Colorado
Colorado woman stops man recording women in dressing rooms, speaks at his sentencing a year later
A man guilty of recording women in dressing rooms last year will be spend time in jail thanks to the actions of one of his victims. CBS Colorado spoke to the woman who caught the suspect, who on her own was able to hold him for police and ultimately hold him accountable. She shared her journey as an advocate for her fellow victims, which she explained has also led to personal growth for herself over the past year.
Paul Gonzalez was sentenced to 60 days in the Jefferson County jail after he was found guilty of filming multiple women without their knowledge in a dressing room at a Nordstrom Rack in Lakewood back in May 2024.
The 19-year-old suspect was ultimately caught by Michelle Chandler, who spoke to CBS Colorado about her experience. Gonzalez and Chandler went viral when she caught him filming her, and a recording showed her stopping him from fleeing in time for his arrest.
“I had a lot of anger I have had to work through,” Chandler told CBS Colorado. “It was like all of this rage … You can’t do this to me.”
Chandler spoke at Gonzalez’s sentencing Wednesday. She said she waived her victim compensation and hopes Gonzales will use the money to get the help he needs. Under a plea agreement, Gonzalez was found guilty of invasion of privacy for sexual gratification.
The day before sentencing, Chandler was taking a self-defense class at Gracie Jiu Jitsu Aurora. She never thought self-defense classes would be a part of her weekly routine. She also never thought she’d catch a man filming her without her knowledge.
It was the day before Mother’s Day last year when Chandler, a mother of five, visited the Nordstrom Rack in search of a Mother’s Day outfit. Instead, she found Gonzales filming her from the changing room next-door.
“I bent down and looked underneath the stall to make sure what I was seeing was correct, and he was still squatted down. He had his pants at his thighs,” Chandler explained.
Michelle grabbed the culprit as he tried to escape, which bystanders recorded on their phones at the scene. Two employees also intervened and initially helped to hold Gonzalez from escaping.
“He started trying to take off,” Chandler said. “There was a fight.”
Chandler had help until, she says, managers told the employees to let the suspect go, leaving her alone to restrain the man who violated her privacy.
“I looked at them, and I said, ‘You let people get away for shoplifting. What’s next? Where does this end?” Chandler explained.
Nordstrom did not respond to questions from CBS Colorado, but its “Customer Bill of Rights” online says, “Nordstrom requires its employees to respect the basic civil and legal rights of any person suspected of shoplifting or other crime committed on store property.”
Investigators later confirmed three additional women were recorded that day, including a victim who was fully unclothed. However, Chandler says Lakewood Police Department never pursued their identities. In the criminal case against Gonzales, those three women are listed as “Jane Doe.”
“I was told, ‘If this had happened to you and you had not known, would you want to know?,’” Chandler shared. “Suddenly, every woman would wonder, ‘Is it me?’ And it could cause panic and a sizable number of people trying to contact like flooding Lakewood PD. Will they get peace or closure? There’s two sides to every coin.”
In a statement, Lakewood PD told CBS Colorado, “If we were able to identify these women, we absolutely would. Unfortunately in this case, we were unable to identify who they were.”
Still, Chandler wants to be an advocate for those women.
“I want all women and girls to be protected. I also feel like I am the only voice for three other women that have no idea,” Chandler said.
Nordstrom Rack in Lakewood has since changed its dressing rooms, so the partition walls now touch the floor. Chandler believes all companies need to put public safety first and construct their fitting rooms accordingly.
A year later, Chandler gained a strength she says she didn’t know was possible.
“I would not take back what I’ve been through for who I am today, the resilience, the strength, the interchange in me and the confidence that I have,” Chandler said. “I just feel like I have my strength and my dignity back.”
Colorado
Kids escape unscathed after van slips off Colorado mountain road and down Blue River embankment
A van carrying campers from a hike near Blue River rolled down an embankment Thursday afternoon, but everyone inside escaped without major injuries. According to the Keystone Science School, the 15-passenger van was transporting 13 campers and two adults back from Mohawk Lakes when it slid off a wet road and rolled over.
Emergency crews responded to Spruce Creek Road after receiving reports of a single-vehicle rollover.
“We’re fortunate that it was low speed, and there was no intrusion into the passenger cabin,” Matt Benedict, division chief of wildfire and community preparedness for Red, White and Blue Fire said.
Investigators believe muddy conditions created by recent rainfall contributed to the crash. The van rolled down a steep embankment before coming to rest against a tree. Two people suffered minor injuries, but neither required transportation to a hospital, according to fire officials.
Keystone Science School confirmed emergency responders arrived quickly and that no major injuries were reported.
“The safety and well-being of our campers and staff is our highest priority,” Executive Director Eric Rightor said in a statement. “We are grateful that there were no major injuries, and we are committed to fully supporting all those involved and their families.”
Fire officials also credited seatbelt use for helping protect those inside the vehicle. “We always encourage everyone to wear their seatbelts… and they did. And everybody left,” Benedict said.
The Keystone Science School is located in Summit County.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) — Two weeks have passed since officials closed four blocks of Uintah Street to repair damage under a bridge over Shooks Run Creek, and we’re now learning specifics about the response.
Officials said that the city was the lead entity in the repair response, with Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) providing a supporting role.
The closure began late in the afternoon of June 10 for what officials described as emergency bridge and utility repairs between Prospect and Institute streets, east of the Colorado College campus.
Officials said that on the previous day, a routine bridge inspection by the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) discovered a large “void,” or sinkhole, under the bridge that compromised a utility line.
But officials didn’t explain how the void developed or how they repaired it until earlier this week, when Richard Mulledy, the city’s public works director, elaborated on the situation.
“It was about a six-foot by eight-foot void,” he explained. “That void was really caused by an abandoned storm sewer line and then a leaking manhole. It’s something that we see from time to time, but really doesn’t happen often.”
Crews approached the problem from under and above the bridge, with workers excavating into the street to access the utility lines.
“The utility line being compromised was an active storm sewer line,” Mulledy said. “It was sort of hanging out in the open and was unsecured. The old storm sewer line had been abandoned for decades and was starting to fail.”
Crews removed the old stormwater pipe, repaired the manhole, and backfilled the void with a material called “flow.”
“Flow fills almost like a kind of liquid concrete,” Mulledy detailed. “And that’s a really great structural solution. So, we filled that entire thing up, made sure the void is closed, and made sure it’s structurally sound.”
He added that the bridge is around a century old, the same age as most bridges across the creek.
“This was identified and got fixed in 48 hours, rather than let something structural fail, and then we’d be in a big, giant construction project,” Mulledy said. “The structure itself, I don’t think, was ever really threatened.”
The closure ended on Saturday, June 13.
A Colorado man died on Tuesday when a boulder fell on him and crushed him. That’s according to the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, who identified the man as 59-year-old Paul Frasch.
Frasch is a resident of Silverthorne. The sheriff’s office says he was walking in an area along the Arkansas River in Buena Vista in the middle of the day with his coworker when rocks fell and hit him.
According to investigators, the boulder that landed on Frasch weighed at least 1,000 pounds.
The coworker received injuries to his arms after trying to help Frasch.
When first responders got to the scene, the boulder was still on top of Frasch. He was declared dead at the scene.
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