GOLDEN, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado teen has pleaded guilty to murder and kidnapping in the kidnap-slaying and dismemberment of a 10-year-old girl that panicked Denver-area residents last year.

Eighteen-year-old Austin Sigg entered the pleas Tuesday in the death of Jessica Ridgeway in the Denver suburb of Westminster.

Police say Sigg had confessed to the crime and that officers discovered of some of the girl’s remains at his home.

Jessica, a fifth-grader, disappeared while walking to school on Oct. 5, 2012.

Hundreds of police and residents searched for her, and parents escorted their children to and from school. The FBI asked residents to report suspicious behavior by friends, neighbors and even family members.

Her torso was found in a secluded park Oct. 10, 2012.

BUENA VISTA, Colo. (AP) — A 13-year-old girl said her father shielded her as boulders crashed down on them on a Colorado hiking trail — an action that authorities say probably saved her life even as her father and four other family members were killed.

Rescuers dug Gracie Johnson out of the rubble after Monday’s slide, and she was airlifted to a Denver-area hospital with a broken leg, the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.

“She told me at the last second when the boulders were coming down on top of them that he covered her up and protected her, which I believe it saved her life,” said sheriff’s Deputy Nick Tolsma.

Gracie’s parents and sister from nearby Buena Vista were killed, as were two of her cousins from Missouri.

The sheriff’s department identified the dead as Dwayne Johnson, 46, and Dawna Johnson, 45, Gracie’s parents; and her 18-year-old sister, Kiowa-Rain Johnson.

The other victims were identified as Baigen (BAY’-gun) Walker, 10, and Paris Walkup, 22, both of Birch Tree, Mo. They were nephews of Dwayne and Dawna Johnson.

Dwayne and Dawna Johnson were coaches in Buena Vista schools, were well known in the town and very active in community events, the sheriff’s department said.

“Any sudden loss of life is difficult to handle within small communities but something of this magnitude is devastating to all of us,” Sheriff Pete Palmer said. “The community will come together to grieve for the friends we have lost and support the family during this difficult time.”

Monday’s slide sent 100-ton boulders onto a popular viewing area that overlooks Agnes Vaille falls below 14,197-foot Mount Princeton in south-central Colorado.

The massive slide left a gash the size of a football field in the mountainside, Undersheriff John Spezze said.

What triggered it wasn’t immediately known, though Spezze said the area had heavy summer rain and a recent snowfall.

Rain or melting snow can make slides more likely by weakening a steep slope and making the rocks and soil heavier, said Jerry Higgins, an associate professor of geological engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden.

With enough data, geologists can identify slopes that are susceptible to slides, Higgins said, but finding all of them would be a massive undertaking.

“In Colorado, there’s a lot of steep slopes, and I don’t think anybody’s got the money to pay for the studies for all the steep slopes,” he said.

Witnesses said some of the boulders were the size of cars. A hiker who heard the slide in Chalk Creek Canyon ran down the trail and called for help, Spezze said.

Tolsma said he was one of the first at the scene and heard screaming from beneath the rubble. He saw Gracie Johnson’s hand sticking up through the rocks.

“I started digging her out until I had more help come and we got her all the way out,” he said.

A search team was working Tuesday to recover the bodies. Four could probably be recovered using hand tools, but special equipment was needed to dislodge a huge boulder — possibly a heavy inflatable bag — and retrieve the fifth body, said David Noltensmeyer of the North End Search and Rescue team.

The U.S. Forest Service maintains the busy trail near St. Elmo ghost town. Spezze said officials have asked the Forest Service to close it permanently.

The trail is one of the first hikes recommended to people new to the area and is popular with tourists, said Margaret Dean, a regular hiker who has walked the trail with her 7-year-old grandson.

Dean, a copy assistant at The Mountain Mail newspaper in Salida, said the trail provides a view of the falls and the Chalk Creek Valley in the towering Collegiate Peaks.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Visitors arrived to find “CLOSED” signs at the Statue of Liberty, the Smithsonian and other parks and historic sites across the country. Callers looking for help from the government reached only voicemail. And federal employees were left to wonder when they would return to work.

The first government shutdown in 17 years took hold Tuesday in ways large and small.

About 800,000 federal employees were sent home — a number greater than the combined U.S. workforces of Target, General Motors, Exxon and Google.

“After next week if we’re not working, I’m going to have to find a job,” said Robert Turner, a building mechanic at the Smithsonian’s American History museum in the nation’s capital. He was called in for part of the day to take out the trash, turn off the water and help close up the place.

The effects played out in a variety of ways, from scaled-back operations at federal prosecutors’ offices and the FBI to revoked permits for dozens of weddings at historic sites in Washington. Campers at national parks were given two days to pack up and leave, and some parks were entirely closed to traffic.

In Philadelphia, Paul Skilling of Northern Ireland had wanted to see the Liberty Bell up close but had to settle instead for looking at the symbol of democracy through glass.

And he wasn’t optimistic about the chances of visiting any landmarks in Washington, the next stop on a weekslong visit.

“Politics is fantastic, isn’t it?” he said ruefully.

In New York, tourists who hoped to see the Statue of Liberty were instead offered an hour harbor cruise.

“There has to be better ways to run the government than to get to a standstill like this,” said Cheryl Strahl, a disappointed visitor from Atascadero, Calif. “Why take it out on the national parks?”

The government closings did not stop the launch on Tuesday of the enrollment period for the online insurance marketplaces established under President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul — the program at the very heart of the dispute that produced the shutdown.

The two federal employees in orbit around the Earth — NASA astronauts Karen Nyberg and Michael Hopkins — carried on as usual aboard the International Space Station, with essential employees at Mission Control in Houston supporting the lab and its six inhabitants.

There were no TV or web updates, however, as most of NASA’s workforce was furloughed.

Anglers headed to the highly anticipated first day of the fall fishing season on North Carolina’s Outer Banks found they could not drive onto the beach at Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

Dozens of goats were taken off ivy-eating duty at Fort Hancock, a recreation area in Sandy Hook, N.J. A KKK rally planned for the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania this weekend was canceled.

In the nation’s capital, fountains were being turned off on the National Mall and the National Zoo closed. Its beloved panda-cam went dark.

But hundreds of veterans from Iowa and Mississippi walked past barricades at the National World War II Memorial after members of Congress cut the police tape for them.

The IRS suspended audits for the duration of the shutdown, and call centers were left unmanned. In St. Paul, Minn., the voicemail warned callers they “should file and pay their taxes as normal.”

The 12 million people who got six-month extensions must still file their returns by Oct. 15. But the agency will not issue tax refunds until the government resumes normal operations.

NEW YORK (AP) — From New York’s Liberty Island to Alaska’s Denali National Park, the U.S. government closed its doors as a bitter budget fight idled hundreds of thousands of federal workers and halted all but the most critical government services for the first time in nearly two decades.

A midnight deadline to avert a shutdown passed amid Congressional bickering, casting in doubt Americans’ ability to get government services ranging from federally-backed home loans to supplemental food assistance for children and pregnant women.

For many employees of the federal government, Tuesday’s shutdown meant no more paychecks as they were forced onto unpaid furloughs. For those still working, it meant delays in getting paid.

Park Ranger and father-to-be Darquez Smith said he already lives paycheck-to-paycheck while putting himself through college.

“I’ve got a lot on my plate right now — tuition, my daughter, bills,” said Smith, 23, a ranger at Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park in Ohio. “I’m just confused and waiting just like everyone else.”

The impact of the shutdown was mixed — immediate and far-reaching for some, annoying but minimal for others.

In Colorado, where flooding killed eight people earlier this month, emergency funds to help rebuild homes and businesses continued to flow — but federal worker furloughs were expected to slow it down.

National Guard soldiers rebuilding washed-out roads would apparently be paid on time — along with the rest of the country’s active-duty personnel — under a bill passed hours before the shutdown. Existing Social Security and Medicare benefits, veterans’ services and mail delivery were also unaffected.

Other agencies were harder hit — nearly 3,000 Federal Aviation Administration safety inspectors were furloughed along with most of the National Transportation Safety Board’s employees, including accident investigators who respond to air crashes, train collisions, pipeline explosions and other accidents.

Almost all of NASA shut down, except for Mission Control in Houston, and national parks closed along with the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo. Even the zoo’s popular panda cam went dark, shut off for the first time since a cub was born there Aug. 23.

As the shutdown loomed Monday, visitors to popular parks made their frustration with elected officials clear.

“There is no good thing going to come out of it,” said Chris Fahl, a tourist from Roanoke, Ind., visiting the Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historic Park in Hodgenville, Ky. “Taxpayers are just going to be more overburdened.”

Emily Enfinger, visiting the Statue of Liberty, said politicians need to find a way to work together.

“They should be willing to compromise, both sides, and it discourages me that they don’t seem to be able to do that,” she said. “They’re not doing their job as far as I’m concerned.”

Joe Wentz, a retired federal employee from Lebanon, Va., visiting San Francisco with his wife, bought tickets to visit Alcatraz on Thursday — if it’s open.

Wentz said he’s frustrated that some politicians are using the budget to push changes in the Affordable Care Act.

“We’ve been disgusted a long time that they’re not working together,” he said.

The shutdown was strangely captivating to Marlena Knight, an Australian native visiting Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. She was confounded that the impasse focused on the nation’s health care system — an indispensable service in her home country.

“We can’t imagine not having a national health system,” she said. “I just can’t believe that this country can shut down over something like a national health system. Totally bizarre, as an Australian, but fascinating.”

It turns out an institution as massive as the federal government takes some time to grind to a total halt: Many federal workers were being permitted to come in Tuesday to change voicemail messages or fill out time cards. But after that, they were under strict orders to do no work, even check their email.

With no telling how long the budget standoff will last, even programs not immediately affected could run out of cash.

Barbara Haxton, executive director of the Ohio Head Start Association, said its preschool learning programs would be in jeopardy if a shutdown lasted more than two weeks. March’s automatic budget cuts meant nearly 3,000 children lost access to services and there could be dire consequences if the budget standoff drags on.

“It’s not as though this is a throwaway service. These are the poorest of the poor children,” Haxton said. “And our Congressman still gets his paycheck. His pay doesn’t stop and his health insurance doesn’t stop.”

DENVER (AP) — While officials promise that direct aid to Colorado flooding victims won’t be affected by a possible government shutdown, a standoff in Washington could still end up hurting the state’s recovery efforts.

Emergency funding distributed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Small Business Administration and Housing and Urban Development department to help people rebuild their homes and businesses would still continue to flow if there is a shutdown. However, worker furloughs in those agencies could still potentially slow operations.

“We don’t want to overly alarm people, but when we’re racing for the winter, any of these delays can be problematic,” a spokesman for Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet, Adam Bozzi, said.

Republican Rep. Cory Gardner said he expected the White House to follow through on its promise not to let a shutdown affect those hurt by flooding.

“When Vice President Biden visited Colorado last week, I stood feet away from him as he promised that ‘none of the federal assistance that we’re providing — none of it is — going to be impacted even if there is a government shutdown,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, help rebuilding Colorado’s roads before cold sets in could depends on how National Guard members from other states will be paid if there is a partial government shutdown.

The 1.4 million active-duty military personnel would stay on duty and under a last-minute bill, they should keep getting paychecks on time. That bill included National Guard members.

About 450 Guard members from Utah, Kansas and Wyoming are expected to help rebuild roads in October and November, Capt. Darin Overstreet of the Colorado National Guard said. While Colorado Guard members who flew evacuation helicopters, filled sandbags and were posted to security checkpoints were on active state duty and paid by the state, road engineering units from other states would be paid by the federal government under training status, he said.

Members of the Utah National Guard’s 1457th Engineer Battalion plan to help rebuild U.S. Highway 36 to Rocky Mountain National Park as early as this week. Its members have built roads in Iraq and Afghanistan and also did repairs following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said the state would consider using its own emergency funds to pay the National Guard to help with road construction.

“If these knuckleheads in Washington can’t get it together, then we’ll pay them out of our emergency management fund. We cannot let them stop the work that they’re doing. We just can’t,” he said.

The floods killed eight people, damaged or destroyed nearly 2,000 homes, more than 200 miles of state highways and 50 state bridges.

The U.S. Department of Transportation has pledged an initial $35 million for roads, and Colorado has allocated $100 million. On Monday, both the U.S. House and Senate passed bills lifting the $100 million cap on emergency road funding for the state.

BUENA VISTA, Colo. (AP) — Five hikers were killed by a rock slide on a trail in south-central Colorado on Monday, and another was pulled out with injuries and flown to a hospital, authorities said.

Boulders exceeding 100 tons crashed into a viewing area a half-mile up a popular day hike area, Chaffee County Undersheriff John Spezze said.

The slide left a football-field-sized gash below Mount Princeton, a 14,197-foot peak. A female hiker who heard the slide ran down the trail and called for help, Spezze said.

Rescuers found five dead bodies and a 13-year-old girl with a broken leg and other injuries. The girl was flown to a Denver hospital.

There was no immediate identification of the victims or whether they were a single group.

Chaffee County authorities dismissed an earlier report that there was a seventh hiker unaccounted for.

The slide wasn’t preceded by smaller ones, Spezze said.

“It was totally unexpected. It caught everybody by surprise,” he said.

Sheriff’s department spokeswoman Monica Broaddus said rescuers left the mountain before dark Monday. She said the recovery effort would wait until likely Tuesday afternoon, after an engineer could survey the slide area to make sure it’s safe to remove the bodies.

The slide occurred at about 11 a.m. on the trail to Agnes Vaille (VAYL) falls in the Pike and San Isabel National Forest, an easy day hike about a 2 1/2 hour drive southwest of Denver.

The trail is one of the first hikes recommended to people new to the area and is also popular with tourists, said Margaret Dean, a regular hiker who has hiked the trail with her 7-year-old grandson.

Dean, a copy assistant at The Mountain Mail newspaper in Salida, said the trail is easily accessible and provides a view of the falls and the Chalk Creek Valley in the Collegiate Peaks, which contains many mountains over 14,000-feet tall.

Agnes Vaille, the waterfall’s namesake, was a Denver mountaineer who died in 1925 while attempting a difficult winter climb of Longs Peak, elevation 14,259 feet.

DENVER (AP) — A Colorado marijuana activist who organized joint giveaways and has pushed the bounds of the state’s new pot laws was arrested this week for smoking pot in public.

Marijuana activist Robert Corry leads a protest against the proposed tax rates on marijuana on Pearl St. Monday Oct. 23, 2013 in Boulder, Colo. Corry also gave out free joints for flood relief at the rally. (Nate Bruzdzinski/CU Independent)

The Denver Post reports that Robert Corry was cited Wednesday for smoking at Coors Field during a Colorado Rockies game.

According to a police report, an officer asked Corry to hand over the joint, and Corry refused.

Corry is among the most prominent marijuana attorneys in the state. He has also earned a reputation for testing the bounds of the law, handing out free joints in Denver and Boulder. The handouts were protests of proposed tax rates on the drug.

Public consumption of marijuana in Colorado is punishable by a $100 fine or up to 15 Days in jail.

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (AP) — While one Colorado town’s drone-hunting proposal has drawn national attention, lesser known is a keen competition by counties across the state to win federal approval to host civilian drone testing.

Industries, universities and county sheriffs showed off their latest unmanned surveillance craft Friday in western Colorado’s Mesa County, which is vying with 13 other sites in Colorado to host civilian drone test zones.

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to approve six test sites across the nation in December. More than 20 states are in the running under the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, which requires that the agency begin phasing in drones for mapping, surveillance, monitoring farm and oil fields and other uses.

“We really won’t be talking about the public safety piece of this. We’re looking at this from an economic impact perspective,” Ben Miller, the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office drone program director.

Colorado’s application includes more than 35,000 square miles of airspace, said Stan VanderWerf, executive director of the Colorado unmanned aircraft system team.

Many in Colorado remain opposed to drones. The plains town of Deer Trail, population 500, is considering a proposal to make itself a national attraction for gun enthusiasts and people skeptical of government surveillance by issuing drone-hunting licenses.

Citizens on Oct. 8 will vote on whether to issue $25 permits, with a $100 bounty for shooters who bring in debris from an unmanned aircraft “known to be owned or operated by the United States federal government.”

The initiative’s architect, Philip Steel, has insisted it’s a symbolic stand — but it drew a stern warning of criminal or civil liability from the FAA.

Chris Miser, who operates a Denver-based drone manufacturing business, acknowledged there’s plenty of skepticism toward the new technology.

“Business is slow because everyone has this bad perception that (unmanned aircraft) are nothing but bad, evil, killing, spying machines, and we’ve got to change people’s perception,” said Miser, a former U.S. Air Force captain who worked on drones for the military in Iraq.

VanderWerf even sees a business opportunity for Deer Trail, which he suggested could buy its own drones for hunters to shoot down.

“There are companies that are building small (drones) which behave like certain birds” as training for sport hunters, VanderWerf said. “I’d hope Deer Trail would go find companies building them and bring them out to a skeet shooting range there.”

EVANS, Colo. (AP) — Immigrants living in the U.S. illegally returned to their mobile home parks in flood-ravaged Colorado to find that there was little left to salvage — not the water-damaged cars, not the old family pictures and not the sheds carried away by the rushing waters.

The destruction, however, was only the beginning of what’s been a nightmarish two weeks. They didn’t have flood insurance. And because they are not citizens or legal residents — and don’t have family members who are — they won’t get the federal government’s help.

“They say that faith and hope die last,” said Juan Partida, 40, a dairy worker who along with his wife Mari, who is pregnant, do not qualify for federal emergency aid because they are in the country illegally. “We need to have faith and hope that we’ll get help.”

How quickly they can rebuild their lives, relying largely on local government and nonprofit organizations, will have long-term ramifications on the Weld County industries that depend on their labor, from meatpacking plants and farms to construction and hotels.

“They’re out of their homes, and a lot of them have lost their vehicles in this, they’re impacted. So the economy is going to be impacted,” said Lyle Achziger, mayor of Evans, a city on the northern plains whose population of 19,500 is 43 percent Latino.

Achziger said officials responding to the disaster have been learning about the immigrants’ importance to the region’s economy. He said the city hopes to get people help by getting them to register with the city, county and other volunteer aid organizations.

“We have told them that immigration status is not our focus. And I will repeat that again, that is not our focus. Our focus is getting people out of the cold, getting a roof over their head and getting them a warm meal,” he said.

The JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley employs nearly 50 immigrant workers whose families were displaced. The company has paid for hotels, delivered food, and tried to connect families with available services, company spokesman Cameron Bruett said.

“They’re certainly a critical element of our team,” Bruett said.

The waters that ripped through the Evans mobile home park the morning of Sept. 13 gave residents only minutes to get out. Many left with just the clothes they were wearing.

In Partida’s trailer, he and his wife had toys and clothes from their boys, 8 and 3, who died in a car accident nearly a year ago with their aunt and uncle. “Not being able to get none of those things out, for me that’s what’s saddens me the most,” he said.

In all, there were about 150 homes. Every single one is marked with an orange X to signify it’s uninhabitable.

Many of the mobile park residents came from Mexico, and those in the country illegally will not get help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency unless they have U.S. citizen children or a family member who is a legal resident.

For those who do qualify for FEMA aid, immigrant advocates are concerned there’s a lack of Spanish-language speakers to help families navigate the system.

When a FEMA housing inspector visited Sofia Mendez, 59, the meeting left her confused about what help she would get, she said. Mendez, who is a naturalized citizen, started buying her $29,000 trailer in Evans about a year ago.

At her home this week, Mendez walked slowly with a cane and wore knee-high plastic boots needed to slog through the heavy mud. Her voice wavered as she pointed to the things she lost.

“This is a picture of my granddaughter,” she said, pointing to a frame streaked with so much mud it was difficult to make out the face. Pointing to blue tiles on her kitchen counter, she said, “I put those there.”

For now, Mendez and her 28-year-old son, who is disabled, are staying with a friend.

In nearby Milliken, a small town tucked amid farm fields, mobile homes that were near the Big Thompson and Little Thompson rivers faced similar devastation as Evans. Latinos account for 28 percent of Milliken’s 5,800 residents.

Forty-five trailers suffered varying degrees of damage, said Milliken Mayor Milt Tokunaga. “It doesn’t matter if it’s an undocumented person or not as far as the impact because they pay taxes here, there’s a local carniceria, they do shopping here,” he said.

So far, many families have been relying on friends and relatives for housing, and volunteer organizations like the Red Cross, churches, and the Salvation Army for clothing, food and other supplies. There have also been anonymous donations. Someone paid for hotel lodging for 20 families until the end of the month.

“All of them have been amazing to the families, but it is on a temporary basis, day-by-day. Like you can sleep here for tonight, here’s food for today,” Milliken resident Allison MacDougall told FEMA officials at a town meeting this week.

The officials told her they wished there was another way, but that all they could do was refer them to volunteer aid organizations.

“We were flooded like everyone else. We suffered the same damage,” said Norma Miramontes, 42, who along with her husband, a construction worker, is in the U.S. illegally.

They may be eligible for federal aid because her mother, who lives with them, is a legal resident, but they haven’t heard back from FEMA. “We pay taxes, we work here,” Miramontes said. “We’re not getting something for free.”

DENVER (AP) — The owners of a Colorado cantaloupe farm were arrested Thursday on charges stemming from a 2011 listeria epidemic that killed 33 people in one of the nation’s deadliest outbreaks of foodborne illness.

Federal prosecutors said brothers Eric and Ryan Jensen were arrested on misdemeanor charges of introducing adulterated food into interstate commerce. Each man faces six counts.

They pleaded not guilty in federal court and were released on unsecured bonds. Trial is scheduled for Dec. 2.

Prosecutors said the federal Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined the Jensens didn’t adequately clean the cantaloupe.

Criminal charges in food poisoning cases are rare, said attorney William Marler, who represents many of the listeria victims in civil cases against Jensen Farms, located on the far east edge of the state of Colorado. Only four other people have faced such charges in the past decade, he said.

The FDA has said the melons likely were contaminated in Jensen Farms’ packing house. It concluded that dirty water on a floor, and old, hard-to-clean equipment probably were to blame.

The epidemic was the deadliest outbreak of foodborne illness in 25 years, and it delivered a serious blow to Colorado cantaloupe farmers.

A number of lawsuits were filed by people who were sickened or who had a family member die after the outbreak.

Eric Jensen, 37, and Ryan Jensen, 33, could face up to six years in prison and up to $1.5 million in fines each if convicted of all counts against them, prosecutors said.

The Jensens’ farm in southeastern Colorado filed for bankruptcy after the outbreak.

After Thursday’s hearing, the men released a statement calling the outbreak a “terrible accident” and saying they were shocked and saddened by it. The statement said the charges do not imply they knew about the contamination, or that they should have known about it.

Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, said the misdemeanor “was the best, most serious charge we could find.”

Felony charges would have required prosecutors to show the contamination was intentional.

“The real significance of the case against the Jensens is they are being charged with misdemeanors, which do not require intent, just the fact that they shipped contaminated food using interstate commerce,” Marler said.

Dorschner said prosecutors decided to pursue the case because so many people were affected.

“It was the magnitude of the number of people who were hospitalized and the number of people who died,” he said. Prosecutors said people in 28 states ate the cantaloupe, and 147 people were hospitalized.

The illnesses quickly were linked to the Jensens’ farm, with the FDA saying on Oct. 19, 2011, that the outbreak probably was caused by pools of water on the floor and old, hard-to-clean packing equipment there. The agency said contamination at the packing facility likely was to blame. Investigators found positive listeria samples on equipment and fruit there.

The FDA said Jensen Farms had recently purchased used equipment that was corroded and hard to clean. The agency said the way the cantaloupes were cooled after coming off the fields might also have contributed to listeria growth.

Asked why it took so long to file charges, Dorschner said officials needed time to develop the case.

The outbreak was a setback for farms in Colorado’s revered Rocky Ford cantaloupe region, where hot, sunny days and cold nights produce fruit known for its distinct sweetness.

Jensen Farms was about 90 miles away from Rocky Ford, but the Jensens used the Rocky Ford name, and sales dropped across the region. Later, Rocky Ford farmers registered Rocky Ford Cantaloupe as a trademark, hired a full-time food safety manager and built a central packing operation where melons are washed and rinsed.

Tammie Palmer, whose husband, Charles, became ill after eating the cantaloupe, said she hopes the Jensens never return to farming.

The Palmers, represented by Marler, filed a lawsuit against Jensen Farms seeking $2 million. The suit was still pending when Charles Palmer died this year of cancer.

“I was hoping everything would be settled and I could do something with my husband, but that’s not going to happen,” she said.