‘Hero’ cop charged with sexually assaulting his daughter is awarded visitation

A retired Colorado police sergeant, who was once hailed a hero for his response to the Aurora movie theater mass shooting in 2012 has been charged with sexually assaulting his daughters – but a judge has allowed him visitation while throwing the victim’s mom behind bars in bitter custody battle.

Michael Hawkins, 55, faces criminal charges for allegedly raping his daughter and continually sexually assaulting her and his two adopted daughters, according to the Denver Gazette.

He was released in July on GPS-monitored supervision after posting a $50,000 bail.

Meanwhile, he ex-wife Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins is serving seven weekends behind bars for refusing to send their two sons, ages 10 and 13, to court-ordered reunification therapy with Hawkins.

The therapy was part  of their divorce proceedings that began before Hawkins was criminally charged with six felony counts of sexually assaulting a child and one misdemeanor count for child abuse. The last count is for abuse that allegedly lasted from 2002 to 2021.

Hawkins is accused of raping his daughter, now 17, when she was just 5 years old. She claimed that her father continually molested her throughout her childhood despite her protestations that he stop, according to court documents obtained by the Denver Gazette.

Pickrel-Hawkins’s two daughters, whom Hawkins adopted, also claim they were sexually abused by Hawkins.

The former cop is also accused of holding their son, now 19, underwater during a 2018 trip to Costa Rica, which the boy claims was in retaliation for confronting Hawkins about his alleged actions, according to court documents.

Hawkins was praised more than a decade ago when he responded to the tragic mass shooting at an Aurora movie theater that left 12 people dead and dozens injured. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and medically retired from the Aurora Police Department in 2018.

The alleged rape of his daughter started in 2012 after he responded to the shooting, but his ex-wife told investigators “many of the issues existed beforehand.”

Hawkins “adamantly denies the accusations,” his attorney Christopher Estoll told the Denver Post. “The legal process will provide him with the opportunity to present additional information related to these allegations in the future.”

For now, the former couple’s two sons remain in the custody of Pickrel-Hawkins, but they are living in a domestic violence shelter.

One of her many supporters set up a GoFundMe campaign that has raised nearly $70,000 as of Tuesday morning.

Pickrel-Hawkins posted a video on TikTok about completing her first weekend in jail. The jail time began August 31 and will conclude after seven weeks.

She was found in contempt of court after pushing back on the therapy, calling the sessions “nothing but manipulation, psychological abuse” and “coercion and gaslighting.”