Aurora Police Officer Charged With Raping Daughter Remains Free as Mom is Sent to Jail

A Colorado police officer, once hailed as a hero for his role in the 2012 Aurora movie theater shooting, now faces serious accusations of raping his own daughter when she was just 5 years old and physically abusing his son.

Despite these charges, he remains free, while the the mother of his children is jailed due to a custody dispute.

55-year-old Michael Hawkins, was charged in July with six felony counts of sexually assaulting a child, as well as a misdemeanor charge of child abuse. The alleged abuse spans nearly two decades, from 2002 to 2021.

In addition to the charges involving his daughter, Hawkins is accused of molesting the daughters of his ex-wife, Rachel Pickrel-Hawkins, and in one instance, holding their eldest son underwater until he nearly lost consciousness.

According to court documents obtained by the Denver Gazette, the boy believes this incident in 2018 was in retaliation for catching Hawkins inappropriately touching one of the girls.

Currently, Rachel has custody of their two youngest sons, ages 10 and 13, and the three of them are living in a domestic violence shelter. However, Hawkins is seeking custody of the boys through a court-ordered reunification therapy program.

While the program is designed to repair the children’s relationship with their father, Rachel has strongly objected, describing the sessions as “nothing but manipulation, psychological abuse,” and “coercion and gaslighting.”

In July, a judge ruled that Rachel was interfering with the process and ordered her to serve seven weekends in jail starting on August 31.

Meanwhile, Hawkins was released under GPS-monitored supervision after posting a $50,000 bail. Hawkins first gained public attention as one of the initial responders to the Aurora theater massacre, where 12 people were killed, and 70 others were injured.

During the shooter’s trial, he testified emotionally about carrying the body of a six-year-old girl from the scene. Hawkins, who later developed post-traumatic stress disorder, retired from the Aurora Police Department in 2018. He told his ex-wife that all of his problems stemmed from the theater shooting, according to the affidavit.

However, the first reported rape of his daughter took place in 2012, after his response to the theater shooting, although Rachel told investigators that many of these issues existed before that event. The sexual abuse of his daughter continued for years, as did the alleged sexual abuse of his ex-wife’s daughters, whom Hawkins had adopted.

Hawkins “adamantly denies the accusations,” according to his attorney Christopher Estoll, who claimed that his client has been cooperative with the investigation. Estoll emphasized that the legal process would allow Hawkins to present additional information to counter the allegations.

In an August 1 court filing, Estoll characterized Rachel as “not a credible witness” and “highly manipulative.”

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This is not the first time Hawkins has faced allegations of violence. 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 an officer.

Video evidence showed Hawkins kicking the woman’s head while other officers held her down. The city eventually settled the case by paying the woman $335,000 in damages and dropping the charges against her.