A jury trial is underway for a Pueblo sex offender accused of sexually assaulting a child in October 2019.
Bernie Anthony Valdez, 36, is accused of sexual assault on a child, a class 4 felony, and faces a sentence enhancement for an aggravated sex offense. Valdez has several prior charges and convictions pertaining to unlawful sexual contact and two prior convictions for failing to register as a sex offender.
His trial began Tuesday morning and is expected to last four days.
Affidavit details allegations of assault
According to a Pueblo Police Department arrest affidavit, officers were called to a Pueblo residence on Oct. 21, 2019, to investigate a sexual assault that had just occurred.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment just reported nearly 150 new COVID-19 outbreaks identified in the past week. Well over half of them are located in four counties, including Denver, that are currently at Level Red on the agency s dial dashboard, a system that transitioned from compulsory to advisory on April 16.
The CDPHE considers an entity an outbreak after two or more COVID-19 cases among residents, staffers or other people connected to a specific location are confirmed within a fourteen-day period, or two or more cases of respiratory illness with an onset of symptoms within a fourteen-day period are paired with at least one additional COVID-19 diagnosis. The vast majority of businesses and facilities identified as outbreaks remain open while working with the department to monitor symptoms and prevent future infections.
Unseasonably cold Saturday, with periods of light snow koaa.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from koaa.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The department revised February s rate to 6.4% from the initially reported 6.6%. The state s unemployment rate was 4.7% in March 2020, just as the pandemic was triggering widespread business restrictions. Colorado s unemployment rate remains above the national rate of 6%.
Unemployment rates fell in most of the state s metro areas, though those rates are not adjusted for seasonal changes like the statewide number. Denver s rate was unchanged at 6.7%, while the Colorado Springs rate fell to 6.7% in March from 7% in February. Boulder had the lowest rate at 5.5% and Pueblo the highest at 8.7%. Washington County had the lowest rate among counties at 3.2% and Huerfano County had the highest at 9.8%.
Which counties are likeliest to ditch regulations the fastest?
In some of the state s most politically conservative counties, leaders and residents alike have decried restrictions since the start of the pandemic more than a year ago. And despite this state being solidly in the blue in statewide and national elections, there are a lot of conservative counties. In 2020, 37 of Colorado s 64 counties voted for Donald Trump, who consistently downplayed the seriousness of the virus and pushed aggressively to reopen the economy and society in general, often against the advice of his own health officials.
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Many of these counties are among the least populous in Colorado, and have only a modest incidence of COVID-19. The still-functioning dial dashboard shows that as of today, April 13, 14 of the 37 measure at Level Green, the lowest spot on the scale under the CDPHE s original metric, which the department continues to track even though standards have been loosened in recent