DOMESTIC VIOLENCE & ASSAULT
If you have been arrested and charged with a crime of domestic violence, you must act immediately to protect your legal rights. An arrest for a crime of domestic violence will result in a mandatory arrest and a night in jail; a mandatory protective order (restraining order) preventing you from contacting or seeing the alleged victim; loss of your right to possess firearms and loss of other rights. You may be restrained from entering your own home or seeing your own children.
In the State of Colorado, the term “Domestic Violence” is not a separate crime in and of itself. Instead, it is used as a sentence enhancer for numerous crimes that fall into the domestic violence category. These crimes usually include the following:
assault
harassment
telephone harassment
stalking
false imprisonment
threats
criminal mischief
obstruction of a 911 call.
A crime of domestic violence occurs when any of the above crimes are committed against a person with whom the defendant has had an intimate relationship, no matter how that relationship may have been.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Colorado is a mandatory arrest state, meaning that the police are required to arrest the person whom they believe to be the primary aggressor, if they find evidence that a person has been injured in a domestic dispute. In addition to being arrested, you will be required to appear before a judge where a mandatory protective order (restraining order) will be filed against you. This means that you will most likely spend the night in jail and if you are arrested over the weekend or a holiday, you will not be allowed to post bond until you have seen a judge on the following Monday or next court business day.
A conviction for domestic violence can be devastating! In addition to the possible jail time, mandatory protection order (restraining order) and mandatory 36 weeks of domestic violence classes, you will lose your right to own and purchase firearms. You may also lose custody of your children and the right to enter your own home. Several industries and professions will not hire an individual with a domestic violence conviction.
WE HAVE THE EXPERIENCE YOU NEED
Kip O’Connor is an experience trial lawyer who has defended numerous clients charged with domestic violence and who has prosecuted hundreds of domestic violence cases as a former Deputy District Attorney. We know that people are often falsely accused of domestic violence when they are going through a fiercely contested divorce or child custody battle.
We also represent clients in civil protection orders. If a civil protection order has been issued against you, or if you are a victim of domestic violence and you are seeking a civil protection order, call the Law Office of Kip O’Connor at (970) 384-1000 immediately to protect your rights.