felony
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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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Appeals judge decries inability for defendant to challenge his ‘three-strikes’ sentence
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A member of Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday registered his discomfort with a defendant’s inability to challenge his lengthy prison sentence that was a product of the state’s “three strikes” law. Obdulio Arvelo is serving 48 years in prison for a 2011 theft-related conviction. The sentence resulted from Arvelo’s designation as a “habitual criminal,” meaning…
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10th Circuit rules defendant wrongly convicted for gun possession
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The Denver-based federal appeals court ruled last week that a man sentenced to 48 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm was not, in fact, prohibited from having a gun. Prosecutors indicted Omari Davis for a violation of the federal prohibition on possessing a gun after being convicted of a…
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Appeals court interprets ambiguous phrase in Colorado’s criminal records sealing law
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Colorado’s second-highest court last month interpreted for the first time an ambiguous phrase in a 2019 law, and concluded a man convicted two decades ago for securities fraud was not entitled to have his criminal records sealed. Lawmakers enacted House Bill 1275 nearly five years ago to increase the availability of records-sealing for people convicted of less serious…
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‘Why are we here?’ Colorado justices skeptical of state’s push to uphold woman’s conviction
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday struggled to understand why prosecutors remained opposed to overturning a woman’s trespassing conviction, even as both sides agreed the conviction would not stand under current law. The constitutional prohibition on double jeopardy protects defendants from being prosecuted again for the same offense following acquittal, but also from…
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Colorado Supreme Court rejects expanded role for juries in analyzing prior convictions
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the argument that juries should be the ones who increase the severity of a defendant’s convictions by evaluating prior convictions – meaning judges alone retain the authority to transform a misdemeanor into a felony in some instances. The question of whether juries should decide beyond a reasonable doubt whether…
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Appeals court orders prison riot charges reinstated against Fremont County inmate
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday concluded a trial judge and a magistrate in Fremont County both mistakenly dismissed prison rioting charges against an incarcerated man when they should have found probable cause existed to proceed to trial. During a preliminary hearing in the case of Dreion M. Dearing, where the prosecution needed to demonstrate probable…
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Colorado Supreme Court shows interest in divorce case, man’s 14-month confinement
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The Colorado Supreme Court signaled recently that it may intervene in a pair of cases – one involving a divorce between a Colorado resident and a Nebraska resident, and the other challenging a defendant’s 14-month confinement before trial. In the first case, Jeffry H. Green and Barbara Green filed for divorce on the same day…
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Felony status for indecent exposure in front of children passes Colorado legislature
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Indecent exposure is the only child sex crime in Colorado classified as a misdemeanor, instead of a felony. But that will soon change if Gov. Jared Polis signs a new bill into law. House Bill 1135 would make it a felony crime if a person over the age of 18 exposes or touches their genitals for…
