Colorado Officials Admit “Unacceptable” Error That Freed Parolee Before Deadly Chase

By Jesse Sarles | CBS Colorado

The Colorado Department of Corrections says a mistake made by their department allowed a man who violated parole to walk free. That ultimately is what led to Tuesday’s chase involving law enforcement and head-on crash which resulted in the death of an innocent person. The double fatal crash happened on Highway 6 in Clear Creek County.

Steven Ainsworth, 51, died when his car got knocked into Clear Creek by the car Christopher Moore, 29, was driving. Both men died and a woman in the car with Moore was hurt.

CDOC officials now say Moore, who had a lengthy criminal record, should have been behind bars. Most recently, in 2022, he was sentenced to prison in criminal cases from Summit County and Eagle County. On June 9, he was released on parole. Four days later, Arapahoe County deputies arrested him again for theft. That new arrest was a violation of his parole, which should have started his parole revocation process according to the CDOC, but that didn’t happen. Instead, he made bail and was released.

The CDOC told CBS Colorado “department policy requires that the parole revocation process be initiated promptly. In this case, that did not happen. The process was not formally initiated until October 10th.” That’s a four-month delay.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT CBS COLORADO