Northern Colorado Gazette

by Peter Grady –

 

A man with ties to the Democratic Party in Colorado who allegedly assaulted an elderly petition gatherer for Personhood USA and broke his hip may have wished he had been a little more coolheaded after his DNA was used to tie him to multiple unsolved sexual assault crimes in the state.

 

William Costello, a real estate broker with ties to some of the state’s top political figures in the Democratic Party was charged after his DNA was found to match that of an attacker on several women in unsolved sexual assault cases from 2008, 2010 and 2011.

 

The Denver Post reported  when Costello was arrested by authorities, he was driving the SUV of Democratic political strategist Mike Stratton to deliver campaign signs in Durango.

 

Costello is also friends with former Colorado Democratic Governor Dick Lamm, who once asserted that elderly people have a “duty to die and get out of the way.” Lamm has also called for healthcare rationing and complained that many elderly people feel entitled to have taxpayers fund medical procedures that will prolong their life.

 

Costello is accused of sexually assaulting a 13 year old teenage girl in 2008, a 22 year woman in 2010 and a 49 year old woman in 2011. Authorities subsequently charged him with two counts of second degree kidnapping, two accounts of sexual assault on a child and three counts of sexual assault. He was also charged with two counts of impersonating a police officer for allegedly claiming he was a police officer during two of the attacks.

 

Costello’s arrest on Nov. 5 came about as a result of an unlikely related event.

 

On June 30, Everett Stadig, a 69 year old petition gatherer for Personhood USA was thrown off his bicycle by Costello while gathering signatures for the personhood amendment outside of a King Soopers in Denver, resulting in injuries that required surgery to replace part of his hip.

 

The measure, which would have defined a person as beginning at the moment of conception narrowly missed being placed on the ballot this year.

 

Stadig had stopped outside of a grocery store and was inviting people to sign the Personhood petition. A woman indicated she was interested in signing; she said she had to return to the store, but would sign it when she came out. While Stadig waited for her, a man came by who was also invited to sign the petition.

 

 

Stadig said the man, who police later identified as Costello, refused to sign and began to swear at him, yelling that he was pro-choice.

 

Costello initially walked away, however, he returned about a half a minute later, still yelling and swearing.

 

“He said, ‘You don’t have a right to be here!’” Stadig related, “I said, ‘I do have a right to be here, this is a Colorado Petition Drive’. Then he grabbed my petition pad, and threw me to ground. I was hurt so bad I couldn’t get up.”

 

Following the attack, Stalig struck the ground so hard he broke his hip. According to Stadig there were around 10-20 people present. Although several people witnessed the assault, no one tried to stop Costello because it happened so quickly.

 

“It happened so fast, and they were too far away,” Stadig explained.

 

Costello then left, without bothering to see if his victim, a senior citizen, was injured or not.

 

 

“After he threw me off the bicycle, he proceeded to leave,” Stadig said. “I was trying to get people to call the police and to get the man’s license plate number, because I couldn’t do it.” Eventually a woman came forward, took the man’s license plate, and wrote a report.

 

Stadig later learned that his hip had separated and he needed to get a replacement ball socket. While in the hospital he continued to gather signatures for the Personhood measure.

 

Police subsequently arrested Costello and charged him with assault on an at-risk adult because of Stadig’s age. In Colorado, the state’s Katie’s Law requires DNA samples to be taken from every suspected felon upon their arrest, rather than their conviction.

 

When Costello’s DNA was ran through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s database it matched the previously unsolved assaults.

 

 

Jennifer Mason, a spokesperson with Personhood USA, said Costello’s actions show he has no respect for the personhood rights of anyone, regardless of age.

 

 

“William Costello stands accused as a serial rapist, and as the perpetrator of unthinkable harm,” Mason said. “Not only did he make it abundantly clear to Everett Stadig that he was violently opposed to the personhood rights of innocent children, he is accused of a violent denial and violation of the personhood rights of his victims, as well.”

 

 

Following Costello’s attack, Planned Parenthood and other members of the pro-abortion community chose not to come forward and express condemnation for the attack on Stadig.

 

 

The silence bears an eerily similarity to another attack on a pro-lifer who, like Stadig, is not a leader in the movement.

 

In 2009, James Poulion an elderly pro-life supporter was murdered while in a wheelchair outside of a local school in Owosso, Michigan. The Detroit News reported that authorities believed Poulion was killed because the shooter was offended by the literature the wheelchair-bound man had displayed.

 

In the days that followed the shooting there was no outcry from the pro-abortion community condemning the murder.

 

By contrast, whenever there have been attacks on abortion providers, including the murder of George Tiller, the pro-life community quickly came out condemning the murder and announcing they were praying for the family of the victims.

 

The lack of condemnation for the shooting was defended by a reporter for Truecrimereport.com. Pete Kotz, writing on the reason there was no outrage over Poulion’s murder said he was not sympathetic and people would “probably be extending it to more worthy candidates.”

 

 

The Democratic Party has increasingly taken a stronger stand on the abortion issue. Previous party platforms called for abortion to be “safe, legal and rare.” However, this year the Democratic Party Platform removed the word “rare.”

 

The party also defeated an attempt by pro-life Democrats to add language that would have acknowledged there was a difference of opinion among Democrats about the issue.

 

 

 

While many media outlets noted the Republican pro-life plank did not mention an exception for rape, they failed to note that the Democratic plank advocating for abortion does not contain any exceptions either.

 

Previous DNC planks on the issue affirm the right of a woman to have an abortion, regardless of ability to pay and provide no exceptions for prohibiting any type of abortion, including partial birth abortion or abortions based on the infant’s sex or race.

 

 

President Obama’s stance on abortion is so strong that while a state senator in Illinois he opposed a bill that would have provided legal protection and the right to medical care to a child who survived an abortion. In stating his opposition to the bill, Obama said it would cause an “undue burden on the mother,” to provide care to a living child who had been delivered.

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