FREELANCE INVESTIGATIVE DATA JOURNALIST
Records WORK
After an ordinance intended to wipe out illicit massage parlors in Aurora, Colorado was passed, I found they were able to easily reopen across city lines. I did this through a series of records requests from Aurora and connected the locations through business filings. The series was published in August 2019.
In August 2020, the Denver district attorney announced an international human trafficking investigation built off our findings. Seven people and 12 businesses were indicted on 33 charges by a grand jury. 14 women were freed.
I utilized Colorado's open records law to break the news that kids in Denver Public Schools were being handcuffed. Continued records work revealed the initial number was a severe undercount and was actually nearly triple the original number. And, students of color were being disproportionately handcuffed.
The investigation led to a change of policy so handcuffs are now used way less often. The May 2019 story was nominated for a 2020 Heartland Regional Emmy.
Months of records requests led me to discover in May 2019 that Doug Legg, a Denver street maintenance manager, went to Europe on a trip paid for by a vendor. He then used his position to spend more than $200,000 from taxpayer coffers on a street sweeper made by that same vendor. Legg was eventually fired in July 2019 for this ethics concern and a pattern of harassment and bullying.
In February 2019, a potential second government shutdown about immigration reform is looming. I produced this segment for MSNBC that delves into the semantics behind the border wall debate.
I led the FOIA fight at ABC News for a "20/20" investigation published in May 2018. I spent months coordinating efforts to acquire criminal and court records from 30 major American cities.
I discovered inconsistent national tracking of criminals on ankle bracelet monitors. There is a risk they may commit another crime. 50 murders were committed since 2012 by people wearing the device. The full scope of my work is displayed beginning of the segment at 27:08.