Johnston’s office confirmed to Denver7 the mayor’s car was stolen about a month ago. It has since been recovered, according to a spokesperson.

The mayor’s office did not release details about the theft, including where it happened, “to protect the safety of Mayor Johnston and his family.”

This is not the first time Johnston’s car has been stolen. According to a 2017 social media post, his car was stolen from an Office Depot in Denver’s Northeast Park Hill neighborhood.

 Read more on Denver7.

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Andrew Jacobs, 34, received the sentence in Arapahoe County after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and aggravated robbery in the Nov. 10, 2021 spree in which he committed several violent crimes that included murder, multiple carjackings and two home invasions, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday in a news release.

Jacobs claimed he was high on methamphetamine and fentanyl during the crime spree.

The spree started when Jacobs attempted to carjack a woman, stealing her purse and firing shots in her garages, about 3:20 a.m. Nov 10, 2021.

Police then responded to a possible carjacking at 14082 East Iowa Drive in the Florida Station Apartments complex a few minutes later at 3:29 p.m. where they found a man, Carlos Julio Albarracin, shot. He died after being taken to a hospital.

Albarracin’s six-year-old son was in his truck with him when Jacobs approached, shattered the truck’s window and shot Albarracin, according to the news release.

Jacobs then stole Albarracin’s truck.

Jacobs then broke into two homes and carjacked several other people, the news release said.

“This is one of the most egregious crime sprees my team has prosecuted,” District Attorney John Kellner said. “I can’t imagine the trauma this young child now lives with after witnessing his father’s killing. The decision to plead this case was made to spare this child the grief of having to testify in court.”

Jacobs pleaded guilty earlier this month.

As part of the plea agreement, 60 other charges Jacobs faced were dismissed. Those charges included a charge of first-degree murder with extreme indifference and a charge of first-degree murder after deliberation, each of which would have resulted in a sentence of life in prison if he was convicted; and several charges of robbery, burglary, auto theft, felony menacing, assault and trespassing.

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Editor’s note: This article was updated at 4:17 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, to include Carlos Julio Albarracin’s full name.

No one has been arrested, said Lisa Derderian, spokeswoman for the city of Pasadena. Police referred the case to the District Attorney’s Office that handles juvenile cases, she added.

For related news, see: CU Buffs Coach Deion Sanders begs forgiveness for suspects in Rose Bowl thefts

She couldn’t immediately confirm media reports that the suspects were recruits to UCLA and were on a visit that day. UCLA did say individuals tied to the case were not on an official visit.

Beaumont Unified School District officials also did not confirm if the students are football players at the school.

“We are disappointed and disheartened to hear of the alleged involvement of Beaumont High School students in the incident at the UCLA-Colorado football game on Oct. 28,” Alex Sponheim, who oversees the Communications Department at the district, said in an email.

“We strive to promote strong character and integrity in our students, and the alleged actions do not represent our core values as a school, district, and community,” she said.

While the students were not at the football game as part of a school-sponsored event, Sponheim said the district is cooperating fully with Pasadena Police  investigation.

“As this is still an ongoing investigation, we cannot confirm anything other than that the individuals in question were not on an official visit,” UCLA Athletics said in a statement.

The Colorado players discovered the theft when they returned back to the locker room after the game.

The Denver Post reported that the victims were four Colorado players and the stolen items included three “diamond-plated” necklaces with medallions, a pair of headphones and football equipment.

Some of the stolen items have been returned. The parents have mailed back some of the property, Derderian said.

Police also recovered other items after serving a search warrant but didn’t reveal what they found during the search or when and where the search occurred.

Bachar pleaded guilty in September to felony theft for defrauding an investor of $125,000. In a deal with the Denver District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors agreed to drop two other felony counts against him in exchange for his guilty plea.

He asked for mercy in court Monday and said he was a changed man. His public defender, Robert Swestka, asked that Bachar be sentenced to probation, while prosecutor Ashley Beck sought two years in prison.

Denver District Court Judge Eric Johnson found that three years in prison was the more fitting punishment. He noted Bachar owes about $180,000 in restitution in the case, which includes interest on the original stolen investment.

“How many home invasion burglaries do you have to take to get to $180,000?” Johnson said in court. “…How many stolen cars does it take to get to $180,000? And yet day after day I am asked to put into prison people who are selling four fentanyl pills or stealing automobiles. And I’m not saying that’s wrong, but it helps put into perspective the job here.”

The judge said he wanted to push back against the criminal justice system’s tendency to be more lenient on wealthy, well-connected and well-educated defendants, particularly in cases of white-collar and financial crimes.

“One of the major challenges for our criminal justice system, and our society, in my view, is the existence of two classes of individuals: those who are subject to our laws but not protected by them. And those who are protected by our laws and not subject to them,” he said. “…And at least in this courtroom, I am not going to have people who are protected by laws but not subject to them.”

Bachar was handcuffed and taken into custody at the end of Monday’s sentencing hearing, the second such hearing scheduled in the case — the disbarred attorney had a year ago agreed to a plea deal in which he could have served only probation, but Johnson threw that agreement out in March on the grounds it was too lenient after Bachar skipped his original sentencing hearing.

The man Bachar stole from, Jamie Lindsay, said in court Monday that Bachar is an “unrepentant liar, thief and fraudster.”

“His clear intent is to limit his punishment so he can keep defrauding people without end,” Lindsay said. “He cannot and will not stop his lies and fraud… I will never be able to repair the damage he has done to my life in what was supposed to be my golden years in retirement.”

Bachar, reading from a handwritten statement, apologized to Lindsay and said he is going to a therapist to address the “underlying issues” that led to his behavior, mentioning a “horrible” childhood and “some things with my mother.” He and his attorney argued that he should be sentenced to probation so he could keep working and earning money to pay the case’s restitution.

“I’ll admit I began with defiance or denial,” Bachar said of the court process. “Maybe in part because I didn’t understand the gravity of what I’d done. I didn’t understand that I was even capable of abusing his trust and friendship in that way. It’s not consistent with how I’ve lived most of my life… All in all, the past two-plus years have been an awakening for me. I deeply regret what I did to be here.”

Bachar noted that the original plea deal, which Johnson rejected, likely would have allowed him to avoid both a felony conviction and time in prison.

“I won’t claim not to have preferred that,” he said. “But in the end, it’s probably better I carry this felony with me forever. I think it’s part of an appropriate retribution, justice. But it’s also part of a healing process for Jamie and for me.”

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At least five players had their jewelry or other valuables stolen during the Oct. 28 match-up against the Bruins, which Colorado lost 28-16.

In a statement Friday night, Pasadena city spokesperson Lisa Derderian said police have identified additional “items of interest” in the theft and are pursuing them. Police executed search warrants in the case, and the suspects are juveniles, she said. The investigation is ongoing.

The incident was classified as a “grand theft,” meaning the stolen items were worth more than $950. Earlier reports indicate that gold and diamond chains worth thousands of dollars were stolen from the locker room.

The thefts have garnered national attention, with CU Buffs football coach Deion Sanders calling on Rose Bowl officials to reimburse players for the stolen items.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

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Andrew Jacobs, 34, pleaded guilty in Arapahoe County on Friday to three charges and three violent crime sentence enhancements in the Nov. 10, 2021, death of Carlos Julio Albarracin, who was 34 at the time, according to online court documents.

As part of the plea agreement, 60 other charges Jacobs faced were dismissed. Those charges included a charge of first-degree murder with extreme indifference and a charge of first-degree murder after deliberation, each of which would have resulted in a sentence to life in prison if he was convicted; and several charges of robbery, burglary, auto theft, felony menacing, assault and trespassing.

Police responded to a possible carjacking at 14082 East Iowa Drive in the Florida Station Apartments complex at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 10, 2021, where they found a man, Albarracin, shot. He died after being taken to a hospital.

Investigators at the time said Albarracin approached Jacobs, who showed his gun and fired. Jacobs then stole Albarracin’s vehicle and left, police said.

Police said Jacobs then reportedly committed two home invasion robberies and several more carjackings across Aurora and into Denver.

Police also said he caused two different crashes in Denver and Aurora that injured people.

Jacobs has a sentencing hearing Nov. 14.

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In a video posted by “Well Off Media” after the game, five Colorado players claimed to have had jewelry and other valuables stolen out of the visitors’ locker room at the Rose Bowl.

The burglary happened sometime during UCLA’s 28-16 win over CU, according to a statement released by CU athletics Monday afternoon.

“We are aware of players having personal belongings taken from the CU visiting locker room during Saturday’s game against UCLA at the Rose Bowl,” the statement read. “We are in contact with both the UCLA and Pasadena police. The Pasadena Police Department is the lead agency handling the investigation.”

Pasadena Police could not furnish a report about the incident when contacted by The Post on Monday. Police did, however, have a record of a report of “grand theft” at the Rose Bowl that was made at 9:22 p.m. Saturday, which was shortly after the game between CU and UCLA ended. In California, grand theft is classified as theft of property over $950 in value.

Pasadena public information office Lisa Derderian told The Associated Press that UCLA is in communication with law enforcement, Rose Bowl officials and CU concerning the matter.

The City of Pasadena provided the following statement to BuffZone.com:

“On Saturday, October 28th, at 9:22pm, the Pasadena Police Department was notified of a theft that took place in the University of Colorado locker room during the UCLA vs. Colorado football game at the Rose Bowl. The theft reportedly involved several pieces of jewelry and other miscellaneous personal and football items. At this point, the value of the loss is undetermined. Detectives will check the area for relevant security camera footage as part of the investigation and will review any existing video. Anyone with information on the theft should contact the Pasadena Police Department at 626-744-4241.”

UCLA also released a statement Monday afternoon: “The UCLA athletic department confirmed that a report was filed to the Pasadena Police Department following the UCLA-Colorado football game regarding items that were reportedly missing from the Colorado locker room. UCLA is in communication with law enforcement, Rose Bowl Stadium officials and the University of Colorado on the matter.”

The video from outside the locker room shows CU players after the game talking about the incident, including three players who allegedly had gold and diamond chains worth thousands of dollars stolen.

A post on CU linebacker Jordan Domineck’s account on X, formerly known as Twitter, indicated he was one of the victims of the theft. The post read: “Forgive and forget. To whoever snuck into the locker room and stole my chain, as well as my teammates chains, I forgive you and wish you nothing but the best. Hopefully you turn your life around with whatever you get for mine, and you learn from this. It’s all love.”

There’s no explanation yet on how the incident occurred during the game, and UCLA police said they were involved in the investigation.

The Denver Post’s Matt Schubert and Sean Keeler and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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“Thieves continue to steal cars at alarming rates in Colorado, but particularly at Denver International Airport and the lots that surround it,” District Attorney Brian Mason said in a Monday news release from the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office

Back in July, an airport spokesperson said DIA had seen a 28% increase in car thefts during the first half of 2023, forcing airport officials to announce several new safety measures.

The 13 indicted individuals allegedly stole 59 vehicles from various locations, including DIA, between February 2022 and March 2023, according to Monday’s release.

The 121-count indictment includes varying charges such as COCCA, burglary, aggravated motor vehicle theft, and theft, the release stated.

Some of the stolen vehicles were used to smash through the fronts of businesses in attempted burglaries, the release stated. The suspects would allegedly place straps around ATMs inside the stores and use the cars to pull the machines from the buildings.

According to data from the investigation, Ford F-150 Raptors were the preferred vehicles, but Cherokees, Dodge Challengers, and Dodge Chargers were also stolen and used.

Investigators from the Colorado Auto Theft Prevention Authority and the CATPA Metropolitan Auto Theft Task Force, who followed the group for more than a year, said the suspects used sophisticated tools to reprogram key fobs and disable the cars’ GPS tracking systems.

These alleged offenses occurred in multiple jurisdictions including Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Boulder, Denver, Jefferson and Logan Counties. In total 59 vehicles were stolen, and 31 burglaries were attempted.

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The laborers come to Star Farms every year on temporary visas, part of the federal government’s H-2A program that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers for critical agricultural jobs.

From 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., they till the soil and tie the vines. Others thin, prune, seal, pack and load cabbage, peppers, onions and other vegetables.

But despite federal regulations, workers and their lawyers say the farm’s owner does not provide them with clean water, forcing them to buy and bring their own. The bathrooms on-site, they say, sometimes go months without being cleaned. With little option, they allege, workers feel compelled to urinate and defecate in the fields.

On top of that, they say the workers at Star Farms haven’t seen a paycheck in seven weeks.

“Every year it’s the same,” one laborer told The Denver Post through a translator. The 28-year-old father of two, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said that, without his regular income, he’s been forced to borrow money from family in order to eat. His wife and children back in Mexico wonder why he’s still there. “This year they said it would change. But it’s a lie — we come and it’s the same thing all over again.”

For nearly two decades, Star Farms and its owner, Angelo Palombo, have repeatedly stolen wages from migrant employees and violated federal labor laws, according to interviews and a Denver Post review of court documents and inspection reports. In one 2008 investigation, the U.S. Department of Labor found 191 violations of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act.

All told, Palombo has been hit with at least $209,000 in penalties and back-wage repayments as part of federal investigations and settlement agreements in civil lawsuits.

Now, the federal labor department says it’s once again investigating the farm. The workers’ attorneys, in a new demand letter, are calling for the Colorado attorney general and state labor department to open their own probes.

“You continue to exploit these workers and profit off their work while refusing to pay them the wages you have stolen from them,” attorneys from Towards Justice and Colorado Legal Services wrote in the demand letter to Palombo on Monday.

But despite repeated fines and violations, the same federal agency, year after year, continues to allow Palombo to hire and take advantage of seasonal workers.

The plight of Star Farms’ workers underscores the often exploitative nature of seasonal farm work in America. These migrant laborers, under the federal H-2A program, can only work for the employer who brings them into the country, making them captive and ripe for abuse, experts say. Unlike other laborers, they can’t hop to another job if the working conditions lag. Nor are they likely to speak up about mistreatment, leading the majority to suffer in silence.

“Once you find an employer, you don’t want to lose that,” said Jenifer Rodriguez, a veteran farm worker attorney who’s representing the Star Farms laborers. “Similar to undocumented individuals, these H-2A workers will put up with a lot more because they want to be able to come back.”

Palombo, in an interview, told The Post he “pretty much” pays all his workers on time. Clean water is always available, he said, and the bathrooms get cleaned every other day.

In July, he filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy protection and court filings show he owes millions to creditors, including tens of thousands to dozens of his workers.

Lawsuits and investigations

Palombo has been growing vegetables in Colorado for more than 50 years. He grew up in Irondale, according to an online biography, working on the farm with his father. Together they used to take their farm-fresh produce to sell every morning in Denver’s Denargo Market.

In 1975, Palombo started Palombo Farms in Commerce City, adding a larger variety to his vegetable selection. Eventually, he rebranded to Star Farms, moving his operation to Brighton.

Sixty-five seasonal workers now work on the 471-acre farm in Weld County, picking an assortment of produce, including green beans, cabbage, cucumbers and asparagus.

Palombo’s family members operate Palombo Farms Market off of U.S. 85 in Henderson. The shop offers a colorful array of fruits and vegetables from his farm and other local operations, plus homemade mustards and dressings. (A spokesperson says the market is operated by Palombo’s ex-wife and their son, Linda Palombo and Joseph Palombo. Angelo Palombo has no association with their business, they say).

Shoppers at Safeway and Kroger-owned stores can also find Star Farms’ vegetables in local supermarkets.

But the workers who pick that farm-fresh produce for years have complained of poor treatment.

In 2006, the U.S. Department of Labor found nine violations at Star Farms, including five related to the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Another four concerned Occupational Safety and Health Administration infractions. The department fined Palombo nearly $6,800.

Four years later, federal labor investigators found 191 migrant worker violations, impacting 140 laborers. The department fined Star Farms $12,200 and ordered $123,330.54 in back wages to be paid to workers. (Public data on the labor department’s website only shows the number of violations and fines/back wages issued. The department has not responded to a Freedom of Information Act request from The Post seeking more detailed information on the violations.)

In 2010, the labor department listed Star Farms as a repeat violator of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Workers have sued Palombo and his company twice in federal court since 2008, alleging the farm owner failed to supply drinking water in the fields, provide clean restrooms and pay them on time.

The laborers’ attorneys in a 2015 case called it a “systematic abuse and exploitation of low-wage, seasonal, agricultural workers.”

Juana Armijo, a 54-year-old worker, said in the complaint that she had to bring her own knife to cut herbs because the farm wouldn’t provide her one. Workers received no gloves and no soap to wash their hands after using the restroom, the closest of which sat 20 minutes away.

Armijo’s supervisor, she said in the lawsuit, told her to just relieve herself in the cornfield.

She and another worker, Apolinar Valenzuela Ramos, both left the job without full payment. They only received money from Palombo after legal action.

In both the 2008 and 2015 federal lawsuits, Palombo agreed to settlements — $67,200 in all — in which he paid these workers and other laborers who also didn’t see regular checks. Court-ordered consent decrees also mandated that the farm owner provide clean drinking water and sanitary bathrooms, and pay his workers on time, moving forward.

The farm owner, though, still owes money from the 2015 settlement, said David Seligman, executive director of Towards Justice.

Palombo told The Post that since these cases were so long ago, he couldn’t recall the details.

“I’m not closing the farm”

It’s been nearly eight years since Palombo agreed to these terms in the second federal case.

But workers and their attorneys say nothing has changed.

The bathrooms still don’t get cleaned. There’s still no clean water. And, they say, the pay never seems to come on time.

In addition, Palombo illegally passes travel and visa costs on to the migrant laborers, the workers’ attorneys allege. In past years, he has demanded $2,500 in unlawful kickbacks to cover his expenses, they say.

When the Mexican worker who spoke to The Post does get paid, he said most of the money goes to paying back family and sending cash to his wife and children. There’s little left over for food, clothes or medical expenses.

It’s difficult, he said, to find another H-2A employer. So even though conditions are rough — living with six others in a two-bedroom apartment — he comes back year after year to Star Farms.

“I don’t have any alternatives,” he said in Spanish through a translator.

Palombo told The Post that he doesn’t pass off costs to his employees and that he pays them regularly. He even allows workers to borrow money from him, he said.

“Tell them to come and see me and we’ll find out what happened,” Palombo said.

The demand letter from the workers’ lawyers says Star Farms’ conduct violates the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Colorado Wage Claim Act and H-2A visa regulations. Palombo’s actions, they allege, also constitute civil theft and may amount to a violation of federal and state trafficking protections.

“More fundamentally, your failure to pay wages has had catastrophic consequences for our clients, with many of them experiencing severe food shortages as they struggle to afford basic necessities and many feeling scared and threatened to continue working for fear that if they do not, they will never receive the wages they have already earned,” the attorneys wrote.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Labor said the federal agency has an ongoing investigation into Star Farms but declined to elaborate.

Palombo, while speaking to a Post reporter on Thursday, said investigators were at the farm talking to workers.

Bankruptcy filings show Palombo running in the red. The farm reported $2.86 million in assets and $3.58 million in liabilities. Nearly 70 workers have filed wage claims, ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 each. Other creditors include the Colorado Department of Labor and Unemployment and the Colorado Department of Revenue.

Palombo told The Post that the bankruptcy represents a reorganizational tool. He said he plans to hire H-2A workers again next year.

“I’m not closing the farm,” he said.

Limited options for visa holders

Despite repeated violations of federal law, the labor department continues to allow Palombo to remain in the H-2A program. A 2016 BuzzFeed News investigation found the department rarely bans companies from the program, even after egregious conduct.

Government audits have found the Labor Department has an “inability to consider debarment” — or ban companies — for the most severe offenders, the news agency found. Sometimes it blocked its own employees from investigating whether companies were breaking the law.

H-2A employers are “more likely to get hit by lightning” than to be debarred, Greg Schell, a Florida lawyer who has represented guest workers for three decades, told BuzzFeed.

A 2020 study by the Economic Policy Institute found more than 70% of federal labor standards investigations of farms detect violations, ranging from wage theft to inadequate housing and other infractions.

But with one wage and hour investigator for every 175,000 workers, the federal labor department likely misses a wide swath of violations, the study found.

“Farm employers can violate wage and hour laws and reasonably expect that those violations will never be detected,” the authors noted.

The Department of Labor last week announced proposed new rules aimed at boosting protections for seasonal workers.

Nearly 4,000 people came to Colorado this year under the H-2A program, performing agricultural jobs for 330 employers.

Even in an industry rife with abuse, Palombo is “definitely one of the repeat bad actors,” said Rodriguez, the longtime Colorado farm workers’ attorney.

The fact that these workers continue to toil, even without pay, is not uncommon, she said. Laborers believe that if they complain, they won’t be asked to return the following year. The boss might even tell other farms not to hire them.

Meanwhile, workers who aren’t being paid feel that their only chance to recoup the money is to stay, Rodriguez said.

“Their options are really limited if they wanna come back on an H-2A,” she said.

The Mexican worker wonders if he’ll return to Colorado next year and do this all over again.

“If things don’t get fixed,” he said, “probably not.”

Updated 11:30 a.m. Sept. 19, 2023: This story has been updated to specify that Palombo Farms Market is operated by Angelo Palombo’s ex-wife and their son, Linda Palombo and Joseph Palombo. Angelo Palombo has no association with their business, they say.

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Steve Bachar, 57, on Wednesday asked to plead guilty to a single count of felony theft in a deal with prosecutors in which the two other felony counts against him — securities fraud and a more serious theft charge — would be dismissed, according to a series of court filings.

Bachar could be sentenced to as much as six years in prison under the terms of the new agreement — a change from the last plea deal, which Denver District Court Judge Eric Johnson rejected because it would have allowed Bachar to avoid prison time and have the felony wiped from his record if he’d met certain conditions.

Bachar pleaded guilty under the first plea agreement in November, but then withdrew his plea when Johnson threw out the agreement in March after Bachar failed to show up to court to be sentenced.

The tossed deal would have required Bachar to pay $174,000 in restitution to the man he defrauded — money he did pay to Denver District Court ahead of the plea. Johnson said the deal gave the impression Bachar was buying his way out of the felony conviction.

Under the new plea agreement, Bachar must repay $182,000 to the victim, an amount that accounts for interest — but there’s a catch.

Bachar also owes more than $5 million to companies and people who sued him for fraud and other misconduct. After the first plea agreement was rejected, those entities asked a  judge to send the money to them, instead of returning it to Bachar. The judge agreed and in July ordered that the money be split between those various groups.

But that did not happen, court records show, and the Denver District Court clerk instead continued to hold the money because of a conflicting order by Johnson in the criminal case.

On Wednesday, at the request of the clerk, Johnson issued an order releasing the funds to those with civil claims, as ordered by the other judge in July.

But both Bachar’s defense attorney and prosecutors with the Denver District Attorney’s Office immediately objected. They want the judge to rescind that order and keep the money for the victim in the criminal case, court filings show.

“The People believe that it is most appropriate that the (money) remaining in the court’s custody be ordered as restitution payable… as such would be consistent with the original intent of the parties and in the interest of justice,” a motion by Associate Deputy District Attorney Ashley Beck reads.

“The $174,369.89 payment made by Mr. Bachar was always intended to satisfy the restitution he owed pursuant to the original plea agreement in this case,” public defender Robert Swetka wrote in a motion Wednesday.

Johnson did not immediately rule on those requests, according to available court filings, and it was not clear whether the money would ultimately go to the companies and people in the civil proceedings, or to the victim in the criminal case.

Bachar is scheduled to appear in Denver District Court at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

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