AURORA | Proponents of an effort to recall Arapahoe County DA Amy Padden failed to turn in petitions Tuesday, which could have set a recall election in motion.
Officials from the secretary of state office said proponents contacted them to say they would not be turning in any petitions.
Aurora Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky and the rest of the recall committee had about two months to collect 75,875 valid signatures. Petition drive experts said another 30% more signatures were likely needed to ensure enough valid signatures can be approved by election officials.
Jurinsky was not immediately available for comment. The case has drawn accusations that the effort by Jurinsky was one of personal vendettas and political grandstanding.
Jurinsky’s pursuit of Padden, a Democrat, began in May after a 24-year-old Aurora woman named Kaitlyn Weaver was struck and killed by a noncitizen immigrant teenage boy whose family was seeking asylum. The juvenile was reported to be driving faster than 90 miles per hour in a residential area and without a license in 2024, according to CBS News and Jurinsky, a Republican, who posted the report on her Facebook and her X account while demanding a recall of Padden, May 16.
“I understand that the recall attempt against me has failed because its proponents did not obtain the signatures to force an expensive and unfounded recall election,” Padden said in a statement. “The voters of Arapahoe County overwhelmingly elected me to lead the 18th Judicial District in a new direction, yet the petition proponents sought to undermine the will of the voters. Voters have recognized the important work that my office has been doing since January 2025 and plainly saw that this recall attempt was nothing more than partisan politics.
“I look forward to continuing to serve as the District Attorney for everyone in Arapahoe County and will continue to make our communities safer, stand up for victims, and seek justice for all.”
Jurinsky is up for re-election to her at-large seat on the city council this November.
Jurinsky said one reason she waited to recall Padden was because she had to wait until Padden had been in office as the district attorney for six months before she could begin a recall process.
Ludkin was previously an officer for the Aurora Police Department, and she sits on the Aurora Civil Service Commission for the City of Aurora. The commission is the group that oversees the hiring and promotions of Aurora Firefighters and the police.
Taheri was the Colorado Deputy Secretary of State for seven years, where she worked on election issues and chaired the state Initiative title-setting board. Last year, she represented Republican Mayor Mike Coffman in a failed 2023 effort to ask voters to create a different form of Aurora government. Taheri has connections to the Advance Colorado, a GOP dark-money nonprofit that typically funds elections and does not disclose its donors, according to reporting from the Colorado Sun.
Taheri told the Sentinel that the committee had no plans to pay a canvassing group to gain signatures. For the last month, Jurinsky has been advertising times for people to come to her Aurora bar, JJ’s Place, 2340 S. Chambers Road, to sign the petition.
For the recall, the proponents were required to submit a statement outlining their grounds for the action. Padden was then able to provide a statement of justification, which is all listed on the Secretary of State’s website.
The proponent’s statement begins with talking about the case of the death of Kaitlyn Weaver, a 24-year-old woman who was struck and killed in July 2024 by a noncitizen 15-year-old male. The juvenile was reported to be driving faster than 90 miles per hour in a residential area and without a license in 2024, according to CBS News and Jurinsky, who posted the report on her Facebook account and her X account while demanding a recall of Padden, May 16.
“In the tragic case of Kaitlyn Weaver, a vibrant 24-year-old Aurora resident, her life was senselessly ended by a 15-year-old, in this country illegally, driving 90 mph in a residential neighborhood,” the recall statement said. “He received just three years’ probation in a plea deal handed out by District Attorney Amy Padden. Justice for Kaitlyn and her family demands accountability.”
Padden is the district attorney for the 18th Judicial District, where the juvenile was taken for court, and the judge on the case was one who chose to sentence the juvenile to three years of probation. Padden won the seat last November and took over the office in January. Since the case involved a juvenile, Arapahoe County DA officials say they are unable to release any court documents, citing restrictions under state law.
The Denver Gazette reported in May that the boy and his family have since been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In July, there was new public controversy over a case where a man identified as Solomon Galligan, 34, was ruled incompetent to stand trial in an Aurora 2014 kidnapping case. He has previously been accused of incidents of assault, and he was ruled incompetent to stand trial in some of those cases, according to Colorado court records.
In the Aurora April 2024 case, Galligan is accused of attempting to kidnap a young boy at Black Forest Hill Elementary School. A court date last week in the 18th Judicial District was vacated after his lawyers requested a competency evaluation.
Jurinsky has made multiple claims that Padden dismissed the case over competency concerns and that Galligan was going to be allowed back onto the streets without court intervention or concern on Padden’s part.
After mostly silence on Padden’s part, she pushed back on a Facebook in July.
“That comprehensive, 63-page report by a licensed doctor concluded that Galligan suffers from multiple mental health conditions and is mentally incompetent to stand trial and not restorable to competency within the foreseeable future,” Padden said in a statement, debunking Jurinsky’s misleading claims.
Padden said in her statement that she had no power to decide whether to dismiss Galligan’s case, that it was a matter for a court and judge, not a prosecutor.
“If the court decides that the defendant is incompetent and unlikely to be restored or to maintain competency during the pendency of the case, the court is required by statute to dismiss the charges, and our office is legally prohibited from taking this case to trial,” Padden said in the statement.
She has stated previously that she disagrees with Colorado state lawmakers who passed laws making the action mandatory.
“As the District Attorney, I have many concerns about this statutory process and its impact on community safety in situations where charges must be dismissed,” she said in the statement. “Even before the defense’s motion to dismiss was filed in this case, I was speaking with legislators about proposed reforms to the statute. I will continue those discussions to collaborate about a solution that promotes community safety.”
Padden also said that Galligan will not be released, as Jurinsky alleged.
“If the motion to dismiss is granted here, Galligan will not be released into the community at that time, Padden said in the statement. “Although they were previously released when courts in other jurisdictions dismissed prior cases, this defendant has been civilly committed for continued treatment in a state mental health hospital, which provides secure, inpatient psychiatric care.”
The proponents for the recall named in Secretary of State documents were Jurinsky, Judy Lutkin and lawyer Suzanne Taheri.
The recall statement also accused Padden of mishandling another case, which involved Jurinsky and her family.
“A county social worker, Robin Niceta, convicted of seven felonies and three misdemeanors, also received a mere three years’ probation,” the statement said.
In this case, Niceta worked for Arapahoe County as a social worker and falsely accused Jurinsky of child abuse. At the time, Niceta was dating a former Aurora police chief, and Jurinsky speculated that Niceta acted in anger after Jurinsky publicly criticised the police chief.
Because Niceta worked for Arapahoe County, the prosecution was required to have the Denver District Attorney’s office prosecute her case. Niceta was charged in November 2023 with a felony for attempting to influence a public servant, a social services employee, and a misdemeanor for falsely reporting child abuse. She was convicted of four years and six months of jail time.
Before her conviction, Niceta tried to delay the case by faking a severe brain cancer diagnosis, a court later determined.
She pleaded guilty to seven charges in that crime, with two counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of forgery and conspiracy, one count of tampering with evidence, one count of criminal impersonation and two counts of forgery. Three charges were dismissed.
Sentences for Niceta’s charges for faking cancer run concurrently with each other, but consecutively to her previous case, Eric Ross, public information officer for the 18th Judicial District, said in an email.
The jail time added to each charge was suspended in lieu of three years of successful probation, according to court documents. The judge in the case decided the sentencing for Niceta’s charges. Denver attorneys, not those under the Arapahoe County DA, represented the people in the first case against Jurinsky. It was the 18th district prosecutors who took up the second case. Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Gallo requested that the judge impose a prison sentence in the case, not probation, according to court documents.
In addition, Chief Deputy District Attorney Chris Gallo requested that the judge impose a prison sentence in the case, according to court documents.
Recall supporters pointed to other justification for their goal.
“Amy Padden further undermined trust by dismissing charges against two activists who defied police orders, blocking a major road during a protest,” the statement said.
This statement is referring to a Kilyn Lewis peace march, Dec. 8, in honor of Lewis, who was an unarmed Black man shot and killed by an Aurora SWAT officer in 2024. Lewis was being pursued as a suspect for a shooting in Denver. During the march, protesters were said to have blocked a section of East Alameda Avenue, according to city officials.
Those marching included MiDian Shofner, an activist who has been protesting inside of city council meetings for the last year in a call for police firings in the shooting death of Kilyn Lewis.
Schofner was arrested along with another protester after moving the march onto Alameda. She said she informed one officer about the march and was given the impression that the police were going to block cross streets to help protect the marchers.
Court documents for Schofner’s hearing stated that “justice would not be further served by continued prosecution of the defendant because the evidence does not support continued prosecution in the case.”
Most cases in Colorado where protesters block major roadways have been dismissed in court since 2020, a search of court records shows. The five people who blocked the highway to protest the wrongful death of Elijah McClain, a young Black man who was restrained by Aurora Police without committing a crime and given a lethal dose of ketamine by Aurora paramedics, were all dismissed by the 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason. Hundreds of protesters shut down I-225 during a massive protest linked to the deaths of McClain and George Floyd. The only charges in the event were linked to shots fired.
Jurinsky taunted Shofner on a social media post and a local live-stream talk show, offering to hold a staged physical fight to resolve their political differences.
One of the last arguments in the recall grounds statement ends with a topic Jurinsky has brought up many times on social media.
“Padden also plans to dismiss charges in an attempted child kidnapping case, potentially releasing a mentally incompetent registered sex offender back into our community despite her authority to hold them in state custody until fit for trial.
Padden directly addressed this statement in her response to the Secretary of State.
“Where I have identified weaknesses in the system, I have implemented new processes in the office and sought reform where appropriate,” she said in the statement. “For example, in cases where mental competency is raised, courts are required by state law to dismiss the charges if a defendant is incompetent and unlikely to be restored or to maintain competency.”
A district attorney does not have “authority to hold a defendant in custody until fit to stand trial,” she said in the statement.
“Only the Judge has that authority, and I am speaking with victims and other community leaders to advocate for changes in the statute,” she said in the statement.
Padden pointed out that the defendant in the case is not free but is in mental hospital custody.
The recall statement from the proponents finished by saying it all happened in Padden’s first six months.
“These decisions favor the accused over public safety,” the proponents’ statement said. “It’s time to recall District Attorney Amy Padden and demand a justice system that protects Arapahoe County and honors victims like Kaitlyn.”
Padden’s response directly refered to the proponent’s statement and says that she has focused on seeking justice for victims and making communities safer.
“In the past six months, we obtained a life sentence for the Aurora dentist who poisoned his wife,” Padden said in the statement, referring to James Craig, who admitted to killing his wife and trying to make it look like a suicide.
“A 36-year-to-life sentence for a human trafficker,” Padden said in the recall statement.
This sentencing is talking about Kenneth Noel, a 39-year-old Texan man who was caught trying to smuggle two 14-year-olds and an adult female to Nevada in a human trafficking case. Noel, who was 34 at the time, was pulled over in Arapahoe County in 2020 for what prosecutors said was a routine traffic stop. He was charged with trafficking minors and an adult, pimping and sex assault of a minor.
“And a 99-year-to-life sentence for a kidnapping and sexual assault case,” she said in the statement.
Khafre Buxton, 37, received a 99-year-to-life sentence after robbing a La Quinta Inn six days before Christmas in 2020. He then kidnapped the front desk clerk and assaulted her.
“We have filed thousands and tried over 100 cases this year, including homicides, DUIs, domestic violence, financial crimes and sexual assault,” Padden’s statement said. “During 2025, car theft rates and homicide rates have decreased, and I will soon announce a new initiative to combat a recent increase in vehicular homicides.
I also sought and obtained additional resources to support victims, including 10 additional employees to ensure the orderly transition of domestic violence cases that the Aurora City Council shifted to my office.”
The Aurora City Council voted to remove misdemeanor domestic cases from their municipal court this year and send them to district courts. The 18th Judicial District was scheduled to receive the majority of the cases since Arapahoe County accounts for a significant portion of Aurora. The 18th also received far less funding than they expected this year after a significant deficit in the Colorado State revenue. Because of these factors, the 18th has been concerned with the added case load and whether it will be handled with the required level of care.
“We also added an additional staff member to assist victims seeking compensation and support services,” Padden said. “I have met with victims personally to ensure that I am seeking justice for them and will continue to do so throughout my term.”