Body-worn Camera
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Colorado Supreme Court finds judge mistakenly barred evidence over officer’s failure to unmute body cam
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A Fremont County judge incorrectly barred evidence from being used against a defendant based upon a Cañon City officer’s failure to unmute his body-worn camera, the Colorado Supreme Court decided on Monday. Under a comprehensive police accountability law enacted in 2020, law enforcement officers are generally required to wear and use body-worn cameras when interacting with…
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Appeals court reinstates felony charge, reverses Denver judge’s sanction on prosecution
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Colorado’s second-highest court ordered a Denver judge on Thursday to reinstate a defendant’s felony charge, finding she improperly reduced the severity as a sanction for an officer’s deletion of his body-worn camera footage. Prosecutors charged Russell K. Barnes with vehicular eluding, after police attempted to stop a Toyota 4Runner registered to Barnes but discontinued their…
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Lakewood must release police body cam footage of teen’s fatal shooting, appeals court rules
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that Lakewood is obligated to release body-worn camera footage of police fatally shooting a 17-year-old girl, notwithstanding her surviving family’s objections. A three-judge Court of Appeals panel interpreted a key transparency requirement in Colorado’s landmark police accountability law from 2020. Judge Timothy J. Schutz wrote that legislators crafted “a…
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Federal, state judges give the do’s and don’ts of criminal appeals | APPELLATE UPDATE
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Members of the state and federal appeals courts based in Denver spoke to attorneys on Friday about strategies for properly litigating criminal appeals, including how to make arguments based on body-worn camera footage. Justice Brian D. Boatright, Judge Karl L. Schock of the Court of Appeals and Judge Gregory A. Phillips of the U.S. Court…
