A 14-month-old Bernese mountain dog that was missing for seven weeks was found by hikers near a trail in western Jefferson County this week and reunited with her owner.

Two hikers spotted Nova Riley near a trail in Meyer Ranch Park on Sunday, according to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. The park is approximately three miles north of Conifer along U.S. 285.

Nova Riley, a service dog in training to help her owner safely move around, was able to slip out of her harness and run away when she became spooked in a Safeway parking lot, her owner Robynne Simons-Sealy said.

Simons-Sealy, who is disabled, said community members and neighbors tirelessly helped her search for Nova Riley. The dog was spotted several times, but was too scared to come near people, Simons-Sealy said.

“She survived two snow storms and below-freezing weather,” Simons-Sealy said. “I was in tears every time it snowed.”

The hikers who found Nova Riley tried to befriend her when they didn’t see her with any people, but she bit one of the hikers because she was injured and scared, the sheriff’s office said in post on Facebook.

The hikers called for help, and one stayed with Nova Riley while the injured hiker met three open space rangers and Animal Control Officer Kylie Rupe at the trailhead.

The hiker only sustained a minor injury and did not need stitches, Rupe said.

Rupe and the rangers hiked three miles up the trail to rescue Nova Riley, who had a broken leg and was underweight, when a ranger recognized her from photos of a lost dog poster he had seen.

Rupe was able to quickly earn the dog’s trust with food.

“When we first got up there I had brought treats and food up with me, knowing she would probably be very food-motivated at that point,” Rupe said. “I used food to make friends, and she was very friendly but skittish.”

Rupe and the rangers were able to put Nova Riley on a tarp and carry her to the trailhead, where she was reunited with Simons-Sealy.

“She was a little wary at first because it had been so long, but once she got some good sniffs it was all happy barks and wiggly butts and very exciting,” Rupe said.

Despite her injury and hunger, Nova Riley couldn’t contain her excitement at seeing her person, Simons-Sealy said.

“When I walked up to the car it was like I was just another human being, and then she realized and she went crazy,” Simons-Sealy said. “It was so beautiful and so heartwarming and the most wonderful sound of her realizing, ‘I’m safe, I’m okay.’”

Nova Riley was taken to an emergency vet and will need to have her broken leg amputated, Simons-Sealy said. She lost about 20 pounds, or a quarter of her body weight, while she was missing.

Nova Riley is starting to calm down, but won’t let Simons-Sealy out of her sight.

While Nova Riley can no longer work as a service dog, she’s staying in her forever home with Simons-Sealy, who said she is thankful for the hikers, county staff, neighbors and community members who worked to find and rescue Nova Riley and have donated to her medical expenses.

Jurors could find Officer Mathew Grashorn acted unreasonably by shooting a puppy who had come over to see him, Judge Raymond Moore concluded

A jury will decide whether a Loveland police officer violated a couple's constitutional rights when he shot their puppy in the head and torso, after a federal judge decided against granting immunity last week.

Officer Mathew Grashorn had pulled up in an empty parking lot on a weekend to find Wendy Love and Jay Hamm parked with their dogs. The animals trotted toward Grashorn when he exited his vehicle, but the younger dog, 14-month-old Herkimer, did not immediately turn around when called. Grashorn quickly shot him twice.

Although Grashorn invoked qualified immunity, which shields government officials from liability unless they violate a person's clear constitutional rights, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Raymond P. Moore concluded jurors should have their say about the reasonableness of Grashorn's conduct.

"Although a reasonable jury could decide that Herkimer posed a danger to Defendant," he wrote in a Nov. 15 order, "it could also decide that he did not pose an immediate danger. Because there is sufficient evidence of the latter, this factor weighs in Plaintiffs’ favor."

The sequence of events, as captured on Grashorn's body-worn camera, was undisputed. Love and Hamm were delivering firewood for their business on the evening of June 29, 2019, when they stopped in the parking lot of a commercial building. It was a Saturday and there were no other people in the vicinity, so Love and Hamm let their dogs out of their truck to stretch while Hamm made repairs to some equipment.

The owner of the building at 995 N. Wilson Ave. saw the couple on his surveillance feed and called Loveland police to investigate. After Grashorn parked several yards away from Love and Hamm, the footage showed Bubba, a 16-year-old dog, get up from the pavement and begin running toward Grashorn. The officer immediately pointed his gun at Bubba, and Love and Hamm called for Bubba to return.

Although Bubba turned around before reaching Grashorn, Herkimer, who had been resting in the couple's truck, came outside at the commotion. Herkimer also ran toward Grashorn, and the officer shot him in the head and in the torso.

"Get back to the truck," Grashorn screamed at Love when she tearfully approached her wounded puppy.

"Please let me see him," Love wailed, and Grashorn again ordered her back to the truck. Love nonetheless cradled Herkimer, while Grashorn warned Love, "He will bite you, he's hurt." The video did not depict Herkimer biting anyone.

"You're not gonna be able to help him," Grashorn continued to yell at the couple.

Although Herkimer survived the shooting, Grashorn had paralyzed him and his owners were forced to euthanize him after they could not afford sugery.

Love and Hamm sued Grashorn, alleging an unlawful seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Moore declined to dismiss their claim last year, but Grashorn then filed a motion for summary judgment — asking Moore to resolve the case without a trial if the key, undisputed facts showed he acted reasonably.

Large swaths of Grashorn's filings were dedicated to blaming Love and Hamm for the encounter, and his lawyers emphasized nearly two dozen times that Grashorn only had "a mere three seconds" to react to a puppy coming to see him.

"Plaintiffs were trespassing and Officer Grashorn was merely doing his job," wrote attorneys Jonathan M. Abramson and Yulia Nikolaevskaya. "Officer Grashorn believed his well-being was in danger and he did not have to wait to find out if Herkimer really intended to bite Officer Grashorn’s leg."

Love and Hamm countered that no reasonable person would have believed it was necessary to use deadly force on a puppy when there were other options available to Grashorn, like stepping back into his patrol car.

"There was no urgency to do anything to Herkimer. It was a garden variety dog encounter. Herkimer was trotting up to greet Grashorn in the manner that Grashorn admitted any friendly dog would," wrote attorney Sarah Schielke.

Moore considered multiple factors in deciding whether to resolve the case in Grashorn's favor. He acknowledged Herkimer looked like a pit bull, which could have reasonably caused Grashorn concern. But Herkimer was in the presence of his owners and non-lethal options were available.

Most importantly, Moore could not say whether Herkimer posed a danger. Because a jury could find Grashorn's reaction was unreasonable, Moore green-lit the case for trial.

At the same time, he dismissed Love and Hamm's related claim against Grashorn under Colorado's 2020 police accountability law. Grashorn argued the law was inapplicable to him because the legislature enacted it after he shot Herkimer, and the plaintiffs did not contest that.

A jury trial is scheduled for November 2024.

The case is Love et al. v. Grashorn.

Gulf Coast crawfish are back on the menu in Colorado after state officials reversed a decades-long ban on importing the invasive crustaceans that was largely unheeded and unenforced.

The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission on Friday approved the importation of the red swamp crawfish for human consumption — though with some restrictions. Starting Jan. 1, people who want to bring the southern food staple into the state can do so with an importation license, but they cannot possess the crawfish for more than 72 hours or release them into water.

Before the change, it was illegal to import or possess the species because of concerns that the crustaceans would damage lakes and rivers if they made their way into waterways.

But the species remained easily available for purchase live or at restaurants. If caught, a violator was subject to a misdemeanor that could carry a fine of up to $5,000. Most of the people cooking and eating the mudbugs were unaware of the regulation banning them, and the ban went unenforced for years, Colorado Parks and Wildlife staff said.

“There is a huge demand on these,” Ty Petersburg, assistant chief of law enforcement programs at the agency, told the commission at an August meeting.

Consternation about the ban began in March when wildlife officials cited someone for importing the species, which led to a larger investigation into the industry.

“As a result of that case, CPW has been made aware of a significant culture in Colorado regarding social gatherings and meals surrounding crayfish boils,” a CPW memo on the issue states. “CPW law enforcement has now documented dozens of restaurants across the (Front Range) alone that hold regular crawfish boils and meal services with live imported crayfish.”

For years, Cajun restaurants sold imported crawfish, caterers put on boils for private events and individuals bought live crawfish for backyard boils. One distributor told wildlife officials that they were selling between 9,000 and 11,000 pounds of live crawfish per week during the season, from January to August.

“If you extrapolate that, we have a whole lot of these critters coming into the state — something we didn’t really realize, to be honest with you,” Petersburg said.

Despite the tons of crawfish coming into Colorado, the state has not detected a population in lakes or rivers here, said Josh Nehring, assistant aquatic section manager at CPW. However, the agency does not test specifically for the species.

“The species, if established, is capable of altering the habitat and food chain of lakes and streams,” Nehring said.

The ban was intended to keep the non-native species from being introduced to Colorado’s waters if they were used as fishing bait or released live into the water.

Red swamp crawfish are native to the Gulf of Mexico but have established invasive populations in other states, including Minnesota, New Mexico, Maine and Washington.

If introduced into Colorado waters, the species could also spread downstream to other states and communities. Several native species of crawfish live in the state east of the Continental Divide, but there are no native crawfish on the western side.

“Red swamp crayfish mature early, and have rapid growth rates, large numbers of offspring and short life spans,” a CPW memo on the species states. “They can replace indigenous crayfish by competitive exclusion and/or transmission of crayfish plague.”

A different invasive crayfish species, the rusty crayfish, is one of Colorado wildlife managers’ top invasive concerns in the state. That crayfish has been found in Colorado’s waterways since 2009 and wildlife managers believe they were introduced after anglers used them as bait.

More than 200 people weighed in on the Gulf Coast crawfish issue during the agency’s public comment process. About two-thirds of those who commented supported removing the ban. Some of those in favor of ending the ban noted that few people would pay $6 to $9 a pound for live crawfish simply to dump them in a river.

The new regulation is an attempt to balance cultural and business needs with environmental risk, Petersburg said.

Under the new rules, people who want to buy live crawfish and host their own boils must have a copy of the providers’ importation license and a receipt of purchase, Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesman Joey Livingston said.

On Nov 19

Six additional law enforcement officers were criminally charged this week in connection with the police shooting of Christian Glass, the 22-year-old Boulder man who was killed by a Clear Creek County sheriff’s deputy after he called 911 for help in 2022.

Georgetown Marshal Randy Williams, Georgetown police Officer Timothy Collins, Idaho Springs police Officer Brittany Morrow, Colorado State Trooper Ryan Bennie and Division of Gaming officers Christa Lloyd and Mary J. Harris were all charged Thursday with failing to intervene in the excessive force of another officer. Williams is also charged with third-degree assault.

The six law enforcement officers are scheduled to make their first appearance in court on Dec. 12 on the new charges, which are all Class 1 misdemeanors.

Fifth Judicial District Attorney Heidi McCollum filed the new criminal charges the same day a former sergeant involved in the case, Kyle Gould, pleaded guilty to failing to intervene in the excessive force of another officer. He was sentenced to probation.

“Law enforcement officers must be held accountable for their actions when performing their trusted public service duties,” McCollum said in a statement issued Friday morning. “Yesterday, my office filed additional charges against each of the six other officers who were present June 11, 2022, for failing to intervene in the events and actions of Andrew Buen, which led to Christian Glass’ death.”

Gould and Andrew Buen, the Clear Creek County sheriff’s deputy who shot Glass, were until Friday the only two officers who faced criminal charges stemming from the June 2022 incident. Buen has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, reckless endangerment and official misconduct. Both were fired after the incident, and Gould agreed to never again work as a law enforcement officer when he pleaded guilty Thursday.

Glass was experiencing a mental health crisis when he called 911 on the night of June 10, 2022, and asked for help because he’d crashed his car down an embankment in Clear Creek County. He told the dispatcher that he was afraid of “skinwalkers” and people chasing him.

Seven law enforcement officers responded and spent more than an hour trying to coax Glass out of the car while he was experiencing delusions and paranoia. Eventually, Buen called Gould, who was his supervisor, and Gould gave permission for the officers to break Glass’ window and pull him from the car, even though Glass was not suspected of a crime.

In the chaos that ensued, Glass grabbed a knife and officers fired a Taser at him and shot him with beanbags in an attempt to force him to drop it. Instead, Glass twisted in the driver’s seat and thrust the knife toward an officer standing next to the shattered window behind him, prompting the deputy to shoot him.

A grand jury later found Glass committed no crime and acted in self-defense before he was killed.

The involved agencies agreed to a $19 million settlement with Glass’ parents in May.