Plane Crash at the Sand Dunes Takes Two Lives
A Piper PA-28 piloted by Monte Vista resident Richard Cutter, 69, crashed in a remote area on Medano Pass at the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve on June 8. Cutter died in the crash. A passenger, Sandra Fitzgerald, 51, of Alamosa, died June 18 in a Denver hospital, where she had been transported following the crash. The cause of the crash is still being investigated.
Oil and Gas Development Proposed in Rural Subdivision
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) San Luis Valley Field Office announced it is seeking public input by July 18 on the preliminary environmental assessment (EA) for the proposed San Francisco Creek #1 well.
The EA is in process due to an application for a permit to drill from the Dan A. Hughes Company. This exploratory oil and gas well would be drilled on a 35-acre lot approximately five miles south of Del Norte. San Francisco Creek is approximately a mile away from the proposed drilling pad and access road. The federal mineral rights are below private land within a small rural subdivision made up of approximately 33 lots that are 35-40 acres in size which were leased for 10 years from the BLM in 2006
The BLM will consider the proposed exploratory drilling and access in a manner that avoids or reduces impact on other resources and activities as identified in a Resource Managment Plan.
The BLM takes into consideration approved standards for public health – including standards pertaining to soils, riparian systems, plant and animal life, threatened and endangered species, and water quality.
Clinic Closed Due to Bomb Scare
Dr. Ricardo Velasquez, chief medical officer for Valley-Wide Health Systems Inc., confirmed that the Edward M. Kennedy Health Clinic was closed on June 13 due to a bomb threat.
Law enforcement was quickly called in to investigate. According to The Valley Courier, Velasquez said “They were advised a bomb would go off at 9:30 in the morning. Law enforcement personnel entered the building after 9:30 and did not find a bomb and they determined that it was not necessary to bring in a bomb squad.”
Staff members ensured that there were options for their patients to receive care in spite of the threat.
Family Affair
A brother and sister accused of multiple crimes were arrested following a months-long investigation into a rash of alleged burglaries across southern Colorado.
George Ross Hanna, 32, was arrested by the Alamosa County Sheriff’s Office for allegedly burglarizing the Mosca Pit Stop, while the Alamosa Police Department arrested him for attempting to cash fraudulent checks at City Market.
Hanna has also been linked to a rash of burglaries in Alamosa, Conejos, Hinsdale, Mineral and Saguache counties, as well as other criminal activity in New Mexico, according to Alamosa County Sheriff’s Lt. Jim McCloskey.
Simultaneously, the Hinsdale County sheriff’s office arrested 35-year-old Kendra Lynn Hanna after she allegedly cashed stolen and forged checks.
Video surveillance from the store backs up the allegations, and surveillance footage from the Mosca Pit Stop documents George Hanna in the act of burglarizing that business.
Once authorities executed the search warrants, they recovered property the Hannas allegedly stole from addresses in Hinsdale, Saguache, Mineral and Alamosa counties.
Kendra Hanna is currently being held in Hinsdale County, while her brother is facing numerous charges in Alamosa and Hinsdale counties.
Drug-Dealing Mom
Hollye Mitchell, 35, Manassa, was caught selling prescription painkillers for thousands of dollars to an undercover law enforcement agent and was sentenced to probation for four years and 90 days in jail; so she won’t be joining her husband in the state prison system.
Prosecutors originally charged Mitchell with six Class 3 felonies, including three counts of distributing a Schedule II controlled substance and three related counts of conspiracy. But those charges were reduced when she became the latest member of a drug trafficking ring to reach a plea deal with the district attorney’s office.
Her husband Jeffrey was sentenced in May to eight years in state prison for distributing a controlled substance. In April, Mitchell pleaded guilty to a lesser Class 4 felony charge of attempted distribution, and since she had no prior criminal history, Judge Pattie Swift found that she was an appropriate candidate for probation.
“You said: ‘I am not a drug dealer.’ You were a drug dealer,” the judge said. “You are one of the more big-time drug dealers I have seen in this court.”
