{"id":17027,"date":"2025-08-05T23:21:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T23:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-records-more-misdemeanors-but-city-is-unsure-why\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:28","slug":"cortez-records-more-misdemeanors-but-city-is-unsure-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-records-more-misdemeanors-but-city-is-unsure-why\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez records more misdemeanors, but city is unsure why"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cortez
Cortez Municipal Court. (The Journal file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

So far this year, Cortez\u2019s Municipal Court had a heavier load of cases compared with the same time in 2024. The rise is notable, at about 60%. An explanation for the rise, however, isn\u2019t clear.<\/p>\n

Cortez Municipal Court Judge Beth Padilla described \u201cpretty substantial increases across the board\u201d during a Cortez City Council meeting July 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the staff at the Municipal Court would say, \u2018We\u2019re aware of that,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten quite busy, but we\u2019re certainly able to handle all of the cases that are coming in,\u201d Padilla told council members during her quarterly update.<\/p>\n

The number of cases filed in the Municipal Court, which deals with misdemeanors inside city limits, are up at a total of 623 compared with 391 during the same time last year, according to counts shared with The Journal<\/em> by Cortez public information officer Kelly Codner. And although some possible factors justify the uptick, a clear reason behind the rise isn\u2019t available, Codner said.<\/p>\n

The increase isn\u2019t the same for all types of misdemeanors, however.<\/p>\n

Of the five categories of misdemeanors shared by the city, two stayed roughly the same: Animal cases went from four to six, while traffic cases went from 171 to 167.<\/p>\n

A small uptick in land-use code violations was noted; from two last year to eight this year.<\/p>\n

The bulk of the increase, really, came from two main areas of misdemeanors.<\/p>\n

First of those are parking violations, up from 36 to 126.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s criminal misdemeanors, notably taking on half the numbers behind the total increase, up from 178 to 316.<\/p>\n

In a breakdown of six individual types of criminal misdemeanor charges, each one increased somewhat significantly from last year.<\/p>\n

Trespassing shot up from 100 to 130; open container cases increased 25 to 55; disturbing the peace ramped up from 11 to 30; indecent exposure tripled from 3 to 9; shoplifting rose slightly from 25 to 30; and theft went up from 6 to 14.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean more crime, necessarily.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Cortez Police Department recognizes that fluctuations in crime statistics do not necessarily reflect a true increase or decrease in overall criminal activity,\u201d Codner wrote in an email to The Journal. <\/em><\/p>\n

And it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean more policing, either.<\/p>\n

\"Interim
Interim Chief of Police Andy Brock and Municipal Court Judge Beth Padilla speak to the Cortez City Council during a July meeting. (The Journal file photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The number of police reports have gone up less than 1%, while suspects charged have gone up by 6%, Codner said.<\/p>\n

Part of the rise could be explained by repeat offenders. Multiple misdemeanors might also be attributed to one person, Codner said.<\/p>\n

Codner offered multiple possible influences driving the overall increase in municipal court cases: \u201cseasonal patterns, enhanced community engagement and reporting, repeat offenses, proactive policing efforts, and natural crime variation over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Security cameras and active community policing could be another factor, Codner said.<\/p>\n

But Codner did not point to one overarching factor that could be driving the rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

in Municipal Court are up about 60% in a year, but reasons are unclear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-17027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17027"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17027\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20523,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17027\/revisions\/20523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17027"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=17027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}