FACT CHECK: Aurora council member makes cadre of false, inaccurate claims on Jeff Fard show

AURORA | Aurora City Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky’s appearance last week on the livestreamed Brother Jeff Fard Free Think show covered a wide range of issues facing Aurora, Denver and the Aurora City Council, allowing the first-term lawmaker to make numerous unchecked claims.

“I’m here for a reason, and I believe we can find common ground,” Jurinsky said during the May 6 broadcast. 

Jeff Fard livestreams a popular show from Denver’s Five Points, regularly holding conversations with guests ranging from local activists to prominent politicians. The show frequently focuses on community issues, especially those affecting communities of color.

The broadcast conversation last week was prompted by a social media post focusing on the May 4 incident at Aurora’s Del Mark Park involving numerous young adults and teens performing car stunts in the road encircling the park. 

The video footage showed what appears to be Black youth “burning rubber” among smoking tires on cars, doing “donuts” on Del Mar Circle, twerking on police cars and one person is shown spraying what appears to be a bottle of carbonated wine and later driving away. 

Aurora Police responded to the gathering with several officers. Police would not release details of the case after requests by the Sentinel, saying the incident is under investigation.

One person has reportedly been arrested, according to Jurinsky, which police did not verify.

“All of our police resources were taken to go respond to Del Mar Park, to Del Mar Circle,” Jurinsky told Fard during the show. “In my opinion, it felt like you had posted the video almost to promote them. ‘More from A-Town,’ I think was the caption.”

Fard said he was just happy the event did not result in a death during the response by Aurora police.

The subject of excessive force used against people of color by Aurora police, and the Colorado consent decree imposed on the department due “patterns and practices” of that excessive force, has been a frequent topic of discussion by Fard over the past several years.

Jurinsky said there was no permit obtained by the group to warn the police about the “party,” and that there were damages left behind by burnt tire marks in the street.

She said the event strained police resources on a Sunday afternoon. Police have not corroborated her claim.

She said the video, which Fard reposted with the caption “Catch more from A-Town,” appeared to promote reckless behavior such as drinking and driving.

“This was a dynamic where Black young people from across many sections of our community that don’t get along, for some reason, on that day, they came together in unity,” Fard said. “There was no problems with what was taking place, in terms of gathering, in terms of Aurora in general and particularly Del Mar Park.”

He said he did not agree with the unsafe driving, but he did not believe in outright condemning the youth. He said he and Jurinsky were both young once and probably made some childish mistakes back then; that’s a part of being young. 

“Condemnation, rather than pulling them in, doesn’t help,” Fard said. “We can have these conversations about what’s safe and what isn’t, but we also need to acknowledge their humanity.”

Jurinsky said her focus was on public safety, but she agreed that building trust between police and Aurora’s Black community, especially young people, was crucial. She said she was “not shocked” that officers didn’t harm anyone at the event, and she said there has been a lot of progress made in the department, especially by the city’s newest chief of police, Todd Chamberlain.

While talking about trust between the Black community and the Aurora police, Fard brought up the death of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who died at the hands of the Aurora police and fire departments in 2019. 

McClain was stopped walking home from a convenience store at night, after committing no crimes, and was eventually given a lethal dose of Ketamine after being restrained for trying to go home and get away from Aurora officers. 

Jurinsky agreed that the courts found McClain had been killed by police and medics during the confrontation, but Fard said that justice was only pursued after numerous public protests and tireless advocacy by McClain’s family.

The conversation moved to the recent controversy over the May 2024 death of Kilyn Lewis, a Black man fatally shot by Aurora police during his arrest in an apartment parking lot. The controversy has on numerous occasions resulted in protests and other events during city council meetings, virtually shutting meetings down or re-arranging agendas.

Lewis’ family and supporters continued protesting even after former District Attorney John Kelner said the officer who shot Lewis was not at fault. 

“People continuing to protest the death of Kilyn Lewis are not helping the situation,” she said. “Conversations are what will make changes.”

She said she cannot speak with the Lewis family due to the ongoing lawsuit. 

Both Fard and Jurinsky agreed that Aurora needs to continue to work harder to build trust with the Black youth. 

Then, the conversation meandered among a long list of topics, with Jurinsky making a long list of statements and claims.

“You allow people to come on your show and say anything they want,” Jurinsky said. “I have listened to a lot of people come on your show and say things that are not facts.”

Jurinsky made a host of unsubstantiated claims about a variety of subjects herself during the broadcast. Below are the facts surrounding some of those assertions.

Claims and facts

THE CLAIM: Jurinsky said former 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner cleared Aurora SWAT officer Michael Dieck in the Lewis shooting after a county grand jury absolved Dieck of wrongdoing in the case. 

“The threshold to indict somebody on a grand jury is not hard,” Jurinsky said. “He even sent it to a grand jury, and a grand jury cleared Officer Michael Dieck, so that’s the end of the road.”

THE FACTS: Kellner said he did present some details of the case to the county grand jury, but he said in a public statement that the grand jury declined to actually hear the case, according to statements released to the Sentinel and other media. Typically, grand juries are presented evidence of a case and then decide whether there is enough evidence for a criminal trial to proceed, issuing an indictment, or they return “no true bill,” indicating the evidence presented by a prosecutor does not support criminal charges. In a 20-page report from an internal investigation by prosecutors, Kellner makes his own assertion that Dieck violated no state law in the fatal shooting. “I find that there is no criminal liability on the part of Officer Michael Dieck stemming from this (Officer Involved Shooting.) Criminal charges, therefore, are not appropriate or warranted related to the officer’s use of deadly force,” Kellner, 18th Judicial District Attorney, said at the time. Despite Jurinsky’s claims, the question of whether a court would find enough evidence for a trial, and whether the case could be made and won, has yet to be answered. Since the DA has closed the case, and the district’s new District Attorney, Amy Padden, has not indicated she would reopen the case, there are no other avenues for criminal investigation. Padden told the Sentinel earlier this year that bypassing an actual request for either indictment or no true bill is rare, but it can happen. 

THE CLAIM: Jurinsky said that at a 2024 city council meeting, when a supporter of Lewis’ family asked lawmakers on the dais to stand if they believed that Lewis should still be alive, she was the first person on the dais to stand.  “I was the first person to stand, OK, the very first night,” Jurinsky said. “You can ask any one of my colleagues. The very first night that someone got up to the podium, and right now I was the very first person that stood.”

THE FACTS: Each councilmember stood the first time MiDian Shofner, a leading group member, asked for city lawmakers to rise on the dais, but Councilmember Crystal Murillo was the first to stand, as made apparent in a city recording of the event. Jurinsky and Councilmember Steve Sundberg were the last two among council members to stand. Mayor Mike Coffman, the city attorney and city manager, also on the dais, did not stand.

THE CLAIM: Jurinsky said Councilmember Stephanie Hancock sat with LaRonda Jones, Kilyn’s mother, for two hours and sympathized with her as a Black mother with a son who was also implicated in a crime.

THE FACTS: Jones told the Sentinel this week that Hancock did meet with her, but she said it was “not compassionate at all.” Jones said Hancock spent the time trying to persuade her to tell everyone to stop the demonstrations at the city council meetings. She said most interactions between her and council members have been unpleasant. Hancock did not reply to requests for a comment from the Sentinel.

THE CLAIM: During a controversial flash mob that gathered July 28 at the Gardens on Havana, linked to the Venezuelan presidential election that day, Jurinsky said a police car was shot at during the commotion. Jurinsky also said that the police later confirmed in a press release in October that an officer was shot at during the gathering of as many as about 3,000-4,000 people. “They came out and admitted it,” Jurinsky said. “It’s on their page. They made a public statement. A police officer was shot. He called out shots fired on the radio, but no one came.”

THE FACTS: The initial reporting from the police department and the Sentinel did state that people in the gathering shot into the air, but no one was shot at or harmed during the gathering in the afternoon. There was also a report of an officer’s car being hit by an “unknown object,” but they were unsure if it was related to the gathering or if it was a bullet that hit the car. 

“An Aurora patrol unit was hit by an unknown object while driving in the area, and it is unclear at this time if it was related to the gathering,” the press release stated two days after the gathering.

During Fard’s show, Jurinsky acknowledges the flash-mob event was in the afternoon when families were out shopping. Police reports and Sentinel reporting state that police and city officials said they were in control of the event until it ended at about 9 p.m., according to a previous report from police. 

In December, the Aurora Police issued a press release that said that after weeks of investigation, they determined that at about midnight on the same day, there was a shootout about five blocks south from the site of the flash mob, long after it had dispersed at 9.p.m., according to police reports.

At the time, an Aurora police officer was patrolling Havana Street near East Idaho Avenue at about midnight, according to a police affidavit.

“…an on-duty Aurora police officer in a marked unit, reported over the radio he was driving south on Havana Street when he heard gunfire and believed his vehicle had been struck by a bullet,” Aurora police spokesperson Joe Moylan said in a statement released in December.

The officer was not injured by the gunfire, police reported.

A short time later, officials at a nearby hospital called police to say a man had come to the emergency room suffering a gunshot wound to the scalp.

“The man later told officers he was on the sidewalk near the 1500 block of South Havana Street when he heard several shots and realized he had been struck,” Moylan said. The man was with a woman, and they were standing outside after being involved in an unrelated traffic crash.

Investigators at the time recovered a host of shell casings, but no information about suspects in the shooting.

“Investigators also identified four additional victims who were in the crossfire,” Moylan said in the statement.

None of those people were injured.

In the weeks after, the Aurora Police Department Crime Gun Intelligence Unit collected security video from different locations in the region, piecing together what happened, police said.

“A rolling gunfight had taken place on South Havana Street between a black Land Rover SUV and a white Ford F150 pickup,” Moylan said.

Investigators said that the fight was over the pickup-truck, which had allegedly been stolen from an Aurora apartment shared with a man involved in the shooting.

While some of the people involved in the shooting had links to the Gardens on Havana flash-mob earlier in the day, the shooting was not part of that event, police said. 

THE CLAIM: Jurinsky said that police officers responding to the July 28 flash mob were neglected by the department officials and in grave danger at the time. She said that an officer “had climbed buildings to get themselves out of that situation.” Last July, Jurinsky posted pictures on her social media from a rooftop near the gathering. Multiple pictures spanning hours, showing daylight through sunset. 

THE FACTS: City officials and the police department have repeatedly denied the assertion, saying police were in control of the gathering until it ended. Former police officials said officers climbed to the top of buildings for surveillance, not for protection or out of fear.

THE CLAIM: Jurinsky said that profane and threatening text messages exchanged among herself and other city council members, the subject of an Oct. 29, 2024 Sentinel report, were unsubstantiated. 

“How come the only outlet that reported this is the Sentinel?” She said, “You know why no other outlet would report it? It was because nothing was verified. Nothing was verified. There could be more context to this. There could be messages missing from this.”

THE FACTS: The Sentinel published an article Oct. 29, showing texted messages from Jurinsky to fellow Republican Councilmembers Françoise Bergan, Stephanie Hancock, Steve Sundberg and Dustin Zvonek where she curses the group aggressively.

The Sentinel verified the texts among two sources.

Jurinsky was angry about Bergan’s proposal to continue levying Aurora’s employee tax, which Jurinsky had worked to abolish as part of a campaign promise. In the text, she curses and makes threats.

The Sentinel story was part of a report by Axios in Denver. 

During an Aurora study session Oct. 14, Jurinsky spends about 10 minutes confronting Bergan about the proposed head-tax change and how Bergan did not inform her about it before the study session. Without mentioning the texts, Bergan responded that she did not speak to Jurinsky about it because she is a “bully.” 

“Whenever we have a discussion and she doesn’t get her way, let me tell you what she does,” Bergan said about Jurinsky. “She’s a bully, and she has bullied a lot of people on this council over this issue, and she curses me out with cuss words, and it’s vile. So that’s why I did not make the call, because I didn’t want to get screamed at, because it’s very abusive and toxic.”

On the Fard show, Jurinsky said she and Bergan have since made amends. “Sometimes you have to have a complete breakdown to have that regrowth, that rebirth, if you will,” She said. “Françoise and I are very close. I would go to bat for her. I support her. I love her.”

THE CLAIM: Jurinsky addressed a controversy last year surrounding the annual Aurora Pride event, held at the Aurora Reservoir. Jurinsky objected to the city’s LGBTQ support event being held at the reservoir, essentially occupying the venue for one day in August. She has maintained that it’s unfair for one group, any group, to occupy a city venue. She claimed that the Aurora Pride event is held by a for-profit group from outside of Aurora.

“Shutting down the reservoir, not even for a nonprofit organization,” Jurinsky said to Fard. “For a for-profit organization, and telling season pass holders that weren’t given any blackout dates when they bought their season pass, that they can’t come out to the reservoir. And not only that, blocking the access from South Shore, from Beacon Point, from people who bought homes in those neighborhoods, who have access to walking trails into the reservoir and bike trails into the reservoir. Those were sealed off.”

THE FACTS: Aurora Pride is produced by a non-profit organization and has been since the event was conceived by Out Front Magazine publisher Jerry  Cunningham, who lives in Aurora. Its board of directors last year included two Aurora city council members and at least one city employee, as well as Sentinel Colorado publisher Dave Perry. The reservoir event was open to everyone, and admission has been free to all with advance registration. Fees for the event were related to parking. Proceeds from the annual event, which come from vendor fees and sponsorships, pay for scholarships at the Community College of Aurora.