Colorado Law Blog

Some Sheepdogs a Little Too Protective

2012-01-30T20:52:48Z

Turkish sheepdogs prized for their fierceness and fearlessness are raising concerns in southwest Colorado communities where ranchers are using them. The Akbash (literally "white head") weigh up to 120 pounds and are especially aggressive toward animals near the sheep they guard. That can include hikers and backcountry visitors -- and some people are concerned that they are scaring away tourists.

]]> Hikers and bicyclists in the Little Molas Lake area have reported that the sheepdogs intimidate them. The dogs snarl and, according to some reports, chase them.

A number of ranchers graze sheep, under guard of herders and dogs, on public lands in the summer and fall. Six sheepmen hold permits to graze sheep in the San Juan National Forest. The sheep ranchers claim a reduction in loss to predators of 60 to 90 per cent. One rancher recalled losing 13 sheep in one night to bears before using the Akbash.

But interaction between sheep and people is an issue throughout the West. A mountain biker moving rapidly toward a flock can put a guard dog on instant alert, creating a potentially dangerous confrontation between dog and cyclist.

The sheep ranchers take the risks associated with a lawsuit if their dog attacks someone. They also could lose a dog if someone, fearful of being assaulted, shoots it.

The Mayor and town trustees here have heard from hikers and bicyclists in the Little Molas Lake area who said the sheepdogs intimidate them. Trustees said the possibility of encountering an Akbash is scaring away tourists, who are potential sources of revenue for the town.

Forest Service Columbine District Ranger Matt Janowiak attended a meeting of the town trustees last week to hear their concerns. He said that his agency had not received any official complaints. Janowiak believes that the dogs aren't inherently aggressive toward people and with early socialization they can learn people are not a threat. However, the unsocialized guard dogs of one local sheepherder have been involved with encounters with people on the Colorado Trail in the vicinity of Little Molas Lake.

Janowiak disputed the opinion of trustees that signs at entry points along the Colorado Trail that alert travelers to potential encounters with sheep dogs mean "keep out." He sees the on the Colorado Trail as recommending what conduct to observe and what not to do. But he also cautions that visitors must be prudent, such as having people with bicycles walk by the flock with the bike between the dog and themselves.

Earlier, herders agreed to keep flocks on one side of a trail at a time; to stay near their flock when the animals graze near high-use trails; and to move their camps nearer those trails in order to be on hand if an encounter occurred. Trustees are skeptical the measures would assure safe passage along trails.

Former DA Pleads Guilty

2012-01-25T21:23:54Z

A former Colorado district attorney accused of sexually harassing women in his office initially denied that he had done anything wrong. But Myrl Serra was disbarred last month by the state supreme court after pleading guilty and being convicted of various criminal charges.

]]> He had been accused of wrongdoing both as a Montrose County district attorney and personally, ranging from claims that he shared information about cases with his married girlfriend to requests for restraining orders by multiple women. The Denver Post ran a story on his misconduct in 2010. Serra pleaded guilty to criminal extortion, a felony, and unlawful sexual contact, a misdemeanor, involving three victims. His sentencing is scheduled next week.

Not unlike the recent case of Pat Sullivan, the former Arapahoe County Sheriff who was formally charged last December in a drugs-for-sex case, it is deeply disturbing to learn that those charged with upholding the law and protecting us are guilty are repulsive criminal conduct.

Caps in Colorado Unfair

2012-01-18T18:41:58Z

Over the past two decades, Colorado lawmakers have enacted some of the harshest laws in the nation limiting the rights of everyday Coloradans. If you are badly injured due to the negligence of a business or company, you should be able to take that company to court and be fully compensated. But in Colorado, you can't. And if you or your child is a patient injured in an unsafe hospital, the restrictions on your rights are even more severe.

]]> Corporations and health care providers that cause injury or death are protected by Colorado's laws which relieve these wrongdoers of accountability for their misconduct. Colorado is one of the few states that, in all cases, "caps" or limits compensation for "non-economic" injuries. Those are serious injuries like blindness, disfigurement, trauma, severe pain or other physical impairments that affect day-to-day life. Colorado politicians, backed by the insurance industry, passed a law capping non-economic compensation at $250,000 (with inflation adjustments, and some discretion by a judge to increase the amount up to $500,000).

The cap applies across the board to all cases, not just "frivolous" lawsuits. It applies no matter how much merit a case has, the extent of the misconduct by the reckless company, or the severity of the injury. And it applies no matter what Colorado jurors, who listen to the evidence in the case, decide that a victim needs. In fact, jurors are not allowed to be told about the cap or that their hard work reaching a careful decision will be deemed at least partially irrelevant due to this law.

To learn more about the limitations on a Colorado victim's ability to gain compensation, visit http://www.capsharmcolorado.com/.

Most Hospital Errors Never Reported

2012-01-10T23:07:21Z

A new report released Friday by the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that more than 80 percent of hospital errors go unreported by hospital employees. The report, which looked at data from hospitalized Medicare patients, also found that most hospitals where errors were reported rarely changed their policies and practices to prevent repeat errors, saying the event did not reveal any "systemic quality problems."

]]> The errors included overused or wrong medications, severe bedsores, hospital-based infections and even patient death. In order to be paid by Medicare, hospitals are required to track and analyze medical errors. But organizations that inspect hospitals loosely regulate hospital tracking records, the study said. Additionally, many hospital employees may not recognize "what constitutes patient harm," or they may not realize that particular events harmed patients and should be reported, according to the report.

The national report looked at nearly 300 adverse patient events acquired from medical records and traced the records back to its respective hospitals to see whether the hospitals had identified medical error. The report found very few hospitals did.

Sixty-one percent of unreported cases were not perceived as errors by hospital staff. The remaining 25 percent of unreported cases were situations that were typically reported by the staff, but happened not to be reported. Forty-four percent of the errors identified were preventable.

Interestingly, the more serious events, like hospital-acquired infections and patient deaths, were no more likely to be reported than the smaller cases, like allergic reactions to medications.

The study is one of many finding similar results. In April 2011, a study released in the journal Health Affairs found that one third of hospital visits will lead to hospital related injuries, and as many as 90 percent of hospital errors are missed by current surveillance systems. The Center for Medicare Services plans to develop and distribute a list of adverse events that should be reported.

Study Finds That Insurance Industry Manufactures Crises

2012-01-06T22:33:12Z

Americans for Insurance Reform (AIR), a coalition of nearly 100 consumer and public interest groups representing more than 50 million people, has produced a major new study called "Repeat Offenders: How The Insurance Industry Manufactures Crises And Harms America." The study exposes how the property/casualty insurance industry creates periodic crises where insurance becomes unaffordable or unavailable for everyone from doctors to small businesses to local governments. These crises are known as "hard markets."

]]>
"Repeat Offenders" finds that in the last few months, industry executives have been pushing the industry, including pressuring their own competitors, to start raising rates again for businesses and professionals, setting the stage for a new liability insurance crisis in America. It also finds that hard markets, when premiums suddenly skyrocket as they have done three times in the past 35 years, are caused by "a combination of the industry's own boom and bust economic cycle, anti-competitive (yet legal) underwriting practices, unique and opaque accounting policies, and virtually unchecked power when it comes to regulation of insurance rates."

Moreover, say the authors, "while the existence of this self-made cycle is clear to insurance industry insiders, insurers often publicly deny the cycle's existence while their lobbyists try to take advantage of skyrocketing rates to push for so-called 'tort reform.'" However, they say, "these cycles are national in scope and occur in every state irrespective of a state's 'tort' law. Because the legal system is not responsible for creating hard markets, enactment of so-called 'tort reform' has done nothing to prevent them." The authors quote numerous insurance insiders freely discussing this cycle and never referencing lawsuits or tort system costs as a cause for rate hikes.

"Repeat Offenders" also finds that:

This country has been in a "soft" insurance market since 2006, with rates stable and dropping in every state whether or not "tort reforms" have been enacted. However, since early 2011, the insurance industry has been trying to push the country into a new hard market.
Hurricane Irene in late August 2011, which was greatly hyped by the Weather Channel but wasn't nearly the catastrophe that was expected, has been used by insurance industry representatives to push the country into a new hard market. This is despite the fact that the industry is perfectly able to handle those claims in addition to having stored away excess profits for decades so that today, it is in an all-time safe position. Creation of a hard market now would be purely for the purpose of price-gouging buyers of insurance, particularly commercial lines insureds.
Over the last few months in particular, industry executives - including unregulated foreign reinsurers - have been boldly declaring to the entire industry that it is time to end the soft market (including pressuring their own competitors to start raising rates), setting the stage for a new liability insurance crisis in this country.

Click to read "Repeat Offenders."

Distracted Driving a Growing Danger

2012-01-04T23:21:43Z

A national survey, the first government study of its kind on distracted driving, and other data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration underscore the difficulty authorities face in discouraging texting and cellphone talking while driving. About half of American drivers between the ages of 21 and 24 say they've thumbed messages or emailed from the driver's seat. And what's more, many drivers don't think it's dangerous when they do it -- only when others do.

]]> At any given moment, nearly one in every 100 car drivers was texting, emailing, surfing the Web or otherwise using a hand-held electronic device, the safety administration reports. And those activities spiked 50 percent over the previous year, even with new state legislation in place banning the practices.

In 2010, there were an estimated 3,092 deaths in crashes affected by a wide range of driver distractions, the safety administration said. That number was derived using a new methodology aimed at getting a more precise picture of distracted-driving deaths and can't be compared to tallies from previous years, officials said.

An NHTSA survey of more than 6,000 drivers found that most said they would answer a cellphone call while driving and continue to drive after answering. And nearly two of 10 acknowledged sending texts or emails from behind the wheel. And for drivers 21 to 24 years old, it was over half.

More than half of drivers said making a cellphone call made no difference to their driving performance, and a quarter said texting or emailing made no difference. But 90 percent said that when they are passengers, they feel very unsafe if the driver is texting or emailing.

Poster Child for Chamber of Commerce Hypocrisy

2011-11-04T19:37:21Z

Last week an insightful report from the American Association for Justice detailed the hypocrisy of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its board, advocating closing the courthouse doors on the average consumer while retaliating through personal revenge lawsuits themselves. See Do As I Say Not As I Sue

]]> Now one of the most outrageous examples of such hypocrisy has come to light - Todd Remis, an unemployed equity research analyst, married Milena Grzibovska, a Latvian hottie, in 2003. For the wedding photos, the couple hired H & H Photographers.

Sadly, Remis and Grzibovska separated in 2008, and were divorced in 2010. But that didn't stop Remis from suing H & H in 2009 -- six years after the wedding -- because he was unhappy that the photographers failed to capture the bride's bouquet toss and the couple's last dance. And for damages, not only is Remis demanding to be repaid the $4,100 cost of the photography, he also wants $48,000 to recreate the entire wedding and fly the principals to New York so the celebration can be re-shot by another photographer.

But such a re-enactment may be tricky since the former bride has moved back to her native Latvia.

What makes this story more than just another nut-case lawsuit is the fact that Remis is the son of none other than Shepard M. Remis, a Chambers-rated partner at Goodwin Proctor, a BigLaw firm in Boston. And son Remis's attorney on the matter, Frederick R. McGowen, is counsel in the firm's New York office. So one of the Chamber's champions against frivolous lawsuits has imposed upon one of his firm's colleagues to represent his son in this absurd claim against a small family-run photography studio - now THAT is the face of lawsuit abuse!

How Guardian Ad Litem Can Help

2011-11-03T17:31:19Z

The Colorado Supreme Court has just ruled that conversations between children and the attorneys who represent them in custody and neglect cases are not protected by attorney-client privilege. The decision is being called a landmark one by child advocates, but the question of whether it better protects the children is still being debated.

]]> The decision, which stems from a 2005 case involving alleged sexual assault on a child, has divided children's advocates in Colorado. One side applauds the ruling as clearly allowing the guardian ad litem to act in the best interests of the child, the attorneys' duty is to do what's best for the child, even if the child doesn't agree. Others are concerned about a "chilling effect" on troubled children, without the promise of confidentiality there will be less trust.

In Colorado, a guardian ad litem is an attorney appointed to represent a child who has been abused or neglected, or is in foster care. In some instances, they are appointed for kids who have been accused of crimes or are at the center of a custody fight.

In the majority opinion, Justice Nathan Coats wrote that a guardian ad litem does not represent litigants on opposite sides of a case "or even the demands or wishes of the child. . . . The guardian ad litem is statutorily tasked with assessing and making recommendations to the court concerning the best interests of the child."

The complicated nature of these cases is easily illustrated by the case that produced the ruling. In 2005, Mark Gabriesheski was accused of assaulting a young girl in his care. Shortly before his trial on sex-assault charges, the girl recanted her statements about the abuse. The prosecutor asked the girl's guardian ad litem to testify about what the girl said, and reportedly, the guardian ad litem wanted to do so. But Gabriesheski's attorneys objected, and the judge ruled that the guardian ad litem could not testify without the girl's approval. The girl refused to grant approval.

Without the testimony, prosecutors' case was weakened and they dismissed the charges. They did, however, appeal.

Have a Fun and Safe Halloween!

2011-10-25T18:34:07Z

Soon neighborhoods across the country will be filled with witches, ghouls and goblins. But to you're your Halloween from becoming a nightmare, follow some basic safety advice.

]]> Costumes are one of the best parts of the holiday, but here are some tips on selection:

When purchasing costumes, masks, beards, and wigs, look for flame-resistant fabrics, such as nylon or polyester; or look for the label "Flame Resistant." Flame-resistant fabrics will resist burning and should extinguish quickly. To reduce the risk of contact with candles and other fire sources, avoid costumes made with flimsy materials and outfits with big, baggy sleeves, large capes, or billowing skirts.

Purchase or make costumes that are light colored, bright, and clearly visible to motorists.

For greater visibility during dusk and darkness, decorate or trim costumes with reflective tape that will glow in the beam of a car's headlights. Bags or sacks also should be light-colored or decorated with reflective tape. Reflective tape is usually available in hardware, bicycle, and sporting goods stores.

Children should carry flashlights to be able to see and to be seen.

To guard against trips and falls, costumes should fit well and not drag on the ground.

Children should wear well-fitting, sturdy shoes. High heels are not a good idea.

Tie hats and scarves securely to prevent them from slipping over children's eyes and obstructing their vision.

If your child wears a mask, make sure it fits securely, provides adequate ventilation, and has holes for eyes large enough to allow full vision.

Swords, knives, and similar costume accessories should be made of soft, flexible material.

And even if you are not out looking for treats, be aware of Halloween trick-or-treaters. The National Safety Council reminds motorists to:

Watch for children darting out from between parked cars.

Watch for children walking on roadways, medians and curbs.

Enter and exit driveways and alleys carefully.

At twilight and into the night, watch for children in dark clothing.

Tainted Spinach Sold in Colorado, Again

2011-10-20T20:07:42Z

Having just returned from a delicious spinach salad for lunch, I was not happy to learn that salads sold in Colorado by a major producer of blended salads are being recalled because of potential contamination with salmonella. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration sent out an alert early today that Taylor Farms Retail, Inc. a Salinas, Calif. business which has produced fresh salads for more than 80 years, was initiating a precautionary recall following a random test conducted on a finished package of spinach by the State of Washington Department of Agriculture.

]]> The company is recalling 3,265 cases of various salad blends. The various salads are sold under several brand names including Fresh Selections, HEB, Marketside and Taylor Farms. Fresh Selections items being recalled are 10-ounce bags of Hearts Of Romaine, Leafy Romaine, Field of Greens, and Romaine Blend. Five ounce bags of Spring Mix under the HEB name are being recalled.

Marketside items being recalled are 10-ounce bags of Fresh Spinach; 14-ounce bags of Caesar Salad Kit; 15-ounce bags of Asian Salad; 15-ounce bags of Southwest Salad Kit; nine-ounce bags of Premium Romaine; 18-ounce bags of Premium Romaine Family, and eight-ounce bags of Field Greens.

The products were distributed in Colorado, Arizona, California, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Puerto Rico. They were sold at various retail supermarkets. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that so far there have been no reported illnesses.

Customers who have bought the products should dispose of them and contact Taylor Farms Retail for further information at 1-877-323-7374

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

2011-10-17T21:15:41Z

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, with efforts in Colorado and across the country to raise awareness of the threat. One in every four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year. 85% of domestic violence victims are women. Historically, females have been most often victimized by someone they knew. Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence. And, disturbingly, most cases of domestic violence are never reported to the police.

]]> Domestic violence happens in all races, age groups, sexual orientations, religions, social classes, economic backgrounds and education levels. It can occur in opposite-sex and same-sex relationships; between partners who are married, living together, dating or those who are no longer in a relationship together. Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior used by the agressor to gain or maintain control over the victim. It includes:

Physical abuse can include hitting, grabbing, shoving, throwing, punching, biting, or hair-pulling. Holding someone down during an argument or blocking a doorway so they can't leave is also domestic violence. Abusers will often injure a victim in places on her body that can be hidden by clothes, hair or make-up. Physical abuse also includes denying the victim medical attention or forcing the victim to use drugs or alcohol.

Emotional abuse is still abuse, even if it leaves no bruises. It can include constant criticism, humiliation, name-calling or making the victim think she is crazy.

Sexual abuse can include forcing a victim to have sex when she does not want to, expecting sex on demand, injuring sexual parts of the body, or forcing the victim to do sexually humiliating acts.

Economic abuse can force a victim to be financially dependent on her abuser, making it difficult to leave the situation. Economic abuse includes not allowing the victim to work or have access to money, forcing the victim to give her money to the abuser, withholding information about family finances or not allowing the victim to have a say in how money is spent.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic abuse, get help through the Colorado Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Common characteristics of domestic abuse:

The abuser isolates the victim from family and friends, sometimes using jealousy to justify controlling where a victim goes, who she sees or who she talks to.
The abuser intimidates the victim by smashing things, punching walls, threatening or abusing children and pets, displaying weapons, or even through threatening looks or gestures.
The abuser makes all big decisions and acts like the "king of the castle" - the victim has little to no say in the relationship or the household.
The abuser minimizes the abuse by saying it didn't happen or wasn't a big deal, blaming the victim for making the abuser angry or saying the victim made the abuser do something because of the victim's actions or words.
The abuser threatens to have the children taken away from the victim or uses visitation to harass the victim.
The abuser threatens suicide if the victim leaves, or threatens to kill the victim if she leaves.

16-year-old Found Dead after Homecoming Party

2011-10-04T17:14:15Z

Police are looking into the death of a teenage girl who didn't wake up after a homecoming house party Saturday night. The 16 year-old was found dead at a friend's house. She attended North Denver High School. The homeowner said she thought the teen was sleeping on the couch when she left for work Sunday.

]]> No determination has been made about the cause of death, but too often alcohol plays a role in the sudden death of a teen or young adult. If you are faced with a possible case of alcohol poisoning, take steps immediately. Alcohol poisoning symptoms include:

Confusion, stupor
Vomiting
Seizures
Slow breathing (less than eight breaths a minute)
Irregular breathing (a gap of more than 10 seconds between breaths)
Blue-tinged skin or pale skin
Low body temperature (hypothermia)
Unconsciousness ("passing out"), and can't be roused

All of these symptoms may not be present, seek help even if you are suspicious. A person who is unconscious or can't be roused is at risk of dying. If you suspect that someone has alcohol poisoning seek immediate medical care. In an emergency, follow these suggestions:

If the person is unconscious, breathing less than eight times a minute or has repeated, uncontrolled vomiting, call 911 or your local emergency number immediately. Keep in mind that even when someone is unconscious or has stopped drinking, alcohol continues to be released into the bloodstream and the level of alcohol in the body continues to rise.

Never assume that a person will "sleep off" alcohol poisoning.

If the person is conscious, call 800-222-1222 (in the U.S.), and you'll automatically be routed to your local poison control center. The staff at the poison control center or emergency call center can instruct you as to whether you should take the person directly to a hospital. All calls to poison control centers are confidential.

Be prepared to provide information. If you know, be sure to tell hospital or emergency personnel the kind and amount of alcohol the person drank, and when.

Don't leave an unconscious person alone. While waiting for help, don't try to make the person vomit. Alcohol poisoning affects the way your gag reflex works. That means someone with alcohol poisoning may choke on his or her own vomit or accidentally inhale (aspirate) vomit into the lungs, which could cause a fatal lung injury.

Payday Lenders Lay Low

2011-09-28T21:37:08Z

The number of payday lenders in Colorado during the calendar year 2010 fell 19 percent from 2009, to only 410 locations, according to a report from Colorado Attorney General John Suthers. And during the same time period, the number of payday loans issued fell 29 percent.

]]> The report contained information on 288 lending companies making deferred deposit "payday" loans, small-installment loans and traditional supervised loans. The law governing payday loans changed on Aug. 11, 2010. Prior to the change, payday loans were limited by law to $500 or less that were due on the consumer's next payday, typically in two weeks. Following Aug. 11, 2010, payday loans were limited by law to $500 or less with a six-month-minimum term. The new law also changed the fee structure for payday loans.

According to the report, small investment lenders lent a total of $863,159 in 2010 compared to $10 million in 2009. The number of loans decreased from 15,399 in 2009 to 2,257 in 2010.The average loans amount fell 41 percent from $649 in 2009 to $382 in 2010.

Individuals struggling to make ends meet should consider payday loans a last resort and not a regular way to make ends meet. Experts urge that every other avenue be exhausted, even securing short-term financial aid before resorting to these lenders, as the charges they place on their borrowings are "ridiculous". Once these types of loan become a regular occurrence, people can quickly see themselves sliding deeper and deeper into debt.

Bullying Must Not Be Tolerated

2011-09-26T20:31:42Z

The suicide death last week of 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer, who was bullied online with gay slurs for more than a year, is a tragic demonstration of the very real harm caused by bullying. The teen's parents, friends and even Lady Gaga, who was his idol, have expressed outrage about the relentless torment he suffered on social networking websites.

]]> The Amherst Police Department's Special Victims Unit has said it will determine whether to charge some students with harassment, cyber-harassment or hate crimes. Police said three students in particular might have been involved. Jamey was a student at Heim Middle School. He had just started his freshman year at Williamsville North High School. (Both Amherst and Williamsville are just outside Buffalo.) But the bullying had begun during middle school, according to his parents. He had told family and friends that he had endured attacks in school and online, mostly related to his sexual orientation.

Jamey was found dead outside his home Sunday morning, but Amherst police would not release any details on how he killed himself. No bullying laws exist in New York State, but police will determine whether aggravated harassment charges fit this case. Whether suspects would be tried in juvenile court would depend on whether the alleged bully was 16 or older.

Jamey made postings on social networking sites suggesting that he was struggling with his sexuality, even though he encouraged others on the It Gets Better project website YouTube to fight off bullies. He killed himself this weekend after posting an online farewell.

Students had been posting hate comments with gay references on his Formspring account, a website that allows anonymous posts. Some of the posts directly encouraged the tormented teen to kill himself.

Ironically, his death coincides with a national summit this week sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C., an effort to stem the toll of bullying school children.

Speaking at the second annual Federal Partners in Bullying Prevention Summit were the parents of Justin Aaberg, a gay 15-year-old from Champlain, Minn., who hanged himself after being bullied. The parents, Tammy and Shawn Aaberg, said that one form of the bullying came from a student religious group whose members told Justin that he was going to hell because he was gay.

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, 28 percent of students aged 12 to 18 reported that they were bullied in school during the 2008-2009 school year. Bullying also slows down as children get older from a high of 39 percent of all sixth graders to 20 percent of high school seniors.

The most pervasive form of bullying is ridicule, insult and rumors, rather than physical aggression, according to the report. Social media sites such as YouTube and Facebook have made it easier for bullies to target their victims, but at the same time they are sometimes the only venue for victims to discuss openly their pain.

For a more detailed look at how bullying impacts our youth, read the most recent issue of The Safety Report.
The Fall 2011 issue is focused on bullying, with information on how to identify when it is happening and how to protect your child against becoming a victim.

Scary Sleepover Scenarios

2011-09-21T20:18:03Z

It is a common event for youngsters and teens - an invitation from a friend to sleepover. But according to Greeley police, a man brought his 16-year-old son to the police department at 10 a.m. last Friday to report that his son was sexually assaulted by his friend's father at a sleepover. The father is facing two felonies after his son's friend accused him of sexual assault.

]]> Police say the suspect tried to pay the victim "hush money" and the victim refused, according to a news release. The suspect has been booked at the Weld County Jail on suspicion of sexual assault on a child and sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust. Both charges are punishable by two to six years in prison. He posted a $50,000 bond to get out of Weld County Jail on Sunday. Formal charges are due Sept. 27.

This sad incident highlights how critical it is to know the families of your child's friends. Always introduce yourself to the host family if you are providing the ride to the sleepover. If not, ask for the home phone number to speak to the parents to assure yourself proper supervision will be provided.

Of course, with teens, the challenge is knowing the particulars of the arrangements - frequently they don't even know. Before a teen leaves for a sleepover, parents should spend some time discussing the possible problem issues. If alcohol and other illegal substances are introduced at the party or if the dynamics of the party alters at any point and makes it uncomfortable, teens should telephone their parents and arrange a ride home. When appropriate, a teen should stand outside the house while waiting for the ride home. Teens should understand that if any illegal activity occurs and the police are contacted, then they could be charged with a crime.