Hero Aurora shooting cop free after allegedly raping, abusing his kids — while ex-wife is jailed over custody battle
A Colorado cop praised as a hero after the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting has been accused of raping his own daughter when she was just 5 and physically abusing his son — but remains free while the kids’ mother is jailed over a custody battle.
Michael Hawkins, 55, was charged in July with six felony counts for sexually assaulting a child, and one misdemeanor count for child abuse spanning nearly 20 years — allegedly from 2002 to 2021.
He is also accused of molesting the daughters of his ex-wife, Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins, and holding their eldest son under water until he almost blacked out in 2018 — which the boy thinks was retribution for catching Hawkins fondling one of the girls, according to court documents obtained by the Denver Gazette.
Pickrel-Hawkins currently has custody of their two youngest sons, 10 and 13 — they live in a domestic violence shelter — but Hawkins is fighting to gain custody of them through a court-ordered reunification therapy program.
The therapy is aimed at repairing the children’s relationship with their father, but Pickrel-Hawkins has pushed back calling the sessions “nothing but manipulation, psychological abuse” and “coercion and gaslighting.”
In July a judge ruled she was interfering, and ordered her to spend seven weekends behind bars beginning Aug. 31.
Hawkins, meanwhile, was released on GPS-monitored supervision after posting $50,000 bail.
He made headlines for his efforts as one of the first responders to the Aurora mass shooting, where 12 people were killed and 70 wounded.
After the massacre, Hawkins testified at the shooter’s trial, where he tearfully recalled carrying the body of a six-year-old girl from the theater.
Hawkins was left with post-traumatic stress disorder — later medically retiring from the Aurora Police Department in 2018 — and allegedly told his ex-wife “all of his issues were related to the theater shooting,” according to the affidavit.
The initial rape of his daughter purportedly took place in 2012 after he responded to the movie theater shooting — but Pickrel-Hawkins told investigators “many of the issues existed beforehand.”
After that rape, sexual abuse of his daughter allegedly continued for years. His ex-wife’s girls, who he adopted, were also allegedly sexually abused for years.
Hawkins “adamantly denies the accusations,” attorney Christopher Estoll told the Denver Post, adding that his client had been cooperative throughout prosecutors’ investigation.
“The legal process will provide him with the opportunity to present additional information related to these allegations in the future,” Estoll said.
In an Aug. 1 court filing, Estoll said Pickrel-Hawkins was “not a credible witness and is highly manipulative.”
The accusations of violence against Hawkins were not the first.
In 2017, he and three other Aurora police officers were accused of police brutality by a woman who claimed she was falsely charged with assaulting a police officer.
Video from the incident showed Hawkins kick the woman’s head as the other officers held her down.
The city ended up paying the woman $335,000 in damages and dropped the charges as part of a settlement.
