
honest with you, George, It's hard to get really great
detailed dates. But at some point between that time in
(26:30):
twenty twenty two and now he was let out of
the Department of Corrections and placed on parole and then
obviously committed just the sense that we're talking about today.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I think we're fortunate to be able to put a
guy like this into prison. He helped us get there,
of course, with his history and his behavior. What are
we seeing on And maybe I don't want to pin
you down on this either, maybe we don't have a
lot of good intel from just your division. But when
we have these cases in Douglas County and someone doesn't
have that kind of a criminal history, they aren't being
(27:02):
supervised by the system. And I should remind people we
took a deep dive into this on the twenty third
Judicial District. Forty four percent of the people that are
being arrested for crimes in Douglas County in the twenty
third are currently being I guess they're currently part of
the system, parole, probation, bond, on a summons. This guy
fits that thing perfectly. What are we normally seeing If
(27:23):
there is a normal I.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
Think these are dangerous cases, and we saw one. I
think we see all types of stuff. But I'll be frank.
I think we're seeing often a jail sentence, and if
it's a first time of sense followed by I think
we always are asking for some sort of jail, but
nowhere near this amount. I think a year in prison.
(27:47):
I think often we feel like it can be a
good outcome if someone has no history and just runs
from the cops once. Sometimes we even get a little
bit of jail and then probation. So a lot of
times much less than this.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
On a scale of nine to ten, how awesome is
it to work in the twenty third?
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I gotta say ten?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
You do because you're you're talking to the big boss, buddy.
I can't thank you enough for doing this. How's the sweat?
Did it pool? Anywhere? Are you gonna have to change
any garments? Or you good?
Speaker 5 (28:16):
I think I think we're looking all right. I think
I think we made it.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Listen, you got to clip this and send it to
your folks. They know what great work you're doing on
behalf of the public out here. Deputy District Attorney Chase
hell sith he is a fantastic up and comer in
the DA's office. Thanks for the great work you're doing
on behalf of the community. Man.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Thanks so much for having me on, George.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
See you, buddy. Hey, listen, we're gonna get Jill on,
but I don't want to take Jill right now. Jill
hang on because I don't want to cut you short.
I want to have this conversation about the car racing
and the other stuff. But can I get your feedback
on this? Are our laws two week on these looters?
Should we be sending every single one of these men
and women, mostly men to prison or jail if they
(28:56):
run from the cops three h three seven one three
eighty two fifty five three or three seven eight two
five five, or you can text us on the Dan
Caplis text line here at five seven seven three nine
five seven seven three nine. Put the word Dan in
there and then we'll go from there. When we come back,
Jill texts you me. George Brockler filling in for Dan
(29:16):
Caplis on the Dankplas Show and.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
If you are not paying attention to the brilliance of
Ryan behind the Glass, with the music selection throughout this topic.
You're missing something. If all you're waiting for is for
the guy that's not Dan Caplis to come on, you're
missing something because it's it's magical. Ryan, thank you for
the effort on that stuff. That's just uh.
Speaker 8 (29:39):
I'm still recovering from your beautiful lyrical ode in the
previous bomb.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
It's the beer. Well, I'm telling you, I don't know
if I don't presume Dan drinks ever no on air. Wow,
but if I could, George, I dronk you under the table.
You know, we ought to have that show speaking of
upcoming shows, not next week, but the week after it's on.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
It is on.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I'm gonna read you a text looking forward to co
hosting with you, and yeah, our laws in Colorado suck,
but it's made only worse by the feckless doc dot
dot dot rems boom. It's happening, folks, It's it is happening.
Another one. Hearing Chief Todd was like, I know, I know,
it's this is the if iHeart needed one more nudge
(30:25):
over the edge, this is it. And Ryan, I don't
I don't want to take you down with us, but
it's I think it's gonna happen. Brother, I'm glad to
go down with that ship. The brocler rems Express say
the Sheriff and the DA show. It's one episode only.
It's what the Brits call a limited series. It's just
one and done. It's like talking to hearing. Chief Todd
(30:46):
was like the old LAPD. They were busting heads, especially
of runners, long before anyone heard of the broken glass
theory of policing. Guess where Chief Todd came from throughout
most of his career. Oooh yeah, lap D. Let's go
to the phone lines. Jill from Elizabeth in the fight.
In twenty third, You're on the Dan Capu Show at
George Brocker.
Speaker 7 (31:06):
How are you hi, George?
Speaker 1 (31:08):
I'm good.
Speaker 9 (31:09):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Living the dream? And when I say it, it didn't
sound like Dan's but I mean it.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (31:17):
Well I say it too, but I don't know whose
dream I'm living.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
It's very matrixy. What do you think about this car
racing stuff?
Speaker 9 (31:25):
Well, I think it's crazy. Uh, we did this back
in the day, and I know, I know it's called
back in the day and it probably was a Wednesday,
but we we did muscle car racing. You know, the
big the kudahs that that you know, we did that,
And yeah, yeah, we we did it on a Rapahoe road.
(31:50):
It had just been paved and after you know, ten
o'clock at night, there was nobody on that road and
so we could race and it was only two lanes
then and we would go out there and race. We
didn't do that where it was going to hurt innocent
people standing on the sideline lived, you know, hanging out
(32:10):
in their front yards in just driving home from work.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
We didn't do that.
Speaker 9 (32:16):
We did it on Chambers Road clear out as far
as it got paid. We never terrorized our neighborhoods with
our cars.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
We didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I am certain. I'm certain that there were people, probably
in your generation in mind, who made some ridiculous decisions
that put others at risk. But in some of the
Texters have said this and they agree with you, and
that is it just seems like there's a lot more
of it right now, you know what I mean. It
seems like we have never had this much of it.
Speaker 9 (32:48):
Yeah, and maybe we haven't, but we didn't have the
media we have now. But we actually, I don't believe
we ever intended to make other people victims of our craziness.
And yeah, it was crazy, it was it was crazy.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
To do that, but the people who who went there
and became part of that, we all kind of knew that,
and we did it anyway.
Speaker 9 (33:22):
And I'm going to tell you in the I mean,
there were hundreds of street races I attended. And this
is back in the mid to late seventies. I graduated
from Chary Creek in seventy seven, I'm sorry, seventy nine.
And maybe both were doing that back I know, honey,
I know. So we were doing that, you know, but
(33:45):
we were doing that for our fun. We didn't have
to worry about people being victimized by art craziness.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Now it just.
Speaker 9 (33:56):
Seems that these people do wherever and whenever they please,
and it puts a lot of lives at risk. And
to the man who you talk to us, yeah, yeah,
Prior to me, he was talking about like how you
know it was he to me, it sounded like he
(34:17):
was more worried about or he was more concerned, not worried,
he is more concerned about the driver of the vehicle.
Now that's not what we did. We We knew our risks.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
We I mean, we grew up with vandmir Right.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Oh well, that's a great example.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Jill Is band was set up to take this activity
off of the roads where you could do it in
a safe environment.
Speaker 8 (34:42):
Are we sure, especially with the year that she mentioned
that Jill isn't actually Rizzo from Greece because of when
that movie was set and what she's describing there, Jill,
it's a lot like Greece.
Speaker 9 (34:54):
Ugly well, and that's the point, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
We grease lightning is.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Well.
Speaker 9 (35:01):
I just all I'm trying to say is these these
people that are doing these risks now in their cars,
are now risking other people. And when we were out
raising it was for it was.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yet that's right, you weren't trying to hurt anyone. Jill.
I can't thank you enough for two things, One being
a constituent, but two calling into the show and sharing
your opinions with us. Hey, listen, we've got other callers
on the line at three zero three seven one three
eighty two fifty five. You can join them, Glenn and others.
You can also hit us on the text line at
five seven seven three nine. We'll be back after a
(35:37):
short break. It's George Brockler on the dan Kapla show.
This is Dan Capless 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 (00:14):
It is George Brockler starting off the week for mister
Dan Kaplis, who is busy crushing it on behalf of
his clients. I'm just thrilled to be back. I thought
after that last show that we did last week, we
would never be invited back. And no one's obviously reading
Ryan's memos. But I'll tell you what, to the extent
(00:35):
that you've got the district attorney for the best judicial
district in the state of Colorado, which contains a portion
of a magnificent city called Aurora. It is the second
largest police department in the state of Colorado. And my goodness,
how they have been active under their new chief who
joins us right now, Chief Todd Chamberlain, thanks for joining
(00:56):
us on the Dan Caples Show.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
It's great to be here, Thank you very much.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
Chief.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Thrilled with the very proactive and public and I got
to say that public approach you're taking the law enforcement,
because I'm guessing here that you like me recognize that
sometimes it's not enough to be kicking butt on behalf
of the community if the community doesn't know about it,
and if the people who might seek to violate the
(01:21):
laws out there don't know about it either. So I
really appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
It's wonderful and it's a big part of what we
want to do here. When we talk about transparency, a
lot of times you think it's just about, you know,
to certain groups or certain entities, but we really want
to be transparent to the entire community and let people
know exactly what we're doing here, what our objectives are,
and how we plan on doing that.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Aurora has had a pretty good public comms team for
some time now, and this is what caught my eye
this morning. The reason I reached out. It was a
tweet I think it was from yesterday, but it says
street racers, Aurora isn't your playground. Our street Racing task
Force is taking back the streets and last weekend, two
more cars got hauled away. What racers call their quote
(02:05):
prize possessions are now sitting in the impound lot. We've
heard our community loud and clear, and we're not letting up.
If you choose to race illegally in Aurora, expect arrests, citations,
and your car on a tow truck. Illegal street racing
is reckless, dangerous and not welcome here. See it happening,
report it at and then you put a great link
(02:25):
to report that. First off, talk to us about how
how much of an issue is this in Aurora. I
can tell you just in the I twenty five portion
that runs through my county, it's happening. What do you
see in an Aurora?
Speaker 5 (02:36):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah, Well, first I want to really express my thoughts
ause you identified it to our pios. They do absolutely
an amazing job and getting that information out. Again, we
don't want to do the gotcha on anybody. We want
everybody to know exactly what we're going to do and
how we're going to do it, and there, without question
a big component of that to project that what the
objectives are and how we want to achieve it. So
to them for you acknowledging that, thank you, and to
(02:58):
them who do the work every day and our PIO team,
I couldn't be more thankful. But again, it is a problem.
Street racing, without question is an issue. I think a
lot of people they look at it as kind of
it's just a nuisance. Well, it's not a nuisance. It's
it's reckless behavior. It puts life at risk, and it
really not only the people that are involved in the racing,
(03:19):
but it puts the life and risk that or the
community bystanders and everybody else. And it's just something that
cannot be tolerated, and unfortunately, I think it's been tolerated
for too long, and so we have really changed the
dynamics and trajectory of how we are going to address
this issue.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
When you talk about the things that took place over
the weekend, is there a particular Are there particular places
in Aurora that are more susceptible? Is it two twenty
five that has always looked to me like a launching
pad at some types of night when when cars are
racing down the road. Are there are other parts that
are susceptible to this?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, there's different locations, And to be quite honest with you,
I think that these three racers too are pretty verse
in how they communicate and what they do, and that
is something that we track as well as something that
we make sure that we're aware of because they don't
choose just one particular place, one particular city, or one
particular location. They go to where there's not going to
(04:12):
be an enforcement. They go to where they feel that
they have the liberty to do what they say, take
over a street, and that's exactly what they do. And
so it's not one particular location. We see locations that
kind of bring them back time and time again. But
just like any type of preventative law enforcement, we're pretty
active about getting there before they have the opportunity to
(04:34):
gain any momentum. And that's what we really have been
focusing on this year, and I think it's having an
impact that we like we're.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Talking to a roor Chief of Police, Todd Chamberlain, we
have run into this same thing, and maybe your conversations
with Da Amy Padden out there and Da Brian Mason
a little bit in the north part of the Adams
County part of the same. We've tried to figure out,
we get so few of these right, we catch so
few of them happen way more. How do we make
(05:03):
an example of these people? And one of the things
we've talked about is taking that next step, which you
have already started, which is impounding the vehicles, that's huge,
and then seeking to forfeit them. Have you had conversations
about the potential for that from the das.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Yeah, we've Actually that's the one big thing that's been
such a positive about this is that when you look
at the impact of the criminal justice system, it depends
on everybody working together, and that's law enforcement, courts and corrections.
And that's the partnership again with you, George personally, and
then as well with the other das involved, is making
sure that we are going in the same direction on this,
because if we just arrest them and they keep getting
(05:41):
out over and over and over and there's no cases
that's filed, there's no criminal impact to them long term
in regards you know, corrections, that's not going to have
the same thing that we're hoping to achieve here. And
so that collaboration, that partnership outside of just law enforcement
is absolutely pivotal.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
I agree, and I the forfeiture thing is and it's
not available in every case, but where it's available, we
are trying to get more aggressive in its application because
I think that in and of itself would send a
huge pr message that it's like No, you're not just
going to get arrested. You're not just losing your car
for the night. You're losing your car forever. That to
(06:17):
me sends a message maybe you either stop doing this
or go somewhere else. Can you talk to us about
the Street Racing Task Force? Is that something you created?
Has it been around a bit?
Speaker 5 (06:27):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Did it exist before you had to dust it off?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Yeah, it's gone through modifications. It's known as our SOS program.
So basically it's officers that are assigned specifically to address
a myriad of different things that are community issues and problematic.
We'll use it for party cars and for you know,
pop up parties that occur. We use it specifically a
lot for free racing. And really what this allows us
(06:53):
to do is to get some subject matter expertise, get
a group of officers that are aware of situation, that
have that ability and knowledge of how to be proactive.
And that's really what I think is the most important
thing out of this is being proactive. We are not
just waiting for them to take over streets. We are
actually trying to find out where those streets are they're
(07:14):
going to go to, where their locations are. We have
a zero tolerance approach to this. We are not going
to allow them to accumulate and just stand by and
watch this happen and say, hey, go off to the
next location or the next city. We are going to
take our resources. We are going to try to contain
the location and the venue, and we are going to
(07:34):
cite or arrest anybody who's in and around there. That
includes the operators of these vehicles, It includes the bystanders
that are onlookers that are causing issues. If we have
the probable cause to institute some enforcement of a violation
of an arrest, we are going to do it, and
we have been doing it.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
One of the challenges, and this is from a guy
who was driving home and I've had this happen a
couple times on I twenty five, mostly southbound. You see
those cars start to slow down, and I don't know
if they're blocker cars or whatever, trying to clear a path,
you know, in front of them for these guys to race.
And I find myself saying, hey, I know what's going
on here, and I want to take out my phone
and I want to like video it or take pictures
(08:14):
of it. And then I'm like, well, Wait, I'm not
supposed to be on the phone while I'm outside of
the website. Is there something that people can do that
witness this that won't clog down the emergency system? Like
I'm reluctant to say, everybody call nine one. I mean,
is there some other thing that they should do when
they encounter this?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, you know that reports tree racing dot com. You
know an a APDA, AAPD in action those the onestree
racing dot Com is a state site. It's a website
that goes to the state, has a lot of information
the APD one in action. Again, that's local, that's for us.
But really the hard part about this is, I guess
is we cannot normalize it and think, oh, I don't
(08:54):
want to jam up a roar nine to one one
with calls, because this is not, you know, a non
island event. This is not an event that cannot cause harm,
cause injury, cause death. And if people start to see
that unfolding in front of them, if they start to
see one the mere fact that these street racers feel
that they can take over a street, that they feel
(09:16):
that they have the ability the right to basically turn
everybody else's world around in the community because they want
to play a game or what they think is a game,
and it's an incredibly dangerous game that's not going to
be tolerated in two when they actually get involved in
the racing aspect. We have enough accidents in Aurora, which
is people who have bad driving patterns, with speed, with neglect,
(09:38):
with the lack of oversight. We've had tragedies in the
past month where we have had children who have been
killed in crosswalks, where we've had people that have been
you know, an eighteen year old who was driving too
quickly killed herself, and again that's a loss of the life.
So I guess what I really want to say is
just don't look at it in and downplay and think, oh,
it's just street racing, because it's not just street racing.
(09:59):
Like I said the beginning, this isn't just a nuisance.
This is reckless and this puts this people at life
like any other crime, you know, where the people are neglectful,
where people don't care about someone else. And I think
it's time as a city, I think it's time as
a state that this isn't normalized, that we don't think, oh,
it's just kids having fun. Because it's not. There's crime
(10:19):
going along with this, there's activities that shouldn't be tolerated,
and there's death that go along with this. And so
if you need to call nine one one, you call
nine one one and we will do the best we
can to get there and stop that behavior.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, last thing too, and I know you know this, folks,
may not you think the street racing thing is the
biggest problem. You commit a crime out there on the
street where you hurt or god forbid, kill someone, those
are felonious acts, reckless driving, SBI homicide. It could be
not only vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, but you get a
particularly aggressive DA in the right facts, they could pursue
(10:54):
you for extreme indifference murder and that is the rest
of your life. In the Department of Corrections. This is
something that's going on all the time. I'm really impressed
with the aggressive way that you guys have taken this
thing on. Chief Todd Chamberlain from a roar PD man,
thank you so much for spending some of your time
with us on the air.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
That is great to be here and I'm glad to
get this message out because I think it's really important.
And again I think this really needs to be stressed
to the individuals involved in street racing and to the
community as a whole. The community. We hear the problems,
we see what goes on, and we are not going
to tolerate into the street racers that are involved in
this activity and think it's no big deal. Well it is.
(11:33):
And I have some really good stats that back that
up on traffic site, on criminal prosecutions, on municipal codes,
thirty one arrests that we've made, forty seven toes that
we have done. So again, we take this very seriously.
It's something that's not going to be tolerated in our
community and having the opportunity to get this out is
really important. So thank you so much for that.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Keep up the great work. We'll see you soon. Thanks Chief,
look forward to it.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Hey, this is George Brockler filling for Dan Caplis. What
did you hear there? And first off, do you run
into this yourself? Give us a text at five seven
seven three nine five seven seven three nine and put
Dan in there even though it'll come to me, and
then you can give us a call. It three O
three seven to one three eighty two fifty five three
O three seven one three eighty two to fifty five.
Is this a big deal? What should we do with
these people? What should we do with the people that
(12:22):
take their cars out in street race in our community?
George Brockler filling in for Dan Caplis on The Mighty
Dan Capleas Show.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
And now back to the Dankaplas Show podcast for the.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
Fighting in Court, Dan Caplis, My thanks to Chief Todd
Chamberlain from the Aurora Police Department for making time in
his busy day to come talk to us about something
that they're tackling. It's a big one. It's one we
have had conversations in our own office about.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
I'm thrilled though that Aurora is doing two things, one
being very proactive in pursuing it and trying to discourage folks,
but two that PRPCE matters. I've often wondered why more
DA's offices don't take a more aggressive approach to trying
to discourage criminal behavior through a very aggressive pr campaign,
(13:14):
especially one that's backed up by action. And here's one
where Chief Chamberlain is backing up what they're doing by
going to and I love the way to catch it too.
That the term was we don't want to sneak up
on anybody and do gotcha. Yeah, that's right. So we're
gonna let you know, do this here and we're gonna
grab you up. I love that kind of thing. Our
number three O three seven one three eighty two fifty five.
Brian from Arvada. You're on the Dan Kapla Show.
Speaker 7 (13:39):
Hey, George, nice to speak to you again. Congratulations on
protecting Douglas County as happy this that you got it.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Me too, Thanks man, longtime note chat. How are you doing.
Speaker 7 (13:50):
I'm not doing too bad, but I think you're being
a little hard on the boys. I mean, boys will
be boys. We all had our thing in our generation,
like we tried to get away with a lot of
non since growing up. So now we try to be
a little harder on the next ones. They're racing now
there's just an inherent you know, risk to life. So
this taking their car away and stuff, I probably wouldn't
(14:12):
be down with.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
What do you think should happen to? What do you think?
Speaker 7 (14:17):
Well, if they get caught, they get fined and everything.
But how much are we going to micromad manage these
young men? We'll send them in the army and the
Marines and stuff. But then you know, there's a certain
we all grow up and there's an inherent risk to freedom, right,
So we did our bad things. Now that this is
(14:37):
their bad thing, I don't think it's overly bad. It's
dangerous and it can get people killed, but then they
got to suffer the consequences.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Once it happens forgiving men. But they're not the only
ones to suffer the consequences. The people they killed or
maimed or crippled also suffer the consequences of their Let
boys be voice thing. Doesn't that cause you some pause?
Like maybe we ought to discourage them? You know what?
Speaker 7 (14:59):
This same time, I'm wondering where we draw the line,
because if.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
There's always a there's always a risk.
Speaker 7 (15:05):
To everything, right, So how how much do we micromanage?
And do we want our kids just sitting at home
playing video games and being completely useless or do we
realize are we smart enough to realize? Hey, when we
were their age, we took inherent risks. Some of us
made it through it, some of us didn't. But whoever
didn't pay the consequence. So I guess there's a line
(15:26):
between micromanaging everything you know, but I do understand it's
dangerous and all that.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
But Brian, did you do this when you were a kid?
Speaker 7 (15:37):
I you know, I we probably had a few beers
and got away with driving a few times, probably did
a little bit of race and stuff like that. You know,
it's all part of growing up. Now you look back,
you know, when you're older and you go, oh my god,
that's and you hope your kids don't do what you did.
But there's just a certain way of life.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
You know.
Speaker 7 (15:57):
So how how far do you micromanage?
Speaker 2 (16:00):
I'm not sure if I I agree that there is
something to do with kids that causes them to make
decisions that you and I wouldn't make. Ryan still makes them,
but nobody else.
Speaker 7 (16:11):
Are growing up.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
But I would say this too, Those decisions get captured
in the juvenile justice matrix. They don't get into adult court.
But I'll tell you what I'm seeing is that these
folks that are doing this are not juveniles. There are
some that participate, but by and large they are adults
because they own big adult toys that they've souped up
to do this, that or the other. So it's it's
beyond a boys versus a Boys'll be boys thing. This
(16:36):
thing strikes me as there are guys out there who
just don't care. They think they know better. They're gonna
put your family and my family at risk, and they're
willing to do it.
Speaker 7 (16:46):
Go ahead, sir, Well yeah, Georgia, maybe it could be both. Right,
are they in their like twenties, they know they're taking
a risk. Yeah, so you know, maybe it can be both. Yes,
they know they have souped up toys. Yes, when we
were younger, we knew we did dumb stuff that was probably,
you know, not very recommended when we look back at it.
(17:08):
But that's why I'm saying, how far do we micromanage something?
Speaker 2 (17:12):
But is it micromanaging? Is it micromanaging? Because we have
a lot of the books that says doesn't do it,
don't do it. So the issue is do.
Speaker 7 (17:20):
We mat If you get caught, you got to pay
the consequences. I'm just saying, what are the consequences? Well, great,
it's their job out run, you know, to beat the law,
and the last job is to beat them. That's the
way it is. It's always been that way.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
My concern is that this conduct isn't just lowercase de dangerous.
It's dangerous in that when there's a mistake on the road,
especially at those high speeds in and around traffic, it's
not a fender bender. People get hurt or killed. And
so our goal shouldn't just be to say, well, if
you do that, then we'll punish you. It's to discourage
(17:54):
people from doing it to begin with. And one of
the ways to do that is to take away the
implements of that criminality. I mean, if your neighbor goes
outside and takes his gun and starts shooting around the neighborhood,
which is a crime to do that, it would be
a fair response from government to say, we can't trust
you with that anymore. We're going to take that away
from you.
Speaker 7 (18:13):
On that Dan, it goes back to the same thing,
where do you draw the line. That's when they're out
shooting a gun, and then they obviously got bad intent.
But if these guys are racing, they like in their
minds they're not. You know, there's Bryan, buddy.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
It's always great to hear from you. That music tells
you that Ryan's about to kick us both off the year. Man.
Thank you for that phone call. Hey listen, you're text
five seven seven three nine. When we come back, a
deputy district attorney who just sent someone to prison for
running from the man. When we come back, George Brockler
filling in for Dan Camplish. I'm the Mighty Dan Kaplas Show.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
You're listening to the Dan Kaeplis Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I'm filling in for Dan cap tod. Hey, George Brockler
filling in for the Mighty Dan Kaplis. Listen, great conversation.
We're gonna get to Jill from Elizabeth here in a
little bit, but I wanted to bring someone on board
to talk about another side of this coin. And let
me tell you why it's important to me. The roads
out there are the one place short of you and
(19:20):
your family being shut ins in your basement, that you
can't protect yourself. You could be the best driver on
the planet Earth, you are subjected to the lowest common
denominator of judgment behind the wheel right next to you.
I mean, folks, think about this paint. Paint on the
road separates cars going seventy five miles an hour from
(19:44):
careening off into each other and going over bridges and
all this other stuff paint and signs. So it's a
lot of trust the other people that have to deal
with this on a daily basis. Aren't just the folks
that are trying to navigate their way home or to
pick up a kid, and there's the street racers. There's
also law enforcement who are out there trying to enforce
the law. And as it turns out, some people, by
(20:06):
golly just don't want to be arrested, and so they
do crazy stuff. Like ron to talk about a case
that we just wrapped up today. One of the great
young prosecutors in the twenty third Judicial District. His name
is Chase health Seth Chase. Thanks for joining us.
Speaker 5 (20:22):
Thanks so much for having me on. George.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
I know that early on you were sweating the decision
whether or not to be on the radio. How's it
going so far?
Speaker 5 (20:30):
Yeah, so little sweaty over here, but we're doing well
so far.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Yeah, thank you for that. We'll get into details later.
First off, congrats on being part of the best DA's
office in state of Colorado.
Speaker 5 (20:41):
Thank you very much. I think I have one guy
to thank for that, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Yeah, I don't know who that is. But nonetheless, you
had a case today and I want to say it's
unusual but it's not. This is kind of like part
and parcel of what we do in district court. And
Chase is a felony prosecutor. That means he handles everything
for everything from the low level F six charges all
the way up to first Green murder. But today there
(21:06):
was something that kind of touches upon this topic of
trying to run away from the cops. Talk to us
about what it was.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
Yeah, we had a defendant, mister Blodgett. He was at
a King Supers in Highland's ranch. He's in a stolen
car and law enforcement had run the plates on that car,
so they knew that this was a stolen car. So
they had set up a sting for lack of a
better term, to try to apprehend the folks in this car.
(21:33):
And if he gets in the car, there's officers on
either side, sort of is in one of those aisles
you know, at the King Supers And he backs up
and points his the nose of his car to drive out,
and a deputy comes right in front of him and
blocks his way, blocking him in, and instead it puts
on his lights, skits out and instead of just surrendering
(21:56):
to the deputy at that moment, and it puts the
car in reverse and forlors it and it's pouring reversing
down this crowded parking on the middle of the day,
going towards actually towards the King Supers and so really
really dangerous. He's running away from police. He's actually going
right towards the entrance to the store. You'd see we have,
(22:18):
you know, surveillance cam of folks, you know, walking in
and out of the grocery store like they would any
other day. And there's another deputy who's sort of in
the in the waiting, in the wings, you know, because
these law enforcement never just when they notice a song car,
they're often not just there one one person, but they're
there in multiple And he was really quick thinking and
sees this guy going back and realizes he's gonna hit
(22:42):
innocent civilians as he's backing up as fast as he
can to get away from the cops. And he quickly
moved his car to close off the aisle to the
kind of crashed into the back of the deputy's car,
and just a really really dangerous situation in the middle
of the day at the King Supers.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Now this guy gets charged, merged with is the top
count vehicular eluding felony eluding.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
It is, yes, talk about that charge. Yeah, the vehicular
eluding requires that you're trying to get away from the cops,
and while you're doing that, you act in a reckless manner,
and so you're acting in a way that's putting people
at risk. And so I think this is a lot
of times. I think we think about that as you know,
you're on the highway running as fast as you can,
(23:24):
you know, speeding, and we certainly see lots of those cases.
But I think this is unique in just how confined
it was and just how dangerous it was with not
just other cars on the road, but pedest and people
just shopping for groceries.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Now under the caption, Colorado continues to have some of
the weakest laws protecting drivers on the road in America.
This particular charge is a fifth class felony that's on
the lower end of a scale of one to six.
The bigger the number, the smaller the charge, and it
is a presumptive range sentence of one to three years,
(23:59):
but it's probation eligible. You can commit this crime, frankly,
over and over again and never have to face prison
and yet what did you get on this guy?
Speaker 5 (24:09):
Well, we got the judge sentenced him to four years
in prison today, and so we were pleased with that.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
How did you get above the one to three year
presumptive range sentence and get prison on this guy?
Speaker 5 (24:23):
So in Colorado, there is a way to expand the
range on an f FI from one to three as
you're talking about George, to two to six if there's
some certain aggravating factors in One of those is if
someone is on parole. And so this Senate was actually
on parole being supervised I guess by some parole office
(24:45):
while this happened. Yeah, when this when this occurred, and
so that legally opened us up to a larger range
than the maximum that otherwise would have been there.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
We're talking with Deputy District Attorney Chase Helsath. Helsath from
the mighty twenty third you have now touched upon and
this is another reason I like this story. Another fact
that we have been trying to promote to at least
our jurisdiction, and that is most of the people that
commit crimes in our jurisdiction are not from our jurisdiction.
And this is another example. This cat was from Littleton.
(25:17):
He was on parole for a domestic violence assault charge
out of a Rapahoe County. None of those things took
place in Douglas. And yet where does he go to
commit his crimes. It's down here in Douglas. In terms
of the parole, you took some looking into this, and
I'm not going to pin you down on every single
detail because I know it was painful. But what did
(25:38):
you discover about this guy's past leading him to being
on parole?
Speaker 5 (25:43):
Yeah, I even looked a little bit further into You
looked into it a little bit further. He back in.
It looks like twenty twenty one, Clid guilty as you
alluded to, to a domestic violence selony assault, was given
a sentence of four years in something we call community corrections,
which is sort of like a halfway house. I mean,
it looks like at some point after that in twenty
(26:06):
twenty two, he must he escaped. He didn't come back
to his bed, and so at that point, in August
of twenty twenty two, he was sentenced to then four
years in prisons in the Department of Corrections. So I
was back in August of twenty twenty two, I'll be
honest with you, George, It's hard to get really great
detailed dates. But at some point between that time in
(26:30):
twenty twenty two and now he was let out of
the Department of Corrections and placed on parole and then
obviously committed just the sense that we're talking about today.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I think we're fortunate to be able to put a
guy like this into prison. He helped us get there,
of course, with his history and his behavior. What are
we seeing on And maybe I don't want to pin
you down on this either, maybe we don't have a
lot of good intel from just your division. But when
we have these cases in Douglas County and someone doesn't
have that kind of a criminal history, they aren't being
(27:02):
supervised by the system. And I should remind people we
took a deep dive into this on the twenty third
Judicial District. Forty four percent of the people that are
being arrested for crimes in Douglas County in the twenty
third are currently being I guess they're currently part of
the system, parole, probation, bond, on a summons. This guy
fits that thing perfectly. What are we normally seeing If
(27:23):
there is a normal I.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
Think these are dangerous cases, and we saw one. I
think we see all types of stuff. But I'll be frank.
I think we're seeing often a jail sentence, and if
it's a first time of sense followed by I think
we always are asking for some sort of jail, but
nowhere near this amount. I think a year in prison.
(27:47):
I think often we feel like it can be a
good outcome if someone has no history and just runs
from the cops once. Sometimes we even get a little
bit of jail and then probation. So a lot of
times much less than this.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
On a scale of nine to ten, how awesome is
it to work in the twenty third?
Speaker 5 (28:05):
I gotta say ten?
Speaker 2 (28:06):
You do because you're you're talking to the big boss, buddy.
I can't thank you enough for doing this. How's the sweat?
Did it pool? Anywhere? Are you gonna have to change
any garments? Or you good?
Speaker 5 (28:16):
I think I think we're looking all right. I think
I think we made it.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Listen, you got to clip this and send it to
your folks. They know what great work you're doing on
behalf of the public out here. Deputy District Attorney Chase
hell sith he is a fantastic up and comer in
the DA's office. Thanks for the great work you're doing
on behalf of the community. Man.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
Thanks so much for having me on, George.
Speaker 7 (28:35):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:35):
See you, buddy. Hey, listen, we're gonna get Jill on,
but I don't want to take Jill right now. Jill
hang on because I don't want to cut you short.
I want to have this conversation about the car racing
and the other stuff. But can I get your feedback
on this? Are our laws two week on these looters?
Should we be sending every single one of these men
and women, mostly men to prison or jail if they
(28:56):
run from the cops three h three seven one three
eighty two fifty five three or three seven eight two
five five, or you can text us on the Dan
Caplis text line here at five seven seven three nine
five seven seven three nine. Put the word Dan in
there and then we'll go from there. When we come back,
Jill texts you me. George Brockler filling in for Dan
(29:16):
Caplis on the Dankplas Show and.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Now back to the Dan Kaplas Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
If you are not paying attention to the brilliance of
Ryan behind the Glass, with the music selection throughout this topic.
You're missing something. If all you're waiting for is for
the guy that's not Dan Caplis to come on, you're
missing something because it's it's magical. Ryan, thank you for
the effort on that stuff. That's just uh.
Speaker 8 (29:39):
I'm still recovering from your beautiful lyrical ode in the
previous bomb.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
It's the beer. Well, I'm telling you, I don't know
if I don't presume Dan drinks ever no on air. Wow,
but if I could, George, I dronk you under the table.
You know, we ought to have that show speaking of
upcoming shows, not next week, but the week after it's on.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
It is on.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
I'm gonna read you a text looking forward to co
hosting with you, and yeah, our laws in Colorado suck,
but it's made only worse by the feckless doc dot
dot dot rems boom. It's happening, folks, It's it is happening.
Another one. Hearing Chief Todd was like, I know, I know,
it's this is the if iHeart needed one more nudge
(30:25):
over the edge, this is it. And Ryan, I don't
I don't want to take you down with us, but
it's I think it's gonna happen. Brother, I'm glad to
go down with that ship. The brocler rems Express say
the Sheriff and the DA show. It's one episode only.
It's what the Brits call a limited series. It's just
one and done. It's like talking to hearing. Chief Todd
(30:46):
was like the old LAPD. They were busting heads, especially
of runners, long before anyone heard of the broken glass
theory of policing. Guess where Chief Todd came from throughout
most of his career. Oooh yeah, lap D. Let's go
to the phone lines. Jill from Elizabeth in the fight.
In twenty third, You're on the Dan Capu Show at
George Brocker.
Speaker 7 (31:06):
How are you hi, George?
Speaker 1 (31:08):
I'm good.
Speaker 9 (31:09):
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (31:10):
Living the dream? And when I say it, it didn't
sound like Dan's but I mean it.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (31:17):
Well I say it too, but I don't know whose
dream I'm living.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
It's very matrixy. What do you think about this car
racing stuff?
Speaker 9 (31:25):
Well, I think it's crazy. Uh, we did this back
in the day, and I know, I know it's called
back in the day and it probably was a Wednesday,
but we we did muscle car racing. You know, the
big the kudahs that that you know, we did that,
And yeah, yeah, we we did it on a Rapahoe road.
(31:50):
It had just been paved and after you know, ten
o'clock at night, there was nobody on that road and
so we could race and it was only two lanes
then and we would go out there and race. We
didn't do that where it was going to hurt innocent
people standing on the sideline lived, you know, hanging out
(32:10):
in their front yards in just driving home from work.
Speaker 5 (32:14):
We didn't do that.
Speaker 9 (32:16):
We did it on Chambers Road clear out as far
as it got paid. We never terrorized our neighborhoods with
our cars.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
We didn't do that.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
I am certain. I'm certain that there were people, probably
in your generation in mind, who made some ridiculous decisions
that put others at risk. But in some of the
Texters have said this and they agree with you, and
that is it just seems like there's a lot more
of it right now, you know what I mean. It
seems like we have never had this much of it.
Speaker 9 (32:48):
Yeah, and maybe we haven't, but we didn't have the
media we have now. But we actually, I don't believe
we ever intended to make other people victims of our craziness.
And yeah, it was crazy, it was it was crazy.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
To do that, but the people who who went there
and became part of that, we all kind of knew that,
and we did it anyway.
Speaker 9 (33:22):
And I'm going to tell you in the I mean,
there were hundreds of street races I attended. And this
is back in the mid to late seventies. I graduated
from Chary Creek in seventy seven, I'm sorry, seventy nine.
And maybe both were doing that back I know, honey,
I know. So we were doing that, you know, but
(33:45):
we were doing that for our fun. We didn't have
to worry about people being victimized by art craziness.
Speaker 5 (33:55):
Now it just.
Speaker 9 (33:56):
Seems that these people do wherever and whenever they please,
and it puts a lot of lives at risk. And
to the man who you talk to us, yeah, yeah,
Prior to me, he was talking about like how you
know it was he to me, it sounded like he
(34:17):
was more worried about or he was more concerned, not worried,
he is more concerned about the driver of the vehicle.
Now that's not what we did. We We knew our risks.
Speaker 5 (34:30):
We I mean, we grew up with vandmir Right.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Oh well, that's a great example.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
Jill Is band was set up to take this activity
off of the roads where you could do it in
a safe environment.
Speaker 8 (34:42):
Are we sure, especially with the year that she mentioned
that Jill isn't actually Rizzo from Greece because of when
that movie was set and what she's describing there, Jill,
it's a lot like Greece.
Speaker 9 (34:54):
Ugly well, and that's the point, right, you know.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
We grease lightning is.
Speaker 7 (35:01):
Well.
Speaker 9 (35:01):
I just all I'm trying to say is these these
people that are doing these risks now in their cars,
are now risking other people. And when we were out
raising it was for it was.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Yet that's right, you weren't trying to hurt anyone. Jill.
I can't thank you enough for two things, One being
a constituent, but two calling into the show and sharing
your opinions with us. Hey, listen, we've got other callers
on the line at three zero three seven one three
eighty two fifty five. You can join them, Glenn and others.
You can also hit us on the text line at
five seven seven three nine. We'll be back after a
(35:37):
short break. It's George Brockler on the dan Kapla show.
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