Aurora leaders want the Colorado Supreme Court to clarify its recent ruling on municipal court sentences, saying they’re concerned the decision could have broader implications on the rights of local governments to make decisions on matters of local concern.
The state’s high court in December ruled unanimously that cities cannot punish lawbreakers beyond what state courts would allow for the same offense.
The decision set a precedent for municipal courts around the state, forcing city councils to alter their ordinances, judges to change their advisements to defendants, and shifting the landscape of plea agreements between defense attorneys and city prosecutors.
Aurora officials on Monday filed a petition for rehearing with the state Supreme Court, saying they don’t contest the ruling but “remain concerned about the potential breadth of the decision beyond the facts of the case itself.”
In the petition, the city asks the court to provide clarity on how far the ruling’s legal precedent extends.
“To be clear — Aurora is not asking the court to change its ultimate holding in the case,” Aurora City Attorney Pete Schulte said in a statement Tuesday. “The city is committed to following the holding and will not sentence any individuals beyond what is allowed under state law for comparable state offenses. Aurora is only asking the court to consider providing more clarity and guidance to cities on its effect on other areas of Colorado law.”
Schulte has been a vocal critic of the Supreme Court’s decision. In a statement after the ruling, he questioned whether Colorado municipalities should continue to prosecute criminal offenses when they become “de facto extensions of state and county courts at a cost to municipal taxpayers without reimbursement.”
The city attorney told Aurora lawmakers earlier this month that the ruling had raised concerns about how a variety of existing city laws might be affected, including zoning, land use and other regulations unrelated to criminal penalties, the Sentinel newspaper in Aurora reported Tuesday.
The Supreme Court ruling centered on two cases involving low-level prosecutions in Westminster and Aurora municipal courts in which the alleged offenders faced significantly more jail time after being charged in city court than they would have if they had been charged in state court.
Westminster officials did not respond Tuesday when asked whether the city plans to file a similar petition.
The December ruling came on the heels of The Denver Post’s reporting last year that found municipal courts had become the state’s most punitive forum for minor crimes.
In 2021, on the heels of nationwide protests for racial justice, Colorado lawmakers enacted sweeping state-level reforms that significantly lowered the potential penalties for misdemeanor and petty offenses in Colorado’s state courts. But those reforms didn’t impact municipal courts, which are not part of the state judicial system.
As a result, the potential jail sentences for minor crimes in city courts now often far outpace the state’s limits, The Post reported last year. The newspaper found defendants across 10 of Colorado’s largest cities served, on average, five times more jail time in municipal court cases — though the difference was just a matter of days.
Cities across the state are changing procedures and ordinances to come into compliance with December’s ruling. The Denver City Council said it hoped to have updated language by the end of the month, while the city of Littleton passed an emergency ordinance prohibiting city judges from punishing people beyond what state statute would allow for the same offense.
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