File Photo by PHILIP B. POSTON/Sentinel Colorado
AURORA | Arapahoe County officials say they will not receive the state funding they need to take over hundreds of domestic violence cases from Aurora Municipal Courts beginning this summer, putting at risk the proper handling of complicated cases.
Aurora City Council voted last year to shut down its storied domestic violence court program and send about 1,600 annual cases to county courts starting Jan. 1, 2025. The transition was later postponed to July 1. The push to close the program came after months of controversy over saving city money by changing Aurora’s public defender program and, ultimately, closing the domestic violence program.
Last week, Arapahoe County commissioners sent a letter to the Aurora City Council asking to postpone the change until July 1, 2026. County officials said they can’t come up with the funding needed to take on so many domestic violence cases.
In a city council study session earlier this week, a majority of city council members refused the request, saying Aurora, too, is facing a financial shortfall. The city is facing slumping retail-sales tax receipts and currently predicts an $11.5 million budget shortfall.
Aurora has estimated that shutting down the domestic violence courts program could save the city about $3 million a year, primarily for the expense of public defenders. The move to close the program began with that goal. Former City Councilmember Dustin Zvonek wanted to dismantle the city’s public defender program and replace it with contracted, outside attorneys. After months of haggling among city lawmakers, a request for proposals was finally issued in an effort to transform the city court system. After a month, not a single law firm made any proposals.
City lawmakers then began proposals to shut down the entire domestic violence court program. Aurora began the program decades ago in an effort to ensure the legal system supports victims of domestic violence by focusing on better outcomes for victims and defendants. The program has received national accolades. Despite that, city lawmakers agreed to move about 1,600 misdemeanor cases to the county courts that encompass Aurora. Felony cases are all heard only by district courts.
The Arapahoe County commissioners this week sent city lawmakers the letter after they found out that the 18th Judicial District would not receive requested state funds of $3.1 million for additional resources, staff and services to take over the cases.
“The state’s judicial department, probation and the public defender’s office outlined resource needs associated with the transition to the Joint Budget Committee in October 2024 for consideration as part of the state’s annual budget process,” the letter said. “Despite resource requests, the Joint Budget Committee voted not to advance any funding for the public defender’s office or probation.”
18th Judicial District Attorney Amy Padden told the Sentinel last week that the court prosecutors could likely handle the increase in cases, but that the rest of the court system would be short-staffed.
“The timing is unfortunate,” Padden said. “We will be ready to handle those cases. The court system is going to have to figure something out.”
Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor, said during the study session that funding for county courts is two-fold, with the district attorney, prosecution and sheriff’s office receiving some county funding, and judicial services, public defenders and probation are funded by the state.
County officials said that without the supplemental state funding, they can’t hire 24 employees in courts and probation, and a new judge.
“The 18th Judicial District Probation Department is only staffed at 79% of the probation officers that it needs to provide effective probation services,” the letter said. “Probation staff are already working beyond their capacity to provide supervision to the cases currently in the system.”
The 18th Judicial District would see its misdemeanor domestic violence caseload double, anticipating nearly 1,300 cases annually, with approximately 900 new filings annually, plus approximately 400 probation revocation complaints or other post-sentence proceedings, the letter from the Arapahoe County Commissioners said.
The 17th Judicial District also did not receive additional funding for an anticipated caseload increase of about 200 cases per year, but officials there said they would be ready.
“Once the Aurora City Council decided to cease prosecuting all domestic violence crimes, the District Attorney’s Office, in collaboration with Adams County Government, began preparing to take these cases on,” District Attorney Brian Mason for the 17th Judicial District said in a statement. “While the influx of these cases will pose significant challenges, we will be ready to accept them on July 1.”
Domestic violence cases do not resolve as quickly as other cases and are more resource-intensive, given the needs for victim support, monitoring, and frequency of court appearances, the letter said. Domestic violence experts say the same thing. Mishandling the cases by the courts can often revictimize domestic violence victims in how perpetrators are handled. Jailing suspects without forethought can create financial crises for spouses, local domestic violence experts say. In addition, making domestic violence adjudication cumbersome and difficult only makes it hard to persuade victims to act on dealing with an abuser.
As new Arapahoe County cases come in, they are layering on top of existing cases in the judicial system. Case timelines can last between 30 days and three years, causing the costs and resource needs to increase over time, the letter said.
Arapahoe County Commissioner Leslie Summey told the Sentinel that this kind of shortfall could result in domestic violence cases being wrongly dismissed.
“If we are not able to give them a trial date within the allotted time, then those cases get dropped,” Summey said. “If we don’t have that judge from the state, we can’t do that many more cases. So those victims end up not getting the justice that is so necessary, only because it sat there for too long, because we’ve got too many cases.”
In Colorado, county courts, not city courts, handle misdemeanor domestic violence cases. Aurora has handled those cases since 1984, because it allowed more time and care to be put into the cases to keep victims safe, Karmen Carter, executive director of Three Birds Alliance, said. Three Birds was formerly Gateway Domestic Violence Services, a regional domestic violence program based in Aurora for decades.
“The idea was that by having confidential advocates located there, they could be more supportive to the victims of domestic violence, to have someone there to support them through the process,” she said. “They would be more likely to continue on with the court case.”
Carter said the Three Birds Alliance has always had a strong relationship with the Aurora Municipal Court. The relationship between the court and the organization also made the experience more comfortable for victims, who she said already have a hard time reporting their cases in the first place.
“That’s been my concern all along, is their capacity to meet those needs,” Carter said. “That just puts victims of domestic violence in a position of being in more danger. If people aren’t held accountable, it allows situations to continue. DV cases are complex, and having the right people involved with those cases is really important.”
Councilmembers Angela Lawson and Crystal Murillo both said during the study session that they, too, were concerned about how this will impact the victims. Murillo said she wanted to grant the county the extension they requested, and Lawson asked to be updated on the status of the cases once they move to Arapahoe County.
Aurora City Attorney Pete Schulte predicted the transition would be gradual, and cases won’t be transferred until the starting date of July 1. Any arrests for domestic violence before that date will still go through the Aurora Municipal Court.
County officials said they’re steadfast in the concern that without resources, case outcomes would be at risk.
Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky said during the study session her answer was, “too bad.” She said that Arapahoe County will be “flush with cash” since they recently passed a ballot initiative to “De-Bruce,” which is a term that refers to Douglas Bruce, who championed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights to limit tax collections and government spending.
Although “De-Brucing” is expected to bring the county some additional funding, county court funding is primarily the responsibility of the state, county officials said.
County officials promoting what was Ballot Question 1A last year, “De-Brucing” county tax revenues, estimated the measure would allow the county to net an additional $72 million per year from property taxes.
Summey said county and district courts are funded primarily by the state.
“It’s not county money, it’s state money that gives us that judge,” Summey said. “But if we had more time, we might get that judge.”
Time for this council to get their act together and provide whatever it takes to get these domestic violence cases heard.
Perhaps train some good lawyers as ‘para-judges’ to hear the cases and then let the Judge review them. Or, and I just found this, “Anyone holding a law degree and good standing with their Bar is eligible for a judgeship on any number of benches or circumstances such as a Commission, panel and even television-based court shows. And actually, what Judge Judy does is arbitration and does not require a law degree. Think out side the box. Maybe we need arbitration instead of adjudication? We don’t need more pickle ball courts do we?
If the City Council and the City Manager had shown some competence and backbone in the past they would have a substantial amount of money toward these critical needs. The City went along with the Attorney General and paid out four million dollars for a Consent Decree monitor to counter the Attorney General’s poorly documented claims of racial bias by the police department. For the most part, the cases cited by the Attorney General were classified as racist only because the people involved were black. There was nothing in the incidents that showed that racism had anything to do with it. In addition, the City immediately paid out $830,000 to a convicted felon in the famous “pistol whipping” case. In that case, the police department detective immediately charged the officers without even picking up the business videos that would have cleared the officers of wrongdoing. The detective,. Ethan Snow, simply placed the videos into the case file without showing them to anyone. When I found the videos in the discovery file, the videos were used in the trial of the primary officer to show that the suspect tried multiple times to take the officer’s gun before and after he was struck. That officer was found not guilty of all charges. Many of the charges filed were ridiculous from the start. The suspect (supposed victim) is back in prison on charges filed later by other police departments. The subsequent Use of Force examination, chaired by Division Chief Juul, reads like a fairy tale with no link to the facts. Once again, the
most important videos were not even viewed or mentioned.
I filed an Internal Affairs complaint against the detective and the division chief for many gross deviations from fact in official police reports, unsatisfactory performance, and questions of suppressing exculpatory evidence. Not to mention that the law required that the videos be made public. That was never done. I gave copies off all of that to the City Council, to include the videos. It has been many months with no response of any kind. So, we have not only incompetence in our City government, but also an incredible lack of integrity. It also demonstrates that their vaunted Consent Decree and the monitor can’t expose even the most egregious misconduct within the police department. It also brings into question the integrity of the new chief, who was aware of the Internal Affairs complaint and has apparently done nothing. Are we to believe that any complaint can just go ignored until it goes away? Apparently, there is no oversight anywhere in the City. Not the Chief, not the City Manager, not the City Council. So, it is not hard to understand where the money is going that should be spent on important issues
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Gee, if only the elected leaders in Aurora would pull their heads out of the sand and acknowledge that the root cause of inadequate tax revenue is the chronically weak retail economy. There are options to significantly boost retail in Aurora but these require some political courage.
Can City Council agree that Aurora should seek to exit the Ponzi scheme known as the Denver Scientific and Cultural Facilities District prior to the next reauthorization and form an Aurora equivalent so we can invest our SCFD tax in entertainment facilities in Aurora? If they can’t, then who’s interests is the Council really serving? Its clearly not the people of Aurora.
We subsidize Denver’s cultural gluttony to the tune of $ 8 million/year as Denver kicks Aurora’s butt in retail activity. Meanwhile our City Council sits slack-jawed and clueless– as if there isn’t anything that could do.
You were elected to fight for us– not for the state party and its fundraisers and certainly not for Denver. Its time for Aurora City Council to step up and fight for our city.
I can’t believe that moron Jurinski’s reaction to this news is “too bad.” That tells you all you need to know about the council person. She never runs to make things better for Aurora; she runs to make her “star” shinier in the MAGA universe. Zvonek is gone and I’m glad. His vendetta against the public defender’s office was a farce – especially after securing no bites on the rfp the council submitted. No nibbles should tell you (if you’re competent) that no one can do it cheaper than you already have it! Duh! But, no, they had to sweep it out the door and into County courts. Now, the DV cases may not get the attention they deserve. Tell me, what has this feckless conservative majority done FOR the city?
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
Wild that Jurinsky wanted the princess treatment when a convicted felon kidnapped her in a drug fueled fiasco, but for other victims of domestic violence in the city it’s “too bad”. Victims better learn to fight…
Does anyone care that it is the victims/survivors and their children who are the important thing here? The county states that it cannot handle the number of cases it will receive. Councilwoman Jurinsky’s response to the county’s concerns and inability to handle the number of cases they will get is “too bad.”
The system in place for city courts to handle domestic violence cases worked effectively. Law enforcement, Victim Advocates, and Gateway Advocates provide critical case management, safety planning, and resources to these victim//survivors. I want you to know that the cases were heard quickly, emphasizing the urgency of the matter. The safety of these victims should be taken very seriously.
Quit handing out DV cases for nothing more than a argument, getting a hole in the wall or countless other ridiculous things that are used as weapons from jaded partners. The less government gets involved in people’s lives the better period.
The Counties have been enjoying the largesse of having Aurora carrying what is properly the Counties’ burden for over 30 years. The Counties have never pitched in to help with Adams County notably having even acted, at times, to restrict the number of spaces avaiolable in its jail for convicted domestic violence offenders sentenced out of Aurora. Now that Aurora no longer desires to continue carrying the Counties’ burden, doing the Counties’ job, the Counties are unhappy, well too damn bad. Had they stepped forward when this return to normalcy was first being discussed and then having offered Aurora some subsidy for continuing to carry their burden this may not have come to pass. The real question here should be why has Aurora been doing the Counties’ job in the first place. The answer has always been that the counties were doing a bad job. Well the solution should have been to force the Counties to do an acceptable job, not to fiscally reward them for the bad job by taking the County responsibility upon the City.