{"id":2458084,"date":"2020-05-05T23:12:01","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T05:12:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/lipsey-pleads-will-spend-2-years-on-probation\/"},"modified":"2020-05-05T23:12:01","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T05:12:01","slug":"lipsey-pleads-will-spend-2-years-on-probation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/lipsey-pleads-will-spend-2-years-on-probation\/","title":{"rendered":"Lipsey pleads, will spend 2 years on probation"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"302\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/dogbitefollo-atd-052318-1.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/dogbitefollo-atd-052318-1.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2019\/11\/dogbitefollo-atd-052318-1-300x146.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A former Aspen High School student admitted Tuesday to driving off a winding, two-lane country road at high speed a year and a half ago and seriously injuring four other teens inside his car.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Joseph Lipsey IV, 20, now must spend the next two years on probation, when he will have to remain sober and perform five hours of community service every week for almost a year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cHe needs to understand how really tragic this could have been,\u201d said Deputy District Attorney Don Nottingham. \u201cWe\u2019re lucky everyone is alive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Lipsey pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony vehicular assault in a virtual hearing held in a Pitkin County district courtroom that included only a newspaper reporter and the court clerk. His plea deal with the District Attorney\u2019s Office also included guilty pleas to reckless endangerment and drug possession \u2014 both misdemeanors \u2014 and the stipulation that the felony conviction will be wiped from his record if he stays out of trouble for the next two years.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cI would like to say I really am truly sorry,\u201d Lipsey said. \u201cI regret what happened. It will be something I will grow from. I hope all of us, including myself, will learn from this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">He said he hoped everyone involved in the accident could one day be friends again and that they are able to move on with their lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Lipsey\u2019s plea to drug possession grew out of a second felony case filed against him two months after the car crash that accused him of allowing underage teens to drink and consume drugs in his family\u2019s Aspen Highlands-area home. He was originally charged with felony contributing to the delinquency of a minor and a felony drug distribution count in connection with that case.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Lipsey\u2019s parents, Shira and Joseph Lipsey III, also were charged with felony contributing to the delinquency of a minor and other misdemeanor charges in connection with the January 2019 incident that also involved their son. Those charges are still pending.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nottingham said that of the two cases against the younger Lipsey, the crash Nov. 18 off of Maroon Creek Road near the T-Lazy 7 Ranch was, by far, the more serious.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWithout the vehicular assault, I would have been less concerned about him,\u201d the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The accident that late fall night was truly horrific, according to witness accounts and accident reports, and easily could have been a lasting community tragedy, Nottingham said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">A Colorado State Patrol investigator estimated that Lipsey\u2019s 2017 Tesla X was traveling at about 75 mph when it missed a curve in the road. One of the teens inside the vehicle said she saw the car hit 97 mph before Lipsey made no effort to make the turn, according to a letter Nottingham read in court Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The car then rotated and slid nearly 40 feet on the road before heading off the pavement for another approximately 30 feet before going airborne and flying off the road, according to the CSP report. The SUV struck a tree and headed more than 170 feet downhill, overturning twice in the process, before coming to rest on its wheels in Maroon Creek.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The teen who wrote the letter said the crash initially knocked her out, but that she woke up with icy water creeping up her legs and a girl crying behind her. She said she\u2019s now blinded by lights, sometimes has trouble understanding people speaking normally and slept with her mother because of nightmares, Nottingham said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201c(The) lives of these kids were hugely affected and I hope that Mr. Lipsey would understand that behavior like this has consequences,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The girl who wrote the letter was present virtually during Tuesday\u2019s proceedings but did not speak. Parents of other victims also listened in but did not speak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Lipsey wrote a six-page letter to the victims that was included in the court file. In it, he addressed each of the four who were in the car that night and apologized profusely and repeatedly. His lawyer said he wrote it last summer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cOn a daily basis, I think about how the crash has impacted my friends\u2019 lives,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI want to live the rest of my life making up for what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nottingham noted that Lipsey \u2014 who said he was in the middle of his freshman year in college \u2014 won\u2019t be able to act like a typical 20-year-old college student. While District Judge Chris Seldin allowed his probation to be transferred to Tennessee, Lipsey will be randomly tested for drugs and alcohol and must complete 250 hours of community service at five hours a week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cIt\u2019s designed so he has to think about this every week for the next year,\u201d said Greg Greer, Lipsey\u2019s lawyer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:jauslander@aspentimes.com\">jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/lipsey-pleads-will-spend-2-years-on-probation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Aspen High School student admitted Tuesday to driving off a winding, two-lane country road at high speed a year and a half ago and seriously injuring four other teens inside his car. Joseph Lipsey IV, 20, now must spend the next two years on probation, when he will have to remain sober and [&hellip;]<\/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":["post-2458084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 18:59:04","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&#039;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\/2458084","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=2458084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}