child sex abuse
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Colorado Supreme Court says Boulder County judge could not order DA to pay for defense lawyer’s costs
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A Boulder County judge exceeded her authority by ordering the district attorney’s office to pay a defense lawyer’s costs for deleting an improperly shared image, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The DA’s office sought the justices’ intervention after District Court Judge Dea M. Lindsey allowed defense counsel to recover nearly $3,000 from the…
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El Paso County sex assault convictions overturned due to judge’s incorrect competency ruling
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Colorado’s second-highest court last month vacated a man’s 15-year-old convictions for sexually assaulting a child, finding an El Paso County judge made a flawed determination that the defendant was competent to stand trial. In doing so, a three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals cautioned it may not be feasible to determine now whether Theodore William…
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Despite trial error, 10th Circuit upholds Mesa County man’s child sex convictions
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Although a trial judge wrongly permitted jurors to see a 9-year-old video of a child victim’s accusations, the federal appeals court based in Denver upheld the sex-related convictions of a Mesa County man last month. Michael Tracy McFadden was originally convicted in state court for sexually assaulting multiple children, including on trips out of state through his…
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Boulder County judge wasn’t obligated to bail out self-represented defendant, appeals court rules
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Colorado’s second-highest court concluded last month that a criminal defendant in Boulder County was not unfairly forced to choose between his rights to a speedy trial and to an attorney, and, when he elected to go without an attorney, the trial judge was not obligated to save him from his own poor performance. Jurors convicted Timothy…
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Colorado Supreme Court rebuffs inadequate challenge from DA’s office to trial judge’s order
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday refused to overturn a Fremont County judge’s order barring prosecutors from using a defendant’s statements at his trial, citing the district attorney’s office’s failure to address one of the key legal issues. The 6-1 decision marked the second time in two weeks the state’s highest court shot down an…
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El Paso County child sex assault convictions reversed after appeals court finds errors
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A man convicted of multiple child sex offenses will receive a new trial after Colorado’s second-highest court determined his defense lawyers likely contributed to the guilty verdict by failing to object to damaging testimony about the defendant’s other, uncharged misconduct. An El Paso County jury in 2013 found Daniel C. Oliver guilty of felony sex…
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Colorado Supreme Court strikes down law benefitting child sex abuse survivors
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The Colorado Supreme Court slammed the door on Tuesday to victims who endured child sex abuse years or decades in the past, striking down a recent law that empowered survivors to sue their perpetrators and the institutions that harbored them. The decision was a victory for organizations, such as the Catholic Church, public schools and…
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Colorado Supreme Court expands prosecutors’ ability to introduce children’s hearsay testimony
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In a pair of rulings addressing out-of-court statements from child victims, the Colorado Supreme Court on Monday made it easier for prosecutors to introduce hearsay evidence against defendants accused of sexually assaulting minors. Out-of-court testimony aimed at proving the truth is generally inadmissible at trial, as defendants cannot cross-examine the witness in front of jurors.…
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Colorado Supreme Court faces ‘difficult’ question of whether to shut window on child sex abuse survivors
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday stared down two possibilities: If it deems a 2021 law designed to help survivors of childhood sex abuse unconstitutional, many victims will have no avenue to hold their abusers or the institutions that harbored them legally liable. On the other hand, if the court upholds the law, then schools,…
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Former Colorado city councilman sentenced to probation for child sex crimes
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A former Craig city councilman will avoid jail time after he was caught trying to solicit sex from an underaged girl online. Brian MacKenzie, 50, was sentenced Friday to 10 years of probation in Colorado’s Sex Offender Intensive Supervision Program. He will register as a sex offender and participate in sex offender treatment, the First…
