WOMAN TURNS IN GRANDSON AFTER ALLEGEDLY FINDING PILLS

A Colorado Springs teenager who has been staying in Aspen with his
grandmother was recently arrested on drug charges and remains in jail this
week to possibly face further charges.

District Judge J.E. DeVilbiss this week told Brenton Hall, 18, why he was
arrested on June 25. "I was concerned about you because I thought you were
out of control," the judge said.

Hall was arrested after his grandmother reportedly discovered a variety of
prescription drugs in his backpack and called police.

The grandmother, JoAnn Hall, told Aspen Police Detective Jim Crowley that
she had been concerned that her grandson was using illegal drugs and went
through his backpack one day while sitting in her car. She allegedly found
several different kinds of pills.

Crowley said the case is still under investigation. In addition to charges
of possession of Oxycodone, Dilaudid, Ritalin and other drugs, Hall is
accused of forging one of his grandmother's checks and cashing it.
Additional charges may be filed against him in the near future.

This is the second time this year Hall has been in trouble with the law.

He confessed earlier this year to spray-painting, with another local youth,
graffiti on a bridge abutment in town.

The pair were arrested by Aspen Police Chief Joe Cortez on April 13 while
the chief and his wife were out walking along the Rio Grande Trail near
Mill Street. The chief had smelled the spray paint coming from under a
pedestrian bridge.

Each of the young men was fined $150 by Municipal Judge Brook Peterson, and
Hall was ordered to undergo counseling.

In court this week, Hall won a bond reduction from Judge DeVilbiss, from
the original bond of $25,000 down to $7,500. But he was still in jail as of
Thursday night, although he had been hoping to bond out and go back to his
Colorado Springs home.