hearsay
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Colorado Supreme Court orders 2 new trials where prosecutors presented misleading evidence
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed new trials were necessary in a pair of cases where judges allowed prosecutors to present a skewed narrative to jurors by omitting evidence that suggested the defendants had not committed the charged offenses. The link between Jacob Vanderpauye’s case in Boulder County and Charles Joseph McLaughlin’s in Arapahoe…
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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 critical of prosecutors’ misleading presentation of evidence
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday pushed back against the notion that prosecutors can paint a misleading picture of a criminal defendant’s guilt by shielding the jury from evidence the defendant did not commit an offense after all. In a pair of cases argued before the justices, the government asserted the state’s Court…
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Colorado appeals court overturns menacing conviction due to Boulder County judge’s error
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Colorado’s second-highest court last week overturned a woman’s felony menacing conviction because a Boulder County judge effectively barred jurors from hearing evidence suggesting she acted to defend herself against a sexual assault. In Michelle Nicole Couch’s 2019 trial, jurors learned that Couch had twice pulled a knife on the alleged victim while the two were…
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Colorado appeals court upholds man’s convictions despite juror who ‘wouldn’t give him a fair trial’
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday declined to overturn a man’s convictions for sexually assaulting multiple children despite one juror disclosing that she “wouldn’t give him a fair trial.” Joseph Lee Davis is serving a sentence in excess of 600 years for grooming, raping or enticing seven boys over a span of two decades. Davis raised…
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State Supreme Court wades through rules on child testimony in sex assault cases
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Out-of-court statements, known as hearsay, are typically not admissible at trial because a defendant cannot cross-examine the person making the comments. However, Colorado’s legislature has provided an exception for children in sex abuse cases. Their hearsay statements are allowed generally if they are younger than 15 or, in the alternative, whatever age is specifically mentioned…
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Appeals court overturns convictions after improper Colorado Springs police testimony
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A Colorado Springs detective told jurors that the same day Christopher D. Fiers allegedly assaulted a friend, Fiers had canceled his subscription for his Nest home security camera system and no video of the incident existed. Fiers was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Now, the state’s second-highest court has overturned Fiers’ convictions…
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State Supreme Court agrees to scrutinize law involving testimony from child victims
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The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to review a pair of cases that call into question how old a child victim must be for their statements outside of the courtroom to be admissible at trial. The first appeal from Dennis R. Chirinos-Raudales comes in the wake of his 2017 convictions for sexually assaulting a child. The trial…
