drugs
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Colorado justices, 5-2, say police money used for drug deals not subject to crime victim restitution
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The Colorado Supreme Court, by 5-2, ruled on Monday that the state’s crime victim restitution law does not obligate defendants to repay law enforcement agencies for unrecovered money they use to buy drugs undercover. The government maintained the restitution law authorized the repayment of “buy money” because it was either “money advanced by law enforcement…
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Appeals court overturns Adams County drug convictions due to unconstitutional police conduct
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Colorado’s second-highest court overturned a man’s drug convictions and 25-year prison sentence on Thursday after concluding two Northglenn police officers unconstitutionally transformed a traffic stop into a drug investigation without reasonable suspicion of a crime. Clifton E. McRae, who was originally stopped for making an illegal turn, repeatedly declined to consent to a search of…
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Colorado justices ponder whether defendants must repay money police use for drug buys
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If undercover police officers buy drugs from a suspected drug dealer, but they let him leave with the money and never recover it, is the defendant obligated to repay the amount as crime victim restitution? Members of the Colorado Supreme Court grappled with the question on Thursday, with multiple justices wondering how the state’s restitution…
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Appeals court overturns Weld County drug convictions after officer gave improper testimony
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday overturned a man’s drug convictions and 36-year prison sentence because a law enforcement officer improperly testified the defendant had met the legal elements to be found guilty. An expert witness cannot “usurp” the jury’s role by testifying about the conclusion jurors should reach. The Court of Appeals has previously ordered…
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Appeals court clarifies defendants’ ability to claim they unknowingly ingested drugs
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Colorado’s second-highest court clarified on Thursday that not every criminal defendant’s claim that they mistakenly ingested a different drug than the drug they thought they were taking will enable them to argue they were “involuntarily intoxicated.” An El Paso County jury convicted Karl Jeran Friday Williams in 2022 after he walked through a Colorado Springs neighborhood…
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Colorado Supreme Court says license plate corresponding to other vehicle is grounds for stopping driver
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An Adams County deputy’s discovery that the license plates on a vehicle were registered to another car provided him the reasonable suspicion required to detain the driver, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. However, the justices stopped short of deeming the subsequent vehicle search constitutional, as the trial judge had not yet evaluated whether…
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Montezuma County man’s drug conviction overturned because prosecution presented skewed narrative
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Colorado’s second-highest court last week overturned a Montezuma County man’s drug conviction after concluding a judge allowed the prosecution to present a misleading version of what happened during the defendant’s arrest. At the 2022 trial of Ramon Alberto Dejesus III, jurors saw a series of largely muted videos depicting Dejesus’ arrest and booking into jail. At…
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Colorado Supreme Court ponders constitutionality of delayed vehicle search
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court suggested on Wednesday that Denver police could have moved more rapidly to obtain a search warrant for a man’s vehicle, but at the same time they doubted the delay amounted to a constitutional violation. A trial judge previously barred prosecutors from using evidence of narcotics found in Arthur Mills’…
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10th Circuit says no constitutional violation from Denver officers’ warrantless search of storage unit
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Denver police officers did not violate a man’s constitutional rights with their warrantless search of a storage locker he had been using without authorization in his apartment building, the federal appeals court based in Colorado ruled last month. Although the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit emphasized its Sept. 20 opinion hinged on specific shortcomings…
