search and seizure
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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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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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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…
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Colorado justices rule trunk search constitutional in Arapahoe County shooting case
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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
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‘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
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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
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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”…
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Appeals court rules Denver ordinance’s constitutionality has no bearing on lawfulness of arrest
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that regardless of whether a plaintiff could later show Denver’s ordinance was unconstitutional, arresting officers were acting with probable cause at the time and could not be held liable. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals pointed to a 1979 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court that indicated…
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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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Federal judge dismisses man’s claims against Jeffco SWAT officers for home raid
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A federal judge last month dismissed a man’s claims that Jefferson County SWAT team members violated his constitutional rights by forcefully entering his home with little warning, damaging the apartment and removing him half-naked while they executed a search warrant. Lance P. Schendorf is serving a 20-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him in…