Stay out of jail for free. Aurora offers amnesty program through Friday

AURORA | Aurora launched its ‘Fresh Start Week’ this week to help residents clear old arrest warrants without fear of going to jail.

The rare event does not occur as regularly as similar amnesty programs in Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties, and it continues Thursday and Friday at two locations in Aurora: the Aurora Municipal Court and a satellite location at the Aurora Mental Health and Recovery drop-in center on Elmira Street, near the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. 

The one-week event will continue between 1:30 p.m. and 3 p.m. Dec. 11 and Dec. 12. and is designed to give people a safe, predictable way to get back on the court calendar, cancel certain warrants and avoid a trip to jail for eligible Aurora municipal cases. The remote appearance option is not available on Dec. 12.  

“Not only does it put the person who has a warrant in a bad situation, it also delays the resolution of the case,” Elizabeth Cadiz, Aurora’s chief municipal public defender, said in an interview. “There’s a benefit to resolving cases in a timely fashion for all involved.”

Typically, when someone asks Cadiz if they can come in on their warrant without being arrested, she has to tell them she can’t guarantee it. The whole idea behind Fresh Start Week is to ensure that people will not be arrested when they come in. 

If an individual has multiple arrest warrants in the Aurora Municipal Court and one is not eligible through the program, the individual can show up and take care of what they can without being arrested for charges that may not be eligible. Most of the time, the court doesn’t arrest people who self-report for walk-in court, but there is no blanket promise, and some charges, like domestic violence, legally require a mandatory hold until a protection order is issued, Cadiz said. 

For Fresh Start Week, the court has carved out a set of non-violent municipal offenses for which it will guarantee no arrest if people come in for the event. The list of ineligible charges includes: assault, battery, reckless endangerment, menacing, disorderly conduct, display of a weapon, unlawful concealment of weapons, possessing an illegal weapon, possession of a defaced weapon, possession under the influence and domestic violence.

The Aurora Municipal Court cannot clear warrants in other counties or jurisdictions.

The public defender’s staff will encourage individuals to return later to address ineligible cases. For the people who come into the courthouse, they might even be able to complete their case in front of the judge as well, she said. 

The event is focused on failure-to-appear warrants or cases in which someone already had a court date but missed it. More serious “probable cause” warrants, issued when police file an affidavit and are unable to contact the person, are generally not part of this specific push, officials said.

Failure to appear arrest warrants cost Aurora money

Fresh Start Week is modeled on warrant-clearance events that Colorado’s judicial districts have been running for years, often once or twice annually and are frequently held at community centers or off-site locations. Aurora Municipal Court, by contrast, has not joined regional warrant events even when invited, but Cadiz said she hopes that will change.

“I’ve worked here since 2012, and I’m aware of only one small warrant-clearance event that happened many years ago at a library,” Cadiz said. “This is the first time we’ve done something on this scale.”

The push grew out of data the public defender’s office collected this summer on people cycling through the Aurora Detention Center.

“We were seeing a high volume of people in jail purely on old warrants, not new charges,” Cadiz said. “Our detention center has limited space. Our officers have limited time. Every arrest on an old municipal warrant pulls police away from more serious calls and triggers court and jail costs. If we can prevent that and keep people from being further destabilized by incarceration, everybody benefits.”

When an individual is arrested and booked into detention on Aurora Municipal Charges, state law requires a bond hearing within 48 hours of arrest, Cadiz said. 

“Between June 10 and Dec. 3, the Detention Center listed 973 people for court,” Cadiz said in an email. “Of those 973 people, 447 were arrested on warrants,” with 407 being failure to appear, and 40 were probable cause warrants.

The remaining 530 were held on new charges, and 60 of those were new domestic violence cases. Probable cause warrants are usually domestic violence cases as well, “so it is reasonable to assume a total of 100 out of 973 were in custody on DV cases,” Cadiz said. 

“Domestic violence cases are the only type of municipal charge that actually requires arrest and a non-bond hold until the defendant can be seen by a judge and a protection order can issue,” Cadiz said.

It costs the city $252.91 per day to keep an inmate at the Aurora Detention Center, according to city officials’ latest figures from 2023.

On 20 individual court days, Cadiz said her team flagged 53 of 215, or 25% listed/held in detention were homeless. Of those, they had a total of 81 Aurora court cases, with one summons per case, and 117 charges. Of those charges, 41 of 117, or 35% were either trespass or camping ban violations, and another eight were vagrancy offenses like standing in a street median. 

Off-site and virtual options for people wary of the courthouse

Cadiz said that one aspect of the event that is helpful for some is the off-site and virtual options. She said they know that courthouses can feel intimidating, especially for people who are unhoused, fearful of law enforcement or juggling jobs and childcare.

“One of the things that makes warrant-clearance events successful elsewhere is hosting them off-site,” Cadiz said. “People are sometimes afraid to come to a courthouse. They may feel more comfortable at a community location.”

For Fresh Start Week, the public defender’s office will also set up at Aurora Mental Health’s drop-in center on Elmira Street, where individuals can be greeted by the public defender’s office as they walk in. The staff can screen people’s cases for eligibility and explain their options.

If the case qualifies, the public defender will appear via WebEx with the individual, connecting them directly to the judge from the mental health center.

For people who can’t get to either location, the court will also consider fully remote participation, allowing residents to submit a request through the court’s online motion portal or via the court’s website to appear virtually.

“Registration isn’t required, but it’s encouraged,” Cadiz said. “If people reach out to us ahead of time, we can screen for eligibility, give them an idea of what to expect and help things run more smoothly.”

It is also a great way to touch base with public defenders for individuals concerned about their safety.

What to expect

“If people reach out to our office using that email address or call us in advance, we will reach out to the city attorney and let them know when people are interested in case resolution, and then we plan on being accessible as early as 11 o’clock,” Cadiz said. 

For someone with an eligible Aurora municipal warrant, a typical Fresh Start Week visit will include check-in and screening. The individual’s case will be added to the docket, and they will appear before the judge with the public defender.

Then their warrant will be canceled and their case will be reset. Any existing bond amount, such as a $1,000 cash or surety bond set when the FTA happens, can be converted into a personal recognizance bond, meaning no money has to be paid to stay out of jail, Cadiz said. 

“The city attorney’s office and I are committed to resolving as many cases as we can,” Cadiz said. “If people contact us in advance, we’ll try to negotiate plea agreements before they even see the judge.”
Under the Aurora Municipal Code, a missing court typically triggers a failure-to-appear fee of about $25, and an additional fee when the warrant is issued, often bringing the total to around $100 in added court costs.

Those fees do not have to be paid at Fresh Start Week, and they often don’t have to be paid at all, Cadiz said. 

“They’re normally addressed at the end of the case,” Cadiz said, “and people can always ask the judge to waive them.”

Residents can also request to set up payment plans once their case is resolved, instead of paying everything up front.

There will be interpreters available at both locations.  

To register or ask about eligibility, email pubdefwarrants@auroragov.org, with a first and last name, date of birth and contact information. 

People can also call 303-739-6555 or visit the Aurora Public Defender in person. The office is located on the second floor of the Aurora Municipal Court and is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.