drugs
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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…
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Thornton officer’s unlawful search prompts appeals court to overturn Adams County drug conviction
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An Adams County judge wrongly allowed evidence from an unconstitutional search in a man’s trial, prompting Colorado’s second-highest court to overturn the drug conviction last month. Jurors convicted Thomas Sandoval of one count of drug possession, after a Thornton police officer discovered a small container of methamphetamine during a pat-down search for weapons. Sandoval appealed,…
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Colorado justices skeptical of combined murder-drug trial in Arapahoe County
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After an Arapahoe County jury convicted Joseph Wayne Washington of numerous charges related to a deadly shooting and drug possession, Washington argued there should have been separate trials for each type of offense, and that combining them was an error. In Washington’s view, jurors were more likely to reject his self-defense argument and convict him…
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Denver judge wrongly barred witness testimony, appeals court rules in reversing 64-year sentence
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A Denver judge incorrectly blocked a key witness from testifying at a man’s trial, prompting Colorado’s second-highest court to overturn the defendant’s convictions and 64-year prison sentence last week. Jurors convicted Amos Rogers in 2020 of assaulting a police officer, drug possession and carrying a prohibited large-capacity gun magazine, among other offenses. Rogers did not…
