Domestic Violence Defense in Colorado

Alexis explains: "when someone's arrested for an act of domestic violence they're immediately taken to the jail they're put into the jail and they're held there without bond until a hearing can be set because in colorado with domestic violence cases to protect domestic violence victims the domestic violence laws say that you have to have a hearing to see whether or not this person gets a bond"

Alexis explains: "Once you've been arrested, your side of the story is best told in your defense attorney's office, not in the back of the squad car."

Alexis explains: "that's why we say it's a fast track program because it's the best way i describe it is it's kind of a hurry up and wait situation so when you're charged things will happen very very quickly"

Alexis explains: "during the time that the case is open you cannot own or possess guns at all you can't own a possession ammunition either so for the entire time the case is open no guns if you have a conviction that lasts for the rest of your life"

Alexis explains: "if you have a domestic violence conviction it can seriously impact your ability to negotiate for child custody if you're dealing with a child custody battle"

Alexis explains: "however domestic violence convictions are not eligible for sealing under the current colorado ceiling laws"

Alexis explains: "The police aren't there to mediate your relationship. They're there to collect the evidence to build a case against you."

Alexis explains: "But quite frankly, the only way that you're going to avoid deportation is if you are able to have an attorney negotiate on your behalf to have you plead to a non deportable offense."

Alexis explains: "basically a mini trial so the person the petitioner or the person who's requesting a protection order to enter will have to tell the magistrate all the reasons why they want to have a protection order issued they have to make sure that anything that they are trying to bring into court is actually already listed in the protection order so this is where we see people doing protection orders wrong quite a bit you have to contain everything you want within the four corners of the protection order hypothetically like you can add extra pages if you need to but everything that you're going to address in court has to be listed in that protection order if you go outside of what you wrote the the court isn't going to let you go into that"

A PPIR is part of how some domestic violence cases get evaluated for possible dismissal in Colorado Springs. Alexis explains: "there is a process called a ppir which is a pre-plea investigative report where you can actually talk to a counselor and see what the underlying situation entailed in a given case to see if it actually was an act of domestic violence". Alexis frames the PPIR as a pre-plea investigative report, where you talk to a counselor who looks at what the underlying situation actually entailed to see whether it was truly an act of domestic violence. She is careful to add that this is not the same as an automatic dismissal, noting she has never seen a victim recanting a case lead the district attorney to dismiss, because ultimately the district attorney has to do their own investigation to determine what happened.

Being a felon carries consequences well beyond the sentence itself, reaching into many parts of daily life. Alexis explains: "So, collateral consequences when it comes to felonies can be wide ranging. Can be impact on employment, getting jobs, getting certifications from the government. If you possess a professional license, it could prevent you from keeping that license and being able to work in a field of your choice. It can have an impact on trying to secure housing. And then also in the community, being a felon can have a stigma with family, friends, and the community that can have an impact on your life in addition to those that could be housing or employment. Travel to foreign countries can be impacted by a felony conviction." She calls these collateral consequences and describes them as wide ranging. They include employment, government certifications, professional licenses, securing housing, and even travel to foreign countries. She also notes a felony can carry a stigma with family, friends, and the community that affects your life on top of the housing and employment effects.

Jail exposure on a domestic violence case comes from two layers: the underlying charge and the domestic violence enhancement on top of it. Alexis explains that "domestic violence is actually a sentence enhancer" so the underlying charge drives the baseline. In her words, if you have an assault charged as a domestic violence offense, "that underlying assault is going to carry the penalties regarding how much jail time you could be facing". She adds that "domestic violence sentence enhancers in and of themselves carry significant consequences" that come in addition to the underlying charge. That is the exposure to weigh, and it is tied to the underlying charge plus the enhancer rather than being a fixed outcome.

Alexis explains: "there are also non-criminal aspects that you need to be aware of if you have a domestic violence conviction it can seriously impact your ability to negotiate for child custody if you're dealing with a child custody battle it can also have serious impacts on your ability to procure housing a lot of different grants and loans won't approve people with a domestic violence conviction even if it's for a misdemeanor level rather than a felony if you're in the military you can also face possibly being chaptered out and a lot of the times we see people who are building up their military career being dishonorably just discharged with a domestic violence conviction"

Alexis explains: "then they there is a hearing to determine whether or not that temporary protection order needs to be made permanent and in civil cases a civil protection order can be made permanent for a lifetime whereas a criminal protection order like we talked about before um those only last for the duration of the criminal case but a civil one can last forever"

Alexis explains: "the short answer is you can't there is no lifting of a criminal protection order when a case is open there are however ways to modify a protection order"

Alexis explains: "But if you have even a deferred sentence for domestic violence, because you have that plea of guilty that can trigger deportation."

Alexis explains: "now when you're looking at domestic violence convictions a conviction is not able to be sealed in the state of colorado however there are ways that if you are charged with domestic violence you can prevent that domestic violence conviction from entering and then eventually get the charges against you sealed the way that that works often is it will go through a process called a deferred sentence"

Alexis explains: "speaking of felony levels in colorado domestic violence charges also have a compounding effect which means if you are on your fourth conviction for domestic violence or if you're facing a fourth conviction the district attorney can actually file the sentence enhancer as a separate felony charge in other words your fourth conviction for a domestic violence charge in the state of colorado actually rises it to a felony level if you were just facing a misdemeanor you can still be looking at a felony if that is a fourth time that you're coming through the system on a domestic violence charge"

Alexis explains: "Now, there are some situations where judges can legally dismiss a case, if the statute of limitations was violated, or a DA has failed to meet their burden of proving the case against you, for the Miss targett. Those are ways of the judge can dismiss the case. But generally speaking, you can't say have a domestic violence case where yourself didn't want to call the cop doesn't want to press charges, but the state is still coming at you."

Alexis explains: "even though you could be charged with a misdemeanor level offense you're still getting felony level penalties with the removal of your gun rights"

Alexis explains: "even a one-night stand can be domestic violence because in that case there is a sexual component which is a very easy way for the law enforcement officers to jump right to intimate relationship another thing to be aware of is it doesn't matter how long or how far apart the dating was for the intimate relationship to be applied"

Alexis explains: "a lot of these domestic violence cases come up in the light of pending divorces um and so you know their tensions are high somebody one party or another might think that oh i'm going through a divorce and i might be able to get a leg up on my significant other or soon to be ex significant other by filing a domestic violence criminal case and that's that happens more often than you think"

Alexis explains: "unfortunately we've seen cases where very young children in high school or middle school are charged with acts of domestic violence because there is a proven case of an intimate relationship even without a sexual relationship you can also have an intimate relationship if you're casually dating someone but you're not engaging in any sexual acts but there's still that that intimacy there"

Alexis explains: "Now it cannot be hearsay statements. In other words, it can't be I heard that someone said, but if someone was directly there and witnessed something and then tell the police what they saw, that is evidence. So even though someone may be lying and saying something completely wrong, technically they are allowed to tell their side of the story and that is evidence that can be used against you."