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06_19_25MMHLnews Ainsley Coogan
National NAACP sues Boulder County Branch
The national NAACP organization is suing 13 former executive members of the Boulder County Branch.
The civil suit was filed Monday against Annett James, Jude Landsman, Darren O’Connor, Madelyn Strong Woodley, and 9 others. The national org is accusing those former members of civil conspiracy and civil theft.
The lawsuit claims that former Boulder County Branch secretary Veronica Sommers has ignored multiple requests from the national NAACP to overturn accounts holding over $100,000 in deposits and stocks.
The suit follows the dissolution of the Boulder County Branch back in March. The national NAACP has repeatedly said that only national board members have the authority to dissolve a branch, while the local branch still stands by their right to dissolve.
Former local executive leaders notified members via email, which the National branch says counts as trade secrets.
The suit also lists two cease and desist letters to a member who allegedly continued to represent herself as a member of the Boulder branch after it dissolved. It also calls for an injunction against each of the 13 members for the disposal of branch assets, use of branch assets and trade secrets, and a declaration that the Boulder County Branch has not legally dissolved.
The case has a scheduled conference set for August 7, and calls for a trial by jury.
Pearl Street attack suspect’s wife releases public statement
The wife of Mohamed Soliman, the man who was charged with a hate crime after the June 1 Pearl Street attack, released her first public statement on Wednesday.
Hayam El Gamal and her five children, who are as young as 4 and as old as 18, have been detained since June 3 in an ICE detention center in Texas. They have been fighting deportation orders ever since. Her attorney, Eric Lee, released a statement on her behalf that addressed the conditions that she and her children are living in.
“We are grieving, and we are suffering. We are treated like animals by the officers, who told us we are being punished for what my husband is accused of doing,” El Gamal said in her statement.
In a lawsuit filed on behalf of the family that asks to halt deportation orders, Lee has said that the children “are not doing OK.”
In 2022, Soliman and his family filed for asylum in Denver, according to The Denver Gazette. El Gamal also said how she and her family tried to “do everything right,” addressing that the family learned English and that they have always tried to be good neighbors.
Also in her statement, El Gamal stated her shock over the attack.
“So many lives were ruined that day. There is never an excuse for hurting innocent people,” she said.
Hate crime charge debated in court
Meanwhile, Magistrate Judge Katherine Starnella has found enough evidence to allow the hate crime case to continue against Mohamed Soliman, the man accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at Boulder’s “Run For Their Lives” demonstration.
The debate continues as to whether Soliman targeted the protesters due to their national origin or for the political view of Zionism, which his defense attorney argued are beliefs held by people of a variety of different nations.
According to The Denver Post, Soliman had told police that he wanted “to kill all Zionist people” and emphasized that his attack had nothing to do with the Jewish community. Federal prosecutor Melissa Hindman said that Soliman stated that not all Jewish people are Zionists, and not all Jews are “his enemy.”
In addition to the single federal hate-crime count, Soliman faces 118 charges in state court.
Utah student detained by ICE in Grand Junction granted bail
A student from the University of Utah being held at an ICE facility in Aurora will be released on bail.
19-year-old Utah college student Caroline Dias Goncalves was arrested near Grand Junction after a Mesa County Sheriff’s deputy shared her information with immigration officials using the encrypted chat application, Signal. The deputy had pulled her over for following a tractor trailer too closely. Her family didn’t know where she was for two days after the incident, which occured on June 5.
Dias Goncalves will be released in the coming days, according to advocates for her.
Under Colorado law, local and state law enforcement agencies are not allowed to facilitate civil immigration actions. The Signal chat was allegedly used for drug enforcement purposes, and according to The Denver Post, the deputy did not know the information they shared about Dias Goncalves would be used for federal immigration enforcement purposes.
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office is no longer a part of the chat.
Denver teacher union makes progress
More than 4,000 Denver educators are negotiating a new contract.
The Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) met with Denver Public Schools (DPS) officials and mediators earlier this week to try and find agreement on educators’ pay rates, benefits, class sizes, and workloads.
Teachers’ current contracts are set to expire at the end of August.
The negotiation news comes about a month after DPS sent out an email to all of their teachers, saying they didn’t feel like the union and the district could make any good faith efforts toward reaching an agreement.
This was the first time either side of Denver educator contract negotiations reached an impasse since 2017, leading the school district to hire outside mediators. Robert Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, says that the investment has been worthwhile, and both sides have made progress since. Gould told Denver7 he feels cautiously optimistic.
Colorado Springs Safeway workers join strike
Workers from 12 Safeway stores in Colorado Springs will join in on the strikes currently happening around the state. UFCW Local 7, the union representing the workers, said that 99 percent of employees in the city voted to join the strike on Tuesday.
Colorado Springs will join stores in Estes Park, Fountain, Pueblo and the Denver metro area. Employees say they are fighting for better pay, benefits and staffing levels, according to News5.
A representative from Safeway’s Denver Division told News5 that “Safeway in Colorado remains committed to productive discussions with UFCW Local 7. We respect the rights of workers to engage in collective bargaining and are negotiating in good faith to achieve an agreement.”
Stores will remain open during the strike. UFCW Local 7 previously called it a “limited walkout” to minimize the impact on shoppers.
Boulder county issues public health caution
The National Weather Service has issued a Heat Advisory for Boulder County below 6000 feet, starting 11 a.m. tomorrow, Friday, June 20, until 6 p.m. Saturday, June 21. Temperatures are expected to reach up to 100 degrees.
Moving forward into the weekend, Boulder County Public Health issued tips on how to deal with the heat. Older adults, infants, children and people with chronic medical conditions are more at risk.
When staying indoors, the County recommends to hydrate regularly, avoid using ovens or stoves at the hottest points of the day and avoiding alcohol and sugary drinks. Outdoors, it’s recommended to carry water, limit time in sunlight, walk pets on shaded surfaces or grassy areas and to be alert to signs of heat stroke.
Heat exhaustion symptoms such as nausea, dizziness and weakness can lead to heat stroke, which is a medical emergency. Symptoms of heat stroke are a body temperature of 103 degrees or higher, confusion, loss of consciousness and a rapid pulse. More information can be found on boco.org/ExtremeHeat.
