GOP Aurora council member leading recall effort against Dem DA Amy Padden

AURORA | Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky is heading an effort to recall 18th Judicial District Attorney Amy Padden, but the road is long and already riddled with what DA employees say is misinformation.

“The effort to recall Amy Padden is underway,” Jurinsky, a Republican, said during the city council meeting July 14. “I look forward to working around the clock to gather the signatures that I must in honor of Caitlin Weaver. I will not let her life be in vain.”

Jurinsky’s pursuit of Padden, a Democrat, began 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, who posted the report on her Facebook and her X account while demanding a recall of Padden, May 16.  

Since the case involved a juvenile, Arapahoe County DA officials say they are unable to release any court documents. CBS News and Jurisky have reported that the boy received two years of probation with community service, and the Denver Gazette reported in May that the boy and his family were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 

Jurinsky said she planned to recall Padden for only giving him two years of probation, after the previous 18th Judicial District Attorney allegedly told Weaver’s family they would pursue the maximum sentence in youth corrections, according to media reports.

Jurinsky is up for re-election to her at-large seat on the city council this November.

Padden and the deputy district attorney, Ryan Brackley, who determined the sentence request for the boy, both said they were unable to comment about the decision or the boy’s term of probation because he is a juvenile. 

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.

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 post last week.

“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.”

Jurinsky also claimed, without providing details, that Padden has mishandled many other cases by not seeking sufficient justice, dismissing cases, or offering probation instead of harsher prosecution. She told the Sentinel that on Monday night at a scheduled city council meeting, she would provide a list of names and cases that Jurinsky thinks the 18th Judicial District Attorney has mishandled.

From Jan. 14, when Padden took office, to July 23, Arapahoe County has filed 1,572 felonies, 8,303 misdemeanors, and 553 petty infractions, totaling 10,428, according to Eric Ross, the spokesperson for the 18th Judicial District.

Monday is also the deadline for the 18th Judicial District to file a response to the defendant’s motion to dismiss.

“Regarding Solomon Gallagan’s competency evaluations, those are suppressed and not public record,” Ross said. “Competency evaluations in any criminal case are suppressed.” 

A recall petition was submitted for approval by the Colorado Secretary of State, and a recall committee has been created for Padden, according to records on TRACER.  The committee and recall petitions have been filed by attorney Suzanne Taheri, as the registered agent. The status of the recall can be tracked on the Secretary of State’s website. 

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 and also represented Republican Mayor Mike Coffman in a failed effort last year to ask voters to create a different form of Aurora government. 

If the request to circulate recall petitions is approved, the committee will have 60 days to collect “25% of the total votes cast at the last preceding general election for that office,” according to the Secretary of State. 

In Padden’s case, that would be 82,737 signatures. Before the recall is filed, the “designated election official” must be notified to provide a written cost estimate of conducting the recall election. 

The approximate cost was immediately unclear for a petition campaign to collect the required signatures to force an election.

The logistics mean that if the recall petition effort is successful, it would force a special election.

A recall election for Arapahoe County is estimated to cost the county $863,280, according to Arapahoe County clerk officials.

“Arapahoe County would be responsible for 55% of the final costs. The Department of State would be responsible for 45% of the final costs,” Jack Todd, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State, said in an email. “Should the DA remain in office after all is said and done, the Department of State would also be responsible for the costs expended by the DA in support of her defense.”

If the petition is approved and the signatures are received within 60 days, several additional steps must be taken before a recall election is conducted. These steps include a signature verification process, a protest period, a hearing and determination on the protest, and a nomination of a successor.