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EAGLE, Colo. ” A former cook at Breakfast in America in El Jebel was found not guilty of sexually harassing a co-worker by an Eagle County jury last week.

Javier Vasquez was accused of pushing a 17-year-old waitress into the men’s bathroom of the restaurant in July and biting her on her shoulder, according to his attorney, Ted Hess. The accusation of sexual harass­ment was corroborated by another woman who worked at the restaurant, Hess said.



Vasquez, 32, of New Castle, testified that the July inci­dent unfolded in an entirely different way. He said the waitress called him into the men’s room after her shirt got covered with a large amount of ketchup. She asked him to turn on a water faucet so she could rinse the ketchup off.

Vasquez said he was annoyed because he was busy cooking at the time, but he sprinted to the men’s room to turn on the faucet, then slipped on the wet floor and accidentally touched the waitress, according to Hess.




Vasquez contended that the waitress and the other female worker at the restaurant fabricated the sexual harassment claim to get him fired. Vasquez had previ­ously complained about the two women to the restau­rant owner.

Vasquez was arrested after an investigation by the Eagle County Sheriff’s Office. Eagle County Judge Katharine Sullivan presided over the trial.

DENVER (AP) ” A week after decertifying electron­ic voting machines used in many of the state’s largest counties, Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman said Wednesday that he favors using paper ballots for the 2008 presidential election.

“I have more confidence in having votes cast on paper ballots at the polls rather than relying exclusive­ly on electronic voting machines or in voting by mail,” he said in a written statement.

It would be up to lawmakers to decide if they want to scrap electronic voting, Coffman said.

Some county clerks had told state lawmakers they preferred an all-mail election in 2008, because they can’t afford new voting machines or the time to train workers to use new machines.

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