A charge involving domestic violence in Colorado involves a criminal offense between people who share or previously shared an intimate relationship. Those allegations can lead to an arrest, a mandatory protection order, restrictions that affect your daily life, and additional consequences if you receive a conviction. Your attorney can investigate the incident, challenge the prosecution’s evidence, guide you through the court process, and pursue a dismissal, negotiated resolution, or acquittal to minimize the harshness of the consequences associated with domestic violence charges.
At The Law Offices of Susan Deschler, you work directly with an attorney with decades of legal experience. Susan previously served as a Clear Creek County Deputy District Attorney, giving her firsthand insight into how prosecutors evaluate evidence and pursue criminal charges. She provides personalized defense representation in Clear Creek, Gilpin, Grand, Eagle, Jefferson, and Summit counties, as well as in nearby municipal courts.
What Charges Can Involve Domestic Violence in Colorado?
Colorado treats alleged violence against a current or former intimate partner as domestic violence. The Colorado domestic violence statute also applies when someone allegedly commits a crime against a person, property, or animal to coerce, control, punish, intimidate, or seek revenge against an intimate partner. The specific conduct determines the criminal charge.
Colorado’s definition of an intimate relationship generally covers:
- Current romantic partners,
- Former romantic partners, and
- Parents who share a child.
Depending on what allegedly occurred, a domestic violence case generally may involve charges such as:
- Assault—causing bodily injury;
- Harassment—striking, shoving, kicking, repeatedly contacting, or directing certain obscene language or gestures at an intimate partner;
- Menacing—placing or attempting to place an intimate partner in fear of imminent serious bodily injury;
- Criminal mischief—damaging a partner’s phone, vehicle, furniture, or other property to punish, intimidate, control, or seek revenge against that person;
- False imprisonment—preventing an intimate partner from leaving a room, home, or vehicle; and
- Stalking—repeatedly following, approaching, contacting, or monitoring an intimate partner.
For each charge, prosecutors must prove the conduct, state of mind, and other elements required for that particular offense to convict you. The criminal charge establishes the potential sentence, while a domestic violence finding can add a protection order, evaluation and treatment requirements, and related consequences.
What Happens After a Domestic Violence Arrest?
When an officer has probable cause to believe you committed a domestic violence offense, Colorado law generally requires the officer to arrest you without undue delay. The officer takes you into custody, removes you from the scene, and takes you to jail. A judge then determines whether you can leave custody, sets a bond, and imposes rules that you must follow while the charge remains pending.
During the first stages of the court process:
- A judge sets bond and release conditions as well as requiring you to appear for future hearings. The judge may impose conditions which include that you avoid alcohol or controlled substances, submit to monitoring, or follow other conditions while you remain out of custody.
- The court issues a mandatory protection order that prohibits you from harassing, intimidating, retaliating against, or tampering with the alleged victim or a witness.
- The court may impose additional restrictions, such as ordering you to avoid contact with the protected person, leave a shared home, stay away from certain locations, or refrain from possessing firearms or other weapons.
Even if they want to, the protected person cannot change the protective order or permit you to contact them. If that person calls, sends a message, visits you, or invites you home, responding may still violate the order and result in another criminal charge.
How Can You Defend Against Domestic Violence Charges?
A defense strategy that takes Colorado domestic violence laws into account must address the underlying charge, the domestic violence allegation, and the evidence available in your case. Your attorney builds your defense by comparing the accusations with the evidence and identifying what prosecutors can prove.
Depending on what occurred, you may defend against the charges by proving:
- You acted in self-defense or defended another person;
- You acted out of necessity;
- You did not commit the alleged act;
- You did not have the intent required for the charge or an accident caused the injury or damage;
- The relationship is not intimate; or
- It fails to meet the definition of domestic violence.
Responding to false domestic violence accusations typically requires an attorney’s help to create a comprehensive defense strategy. I work with you to compare accounts, examine communications, locate witnesses, inspect physical evidence, and identify facts that undermine the allegations against you.
How Can a Domestic Violence Case Play Out?
The underlying criminal offense determines whether a conviction can result in probation, jail, prison, fines, restitution, or other sentencing requirements. The seriousness of any injury, the value of damaged property, the use of a weapon, your intent, and your criminal history may affect the charge and sentence.
If the court finds that an offense the state charges you with involved domestic violence, Colorado law generally requires the court to order an evaluation and a domestic violence treatment program. A conviction or qualifying deferred judgment may also restrict your ability to possess firearms and create problems involving your job, professional license, housing, immigration status, or child custody/parenting cases.
The charge may end in one of several ways:
- Dismissal—the prosecutor may dismiss the charge based on lack of evidence;
- Deferred judgment—you plead guilty and agree to complete requirements established by the court, at which point the court allows you to withdraw the plea and dismisses the charge at the end of the term, if successfully completed;
- Plea agreement—you plead guilty in exchange for an agreement concerning the charge, sentence, or recommendation the prosecutor will make to the judge;
- Acquittal—prosecutors fail to prove every required element beyond a reasonable doubt, and the judge or jury finds you not guilty; or
- Conviction and sentencing—you plead guilty, or the judge or jury finds you guilty.
Under current law, sealing the case from public record should apply if the case is ultimately dismissed.
Before you accept an agreement, your attorney can explain what you must admit, what sentence you may receive, whether you must complete treatment, how long the protection order may remain in place, and how the result could affect your firearm rights, employment, immigration status, or family proceedings.
Discuss Your Colorado Domestic Violence Case with Susan Deschler
If the state has charged you with a domestic violence offense, the Law Office of Susan Deschler can help you design and implement a defense strategy. Susan Deschler draws on more than 25 years of legal experience and her former work as a Clear Creek County deputy district attorney to defend people facing criminal charges. She provides direct, one-to-one representation throughout Colorado’s mountain counties and Front Range.
Contact our office for a free initial consultation today.
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