Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/451112
BySadieGurman The Associated Press EVERGREEN, COLO. Ev- ery year on his daughter's birthday, Ian Sullivan vis- its the grave of the child he lost when a gunman slipped into a Colorado movie the- ater and fatally shot the 6-year-old as she sat with mother in the fourth row. And every year, he finds a birthday card on the head- stone from the man who was with Veronica when Sullivan couldn't be: the po- lice officer who carried the dying girl out of the theater in his arms. Since the 2012 attack, survivors and their loved ones have each sought com- fort in their own ways. One wounded couple got mar- ried. A father whose son was killed became a gun- control advocate. Others turned to faith. The 28-year-old Sulli- van withdrew, cutting ties to many of those who had been closest to him and re- treating to a home in the mountains. But he found a lifeline in the police officer he only knows by his first name, Mike. The officer still checks in on Sullivan with texts on the days that are the hardest — holidays and the birthday, Sullivan said. "It's not so much all he was able to tell me, but more so the understand- ing that I was not alone," he said. The officer is Mike Hawkins, who declined to comment to The Associated Press, citing a judge's gag order barring attorneys, au- thorities or witnesses from talking to the news media about the case. The young girl he scooped up that night was born when Sullivan was 19. At the time, he and the girl's mother, Ashley Moser, weren't necessarily ready for parenthood, he said. Buthewasproudwhenhe saw his newborn daughter. "It dramatically changed my life to have her," he said. The couple divorced when Veronica was 3, but he still saw her regularly. He reveled in their time out- doors. A high point came in May 2012, when she caught her first fish, a trout, and gutted it herself. On a recent afternoon at his home, Sullivan flipped through photos of her: Ve- ronica on a sandy beach. In a race car. She flashes a toothless grin beneath her sandy blonde hair and Hello Kitty earrings. He pushed a button on a photo frame she gave him a month before her death, and her voice filled the room. "I love you, Daddy," she cooed, stumbling over a Fa- ther's Day greeting. Sullivan's father, Robert Sullivan, said he encour- ages his son to talk and tries to listen. "What I notice is a very strong underlying anger and anguish that is going to be very difficult to over- come," he said. "It's going to forever alter him." Attorneys for the gun- man, James Holmes, ac- knowledge that he killed 12 people and injured 70 others. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Jury selection in his murder trial began Tuesday and is expected to continue for months. Just after midnight on July 20, 2012, Sullivan fell asleep at his Denver studio apartment, exhausted after returning from one of the long-haul routes he drove as a trucker. Two hours later, he was awakened by his phone. A relative of his ex-wife told him there had been a shooting at the theater. Ve- ronica was dying. He arrived too late to say goodbye to his daugh- ter. Her mother was para- lyzed in the attack. Days later, he asked a vic- tim's advocate to introduce him to the police officer who carried Veronica from the theater. They met at a police station in Aurora, not far from the theater. The officer told Sullivan that he, too, was a father. Sullivan said the officer told him that he thought he felt Veronica's heartbeat as he carried her. Sullivan real- izes the officer probably felt his own pulse racing. "The most comforting thing for me was knowing he was a father himself. To know that he picked her up the same way he picks up his own kids and he carried her the same way he carries his own kids," Sullivan said. He told the officer the hardest part was feeling powerless and unable to protect his daughter. COLORADO SHOOTING Officerwhocarrieddyinggirl comforts her grieving father By Tom Hays and David Klepper The Associated Press NEW YORK New York As- sembly Speaker Sheldon Sil- ver, who bent governors to his will for more than 20 years as one of the state's most powerful and canny politicians, was arrested Thursday on charges of tak- ing millions in payoffs and kickbacks. The 70-year-old Demo- crat was arrested by the FBI on federal conspiracy and bribery charges that carry up to 100 years in prison and could cost him his po- litical seat. He was released on $200,000 bail. U.S. Attorney Preet Bhar- ara said Silver — a lawyer by training — lined up jobs at two firms and then ac- cepted large sums of money in exchange for using his "ti- tanic" power to do political favors. A lot of the money was disguised as "referral fees," Bharara said. "I'm confident that after a full hearing and due pro- cess I'll be vindicated on the charges," said Silver, who seemed unfazed in court, even pausing on his way out to sign a sketch artist's ren- dering of the scene. He did not enter a plea. The arrest sent shock waves through New York's Capitol and came just a day after Silver shared the stage with Gov. Andrew Cuomo during his State of the State address, as Cuomo joked that he, Silver and the Senate majority leader were the "three amigos" of state government. At a meeting Thursday with the Daily News edito- rial board, Cuomo said of Silver's arrest: "Obviously it's bad for the speaker, but it's also a bad reflection on government, and it adds to the negativity." Silver is one of Albany's most storied political fig- ures, a consummate back- room operator with the power to single-handedly decide the fate of legislation. Along with the Senate majority leader and the governor, he plays a major role in creating state bud- gets, laws and policies in a system long criticized in Albany as "three men in a room." He controls, for ex- ample, which lawmakers sit on which committees and decides whether a bill gets a vote. In a measure of his clout, he helped persuade Cuomo last spring to disband a state anti-corruption com- mission that was investigat- ing Silver's financial deal- ings and those of his col- leagues. Silver had fought the commission's subpoe- nas and refused to provide information about his out- side legal work. Despite his outsized in- fluence, he is pretty much an unknown outside New York State. Even in Albany, he is one of the most pri- vate and least-understood figures, sometimes called "the Sphinx." Silver's outside income has long been a subject of discussion and controversy. But Bharara said New York- ers could stop wondering: Silver made more than $6 million in outside income since 2002 from two firms, much of it illegal. "Speaker Silver never did any legal work," Bharara said. "He simply sat back and collected millions of dollars by cashing in on his public office and polit- ical influence." Assembly Majority Leader Joe Morelle said Sil- ver still has the backing of an "overwhelming" num- ber of the chamber's Dem- ocrats, and they are not seeking his resignation as speaker. "We believe he can carry out his duties as speaker," Morelle said. "We're going to stand with him. ... We have faith in the speaker." ASSEMBLY SPEAKER Po we rf ul N ew Y or k po li ti ci an arrested on bribery charges SETHWENIG—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, right, makes a brief statement a er leaving a federal courthouse in New York on Thursday. RODRIGO ABD — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A woman waits for a bus next to a sign that reads in Spanish "Don't even try it, we are all Cristina," in support of Argentina's President Cristina Fernandez. By Almudena Calatrava The Associated Press BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA Argentine President Cris- tina Fernandez said Thurs- day she's "convinced" that prosecutor Alberto Nis- man's death was not a sui- cide, raising more ques- tions about the death of the man who had accused her of a cover-up in the nation's worst terrorist attack. In a letter published by the state news agency Telam, Fernandez said questions about Nisman's death "have been con- verted into certainty. The suicide (I'm convinced) was not a suicide." Fernandez' letter con- trasts with one she wrote Monday in which she re- ferred to his death as a suicide. The 51-year-old Nisman was found slumped in the bathroom of his apartment Sunday night with a bul- let wound in his head. He was lying next to a .22-cal- iber handgun and a bullet casing. The death came days af- ter Nisman gave a judge a 289-page report alleging Fernandez secretly reached a deal to prevent prosecu- tion of former Iranian of- ficials accused of involve- ment in the 1994 car bomb- ing of Argentina's largest Jewish center, an attack that killed 85 people. Fernandez dismissed those accusations in Thursday's letter. Nisman's body was found early Monday, just hours before he was to present details of his alle- gations to congress. A locksmith who was called to open Nisman's apartment after the pros- ecutor failed to answer re- peated phone calls said Wednesday that a service door to the apartment wasn't fully locked. Inves- tigators also revealed they had found a third access point to the apartment, one of several factors rais- ing doubts of the initial finding of suicide. Within hours of the dis- covery of Nisman's body, lead investigator Viviana Fein said the death ap- peared to be suicide and there were no indications anyone else was involved. She said the apartment's door was locked from the inside and there were no signs it had been forced. But family and friends of Nisman immediately re- jected the finding and pro- testers took to the streets demanding justice for the prosecutor who had spent 10 years investigating the 1994 bombing of the Jew- ish community center. More questions arise in Argentine official's death 1994 BOMBING CASE BRENNAN LINSLEY — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Ian Sullivan stands on his deck reminiscing about the short life of his late 6-year-old daughter Veronica, who was murdered in the 2012Aurora movie theater shooting attack, in Evergreen, Colo. N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N TY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 FAX: (530)528-0130 545 Diamond Avenue • P.O. Box 220 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 Support our classrooms, keep kids reading. DONATE YOUR VACATION newspaper dollars to the Newspaper In Education Program HELP OUR CHILDREN For more details call Circulation Department (530) 73 7-5047 | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2015 8 B