State Briefs: Death Found Suspicious

The Adams County sheriff’s deputy who crashed his patrol car into a pedestrian on North Federal Boulevard last year was driving while distracted and should have been able to avoid killing the man, his family alleges in a new lawsuit. Deputy Stefan Pivic struck and killed 53-year-old Anthony Chavez just before 3 a.m.

NEW ORLEANS — A federal appeals court refused Monday to revive a defamation lawsuit that former NFL quarterback Brett Favre filed against a fellow Pro Football Hall of Fame member — former tight end Shannon Sharpe. Favre filed the lawsuit over comments Sharpe made in 2022 on a Fox Sports show amid a developing Mississippi welfare scandal involving millions of dollars diverted to rich and powerful people. Mississippi State Auditor Shad White said Favre improperly received $1.1 million in speaking fees to go toward a volleyball arena at The University of Southern Mississippi, where Favre had played football and where his daughter was playing volleyball.

Amazon is reverting to its pre-pandemic policy and will require corporate employees to be in the office five days a week starting next year, CEO Andy Jassy said Monday. Jassy said in a message shared with employees that the company’s leadership had been thinking in recent months about how to better “invent, collaborate and be connected enough to each other” to deliver the best results for customers and the business. The company decided that bringing employees back into Amazon offices five days a week instead of the three currently required was a way to address that issue, the CEO said. “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” Jassy wrote in the memo, which Amazon also shared on its website.

Colorado State Patrol officials on Monday released body-worn camera footage of the ambush shooting of Cpl. Tye Simcox on U. S. 36 near Westminster. Simcox was parked between two concrete barriers in the highway’s center median the afternoon of Sept. 7 when CSP officials say Victor Anthony De Santiago, 32, slowed down and began shooting at Simcox from his truck. Simcox was shot in the arm and quickly left his patrol vehicle, grabbed a rifle from the front seat and returned fire, fatally shooting De Santiago, the footage shows. The corporal was taken to Denver Health by a responding trooper and is recovering. “I am extremely blessed to be alive and am very thankful for everyone’s support and prayers,” Simcox said in a statement release by the state patrol. Footage from Cpl.

A longtime staple of the Front Range’s Mexican food scene will soon serve its last taco. Comida is preparing to close at The Stanley Marketplace in Aurora (2501 Dallas St., Unit 140) after eight years, according to posts on social media. Its last service will be brunch on Sept. 22. Comida owner Rayme Rossello talks with Eric Wallace, co-founder of Left Hand Brewing Company, and Cinzia Wallace, at the bar inside Comida in Longmont.

FORT COLLINS — CSU Rams football coach said Monday that he’d “be surprised” if star wide receiver Tory Horton plays this weekend’s game against UTEP. “I don’t believe Tory will play,” Norvell said during his weekly news conference, “and (he) probably shouldn’t have played last week.” Horton, a 6-foot-2 senior and one of the top wideouts in Mountain West history, played in the Rocky Mountain Showdown against CU — a 28-9 Rams loss — while clearly hobbled by a groin injury he’d suffered in a win over UNC the weekend prior. Norvell had said the Monday prior that he expected Horton would play against the Buffs, especially given the stakes of the rivalry, and the stakes of its being the first CU-CSU game at Fort Collins since 1996. The California native caught just two balls for 24 yards, his lowest yardage total in a game since a loss at Utah State (20 yards) last Oct.