search and seizure
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Divided appeals court upholds convictions despite ‘troubling and unfair’ contradictory police testimony
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
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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Appeals court overturns Adams County drug convictions due to unconstitutional police conduct
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
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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Federal judge bars evidence from pat-down, finds Sterling officer had no grounds to search motorist
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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Divided Colorado Supreme Court upholds police’s pat-down of man in ‘wrong place at the wrong time’
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…
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Colorado justices rule trunk search constitutional in Arapahoe County shooting case
The Colorado Supreme Court reversed an Arapahoe County judge on Monday who found law enforcement conducted an unconstitutional search of a man’s trunk, with the justices instead concluding police had grounds to believe a recently fired gun was inside. Prosecutors have charged Sheron Mario Furness with seven criminal counts related to drug and weapon possession,…
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10th Circuit: Sheriff’s deputies have no immunity for letting dog attack Highlands Ranch man
‘What are you talking about?’ Judge Gregory Phillips asked the deputies’ lawyer after hearing argument that it may have been reasonable if the dog had bitten a child
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10th Circuit rules Denver police acted constitutionally by taking bullet removed from man
Denver police did not violate the constitutional prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures by obtaining a bullet, without a warrant, that was removed from a man’s leg and later used as evidence against him, the Colorado-based federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. Law enforcement responded to an office building in the Cherry Creek neighborhood where…
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Lakewood police acted unconstitutionally in using drug detection dog, Supreme Court rules by 5-2
Lakewood police violated the constitutional prohibition on unreasonable searches by ensuring a driver’s door remained open so a drug detection dog could sniff inside the vehicle without probable cause, the Colorado Supreme Court concluded on Monday. In the 5-2 decision, all justices agreed with the principle that law enforcement conducts a search if they “facilitate”…