An April 27 article in the Rocky Mountain News reported that state Rep. Amy Stephens (R-Monument) had testified inaccurately at a state House Judiciary Committee hearing on House Bill 1040. The article, by Alan Gathright, speculated that her testimony might have drawn scrutiny because radio host Peter Boyles allegedly “blasted” the Adams County district attorney who prosecuted the criminal case that she criticized. However, the News failed to note that it had reported uncritically on Stephens' testimony, in an April 26 article by Gathright that Boyles read on his 630 KHOW-AM show the same day.

The April 27 article reported that Stephens “didn't have all the facts when she testified that a teen rape victim ran into her attacker” in Adams County weeks “after he'd been deported to Mexico.” It further noted that Stephens was wrong to identify “Gabriel Chavez-Hurtado [the attacker] as an example of an illegal immigrant who received a 'get-out-of-jail-free card' ” because, according to Adams County District Attorney Don Quick, Chavez-Hurtado is “now serving three years in state prison.” The News then stated that Stephens' “testimony might not have drawn such attention if Denver talk radio host Peter Boyles hadn't blasted Quick over the Adams County case during his Thursday [April 26] show.”

Nowhere in the article did the News mention its own April 26 report, which repeated Stephens' testimony but included no comment from Quick or his office about the case.

According to its summary, HB 1040, which Stephens sponsored, “Prohibits a court from dismissing criminal charges, at any stage of criminal proceedings, against a person who is illegally present in the country” and requires that a no-bond warrant “be issued in a criminal case when the defendant is determined to be illegally present in the country and the defendant is either removed from the country or is subject to removal.” The bill also prohibits a bond agent from recovering a bond if the defendant is an illegal immigrant subject to deportation.

As the News reported on April 26:

A teenage rape victim in Adams County believed she would be safe after her attacker, an illegal immigrant, agreed to “voluntary” deportation from the United States.

“A few weeks later, this girl is walking down the street and comes face to face with her rapist,” Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, told the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. “You want to talk about trauma? You want to talk about just the awful feelings this produced in this young woman?”

Stephens urged the committee to close a loophole that gives career criminals facing stiff prison time a “get-out-of-jail-free card” that U.S. citizens can't obtain.

However, the News reported on April 27:

A state lawmaker didn't have all the facts when she testified that a teen rape victim ran into her attacker a few weeks later, back on the street, after he'd been deported to Mexico, Adams County District Attorney Don Quick said Thursday.

Before a House committee Wednesday, Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, held up Gabriel Chavez-Hurtado as an example of an illegal immigrant who received a “get-out-of-jail free card.”

The April 27 article then gave Quick's “account of the case”:

The victim-attacker encounter in Adams County did occur, but charges against Chavez-Hurtado were never dropped, as Stephens implied Wednesday.

Before standing trial, Chavez-Hurtado was deported by federal immigration authorities to Mexico, but sneaked back into the country to Adams County.

After his victim spotted him in the car next to hers at an intersection, Adams County Sheriff Doug Darr launched a team to find him. He was later arrested on the rape warrant in New Mexico, prosecuted by Quick's office and is now serving three years in state prison.

“We did our job,” Quick said. “We caught him and extradited him and sent him to prison.”

Stephens said she was forced to ad lib on details of the case during the hearing, after Darr had to cancel at the last minute because of a major gang member bust.

Her testimony might not have drawn such attention if Denver talk radio host Peter Boyles hadn't blasted Quick over the Adams County case during his Thursday show.

The News not only failed to note that it also had reported on Stephens' testimony the day before -- without noting its inaccuracy -- but it also neglected to indicate why it had not sought comment from Quick or any other Adams County official involved in the Chavez-Hurtado case for its April 26 article.

Furthermore, despite its reporting that Boyles “blasted” Quick on the air, a review of the audio and transcript of that show indicates Boyles never mentioned the district attorney during his remarks.