Its been nearly two weeks since the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) placed Lutheran High School, a private high school in Parker, on probation after reports surfaced over racist behavior taking place at its football games.

News5 obtained communication through a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request that sheds light on some of the conversations happening behind the scenes as schools and CHSAA were responding.

The initial reports of alleged racist incidents involved Colorado Springs High Schools, Sand Creek High School in District 49 and Rampart High School in Academy District 20. Two schools in Colorado Springs, Air Academy High School and Coronado High School later forfeited their games against Lutheran.

CHSAA is a private non-profit, not subject to CORA requests, News5 obtained records from Districts 49,11, and 20. In response to News5 Investigates request, District 49 provided pages of emails, including one from Douglas County School District, claiming initial reports from the racist incident at the Sand Creek High School game may have involved public school students.

Even though the incident occurred off-campus and at event outside of our district, our district does not tolerate a hostile environment within our schools nor does it accept disruptive conduct within another educational community, the email read.

News5 Investigates reached out to Douglas County School District to ask if it determined its students were involved. It said after a thorough investigation it determined none of its students were involved and our focus remains on ensuring our students understand the importance of treating others with dignity and respect, while making sure allegations are promptly and thoroughly investigated based on the facts.

A letter from Sand Creek High Schools Athletic Director, Mario Romero, was also included in response to News5s CORA request, in it he details frustrations to CHSAA the day after the incident over how Lutheran handled it.

In the letter, Romero calls his interaction with Lutheran concerning. CHSAA responded to Sand Creek High Schools concerns saying we dont have specific protocol because most situations are handled between schools. CHSAA said it was then forwarding his email on to its admin team.

District 49 declined to comment for News5s story.

News5 Investigates reach out to CHSAA about what it found in its CORA requests, CHSAA responded saying under CHSAA bylaws, the host school is responsible for managing the conduct of everyone at its events, regardless of which school a spectator attends (Bylaws 2240 and 2270.1). That responsibility is part of the basis for CHSAA's determination regarding Lutheran.

CHSAA is not an investigative agency. We evaluate reports provided to us by schools and districts, the organization said in its email

News5 Investigates followed up with CHSAA, asking why its process relies on member schools and districts to investigate incidents before CHSAA determines whether its bylaws were violated, and whether the organization is reviewing the effectiveness of that process.

News5 will update this article with CHSAA's response.

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Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade said the city has added roughly 9,100 housing units since he took office, but he acknowledged the "missing middle" population he pledged to help on the campaign trail has seen little progress.

In a one-on-one interview with News5 Mobolade discussed how hes addressed housing promises made during his 2023 campaign for office, when he spoke about a population struggling with housing costs and how he would work to fix that. Housing remains a major issue across Colorado and within the city, and affordability is consistently one of the top concerns for Coloradans.

The "missing middle" refers to people who make too much to qualify for rental assistance but are still trying to get into homeownership. It's a group that doesn't always know where to turn.

Mallorie High is part of that group, she has been trying to find a home for her family of five in the $300,000 price range.

"I mean you see for sale signs everywhere, but never, not in the price range you're thinking," High said.

When asked whether homeownership feels within reach, she said it does not, especially when factoring in costs like homeowners associations.

"Thats another hugely expensive thing," High said, referring to HOAs.

She said renting can feel less stressful, but she wants the stability that comes with owning.

"I want to be able to do what I want with my house. I want pets for my children, and I would rather have it in my house where I know I don't have to worry about moving in a year, you know, put those lines on the wall for my kids when he's growing up because they, you know, want that- everybody wants that," High said.

High said the condition of homes in her price range has also been a major obstacle.

"The condition of properties that are in the price range is just crazy to me. A lot of them are sadly repos, and they are like, well, we don't wanna do nothing to them, so if you wanna get this house, you have to fix it up yourself and put the money in, and hopefully, you can qualify for that house if you do all this," High said.

She said she has looked at other nearby cities, like Pueblo and Woodland Park, but both she and her husband work in Colorado Springs and don't feel the commute is realistic. Despite the challenges, she is remaining optimistic.

"Something will come that's just right for us. You just have to, you know, believe that we'll be led to it when it's meant to be led to us," High said.

Mobolade raised this same issue during his 2023 mayoral campaign.

"Developers literally cannot build housing for that missing middle income earners right now- there's virtually no incentive available," Mobolade said.

One of his proposals was to create a "missing middle housing fund."

In his State of the City address this month, Mobolade detailed what he considers his accomplishments, including progress on housing.

"Since I took office, roughly 9100 housing units have been developed, built, or leased across Colorado Springs, including more than 3,000 affordable homes supported by Colorado Springs utilities and sales and use tax rebate," Mobolade said.

But when asked how many of those units address the missing middle, Mobolade acknowledged that remains an area where the city has struggled.

"Actually that goes into your previous question, what are things that you've not been able to accomplish? That's probably one of them. I do believe that we see more federal incentives that address affordable housing proper. So the area median incomes that are 30 percent, 60 percent, we're seeing more where those funding addresses. Have we solved it? Absolutely not. I want to be clear. We still have a ways to go. But where we're not seeing a whole lot of progress is with the missing income earners," Mobolade said.

News5 also asked directly whether the missing middle housing fund he campaigned on ever materialized.

"No. That did not happen. Yeah. Funding Funding is the, as most things are, funding is the challenge and then, and, you know, we've done a lot with very little," Mobolade said.

Colorado Springs has received money from "Proposition 123," a fund voters approved in 2022 to build affordable housing projects.

When asked what metrics voters should use to determine whether he fulfilled that campaign promise, Mobolade pointed to the city's overall housing supply.

"We've increased the supply of housing. So you want to address the critical areas in terms of housing but you also want to address just that you want to increase the supply of housing because it's a supply and demand issue. So I'm proud that we are adding to the housing inventory. I'm proud that you're seeing rents rent rents go down since the historic peaks in 2022. I think those are things that voters can measure me on in terms of are we moving the needle? Are we headed in the right direction? The answer is yes," Mobolade said.

There have also been discussions to address this issue at the state Capitol, particularly when it comes to building starter homes. Mobolade is running for re-election.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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Two candidates with medical backgrounds are vying to lead the Pueblo County Coroner's Office, where trust, qualifications and conflicts of interest are defining the race.

A county coroner election doesnt typically get much attention, but Pueblo Countys race is being watched closely after the office faced its own scandal in 2025. Previous coroner Brian Cotter resigned from the office after investigators discovered 24 bodies improperly stored inside a funeral home, Davis Mortuary, which he co-owned with his brother Chris. The brothers were arrested in June of this year.

Two people are looking to voters to give them the job: Republican Greg Grahek, who was appointed to the position in September 2025, and Democratic candidate Zolanye McCulley-Bachicha. Both have medical backgrounds, but argue they have different qualifications.

QUALIFICATIONS

Up until 2024, Colorado had very few requirements for people seeking elected coroner offices. Candidates simply needed to be 18 years old with at least a high school diploma not a felon, and registered to vote in the county they ran in. A few counties in Colorado have appointed coroners or medical examiners, which includes Denver, Weld, and Pitkin counties.

In 2024, state lawmakers passed a bill requiring coroner candidates in larger counties to either be a board certified Forensic Pathologist or a certified death investigator through the American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI). Pueblo County was included in that legislation, but a bill passed in 2026 lowered the county population threshold for those requirements.

After Cotters resignation, there was only one other certified death investigator who applied to replace him, it was his deputy coroner Felicia McQueen.

Greg Grahek was selected by Pueblo County Commissioners to replace Cotter after his resignation, and at the time he didnt have ABMDI certification. He has since become certified and touts his lengthy medical background and his experience in the last year as the appointed coroner as why hes qualified for the position.

Grahek argues anyone wanting to run for the office has time to get certified by the time theyre nominated by their political party.

"It's an obligation that if you're going to be running an office, need to know everything that is possibly available out there," Grahek said, "I mean, it's not just going up and picking up the body. That's what you might experience when the coroner's involved with you as a citizen. But on the back end, we've reviewed your medical records, we've pulled historical data, we're trying to look at family connections.

Grahek also runs a family medical clinic in Pueblo and holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice, in addition to other medical certifications and licenses.

McCulley-Bachicha is not a certified death investigator, but says she will seek the certification the same way Grahek did, while being employed by the coroners office. When asked if McCulley-Bachicha had sought employment at the coroners office in the last year she said she had not.

The democratic candidate previously ran for county coroner in 2022 and lost to Cotter by about 3,300 votes. Shes a registered nurse working for a surgical center and also works for her familys funeral home. McCulley-Bachicha also served on Pueblo City Council for six months after being appointed to the seat after Ray Aguileras death in 2021.

She says her experience in the death care industry is one pice of her qualifications for the elected office.

"People are they are experiencing the most difficult time of their lives and when they're in the coroner's office it's usually because it's unexpected one and it's tragic and I've seen people in that position many times for over thirty years," McCulley-Bachicha said

RESTORING TRUST

After the tragedy at Davis Mortuary, one area both candidates agree is that restoring trust is a priority for the coroners office.

McCulley-Bachicha said one way she hopes to do that if elected is by conducting an audit.

I think it's really important to also have someone else, an outsider looking in, help you develop and do better for the office, McCulley-Bachicha said adding that she would look to other coroners offices to conduct the audit.

When asked about how the audit would be funded, she pointed to developing relationships with other coroners offices.

I think because of what has happened in Colorado we all want to work together at this point. No one's going to charge the Pueblo County coroner's office this astronomical amount, but I also think that Pueblo County wants to make sure that their community members can trust this office again. Unfortunately this office has benefited from flying under the radar and people really not thinking of death and that's a problem, McCulley-Bachicha said.

Since Grahek took office, an annual report was produced by the coroners office, but McCulley-Bachicha said she felt it was vague and by adding more information it would help restore trust.

I think I would have been more detailed, she said, there's a lot more work that we need to do that needs to be more detailed in order to best put those resources in those areas of need.

Grahek said hes focused on rebuilding trust in the last year hes served as coroner and he wants to build on the work hes done by increasing transparency. He pointed to changes hes made like having staff drive unmarked vehicles.

It's big, its intimidating, I think that makes people nervous, especially in a situation where you see this horrible tragedy happen, Grahek said. Hes also made changes like having employees where uniforms.

At two o'clock in the morning something horrific happened and we have to notify you of a loved one, showing up in jeans and a t shirt probably is not appropriate," Grahek said.

He said he hopes the coroners office will have more of a relationship with the community.

I really encourage the public to come in, especially after the election, regardless of whoever is coroner, because it is important to understand.

In an attempt to connect with the community last year, Grahek had promoted a halloween event at the coroners office. He canceled it after criticism from community members.

If I could go back in time, because of the nature of Halloween, I probably would have not done that, Grahek said, that's the other about thing being transparent is you own your own your mistakes, don't hide them, don't don't shirk from them, don't ever shirk from your responsibilities.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

One of the more defining themes in this race is conflicts of interest, both with relationships and time.

Grahek runs a family medical clinic, and when he was first appointed concerns were brought up over his commitment to the coroners office.

"My clinic is, at best, part-time. I've been in medicine for 20 years, my practice was slowing down with the intention to expand," Grahek said. "I'm only a five hour sleeper. I've always been that way. I mean, literally, if you look at the hours, I mean, I probably spend 20 hours a week, 25 hours a week on my clinic.

McCulley-Bachicha works for her familys funeral home, she said she does not own it, and as a nurse at a surgical center, she said if shes elected she will resign from both of those positions and the coroners office will be her sole priority.

Full time means being present in that office every day. Not only work at my family's funeral home I also work at a surgical center, as a nurse so people they seem to forget that a lot too, but both positions I would, file my resignation and, be a full time coroner. I won't have any other employment that's what I mean by full time," McCulley-Bachicha said.

She argued Pueblo County has not had anyone in recent history dedicated to the office completely as theyve held other jobs.

Concerns have also come up over McCulley-Bachichas connection to her familys funeral home,. Colorado law says it is considered a conflict of interest for a county coroner to work, be employed, or have a financial interest in a funeral home, but it does not disqualify them from running for the office. The law says county coroners in that position cannot direct business to the funeral home they have an interest in.

The standard protocol in Pueblo County has been to give families a pamphlet of all funeral homes.

"The coroner's office, their role is not to choose a funeral home for families. That's a family's decision to choose a funeral home that they feel comfortable with, that they trust," McCulley-Bachicha said.

When asked what she would say to someone meeting with her who felt overwhelmed by the number of funeral homes on the pamphlet and didn't know how to choose she said she would tell them to call each of them and figure out which one theyre most comfortable with.

While Grahek does not own or work for a funeral home, he has received endorsements from people who own funeral homes.

Were two separate entities, the two should not intertwine, Grahek said, when asked if his endorsements give the appearance of preference to a funeral home he said no, I mean because youre endorsed by the individual, not the corporation.

BUDGET DEFICIT

Pueblo County is also facing a $10 million budget deficit and cuts will be needed for departments across the county. How and where to cut is an area that McCulley-Bachicha and Grahek differ.

Grahek said in the last year, the office has already had to make adjustments, but instead of cuts, hes made adjustments elsewhere.

We moved expenses from office to training which can we get free training? Can we, offset those kind of things? Grahek said, adding theyve looked at small adjustments that have added up overtime on equipment, he brought up driving a gurney to get repaired in Denver versus paying for shipping costs.

Both candidates agreed there are areas, specifically with investigations that the office cannot cut costs on.

McCulley-Bachicha said she wants to look at other expenses to cut, maybe we don't need as many vehicles as we have and we don't need a transport service where and that's what I had seen in the budget, in the past when I went up for appointment like we were paying for a transport service, why?

The Pueblo County Coroners Office currently operates out of two buildings: a new building at 1300 N Santa Fe, and the previous building on Midtown Circle Drive, which is where the refrigerator or chiller is. There are plans to eventually move into one building.

"I think that the taxpayers would love to spend money on the fact that they can trust an office versus an office that's sitting there currently that has not seen a deceased person with a rent of $33,000 a month and that's not a mortgage; that's rent of $33,000 a month," McCulley-Bachicha said when she brought up wanting to pay for an audit if she's elected.

In a debate earlier this month, Grahek said the cost of the building was due to a triple-net lease the county is in with the owner of the building. A triple-net lease means the county also pays for maintenance and insurance, among other costs.

According to Pueblo County budget documents, the lease began in 2022 during Cotter's leadership. The monthly rent cost for the building was originally $21,120. The agreement requires an annual increase of $8,448 each year with the option to purchase the building beginning in 2025. The purchase price increases $50,000 each year the county does not decide to purchase it.

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More than three months after the Aspen Acres fire, a Colorado homeowner says his recovery has been complicated by two companies hired to help him including a packing company that billed his insurance $41,000 and failed to return his mattresses.

Dustin Ross' home survived the fire, but the land surrounding it was burned, he has been working to get his home clean enough to safely move back in.

News5 Investigates previously reported on Ross issues when he hired a cleaning company that said it underestimated how long the job would take, taking weeks instead of three days. The company stopped working with him and said it would bill him for the work completed, but Ross said he still doesn't know exactly what was done.

Just kind of a nightmare," Ross said, in talking about his experience to move back home.

The problems didn't stop there. Ross later had issues with a packing company called Prime Packouts he said was referred to him by the cleaning company that was meant to store and clean his belongings while his house was being cleaned. When he tried to get his items back after cutting ties with the cleaning company, he said he couldn't reachTHE company for days.

"I literally just couldn't get ahold of them, Ross said, so I basically finally got a hold of him, talked to him about just bringing my property back," Ross said.

Ross said Prime Packouts also sent a bill of $41,000 to his insurance company. After going back and forth, Ross agreed to pay the packing company $25,000 in exchange for the return of all his belongings.

Once his items were returned, Ross noticed things were missing.

"I cut him a check and then I started looking around a little bit and I figured, you know, big things that I could find would would be like, you know, my mattresses," Ross said.

Ross said Prime Packouts told him the mattresses had been labeled "not salvageable."

"He basically just said that they were tossed in the landfill," Ross said.

That didn't add up for Ross, because multiple other items Prime Packouts deemed "not salvageable" were returned to him. He put a stop payment on the check.

I looked into Prime Packouts and found it registered in Arizona, but not in Colorado, the same situation as the cleaning company. Prime Packouts did not respond to News5 Investigates request for comment.

In the previous story, I tried to get answers from the cleaning company. Since that story aired, the cleaning company has registered as a business in Colorado.

Ross has since hired a new cleaning company and said things are better.

"I'm doing good, I'm seeing progress on the house. You know, I got majority of my property back," Ross said, "ultimately, we're moving in the right direction."

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