AURORA | A court date for Aurora City Councilmember Rob Andrews, who faces an allegation of drunken driving, has been pushed back to June.
At a pretrial conference Tuesday, Andrews’ attorney said he had productive conversations with the prosecution and they are “working toward a resolution.”
The judge agreed to schedule Andrews for arraignment June 2.
Outside the courtroom, Andrews’ attorney said Andrews couldn’t answer questions while the case is ongoing.
Andrews was arrested Jan. 17 after police said he was driving a pickup truck erratically at about 9:30 p.m. in east-central Aurora. Police said he failed a roadside sobriety test and later was given a breath-alcohol test that registered a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.252, more than three times the legal limit for a charge of driving drunk.
Andrews initially shared a statement with the Sentinel the morning after his arrest, admitting to the charge, apologizing to the community and insisting he would accept the consequences and make amends. He also posted an apology on social media.
“Accountability has to be more than words,” he said in a social media post. “While this plays out, I am voluntarily registering for a restorative justice class, working on meeting with and working with MADD Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and taking proactive steps to ensure this never happens again in any form.”
The following week, however, Andrews said at a Jan. 26 city council meeting, appearing for the first time publicly since his arrest, that he’d been advised by counsel to limit his comments during his pending adjudication. Since then, he has not commented publicly about his case.
“I was pulled over by the Aurora Police Department and cited in connection with the DUI allegation,” Andrews said during the city council meeting. “It’s an active legal matter, so I cannot comment on the specifics.”
Andrews also said he didn’t believe some parts of the widely publicized allegations were accurate, but didn’t provide more specific details.
“I will say clearly, though, like every citizen, I have the right to due process, and there are parts of what has been claimed and documented that I don’t believe are true, including inconsistencies I am addressing through the proper channels,” he said.
In February, Andrews’ attorneys sought information about the arresting officer in the case, James Shupe, and his credentials for administering breath alcohol testing.
When asked by the Sentinel, Aurora police said that Schupe’s credentials were valid at the time of Andrews’ evidential breath alcohol test.
“Officer Shupe is currently certified and has retained his certification since Oct. 2023,” Aurora Police spokesperson Sgt. Matthew Longshore said in a statement. “His certification does not expire until June 2026 but can be renewed sooner. Additionally, the ‘refresher course’ is due by Dec. 31 of each year; it does not expire exactly 365 days after the course was last taken.”
In addition, users must enter their certification PINs each time a machine is used. If Shupe’s certification had lapsed, he would not have been authorized to conduct a test.
Longshore said that the test results produced by the Intoxilyzer 9000 on the day of Andrews’ testing include proof of the officer’s most recent certification, which for Shupe was in December.
Aurora Police body camera video of the Jan. 17 initial contact and arrest of Andrews shows the officer approaching a pickup truck Andrews was driving. When the officer asks for Andrews’ driver’s license and car registration, Andrews immediately hands him his city council identification card, attached to a lanyard.
That moment, shared by many Denver area media outlets, drew allegations from Andrews’ critics that he was wrongly trying to influence the officer.
Andrews has not said publicly what prompted him to offer the city council ID, on a lanyard, rather than his driver’s license.
In the video, the officer hands the lanyard back to Andrews, and Andrews then hands the officer a driver’s license. The officer, in his police report, noted the council identification handoff.
A man Andrews said was his adult stepson was in the cab of the pickup during the arrest. Police can be heard telling him he could take the truck and Andrews’ belongings from where the truck was pulled over by police.
During the testing and booking process inside the Aurora detention center, Andrews appears calm and cooperative the entire time. The arresting officer appeared agreeable and professional during the process.
As the officer explains to Andrews the police and legal process about to take place, Andrews at one point tells the officer that “I am most concerned about the public not knowing about it,” as heard in the video recording.
The officer tells Andrews that police policy is not to proactively release the information about such arrests.
“We don’t tell anybody,” the officer says, but he explains that the arrest and information are public information and available upon request.
Andrews was released from the city’s holding facility the next morning.
He issued statements on Facebook, apologizing for the arrest.
“I take full responsibility for my decision. I am deeply sorry — to my family, to the people I serve, and to everyone who expects better from me,” Andrews said. “I am grateful no one was hurt. That does not lessen the seriousness of what happened. Driving when I was not fit to drive put others at risk, and that is on me.”
Andrews later said he was “cooperating fully” with police and prosecutors “and working closely with my family and counsel as this moves forward.”
Andrews is chairperson of the city council’s Public Safety Committee and represents the city at-large. He was among four new Democratic members elected to the Aurora City Council in November, allowing Democrats to take majority control, which Republicans had for the past four years.