{"id":2443176,"date":"2019-04-18T20:08:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T02:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/bond-reduced-for-alleged-child-trafficker\/"},"modified":"2019-04-18T20:08:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-19T02:08:00","slug":"bond-reduced-for-alleged-child-trafficker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/bond-reduced-for-alleged-child-trafficker\/","title":{"rendered":"Bond reduced for alleged child trafficker"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

A 9th District judge on Thursday significantly reduced bond for Damara Hester, accused of trafficking juveniles for sex from a Glenwood Springs hotel in 2017.<\/p>\n

Along with Hester, 26, a grand jury indictment in October accused Dasjuan Goode, 31, of operating the prostitution ring, and accused Ronald Braden, 53, of allegedly paying for sex with one or more of the juveniles the other two allegedly trafficked.<\/p>\n

District Judge Denise Lynch reduced Hester\u2019s bond from $50,000 to $10,000 cash surety, after hearing arguments about Hester\u2019s minor criminal record and her desire to reunite with her son.<\/p>\n

\u201cDamara has a place to stay, (and) she has family willing to take her in and care for her,\u201d public defender Elise Myer, Hester\u2019s attorney, said in court.<\/p>\n

Hester was most concerned for the son she had with Goode, Myer said. The child, who is 8 months old, had been in Hester\u2019s mother\u2019s care, but now is with Goode\u2019s mother, who is unresponsive. Hester has been in custody in Garfield County for more than five months.<\/p>\n

Goode was not in court Thursday as he is in custody facing charges in Arapahoe County. He also pleaded guilty recently to weapons charges in Adams County and sentenced to 18 months in Colorado Department of Corrections.<\/p>\n

Goode\u2019s mother has refused to give the child back to Hester\u2019s mother, Myer said, and there\u2019s concern about the child\u2019s welfare. Goode himself will apparently be unable to take care of the child, Myer said.<\/p>\n

Myer also indicated that Hester was coerced and manipulated by Goode in his relationship with her, as well as in the alleged charges of setting up a juvenile prostitution ring.<\/p>\n

Hester is committed to seeing the case to its conclusion, Myer said.<\/p>\n

Janet Drake of the Colorado Attorney General\u2019s Office said the alleged victims in the case objected to reduction in bond for Hester, and said Hester\u2019s family was clearly \u201censconced in gang activity,\u201d particularly through her father.<\/p>\n

Myer countered that Hester\u2019s mother is a business owner in Denver, and in a stable position to care for Hester and ensure she returns to Glenwood Springs for court, if she is able to make bond.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think this bond was set so high due to the nature of the charges,\u201d Lynch said. Hester\u2019s record included only traffic and misdemeanor infractions, Lynch said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear what sort of conditions could be placed on Hester in the event she is released on bond, but Drake suggested an ankle monitor. Myer said they would accept any conditions of release.<\/p>\n

Through his attorney, Braden requested a continuance in his case to June. The attorney said they are working with prosecutors on a possible plea deal, but if it doesn\u2019t come by the next court date, Braden intends to plead not guilty.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 9th District judge on Thursday significantly reduced bond for Damara Hester, accused of trafficking juveniles for sex from a Glenwood Springs hotel in 2017. Along with Hester, 26, a grand jury indictment in October accused Dasjuan Goode, 31, of operating the prostitution ring, and accused Ronald Braden, 53, of allegedly paying for sex with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 22:38:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443176\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}