Prosecutors say they only learned after a judge set $400,000 bond for a truck driver accused of causing a fiery pileup that killed four people on a Colorado highway that he had tried to flee the scene of the collision.
In a filing Monday, they asked a judge to require that the now-released man be required to wear a GPS monitoring device.
Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, 23, of Houston, was released over the weekend after being charged with four counts of vehicular homicide and other crimes in the April 25 collision near Denver.
FILE - This file photo provided by the Lakewood Police Department on Friday, April 26, 2019, shows Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos. Prosecutors, on Monday, May 20, 2019, want a judge to require a GPS monitor for Aguilera-Mederos, now that he has posted bail. Aguilera-Mederos, a truck driver, is accused of causing a fiery pileup on April 25, that killed four people on a Colorado highway. (Lakewood Police Department via AP, File)
Police have said the truck was going at least 85 mph (137 kph) on a part of Interstate 70 where commercial vehicles are limited to 45 mph (72 kph). Authorities described the resulting crash as a 28-vehicle chain reaction wreck that ruptured gas tanks, causing flames that consumed several vehicles and melted parts of the highway just after it descends from mountains west of Denver.
Jefferson County district attorney spokeswoman Pam Russell said Tuesday that she could not provide more information about investigators' conclusion that Aguilera-Mederos tried to leave the scene.
Robert Corry, Aguilera-Mederos' attorney, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.
According to previously filed court documents, Aguilera-Mederos spoke to police at a hospital where he was treated for injuries he received in the crash. The document says he was transported to the hospital for treatment and then taken to a police department for more questioning.
Aguilera-Mederos was released from jail Saturday after paying bond, which is typically 10% of the total amount set by a judge. Corry, his defense attorney, has said the crash was an accident caused by a mechanical failure of the truck his client was driving.
Authorities have said the semitrailer was destroyed in the crash, making a mechanical inspection impossible.
Prosecutors, though, have argued that Aguilera-Mederos showed "extreme indifference to the value of human life."
A judge has not scheduled a hearing yet on prosecutors' request for GPS monitoring. KDVR-TV first reported the request.
According to the court's original order, Aguilera-Mederos cannot drive commercial vehicles and must remain in Colorado while out on bond.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian court on Friday ordered the detention of the country’s farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation, while Kyiv security officials assessed how they can recover lost battlefield momentum in the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that Agriculture Minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias ($1.77 million), a statement said.
Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau suspects Solskyi headed an organized crime group that between 2017 and 2021 unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias ($6.85 million) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias ($4.47 million).
Ukraine is trying to root out corruption that has long dogged the country. A dragnet over the past two years has seen Ukraine’s defense minister, top prosecutor, intelligence chief and other senior officials lose their jobs.
That has caused embarrassment and unease as Ukraine receives tens of billions of dollars in foreign aid to help fight Russia’s army, and the European Union and NATO have demanded widespread anti-graft measures before Kyiv can realize its ambition of joining the blocs.
In Ukraine's capital, doctors and ambulance crews evacuated patients from a children’s hospital on Friday after a video circulated online saying Russia planned to attack it.
Parents hefting bags of clothes, toys and food carried toddlers and led young children from the Kyiv City Children’s Hospital No. 1 on the outskirts of the city. Medics helped them into a fleet of waiting ambulances to be transported to other facilities.
In the video, a security official from Russian ally Belarus alleged that military personnel were based in the hospital. Kyiv city authorities said that the claim was “a lie and provocation.”
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that civic authorities were awaiting an assessment from security services before deciding when it was safe to reopen the hospital.
“We cannot risk the lives of our children,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold online talks Friday with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which has been the key international organization coordinating the delivery of weapons and other aid to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said late Thursday that the meeting would discuss how to turn around Ukraine’s fortunes on the battlefield. The Kremlin’s forces have gained an edge over Kyiv’s army in recent months as Ukraine grappled with a shortage of ammunition and troops.
Russia, despite sustaining high losses, has been taking control of small settlements as part of its effort to drive deeper into eastern Ukraine after capturing the city of Avdiivka in February, the U.K. defense ministry said Friday.
It’s been slow going for the Kremlin’s troops in eastern Ukraine and is likely to stay that way, according to the Institute for the Study of War. However, the key hilltop town of Chasiv Yar is vulnerable to the Russian onslaught, which is using glide bombs — powerful Soviet-era weapons that were originally unguided but have been retrofitted with a navigational targeting system — that obliterate targets.
“Russian forces do pose a credible threat of seizing Chasiv Yar, although they may not be able to do so rapidly,” the Washington-based think tank said late Thursday.
It added that Russian commanders are likely seeking to advance as much as possible before the arrival in the coming weeks and months of new U.S. military aid, which was held up for six months by political differences in Congress.
While that U.S. help wasn’t forthcoming, Ukraine’s European partners didn’t pick up the slack, according to German’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which tracks Ukraine support.
“The European aid in recent months is nowhere near enough to fill the gap left by the lack of U.S. assistance, particularly in the area of ammunition and artillery shells,” it said in a report Thursday.
Ukraine is making a broad effort to take back the initiative in the war after more than two years of fighting. It plans to manufacture more of its own weapons in the future, and is clamping down on young people avoiding conscription, though it will take time to process and train any new recruits.
Jill Lawless contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian young acting student Gleb Batonskiy plays piano in a public park in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
