AURORA | Attorneys for Aurora Councilmember Rob Andrews have moved a court date linked to a drunken driving allegation and filed motions to glean details from prosecutors, suggesting possible police irregularities, according to court records.
Arapahoe County prosecutors and defense attorneys for Andrews agreed on Monday to an April 21 pretrial conference, according to 18th Judicial District records.
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.
The morning after his arrest, Andrews issued a statement to the Sentinel admitting to the charge, apologizing to the community and insisting he would accept the consequences and make amends.
“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.
“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.”
On Feb. 6, Andrews lawyers filed a motion for discovery, asking for all evidence police and prosecutors had in the case.
A week later, his lawyers filed a motion for specific records linked to the arresting Aurora police officer in the case, James Shupe, who conducted the roadside sobriety and breath-alcohol tests.
Attorneys Fife Luneau, P.C. said in the motion that they had gleaned records through a Colorado Open Records Act request about Shupe’s certification to administer the breath alcohol tests, according to the Feb. 13 court motion. Attorneys said information they obtained revealed that Shupe’s state certification to administer the tests had lapsed at the time of Andrews’ arrest.
“It appears that Officer Shupe completed his 2024 recertification refresher course on November 18, 2024. However, it appears that his 2025 refresher course was not completed until December 6, 2025,” lawyers said in the motion. “This interval exceeds the one-year recertification requirement established.”
When asked by the Sentinel, Aurora police said the allegations in the motion are inaccurate, and 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.
Attorneys, in their Feb. 13 motion, requested all police records linked to Shupe’s credentials for administering the test.
Andrews did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the motion or whether he will now fight the DUI charges against him.
While addressing the arrest and charges during the Jan. 26 council meeting, Andrews said he took issue with at least some parts of the widely publicized allegations.
“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,” Andrews said.
Andrews has not said what he believes to be inaccurate among the allegations or the reporting.
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.
City officials say the cards are primarily used for admission to city rooms and facilities.
That moment, replayed on most Denver area media, 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 could 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.
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. Well that gives me pause but then again, he does have a lawyer representing him and that lawyer would tell him the same thing. This needs to be played out in the justice system.
Would a refresher lapse have any significance when one was driving erractically enough to cause a police traffic stop and one’s BAC measured 0.252?
The irony is staggering. The chair of Aurora’s Public Safety, Courts & Civil Service Committee — the same guy who used AI to spin a “non-apology” after his drunk driving arrest — is now blaming the police department he oversees for his own mess. If he truly believes our officers can’t even track their certifications, that’s not a defense; it’s an indictment of his leadership.
Aurora deserves leaders who take responsibility, not ones who deflect and demean the people who protect us. The person in charge of the Public Safety, Courts & Civil Service Committee should be defending the law, not breaking it.
OK Jurinski or Kasaw. Lace it up. You were voted out because of your horrible record. Weird people you all are.
Why is he not being charged with a felony for attempting to influence a public official, by handing the officer his city council ID instead of his driver’s license?
Clearly not taking any accountability for this, by trying to get off on a technicality. He needs to be recalled.
Present. Seems like CM Andrews needs a lesson or two in political behavior especially after being caught in a police situation. He’s correct that he deserves the same rights as any other citizen. The problem is that any other citizen is not a political person. We “other” citizens have seen the tapes. He was drunk. Guilty. He played the I am a Council Person card. Guilty. I have a lawyer. Guilty. Keep this out of the public’s eyes. Not guilty.
Personally, I hope he and his lawyer keeps this up publicly as his socialistic tendencies are not good as a leader for Aurora. Keep reporting on this Sentinel Blog every step of the way. Please.
Feel the same way about TACO Trump, Jan 6 looser, Tina “traitor” Peters? Or just on preference?
The herring is very red
I am personally curious how this case will be ushered through the judicial system. DA Amy Padden will obviously have to recuse herself, given that she was a backer of the drunk council member’s election campaign. Will it find its way to an objective prosecutor and judge, or will one of his Democrat endorsers and/or a progressive-activist barrister pull some strings?
His lawyer can make a motion for a special prosecutor to handle the case.
As for “pulling some strings”, highly unlikely.