Colorado woman faces charges in Castle Rock theft case; former friend calls her "cold and calculating"

She once ran a popular brewery in town, and was involved with the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce and local charity groups. But today she's behind bars, accused of stealing hundreds of thousands from people who trusted her. Lisa Miles has become infamous on Castle Rock social media pages, where users claim she lied and organized a variety of schemes.

Mike Hurdle has been on a mission to stop Lisa Miles for years.

"Everything you're doing here is because I brought you here. So now I'm like, I've got to do whatever I can to stop it," Mike said.

He first met Miles when she answered his ad for a roommate.

He later connected her to a Castle Rock networking group.

"I made that introduction to one of my clients that owned the brewery," Mike Hurdle said.

Miles began working at Burly Brewing and soon became a pillar of the Castle Rock business community, even winning an award from the Castle Rock Chamber.

Mike and his wife Jamie were friends with her for a while.

"When we were friends with her, she was very sweet, she was so helpful, very charismatic just somebody that you felt like she would give you the shirt off of her back," said Jamie Hurdle.

But cracks started to appear.

"We kind of started catching her in some lies about other things, and so I started doing research on the internet, and we found out her criminal past," said Jamie.

Mike and his wife Jamie learned Miles had a lengthy criminal history of fraud and forgery. Department of Corrections documents suggest she spent years incarcerated and was paroled in 2019.

Mike tried to warn others, but says his concerns fell on deaf ears, and that Lisa had spread lies to damage his reputation as a CPA.

"They thought he was the liar, and that Lisa was this wonderful, upstanding business person, pillar of the community," said Jamie. "He just kind of started losing clients very slowly, without a whole lot of explanation."

When one of Mike's clients passed away, he says Miles gained the trust of that man's widow and offered to manage her financial situation.

"It was just a bunch of red flags started popping up within, within three days of her husband passing, somebody kind of got 100% power of attorney," Mike said.

Mike tried to warn the widow, but says she never responded until one day her home was foreclosed on.

"I was like, 'I warned you.' I specifically sent you all kinds of information, mailed you information, told her she was going to do this," said Mike.

Mike says he helped the widow and discovered Miles had stolen $500,000 from her.

"I got involved in it and said, Give me all your bank accounts. And I tracked all the money. All of her accounts, all the withdrawals coming out of her joint account, into Lisa's account, transfers going over hundreds of thousands of dollars," Mike said. "She took everything she has to the point that we had to do fundraisers to try and save her house, and she still has to pay back those loans, and that $500,000 is gone."

Mike brought the evidence to police. After an investigation, a warrant for Lisa's arrest was issued.

But by then, no one knew where she was.

Until Feb. 17 of this year, when Jamie spotted Miles at a grocery store in town.

"I looked at my mom, and I said, That's Lisa," said Jamie. "I went outside, and I called the police, and I just let them know that she was there. (I said) 'There's a warrant for her arrest.'"

Castle Rock Police soon arrived and arrested Miles.

"I was really excited. I was just like, you know. Finally, hopefully there will be some justice," said Jamie.

She's charged with theft in the case of the widow and in another case where an affidavit alleges Lisa stole thousands in cash and gold coins from an older Castle Rock couple whose home she was cleaning.

"She's cold and calculating and just like a really scary person that can like look you in the eye and pretend to be your friend and pretend to be this wonderful, kind, caring person, and just without hesitation, will take everything from you for her own gain," said Jamie.

Miles is currently being held in the Elbert County Jail, with a $75,000 bond. Her next court appearance is on Thursday. It's a preliminary hearing in the Douglas County gold coins case.

CBS Colorado reached out to both of her public defenders for comment and did not hear back.