Zoey Ripple Drank Too Much Ripple

**TheMorningStar** · May 27th, 2012, 05:53 PM

The bedroom door leading outside had been closed but not locked; that was usually enough to keep critters out -- but maybe one had found a way in. Then the couple saw a human figure coming toward them.
They shouted, warning the person to leave, that they had a gun.
When the couple turned on the lights, they found a highly intoxicated young woman they didn't know on the floor with a gunshot wound to her hip, according to Boulder police.
The woman, identified as Zoey Ripple, 21, had recently graduated from University of Colorado-Boulder, the Associated Press said. Now she's hospitalized and facing felony trespassing charges.
On a 911 call released by Denver television station KDVR, Orion can be heard breathing heavily and telling the dispatcher: “She just walked – she came in and we started screaming at her to leave and she kept coming in.”
Ripple's attorney Colette Cribari expressed disappointment that the district attorney's office had decided to file charges against her client, saying that the incident was "out of character."
"She didn't enter the house with any intent of committing a crime or harming anyone," Cribari told the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper.
But the incident may have been especially alarming for Orion. A psychiatrist, like her husband, she'd once been stalked by a former patient, a woman.
The patient even moved to the same Boulder neighborhood to be near her, a 1999 Psychiatric News article reported. The patient repeatedly left gifts and notes on the couple’s property -- even taping items to their windows, violating a restraining order dozens of times.
In this instance, the district attorney said, the point of the trespassing charges was to get alcohol treatment for the accused. Preliminary tests indicate that Ripple's blood-alcohol level was above 0.2% -- more than twice the legal limit for motorists -- at the time of the incident, the Daily Camera reported.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/n...,5837302.story

**newstarshipsmell** · May 27th, 2012, 06:33 PM

Wow wth, no mention of how she acquired the gunshot wound? When they said "they shouted, warning the person to leave, that they had a gun" did they mean they warned her of said gun by shooting into the darkness and hitting her in the hip?

**TheMorningStar** · May 27th, 2012, 06:35 PM

Originally Posted by newstarshipsmell

Wow wth, no mention of how she acquired the gunshot wound? When they said "they shouted, warning the person to leave, that they had a gun" did they mean they warned her of said gun by shooting into the darkness and hitting her in the hip?

I hadn't noticed that.

**Dakota Valkyrie** · May 27th, 2012, 07:27 PM

[...]
Police say Ripple entered the bedroom of a house at 425 College Ave. at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. The screen door was closed, but unlocked.

The owners of the house, identified by county property records as Timothy Justice and Doreen Orion, were in bed when they heard Ripple come in. In the darkness, they shouted to warn the intruder to leave and that they had a gun, but Ripple continued walking through the bedroom, and Justice fired one shot, police said.

When the homeowners turned on the lights, they saw Ripple on the floor with a gunshot wound to her hip and called 911, police said. They said they did not recognize her as anyone they knew.

The house, which county records show was bought for $1.7 million in 2004 and is listed for sale at $2.75 million, is at the western end of Boulder, where College Avenue dead-ends into the foothills.

Officials said preliminary tests indicate that Ripple's blood alcohol level was above 0.2 at the time of the incident.
[...]

Citing the "make my day" law, officials announced Thursday that no charges will be filed against Justice for shooting Ripple.
[...]

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boul...zoey-ripple-cu

In a recording of the 911 call, released by police Thursday, an upset Orion told the dispatcher, "Somebody came into our house, and we shot them." She went on to say: "She came in, and we started screaming at her to leave and she kept coming in."

Orion told the dispatcher that the woman was sitting up and talking on her phone after the shooting but seemed "kind of stoned or something" and wouldn't answer questions.

At one point, Orion asked Ripple, "Why did you just walk into our house when we were screaming at you to get out?" The answer was not audible.

http://www.dailycamera.com/news/boul...owner-who-shot

**blacksheep** · May 27th, 2012, 07:35 PM

Sounds a little trigger happy to me.

**TheMorningStar** · May 27th, 2012, 07:41 PM

Sounds like a missed opportunity for a three way to me.

**Dakota Valkyrie** · May 27th, 2012, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by blacksheep

Sounds a little trigger happy to me.

They should have shouted they were psychiatrists and offered her alcoholism counseling and free medication.
Or waited until she jumped on them and started beating them before shooting her.
Or called the cops and they could have ordered her to sit on the front steps until they got there.

It's not trigger happy when a stranger is approaching you in the dark while you're in bed.
It's also obviously not illegal.

**blacksheep** · May 27th, 2012, 08:34 PM

Don't care how legal it is to shoot her. I'd still make a run for it or something.

**Dakota Valkyrie** · May 27th, 2012, 08:41 PM

Originally Posted by blacksheep

Don't care how legal it is to shoot her. I'd still make a run for it or something.

In my house, the bad guy would be between me and the door. I'd maim the person before I'd jump out the window and break myself. I prefer the asshat to be the one who gets hurt.

**blacksheep** · May 28th, 2012, 01:24 AM

I don't have a gun. This doesn't make me think that I am undefended. Most people don't have guns. These guys did, and we know why - the stalker/ex-patient. If I had a stalker I'd still avoid shooting him.

Hell I've got an ex-husband who lives still. I'm like a pope.

**HeatherHabilatory** · May 28th, 2012, 02:47 AM

I think maybe the whole getting shot thing might let Zoey know she has an alcohol problem. I agree, she was trespassig, but do we really need to charge her with it? She was shot, ffs. I'm glad she lived to be able to get her life together.

And if I could shoot my ex, I totally would. Save some poor girls the trouble.

**Whisper** · October 25th, 2012, 01:39 PM

Zoey Ripple, the recent CU graduate who was shot after wandering into the wrong home, may have been under the influence of a date-rape drug in addition to alcohol, her attorney maintains. Nonetheless, Ripple -- recently featured in a 20/20 report about drunk walking -- has pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal trespassing in a deal that will keep her out of jail.

As we noted in our most recent update about this case, published back in June, the charge is a felony that carries a potential penalty of five years behind bars. But as noted by the Boulder Daily Camera, prosecutors agreed to a deferred sentence. If Ripple stays out of trouble for the next eighteen months, the conviction will be expunged from her record.
[...]In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett said Justice wouldn't be charged with a crime, since his actions fit within Colorado's Make My Day statute. However, he subsequently decided to fit Ripple with a trespassing beef under the belief that it perfectly matched the circumstances. "It simply means you entered someone's house without their permission," he told us in an interview earlier this year.

"This is sort of an offshoot of the drinking culture on University Hill, where people wander into the wrong house for one reason or another," he added. "And the charge is a way to make sure we help the person get treatment for what may be a serious drinking problem. We want to help them get that under control."

Garnett stressed that his office hadn't determined if Ripple fit this description. But, he said, "when you have a young person with an apparent blood-alcohol content of .2, that's an indication. You have to work pretty hard to get to a .2."

Despite the assertions about potential drugging, Ripple has reportedly attended substance-abuse classes, and she says she hasn't had a drink since the May night when she was suddenly thrust into the limelight. Learn more in this Daily Camera clip recorded after the sentencing, followed by our previous coverage.

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword...d_sentence.php

**cubby** · October 25th, 2012, 08:37 PM

I think if i were that scared of a stalking patient, I would have made sure my doors were closed and locked, if they had been this stupid little girl would not have been able to get into the house. Not that that makes what she did right. Just sounds funny to me to be scared of being stalked and then leave your doors open and unlocked.