DA Padden recall petition drive under way amid scant detail on plans or progress

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that a Denver prosecutor handled both the first and second cases against Robin Niceta. The Denver District Attorney office handled the first case, it was prosecutors from the 18th Judicial District who handled secondary case charges against Niceta. Those prosecutors did ask for jail time in the case, not probation, according to court records. The Sentinel regrets the error.

AURORA | The petition drive to recall Arapahoe County DA Amy Padden has officially started, but how it will finish is unclear at best.

Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky and the rest of the recall committee have a little more than one month to collect 75,875 valid signatures. Petition drive experts said another 30% more signatures are likely needed to ensure enough valid signatures can be approved by election officials.

Recalls in Colorado are relatively rare, and recalls of district attorneys are even more rare.

In the last 15 years, there have been between seven and 13 recall attempts annually across the state. They can include school board and city council members, sheriffs, mayors, county commissioners, coroners, state House representatives, senators and any other elected officials, including the governor. 

There have been three attempted recalls of Gov. Jared Polis, with none of them making it to the ballot. 

Colorado is one of 19 states that allow for the recall of state and local elected officials, according to the Colorado General Assembly.

In the last 10 years, between 66% and 80% of attempted recalls have not resulted in a recall election, according to Ballotpedia, which tracks recalls through the secretaries of state websites nationwide. 

“A recall effort is considered official if the petitioning party has filed an official form, such as a notice of intent to recall, with the relevant election agency,” Ballotpedia stated. 

The petition drive started on Aug. 1, and the deadline to collect the required valid signatures is Sept. 30.

The proponents for the recall are Jurinsky, Judy Lutkin and Suzanne Taheri.

Jurinsky declined to comment on progress made so far in collecting signatures, including whether she plans to hire a professional signature fulfillment service or solicit donations for a campaign.

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. 

Prior Colorado recall attempts

In 2024, there was an attempted recall for Gordon McLaughlin, the 8th Judicial District Attorney, which includes Larimer and Jackson counties. The proponents needed 52,858 signatures to get a recall question on the ballot, but they fell short. Although the population of Jackson and Larimer counties combined is smaller than that of Arapahoe County, with 1,379 people in Jackson County and 359,066 people in Larimer County in 2020, according to the Census, McLaughlin ran during a presidential election year in 2020, and had high voter turnout. 

Recalls require county elected officials to get 25% of the total votes cast at the last preceding general election for that office. No financial committee was created to recall McLaughlin in 2024. However, a new attempt was made this year, and a financial committee has already raised more than $2,000 without filing with the Secretary of State to begin the recall petition.

Colorado state Sen. Kevin Priola was recalled in 2022 in Adams County after he switched political parties from being a Republican to a Democrat. The petition required only 18,291 valid signatures. The recall committee raised $116,000 and paid Victor’s Canvassing to gather the signatures. Advance Colorado organized and funded the committee, along with Dawn Colorado, another dark money GOP group that was the sole donor to Mayor Mike Coffman’s strong mayor ballot initiative, according to the Colorado Sun’s reporting and the Secretary of State’s Transparency in Contribution and Expenditure Reporting website. Priola’s recall was halted and moved after Priola changed state Senate districts because of a redistricting process. 

So far, there has been no report that Advance Colorado or any group is funding Padden’s recall.

The only three successful recalls in the last two decades include two Democratic state senators, John Morse and Angela Giron, after they supported stricter gun laws in 2013, and a sheriff, Jarod Poley, this summer in Jackson County, after he arrested a high school principal for refusing to give him information about a student.  

The final successful recall was in Dillon, where three council members were recalled after they approved an extensive development proposal that town residents found concerning. 

Statement for grounds

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. 

The recall statement accuses 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 point 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 proponent 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

Padden’s response directly refers 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.”