Colorado Criminal Defense Lawyer

A lot can be done with technology these days. Police can track the movements of anyone with a cell phone. They can, but under what circumstances do they actually do this and are they required to get a warrant ahead of time? The answers to those questions aren’t so clear. [Read More...]

In a period of seven years, there were at least 500 cases of mistaken-identity arrests in Denver, this according to a study from the ACLU and used in a lawsuit on behalf of some of those mistakenly detained in the Denver jail. Both the city and county of Denver are named in the lawsuit, which seeks compensation from people who were held for days and even weeks before the officials corrected their mistakes. [Read More...]

In 2002 Charles Farrar was convicted of several counts of sexual assault on a minor. The victim, his daughter, Sacha, accused him and her mother of “forcing her into sexual encounters from the age of eleven until she was fifteen,” according to Westword. Now nine years into his sentence, Farrar is appealing on the basis of inadequate representation and prosecutorial misconduct. [Read More...]

Two Denver police officers who were found to have used excessive force and later to have lied on their reports documenting the situation are now back in blue, working desk jobs with the Denver Police Department and likely hoping to make it back on the streets. A civil service hearing panel determined their firing was unjust this week, much to the dismay of the victims of their beating and nearly anyone who saw the video. [Read More...]

In the midst of more serious repercussions for misconduct, are officers with the Denver Police Department laying low, avoiding citizen contact whenever possible? The Denver Post suggests fear of discipline may be driving lower contact numbers across the city, though the union says there’s “no organized work slowdown.” [Read More...]

We’re only four months into 2011 and already six members of the Denver Police Department have been fired. Just this week two more were fired, not for their inappropriate uses of force (caught on camera here), but for lying about the incident after the fact. [Read More...]

Right now if you were to be stopped by the police for solicitation of a prostitute, you would be fined $75. This is less than the fine for littering. Lawmakers in Colorado are trying to change this imbalance by increasing penalties for prostitution customers, more commonly known as “johns”. [Read More...]

Passed through the Senate Finance Committee and now on to the Senate Appropriations Committee, a bill that would expand the Colorado hate crimes law may be on its way to the floor of the legislature if some get their way. The bill seeks to include “homeless people” amongst those populations protected by the law, an expansion that many find to be overreaching. [Read More...]

A several-time felon who had received multiple second chances is now charged with first degree murder in the death and mutilation of his sixteen year old neighbor girl. The Denver Post is reporting his case is an example on how budgetary constraints are forcing courts to release dangerous individuals who would be best served behind bars. While this may be true in this particular case, one shouldn’t forget that such tragedies are extremely rare. [Read More...]

The Police Chief and several other officials in Pueblo are up in arms over a book which states the town has the highest crime rate in all of Colorado. One look at this article from The Pueblo Chieftan reveals some interesting points—that perhaps the people in charge are paying a little too much attention to statistics and how they are viewed than the real problems. [Read More...]