2 arrested for charging drinks to dead friend

DENVER - Two men accused of driving around with a dead friend, using his ATM card and visiting a strip club are charged with abusing a corpse, identity theft and criminal impersonation.

Robert Jeffrey Young and Mark Rubinson are free on bond but they couldn't be reached for comment Thursday.

It's unclear how Jeffrey Jarrett died, but the men are not charged in his death. The cause of death is pending toxicology tests.

The Denver Post reports that in a less amusing real-life version of the film "Weekend at Bernie's," an affidavit accuses Young and Rubinson of leaving Jarrett's body in the car while they drank at a bar on his tab Aug. 27.

Investigators allege the men stopped at a restaurant, returned Jarrett's body to his home, used Jarrett's ATM card and withdrew $400 at the strip club Shotgun Willie's before reporting Jarrett's death.

Jarrett was described as a loving father, who was a graduate of Colorado State University and a hockey player, a member of Jarrett's family told CBS Station KCNC.

"Taking a deceased person in a car, I mean, it just seems totally wrong," the family member (who did not wish to be identified) told KCNC.

His family wants to find out how he died, and whether he could have been saved if Young had called for help rather than going out for a night on the town.

"This is a bizarre and unfortunate crime," Denver Police Department spokesman Sonny Jackson told KCNC. "This isn't anything you want to have happen to a loved one."