A retired police sergeant who received national attention for his actions during the 2012 Aurora theater shooting is now facing child sexual abuse charges in Douglas County after multiple children said he sexually and physically abused them for years.
Michael Hawkins, 55, was charged July 29 with six felony counts of sexual assault of a child by a person in a position of trust and a single count of misdemeanor child abuse in alleged incidents that spanned from 2002 to 2021, court records show.
He is accused of raping an elementary-aged girl, groping multiple children, using “arrest control tactics” that physically hurt them and, in one instance, holding a boy underwater until he nearly drowned, according to an affidavit filed against him.
The Denver Post does not identify victims of sexual abuse and is not identifying how Hawkins came in contact with the children in order to protect their privacy. The abuse is not alleged to have happened while Hawkins was on duty as an officer with the Aurora Police Department.
Hawkins “adamantly denies the accusations,” his attorney, Christopher Estoll, said Tuesday.
Read the full story from our partners at The Denver Post.
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