fourth amendment
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10th Circuit finds Denver officers unconstitutionally searched man
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The Colorado-based federal appeals court concluded last week that Denver officers lacked reasonable suspicion when they detained a group of people who happened to park on a public street near a vehicle used by a shooter 12 hours prior and several miles away. Prosecutors indicted one member of the group, Noah Huerta, for being a…
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Divided appeals court upholds convictions despite ‘troubling and unfair’ contradictory police testimony
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Colorado’s second-highest court upheld a man’s convictions for unlawful possession of a firearm on Thursday, even as the majority acknowledged it was potentially unfair that a Denver officer testified to a different sequence of events at trial than earlier in the case. Matthew Torres attempted to exclude from trial the evidence of a handgun in…
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Appeals court finds Wheat Ridge officer lacked probable cause to arrest defendant
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday concluded a Wheat Ridge officer lacked probable cause to arrest a man because the information suggesting criminal activity was too minimal to act upon. Corporal Jeremy Schmitz was patrolling a truck stop off of Interstate 70 when he encountered a Toyota 4Runner that a database identified as stolen. The vehicle…
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10th Circuit hears Denver, officer’s request to overturn $14M jury verdict after 2020 protests
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Members of the Colorado-based federal appeals court considered on Wednesday whether a judge committed errors in the 2022 civil trial where jurors found Denver liable for $14 million for violating the constitutional rights of protesters. In the first lawsuit of many to culminate in a jury trial, 12 plaintiffs largely succeeded in arguing Denver’s own…
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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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Appeals court overturns carjacking-related convictions after evidence error
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Colorado’s second-highest court overturned some of a defendant’s carjacking-related convictions on Thursday, finding Arapahoe County prosecutors failed to establish that his text messages apparently confessing to the crime were admissible as evidence. The three-judge Court of Appeals panel also concluded the search warrant used to obtain information from T-Mobile was unconstitutionally broad, with some judges…
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Colorado Supreme Court takes no issue with 3-day delay in obtaining vehicle search warrant
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday found no constitutional problem with a Denver detective waiting three days to obtain a search warrant for a vehicle seized by law enforcement, and it created a new test for determining when such delays become unreasonable. The prosecution and the defense acknowledged to the state’s justices that the U.S. Supreme…
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Federal judge bars evidence from pat-down, finds Sterling officer had no grounds to search motorist
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A federal judge barred evidence from a pat-down search from being used against a defendant on Monday, concluding a Sterling police officer violated the man’s rights by searching him without a legal basis. Federal prosecutors indicted Jorge Sigala-Baray for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Police discovered the gun on Sigala-Baray after pulling him over for…
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Colorado Supreme Court accepts cases on police interrogation, mid-trial appeal
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The Colorado Supreme Court recently announced it will determine whether a convicted defendant should receive a new trial after detectives interrogated him without probable cause and while executing a narrow order to obtain his DNA. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to take up a case on appeal. The justices also…
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Divided Colorado Supreme Court upholds police’s pat-down of man in ‘wrong place at the wrong time’
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The Colorado Supreme Court decided on Tuesday that police had not unlawfully seized a man when they patted him down in a chance encounter after he suddenly appeared outside the motel room where they were preparing to make an arrest. By 5-2, the justices believed Oscar Jonas Ganaway consented to the pat-down search, which resulted in…
