Denver Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog

The first things that tend to come to mind when we think about sexual assault are rape and molestation. However, Colorado law is severe regarding nearly any kind of unwanted sexual contact. Someone convicted of a lower-level sexual assault crime may have to undergo extensive treatment and possibly register as a sex offender.

While no one should be touched inappropriately, it may seem that such aggressive tactics are out of proportion with the severity of the alleged conduct. An example from another state is a man charged with felony sexual assault following an incident where another man began a fistfight with him for allegedly touching the buttocks of the second man's girlfriend.

A Colorado man charged with DUI whose blood sample appears to have been among the thousands that were mishandled by the state agency charged with providing accurate blood-alcohol content readings lost a court appeal to have a private BAC test used in his case instead. The private reading would have meant that the man could have avoided certain penalties for those convicted of DUI with a high BAC.

Readers probably recall that the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, which handles blood testing for most state law enforcement agencies, admitted in March that one of its technicians had improperly tested around 1,700 samples. At least two of the affected samples allegedly produced BACs that were too high, meaning that all of them potentially could be challenged in court. The agency fired the technician and said it was retesting all of the samples.

Colorado state law generally requires police officers to make an arrest when they respond to a call of domestic violence and have probable cause to believe that abuse occurred when they arrive at the scene. This can be true even in cases when it is not immediately clear who initiated the incident and who was merely defending him- or herself by fighting back.

In a recent example of a suspected domestic violence incident that illustrates how difficult it can be to determine who to charge, a man and woman both suffered gunshot injuries after an argument in the couple's vehicle allegedly turned violent on May 25.

Readers in the Denver area have probably heard that the defense in the Jerry Sandusky sexual assault trial closed its case on June 20. Closing arguments by both sides were scheduled for the morning of June 21, with jurors expected to begin deliberations early in the afternoon. But before that happened, the judge presiding over the trial dismissed three charges against Sandusky, offered limiting instructions on a fourth count and told the jurors that under the law they must find Sandusky committed "an act of lust" in any particular incident with the alleged young victims to convict based on that incident.

Sandusky, a longtime assistant football coach at Penn State University, was charged with 51 counts of molesting and sexually assaulting 10 boys over a number of years. But after defense attorneys wrapped up their case, the judge dismissed three charges against Sandusky. Two of the charges of sexual intercourse with a minor were dropped because there was no evidence of penetration. The judge ruled that another charge was redundant with another count against Sandusky and dropped it as well. During trial, the judge dismissed another count, bringing the total number for the jury to consider to 47.

Disgraced former presidential candidate John Edwards will not face further charges related to payments made to his former mistress after the jury in his criminal trial acquitted him of one charge and deadlocked on the five remaining charges on May 31. Several days later, federal prosecutors announced in a court order that they would not pursue a second trial on the deadlocked charges.

Colorado readers probably recall our April 12 post, in which we discussed the white collar charges against Edwards. The former North Carolina senator was accused of drawing from campaign donations to his 2008 presidential run to give his then-mistress nearly $1 million in gifts, while his wife Elizabeth Edwards was undergoing treatment for the cancer that took her life in 2010. Edwards admitted to making the payments but said the money was separate from campaign funds and denied breaking the law. But the Justice Department accused Edwards of illegally converting campaign contributions to personal property.

The father of a former student at an exclusive Denver-area prep school is speaking out about what he says was an unfair decision to expel his son and two classmates over a sexual incident involving a female student at a New Year's Eve party. The girl later claimed the encounter was coerced but prosecutors declined to charge the male students with sexual assault. However, Kent Denver, the prep school all four students attended, expelled the male students.

According to news reports, the students attended an overnight trip to Vail to celebrate the New Year's holiday with several classmates. At some point in the evening, the female student bumped into the three male students and agreed to meet them at a hot tub at a nearby hotel later on.

As in other states, Colorado law generally prohibits residents who have a felony conviction on their record from owning or possessing a gun. However, Colorado has an exception to the rule that allows those with a felony record to have a firearm for purposes of self-defense or defending their home or other property.

That law came into play when a 52-year-old Greeley man was found not guilty of a gun charge by a Weld County jury on May 30. The charge was in connection with a confrontation at the man's home that ended in a shooting in May 2011. No one was injured in the incident, but police confiscated the .40 caliber handgun as evidence while investigating. A few months later, Greeley police had not returned the gun, so the defendant went to a police station to claim it.

He was arrested on the spot, with officers pointing to a 1988 conviction for attempted sale of stolen car parts as justification.

Police in Denver say that a man they arrested on June 4 was behind the wheel in a hit and run collision that killed a University of Denver student in late May, though they admit the suspect does not own the Jeep they say was the vehicle in the accident. A police spokesman was evasive when asked what led officers to conclude that the suspect was involved in the accident.

"I hate to be coy," the spokesman said. "But quite frankly we made the arrest based on who we believe was driving."

The accident took place near DU campus on May 31. A 24-year-old man who was a student at the university was walking a bicycle through a crosswalk late that night when an SUV struck him. The man was thrown 100 feet by the impact, police said. He was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.