A registered sex offender is running for city council in Aurora as a Democrat.
Abel Laeke, 39, is vying for one of two open at-large seats and has been fighting to get his name off the sex offender list. That charge dates back to 2004 but he had an extensive criminal background prior to that.
On Nov. 7, 2017, Aurora residents will elect two new city council members. Laeke is on the city’s approved list of 8 candidates.
As a first generation Ethiopian American, Laeke grew up in Aurora and graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder. He runs his own start-up business consulting firm, serves as a non-profit organization mentor and teaches Sunday school at his Aurora church.
The CBI website shows a 2005 conviction of a sexual contact charge, a class 5 felony. he was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
He was charged for indecent exposure, a misdemeanor, and sexual contact without consent, a felony, according to court documents. Prior to that Laeke had three other notable run-ins with the law to include felony burglary, DUI, trespassing, assault, and damaging property.
Mike Hyman, Attorney for the City of Aurora told the Aurora Sentinel that since Laeke’s plea was accepted and is not a conviction, he is in the clear to run for council.
Laeke wrote a memoir, No Pressure, No Diamonds, My Life And What It Takes To Lead, and its preview begins: “I was lured by the bad behavior of those I considered friends, alarming my family and derailing my life. Add the trauma of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, and my life hurtled toward the dark halls of a psychiatric institution. Like a phoenix, I was able to reclaim my life and turn my hard-won lessons into a passion for service to humanity.”
He’s blaming 9/11? Seriously?
That sounds a bit confessional though he pleaded A background check reveals that Laeke pleaded “not guilty by reason of insanity.” to the felony.
The first five chapters of the book are on Amazon to read without buying the book and it seems like “I” is the only way he knows how to start a sentence. He claims to have “truly turned” his life around as a result of his “stay in an insane asylum.”
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What landed him in the asylum is his bipolar disorder and anxiety as well as his feelings of being “always right” – he had “grandiose” ideals, he wrote. His history of “drugs and alcohol” didn’t help, he continued.
He has a number of aliases and should not go too close to an elementary or middle school.
His record came to light when he ran for Pueblo City Council which bars felons unlike Aurora. He was incarcerated at the Colorado State Mental Hospital in Pueblo, and ran for Pueblo City Council in 2015. The city councils apparently don’t do background checks and only rely on the honor system.
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